History of India after Independence. The National Congress and the Indian Independence Struggle Why India Was Divided After Independence
The first step towards Indian independence and the establishment of Western-style democracy was the appointment of Indian advisers in the administration of the British Viceroy.
Since 1920, leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi launched a massive campaign against the British colonial government. A revolutionary movement against British rule began throughout the Indian subcontinent, which in 1947 led to the independence of the subcontinent from the British Empire.
Along with the desire for independence, tensions also developed over the years between the Hindu and Muslim populations. The Muslims, always a minority, were afraid of being dominated by the Hindu government and were wary of the idea of independence. They tended to equally distrust Hindu rule and oppose the British colonial government.
In 1915, Mahatma Gandhi led the Indian national liberation movement and called for unity on both sides. His leadership eventually led India to independence.
The tremendous influence that Gandhi had on India in its struggle for independence through a non-violent mass popular movement made him one of the most remarkable leaders in world history. The Indians called him mahatma, which means "great soul" in Sanskrit.
The territories of British India gained independence in 1947, after which India was divided into the Indian Union and the Dominion of Pakistan.
Due to the division of Punjab and Bengal, bloody clashes broke out between Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims, as a result of which more than 500,000 people died.
Immediately after gaining independence in India, a government was formed headed by Prime Minister J. Nehru. The country experienced unprecedented clashes between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. There was a mass migration of Muslims to Pakistan, and Hindus to India. In the first months, about 12 million people left their homes, and in less than a year, about 0.5 million people died. To intercommunal hostility and clashes were added economic and political difficulties caused by partition. iron and car roads and irrigation canal systems were cut by state borders, industrial enterprises were cut off from sources of raw materials, civil services, police and army, necessary for ensuring the normal government of the country and the security of citizens, were separated. On January 30, 1948, when the disorderly conduct began to subside, Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic.
The rulers of 555 principalities had to decide whether to join India or Pakistan. The peaceful integration of the vast majority of small principalities did not cause complications. But the Muslim Nizam, who was at the head of the richest and most populous principality of Hyderabad, where the Hindus predominated numerically, declared his desire to rule an independent sovereign country. In September 1948, Indian troops entered Hyderabad, and under pressure from the central Indian government, the lower classes signed an agreement on joining the Indian Union.
A serious situation arose in the north, where the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, a territory with a predominantly Muslim population, was a Hindu Maharaja. Pakistan exerted economic pressure on the principality to annex it and blocked its railway connection with India, interrupting the supply of essential goods. In October 1947 ca. 5,000 armed Muslims entered Kashmir. Their co-religionists, who served in the Kashmiri army, joined the ranks of the militias. The Maharaja, who was in dire need of help, signed a document on the inclusion of the principality in India. Indian military units were flown into Kashmir, while additional armed units arrived from Pakistani territory. India accused the Pakistani side of aggression and referred the issue of Kashmir to the UN Security Council for discussion. The UN decided to recognize as a demarcation line the actual ceasefire line as of January 1, 1949. As a result, about a third of the area of the principality fell under the control of the administration of Azad Kashmir (“Free Kashmir”), and the rest of the territory, including the Kashmir Valley, - to India. On November 17, 1956, the Constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly of Kashmir, according to which the state of Jammu and Kashmir was declared an integral part of India. However, Pakistan continued to insist that the status of Jammu and Kashmir be determined after a referendum, on the terms of which the two states, however, could not agree.
