Nationalism and independence in India (1919–1964)

A law allowing the British government to imprison suspected revolutionaries without trial, extending wartime emergency powers into peacetime — it sparked nationwide protest.

Brigadier-General Dyer ordered troops to fire on an unarmed crowd at Jallianwala Bagh; hundreds were killed. It destroyed Indian trust in British rule.

A system of dual rule where Indian ministers controlled some provincial subjects (education, health) while the British kept finance, police, and law and order.

It had no Indian members at all, despite reviewing India's constitutional future — seen as a deliberate insult by every major Indian political group.

Three conferences in London discussing constitutional reform for India; they ended in deadlock, mainly over how to represent religious minorities.

Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi, using satyagraha (non-violent resistance) as the core method.

Gandhi's strategy of non-violent resistance ('truth-force'), including non-cooperation and civil disobedience, used to challenge British rule without violence.

Congress's first nationwide mass campaign, urging Indians to boycott British goods, schools, courts, and titles; it ended after violence at Chauri Chaura in 1922.

A protest turned violent and a mob killed 22 policemen; Gandhi immediately called off the Non-Cooperation Movement because of this breach of non-violence.

'Complete independence' — the goal Congress formally adopted at its December 1929 session, replacing earlier demands for limited reform.

Gandhi walked about 390 km from Sabarmati to Dandi (12 March–6 April 1930), then illegally made salt from seawater, triggering nationwide civil disobedience and over 60,000 arrests.

Congress (led by Gandhi, then Nehru) sought a united, independent India through mass non-violent campaigns; the Muslim League (increasingly led by Jinnah) represented Muslim political interests and grew wary of Congress dominance.

A British offer of future dominion status for India in exchange for wartime support, rejected by Congress as too little, too late.

It only promised dominion status after the war, allowed provinces to opt out (threatening unity), and gave no immediate transfer of power.

Congress's demand for immediate British withdrawal, launched after the Cripps talks failed; met with mass arrests and suppression.

A former Congress president who rejected non-violence, escaped India, and led the Indian National Army (INA) alongside Japan to fight British rule.

The INA and Japanese forces were decisively defeated by the British Indian Army, one of Japan's largest wartime defeats.

They triggered huge public sympathy and protest in India, embarrassing British authority and showing cracks in control.

Economic exhaustion from the war, a less imperially committed Labour government from 1945, and doubts about the loyalty of Indian troops (INA trials, 1946 naval mutiny).

The last Viceroy of India (from March 1947) who brought independence forward to August 1947 and accepted partition to avoid prolonged violence.

The hastily drawn border, announced after independence day, that split Punjab and Bengal between India and the new state of Pakistan.

An estimated 10–15 million people were displaced and around 1 million died in accompanying communal violence.

Mostly through peaceful negotiation, led by Sardar Patel, bringing over 500 states into the Indian union.

Kashmir's Hindu ruler acceded to India after a Pakistani-backed tribal invasion; war followed, ending in a 1949 UN-brokered ceasefire that left Kashmir divided and unresolved.