Freedom
A Movement Toward Independence
- India has been ruled by the British for about two centuries.
- Mohandas Gandhi led his country to a nonviolent revolt against the British.
- India had two main religious groups which were the Hindus and the Muslims.
- The Indian National Congress was India's political party and its members were both Muslim and Hindu.
- With the completion of the Congress, the Muslims wanted their own group, which caused them to create the Muslim League in 1906.
- The leader of the Muslim League was Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Freedom Brings Turmoil
- With the British in big war debts from WWII, India wanted to push for independence while they were weak causing riots between the Muslims and Hindus in several different cities.
- In August 1946, four days of rioting left many people dead and even more injured.
- Therefore, the British created a partition so that the Muslims and Hindus were separate, which caused the creation of Pakistan being separate from India.
- On July 16, 1947 Pakistan and India were given their independence from the British.
- The battle of Kashmir later occurred and is still being fought over today.
Modern India
- India is actually the largest democracy in the world.
- Jawaharlal Gandhi was India's first prime minister and was the leader for about 17 years.
- Nehru died in 1964, which left India with his daughter who became the new prime minister.
- Indira Gandhi was prime minister in 1966.
- Once she was murdered by the Sikh bodyguards, her son Rajiv Gandhi was put in office.
- India in 1974 was discovered to have been developing a nuclear program.
Pakistan Copes With Freedom
- Pakistan at the beginning of it's time started out as two separate states or areas, which were east and west Pakistan
- The two regions were actually very different in the way that they lived and believed things, like language, geography, culture and economics.
- From the beginning the two areas failed to unite.
- On march 26, 1971 West Pakistan declared itself a separate nation.
- Later having a civil war with Bangladesh, which was stopped in two weeks by the Indian forces.
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka Struggle
- These two countries where put in an economic slump because of the Pakistan issues.
- Many prime ministers attempted on trying to rebuild these countries, but it was too difficult with people assassinating the prime ministers and election frauds.
- Also Bangladesh faced lots of natural disasters which kept their nation in poverty and destroyed.
- Shi Lanka is a nation just off of India's coast and gained it's independence in 1948.
- Three-quarters of the nation is actually Buddhist.
- Indian troops helped clear Shi Lanka from the Tamil rebels that lived there, but their efforts did not work and they are still in civil war.