Relations with Pakistan have become a major issue in India's foreign policy. The protracted dispute over Kashmir prevented India from taking a leadership role in the Non-Aligned Movement. When Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru refused to cooperate with the United States in the fight against Soviet expansion, the Americans entered into a military alliance with Pakistan (1954). This forced the Indian leadership to expand contacts with China and the USSR. In 1954, Nehru signed an agreement with the PRC under which India recognized Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. Indo-Soviet ties noticeably strengthened after the conclusion of a major trade agreement in 1953 and the exchange of visits by the leaders of the two states in 1955. The USSR welcomed the Indian policy of non-alignment, which coincided with its strategic line of limiting US influence in the African-Asian region. India has significantly strengthened its prestige in the international arena, leading the Non-Aligned Movement and actively participating in the mediation efforts and peacekeeping actions of the UN.
constitution indian pakistani independence
Being a multinational and multireligious state, after gaining independence, India is experiencing strife and confrontation on religious and social grounds in different parts of the country. Nevertheless, India was able to maintain its status as a secular state with a liberal democracy, except for a brief period from 1975 to 1977, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency with limited civil rights.
In the second half of the 20th century, India regularly had problems with neighboring states due to disputes over borders. The dispute with China has not been resolved so far, in 1962 it resulted in a short war (the Sino-Indian border war). India fought Pakistan three times: in 1947, 1965 and 1971. The last conflict between India and Pakistan (Kargil War) took place in 1999 in the state of Kashmir.
In 1974, India conducted underground nuclear tests, thus becoming a new member of the "nuclear club". In 1998, India continued testing with a series of five new explosions. The reforms that began in India in 1991 turned the country's economy into one of the fastest growing in the world. In 1996, the government of Atala Bihari Vajpayee came to power and continued the reforms. After parliamentary elections in the spring of 2004, the Indian National Congress party, led by Sonia Gandhi, won. On May 22, 2004, Manmohan Singh took over as prime minister.
In the 2014 elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by its leader Narendra Modi, achieved an absolute majority in parliament: 283 out of 543 seats. Over the past 30 years, no party has been able to achieve such success. For a whole month, 814 million Indians could vote using 2,000,000 electronic voting machines. Turnout was 66%, the highest in Indian history. The population chose from 8251 candidates, among whom were 668 women and 5 transsexuals. The ruling party, the Indian National Congress, won just 44 seats. She ruled India for almost the entire period of independence, but this time she suffered a historic defeat.
Geography
India is located in South Asia. The country ranks seventh in the world in terms of area (3,287,590 km², including land: 90.44%, water surface: 9.56%) and second in terms of population (1,220,800,359 people). India has land borders with Pakistan in the west, with China, Nepal and Bhutan in the northeast, with Bangladesh and Myanmar in the east. In addition, India has maritime borders with the Maldives in the southwest, with Sri Lanka in the south and with Indonesia in the southeast. The disputed territory of the state of Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with Afghanistan.
Administrative divisions of India
India is a federal republic consisting of twenty-nine states, six union territories and the National Capital Territory of Delhi. All states and the two union territories (Puducherry and Delhi National Capital Territory) have their own elected government. The remaining five union territories are administered by an administrator appointed by the central authority and are therefore under the direct control of the President of India. In 1956, the Indian states were reorganized along linguistic lines. Since then, the administrative structure has not changed much.
All states and union territories are divided into administrative and governmental units called districts. There are over 600 districts in India. The districts are in turn divided into smaller administrative units of taluki.
Geology
Relief of India
Most of India is located within the Precambrian Hindustan Plate, which composes the peninsula of the same name and the Indo-Gangetic Plain adjacent to it from the north and is part of the Australian Plate.
