CCOT Nationalism and Decolonization in South Asia
The South Asian independence movement from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s changed with the formation of different organizations with different goals. Some of its ideals remained the same, while others changed as different leaders took power and the global situation changed. The Sepoy Mutiny was a symbol and a root of the struggle for Indian independence which would grow much larger over time. It caused the East India Company’s privilege of ruling the subcontinent to be transferred to the British government itself, which did not make India any more independent but caused the two nations to become more linked, and so Indians started to adopt the influential principle of nationalism, leading to the formation of the Indian National Congress in 1885 under Allan Octavian Hume for the purpose of cooperation with the British Government. The British officials ruling India saw their relationship as one of lords over peasants, which made them sympathetic, but not Indian and not free of race prejudice. The Indian National Congress did not have much influence at the start, but it grew with anti-British sentiment. The outrageous division of Bengal by Viceroy Lord Curzon was incited such anti-British sentiment. The All-India Muslim League was formed as an advocate of the Muslim minority, and the political landscape of South Asia was forever changed, with Muslims and Hindus mixed up and pitted against each other. They sought, then, to be divided into more than one nation from the colony of India. The population resettlement question following the new independence of India became a huge dispute that cost thousands of lives and remains not totally solved. The colony ultimately became India and Pakistan, but there are still disputes over certain regions and small territories, some based on the population of each community and some of the traditional leadership. Mohandas K. Gandhi’s leadership also changed the South Asian independence movement. He stressed civil disobedience as