Independence of India (1857–1964)

Rumours that new rifle cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat, offensive to Hindu and Muslim sepoys, sparked a mutiny that spread across northern India.

The East India Company was abolished; the British Crown took over direct rule of India, beginning the system known as the Raj.

Over one million Indian soldiers served and died for Britain, and many Indians expected greater self-government as a reward for their wartime loyalty.

It allowed the British government to detain suspected agitators indefinitely without trial, removing basic legal protections just as reform was expected.

General Reginald Dyer ordered troops to fire without warning on an unarmed crowd gathered in an enclosed garden in Amritsar, killing hundreds.

It converted moderate nationalists into supporters of mass action — Tagore renounced his knighthood, and Gandhi and Congress shifted decisively toward nationwide non-cooperation.

Founded in 1885 by educated Indian professionals seeking greater representation in government; it became the main national political platform.

Founded in 1906 in Dhaka by Muslim landowners and professionals concerned that a Hindu-majority Congress might not protect Muslim political interests.

A system splitting provincial government in two: some departments (education, health) went to elected Indian ministers, while Britain kept finance, police, and law and order.

It gave provinces full self-government under elected ministers, but the proposed All-India Federation never started, and defence and foreign affairs stayed British.

Congress (1885) aimed to represent all Indians as one nation; the Muslim League (1906) was founded specifically to protect Muslim political interests, fearing domination by a Hindu majority.

One view: they were genuine, gradual steps toward self-rule. The opposing view: they were a stalling tactic that looked like progress while Britain kept essential control.

Gandhi's method of nonviolent resistance based on 'holding firmly to truth' — mass civil disobedience and withdrawal of cooperation to expose and pressure unjust rule.

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre (1919), where British troops killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in Amritsar, alongside the Khilafat grievance.

In February 1922 a mob killed 22 policemen at Chauri Chaura; Gandhi suspended the movement to preserve strict nonviolent discipline.

Gandhi walked 240 miles from Ahmedabad to Dandi over 24 days, then broke the law by making salt from the sea on 6 April 1930, sparking mass civil disobedience across India.

Over 60,000 arrests, huge international media coverage that embarrassed Britain, leading to the 1931 Gandhi–Irwin Pact.

Britain declared India at war (WWII) without consulting Indian leaders; Congress demanded immediate British withdrawal under the slogan 'Do or Die.'

Gandhi: rural, self-reliant, nonviolence as moral absolute. Nehru: industrial, planned, secular modern state, more impatient for full independence.

That Hindus and Muslims were two distinct nations needing separate homelands — the Two-Nation theory underpinning the demand for Pakistan.

Subhas Chandra Bose led the INA, formed from Indian POWs and expatriates in Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia, aiming to liberate India by armed force alongside Japan.

The INA fought alongside Japan in the Imphal–Kohima offensive into India, which ended in British victory and INA defeat.

Court-martialling captured INA officers sparked huge nationwide protests and mutiny in the Royal Indian Navy, showing Britain that even its own forces' loyalty was in doubt.

Gandhi: nonviolent mass civil disobedience (satyagraha). Bose: rejected nonviolence, led armed struggle via the INA with Axis support.

The idea, championed by the Muslim League, that Hindus and Muslims were two separate nations with irreconcilable interests and therefore needed separate states.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who shifted from seeking safeguards within India to demanding a fully separate state of Pakistan.

The Muslim League called mass protests for Pakistan; communal riots erupted in Calcutta, killing thousands and convincing many that Hindus and Muslims could not share one state.

Britain's last Viceroy of India (1947), who drew up the plan to partition British India into India and Pakistan and moved independence forward to August 1947.

Drawn by Cyril Radcliffe in just weeks with outdated maps and little local knowledge, it fixed the new border through Punjab and Bengal, splitting communities and farmland.

About 10–15 million people crossed the new borders, the largest migration in history; estimates of deaths from violence range from several hundred thousand to about two million.

India's Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, who (with V.P. Menon) persuaded or pressured over 550 princely states to accede to India, earning the title 'Iron Man of India'.

The legal act by which a princely state's ruler signed an Instrument of Accession, joining either India or Pakistan after 1947.

Its Hindu ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, ruled a Muslim-majority population and delayed choosing, until a Pashtun tribal invasion from Pakistan forced him to accede to India in exchange for military help.

UN-mediated ceasefire in January 1949 left Kashmir divided by a Line of Control, with India holding about two-thirds and Pakistan the rest — a dispute still unresolved today.

He built a secular, parliamentary democracy, promoted five-year economic plans and industrial self-sufficiency, and pursued non-alignment in foreign policy.

A law that redrew India's internal state boundaries along linguistic lines, addressing regional identity while keeping India unified under central government.