India's defining geological processes began 75 million years ago, when the Indian subcontinent, then part of the southern supercontinent of Gondwana, began to drift in a northwesterly direction across the then-defunct Indian Ocean- a process that lasted about 50 million years. The subsequent collision of the subcontinent with the Eurasian plate and its subduction under it led to the appearance of the Himalayas, the most high mountains planets that currently surround India from the north and northeast. On the former seabed, immediately south of the emerging Himalayas, a huge trough formed as a result of plate movement, which gradually filled with alluvium and turned into the modern Indo-Gangetic plain. To the west of this plain, separated from it by the Aravali mountain range, lies the Thar Desert. The original Hindustan Plate has survived to this day as the Hindustan Peninsula, the oldest and geologically most stable part of India, extending north to the Satpura and Vindhya mountain ranges in central India. These parallel mountain ranges run from the coast of the Arabian Sea in Gujarat in the west to the coal-rich plateau of Chhota Nagpur in Jharkhand in the east. The inner part of the Hindustan Peninsula is occupied by the Deccan Plateau, broken by faults into low and medium-altitude mountains with smoothed peaks and vast flat or undulating plateaus, over which rise hills and mesas with steep slopes. To the west and east, the Deccan plateau rises to form the Western and Eastern Ghats, respectively. The slopes of the Ghats facing the sea are steep, while those facing the Deccan are gentle, cut by river valleys. The Deccan Plateau contains India's oldest mountain formations, some more than 1 billion years old. The Dean is rich in deposits of iron, copper, manganese, tungsten ores, bauxites, chromites, mica, gold, diamonds, rare and precious stones, as well as coal, oil and gas.
India is located north of the equator between 6°44" and 35°30" north latitude and 68°7" and 97°25" east longitude.
The length of the coastline is 7,517 km, of which, 5,423 km belong to mainland India, and 2,094 km to the Andaman, Nicobar and Laccadive Islands. The coastline of mainland India has the following character: 43% - sandy beaches, 11% rocky and rocky coast, and 46% Watts or swampy coast. Weakly dissected, low, sandy shores have almost no convenient natural harbors, so large ports are located either at the mouths of rivers (Kolkata) or artificially arranged (Chennai). The south of the western coast of Hindustan is called the Malabar coast, the south of the east coast is called the Coromandel coast.
On the territory of India, the Himalayas stretch in an arc from the north to the northeast of the country, being a natural border with China in three sections, interrupted by Nepal and Bhutan, between which, in the state of Sikkim, is the highest peak of India, Mount Kanchenjunga. Karakorum is located in the far north of India in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, mostly in the part of Kashmir held by Pakistan. In the northeastern appendix of India, the mid-altitude Assam-Burma Mountains and the Shillong Plateau are located.
Hydrology
The internal waters of India are represented by numerous rivers, which, depending on the nature of the food, are divided into "Himalayan", full-flowing throughout the year, with mixed snow-glacier and rain food, and "Dean", mainly with rain, monsoon food, large fluctuations in runoff, flood from June to October. On all large rivers, a sharp rise in the level is observed in summer, often accompanied by floods. The Indus River, which gave the name to the country, after the partition of British India, turned out to be the largest part in Pakistan.
The largest rivers, originating in the Himalayas and for the most part flowing through the territory of India, are the Ganges and the Brahmaputra; both flow into the Bay of Bengal. The main tributaries of the Ganges are the Yamuna and the Koshi. Their low banks cause catastrophic floods every year. Other important rivers of Hindustan are Godavari, Mahanadi, Kaveri and Krishna, also flowing into the Bay of Bengal, and Narmada and Tapti, flowing into the Arabian Sea - the steep bank of these rivers does not allow their waters to overflow. Many of them are important as sources of irrigation. There are no significant lakes in India.
The most remarkable coastal regions of India are the Great Rann of Kutch in Western India and the Sundarbans, the swampy lower reaches of the Ganges and Brahmaputra deltas in India and Bangladesh. Two archipelagos are part of India: the coral atolls of Lakshadweep to the west of the Malabar coast; and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a chain of volcanic islands in the Andaman Sea.
The climate of India is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar Desert, causing monsoons. The Himalayas serve as a barrier to the cold Central Asian winds, thus making the climate in most of India warmer than at the same latitudes in other regions of the planet. The Thar Desert plays a key role in attracting the humid southwesterly winds of the summer monsoon, which provide most of India with rain between June and October. India is dominated by four main climates: humid tropical, dry tropical, subtropical monsoon and highland.
