India and Pakistan

At the start of the 20the century, India was the largest colonial territory in the world. It included Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as India, and had been ruled directly from Britain since 1858.

However, the people of India wanted independence and, in 1917, the Indian National Congress began a campaign for Home Rule. Britain was reluctant to give up its rule. Instead, mainly in gratitude for Indian’s support during World War I, the British government passed the Government of India Act (1919). This gave some independence, but most power remained with Britain. In the same year, British soldiers in Amritsar opened fire on a crowd protesting against British rule. Almost 400 people were killed. The campaign for Indian independence grew.

By 1920, Mahatma Gandhi had become leader of the Indian National Congress. He launched a policy of non-cooperation with the British and was himself arrested several times. In prison, he continued his campaign by going on hunger strike.

In 1930, Gandhi led thousands to the coast on a ‘Salt March’, in protest against having to buy heavily taxed salt. In 1945, the British government finally agreed to India’s independence. The majority of Indians were Hindus, but other people now began to campaign for a separate state for Indian’s many Muslims, who did not want to live under Hindu rule. On 14 August, 1947, two areas to the northeast and northwest of India became the independent country of Pakistan, with Jinnah as its first governor general. The next day, the rest of India gained its independence, led by Jawaharlal Nehru as prime minister. Immediately, violence broke out. Millions of people found themselves living in the ‘wrong’ country – Muslims in India and Hindus in Pakistan. Mass migrations began. As people fled, hundreds of thousands were killed.