In most of India, there are three seasons: hot and humid with the dominance of the southwest monsoon (June - October); relatively cool and dry with a predominance of the northeast trade wind (November - February); very hot and dry transitional (March - May). During the wet season, more than 80% of the annual precipitation falls. The windward slopes of the Western Ghats and the Himalayas are the most humid (up to 6000 mm per year), and on the slopes of the Shillong Plateau there is the rainiest place on Earth - Cherrapunji (about 12000 mm). The driest areas Western part Indo-Gangetic Plain (less than 100 mm in the Thar Desert, dry period 9-10 months) and the central part of Hindustan (300-500 mm, dry period 8-9 months). Precipitation varies greatly in different years. On the plains average temperature January increases from north to south from 15 to 27 °C, in May everywhere 28-35 °C, sometimes reaching 45-48 °C. During the wet period, temperatures in most parts of the country are 28 °C. In the mountains at an altitude of 1500 m in January -1 ° C, in July 23 ° C, at an altitude of 3500 m, respectively -8 ° C and 18 ° C.
The main centers of glaciation are concentrated in the Karakoram and on the southern slopes of the Zaskar range in the Himalayas. The glaciers are fed by snowfalls during the summer monsoons and snow drifts from the slopes. The average height of the snow line decreases from 5300 m in the west to 4500 m in the east. Due to global warming, glaciers are retreating.
Flora and fauna
The Bengal tiger is endangered due to poachers.
India is located in the Indo-Malayan zoogeographical region and is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. India is home to 7.6% of all mammal species, 12.6% of all birds, 6.2% of all reptiles, 4.4% of all amphibians, 11.7% of all fish, and 6.0% of all flowering plants. Many ecoregions, such as the Shola forests, the rainforests of the southwestern Ghats, are characterized by unusually high levels of endemism; in total, 33% of India's plant species are endemic. Over the millennia of the economic development of India, the natural vegetation cover in most of its territory has remained little, however, it is very diverse: from the tropical rainforests of the Andaman Islands, the Western Ghats, and Northeast India, to the coniferous forests of the Himalayas. On the plains of the interior regions of Hindustan, secondary savannahs of acacias, spurges, palms, banyan trees, sparse forests and thorny shrubs of anthropogenic origin predominate. Monsoon forests of teak, sandalwood, bamboos, terminalia, and dipterocarps have been preserved in the mountains. In the north-east of the peninsula, deciduous mixed forests with a predominance of fat grow, on the windward slopes of the Western Ghats - evergreen mixed forests.
The seaside strip of the east coast is swampy in places. The natural vegetation cover of the Indo-Gangetic plain has not been preserved, and its landscapes change from deserts in the west to evergreen mixed forests in the east. Altitudinal zonality is clearly manifested in the Himalayas and the Karakorum. Terai rise up from the foot of the Western Himalayas (up to 1200 m), higher are monsoon forests, mountain pine forests with evergreen undergrowth, dark coniferous forests with evergreen and deciduous species, and at an altitude of 3000 m mountain meadows and steppes begin. In the east of the Himalayas, humid tropical evergreen forests rise up to 1500 m, giving way higher to mountain subtropical forests, dark coniferous forests and mountain meadows.
Among the main trees of India is neem, widely used in Ayurvedic medicines. Under the sacred banyan tree (see Bodhi tree), the image of which was found on seals in Mohenjo-Daro, Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment after many years of meditation in Bodh-Gaya.
Many Indian species are descendants of a taxon that originated on the Gondwana supercontinent, of which the Indian subcontinent was once a part. The subsequent movement of the Hindustan peninsula and its collision with Laurasia led to a massive mixing of species. However, volcanic activity and climatic changes that occurred 20 million years ago caused the extinction of many endemic Indian species. Shortly thereafter, mammals arrived in India from Asia through two zoogeographic passages on both sides of the nascent Himalayas. As a consequence, among Indian species, only 12.6% of mammals and 4.5% of birds are endemic, compared to 45.8% of reptiles and 55.8% of amphibians. The most notable endemics are the Nilgiri langur and the brown Kerala toad in the Western Ghats. In India, there are 172 species that are on the World Conservation Union's endangered species list, which is 2.9% of total number species in the list. These include the Asiatic Lion, the Bengal Tiger, and the Bengal Vulture, which nearly died out by eating decaying cattle flesh, which was treated with diclofenac.
The high population density of India and the transformation of natural landscapes have led to the impoverishment of the country's wildlife. Over the past decades, the expansion of human economic activity has posed a threat to the wild world of the country. In response, a number of national parks and reserves were created, the first of which appeared in 1935. In 1972, the "Wildlife Protection Act" and the "Tiger Project" were passed in India to conserve and protect its habitat; in addition to this, in 1980 the "Forest Conservation Act" was passed. Currently, there are more than 500 national parks and reserves in India, including 13 biosphere reserves, four of which are part of the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves; 25 wetlands have been officially registered as sites of protection under the provisions of the Ramsar Convention.
Population
Number, resettlement
| Cities by population | ||||||||
| Place | City | State | Us. | Place | City | State | Us. | View Discussion Edit  Mumbai  Delhi |
| Mumbai | Maharashtra | 13 662 885 | Jaipur | Rajasthan | 2 997 114 | |||
| Delhi | Delhi | 11 954 217 | Lucknow | Uttar Pradesh | 2 621 063 | |||
| Bangalore | Karnataka | 5 180 533 | Dhanbad | Jharkhand | 2 394 434 | |||
| Calcutta | West Bengal | 5 021 458 | Nagpur | Maharashtra | 2 359 331 | |||
| chennai | Tamil Nadu | 4 562 843 | Indore | Madhya Pradesh | 1 768 303 | |||
| Hyderabad | Andhra Pradesh | 3 980 938 | Patna | Bihar | 1 753 543 | |||
| Ahmedabad | Gujarat | 3 867 336 | Bhopal | Madhya Pradesh | 1 742 375 | |||
| Pune | Maharashtra | 3 230 322 | Thana | Maharashtra | 1 673 465 | |||
| Surat | Gujarat | 3 124 249 | Ludhiana | Punjab | 1 662 325 | |||
| Kanpur | Uttar Pradesh | 3 067 663 | Agra | Uttar Pradesh | 1 590 073 | |||
With a population of 1.2 billion, India ranks second in the world after China. Almost 70% of Indians live in rural areas, although in recent decades migration to big cities has led to a sharp increase in the urban population. The largest cities in India are Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Delhi, Kolkata (formerly Kolkata), Chennai (formerly Madras), Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. In terms of cultural, linguistic and genetic diversity, India ranks second in the world after the African continent. The average literacy rate of the population of India is 64.8% (53.7% for women and 75.3% for men). The highest literacy rate is found in Kerala (91%) and the lowest in Bihar (47%). The gender composition of the population is characterized by the excess of the number of men over the number of women. The male population is 51.5%, and the female population is 48.5%. The national average ratio of male and female population: 944 women to 1000 men. The median age of the population of India is 24.9 years, and the annual population growth is 1.38%; 22.01 children are born per 1000 people per year. According to the 2001 census, children under 14 years of age accounted for 40.2% of the population, persons aged 15-59 years - 54.4%, 60 years and older - 5.4%. The natural population growth was 2.3%.
There are about 38 million Indians outside of India - the largest communities in the US, UK, Australia, Germany, Japan and Canada. There are also small communities of Indians in Russia, France, South Korea, Argentina and China.
Languages
India is the birthplace of the Indo-Aryan language group(74% of the population) and Dravidian language family(24% of the population). Other languages spoken in India belong to the Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burmese linguistic families. Hindi, the most spoken language in India, is the official language of the Government of India [ . English language, which is widely used in business and administration, has the status of an "auxiliary official language"; it also plays a large role in education, especially in secondary and higher education. The Constitution of India defines 21 official languages that are spoken by a significant part of the population or that have classical status. There are 1652 dialects in India.
| Languages of India by number of speakers | ||||
| Place | Language | 2001 Population Census (Population 1,004.59 million) | ||
| Number of media | Percentage of the total population | Geographic distribution | ||
| Hindi and its dialects | 422 048 642 | 41,03 % | North India | |
| bengali | 83 369 769 | 8,11 % | West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand, Tripura | |
| Telugu | 74 002 856 | 7,37 % | Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Orissa | |
| Marathi | 71 936 894 | 6,99 % | Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Goa | |
| Tamil | 60 793 814 | 5,91 % | Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra | |
| Urdu | 51 536 111 | 5,01 % | Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh | |
| Rajasthani | more than 50 million | 5 % | Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana | |
| Gujarati | 46 091 617 | 4,48 % | Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu | |
| Kannada | 37 924 011 | 3,69 % | Karnataka | |
| Malayalam | 33 066 392 | 3,21 % | Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mahe, Pondicherry | |
| Oriya | 33 017 446 | 3,21 % | Orissa | |
| Punjabi | 29 102 477 | 2,83 % | Punjab, Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana | |
| Bhojpuri | 25 million | 2,3 % | Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh | |
| Assamese | 13 168 484 | 1,28 % | Assam | |
| Maithili | 12 179 122 | 1,18 % | Bihar | |
| Santali | 6 469 600 | 0,63 % | Santal tribes living on the Chhota Nagpur plateau in the states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa | |
| Kashmiri | 5 527 698 | 0,54 % | Jammu and Kashmir | |
| Nepali | 2 871 749 | 0,28 % | Sikkim, West Bengal, Assam | |
| Sindhi | 2 535 485 | 0,25 % | Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh | |
| Konkani | 2 489 015 | 0,24 % | Konkan (Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala) | |
| Dogri | 2 282 589 | 0,22 % | Jammu and Kashmir | |
| Manipuri | 1 466 705 | 0,14 % | Manipur | |
| Bodo | 1 350 478 | 0,13 % | Assam | |
| Sanskrit | 14 135 | N | Matthur |
Indo-Aryan languages are shown in pink, Dravidian in green, Sino-Tibetan in blue, and Australoasiatic in yellow.
Religion[edit | edit wiki text]
Main article:Religion in India
More than 900 million Indians (80.5% of the population) practice Hinduism. Other religions with a significant following are Islam (13.4%), Christianity (2.3%), Sikhism (1.9%), Buddhism (0.8%) and Jainism (0.4%). Religions such as Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Baha'is and others are also represented in India. Among the aboriginal population, which is 8.1%, animism is common.
The national liberation struggle in India was conducted by a wide range of political organizations and movements that were united by the common goal of ending British colonial rule.
The first organized movements for the liberation of India appeared in Bengal. At first, they advocated the use of military force to gain independence, but later moved on to political struggle, the main milestone in the development of which was the formation of the Indian National Congress.
During the last stage of the struggle for independence that began in the 1920s, the Indian National Congress adopted the policy of non-violence promoted by Mahatma Gandhi.
For more than 30 years, Mahatma Gandhi was the inspirer and organizer of the Indian national liberation movement. His selfless service to the Motherland and the selfless efforts of many, many followers crowned the heroic struggle of the Indian people for national and political freedom with a historic victory. Mahatma Gandhi also had a chance to see the first results of those social transformations to which he dedicated his life.
At the same time, the great ascetic with heartache realized that political independence from external control does not automatically solve either the inter-religious, or inter-ethnic, or social problems of India. The rejoicing of the Indians on the night of August 14-15, 1947, when the tricolor flag of independent India was solemnly raised over the Red Fort in the center of Delhi, was only the beginning of the difficult and thorny path of building an independent strong state. The spiritual leader of the country, Gandhi, felt this like no one else.
For all mankind, Mahatma Gandhi forever remained "the apostle of non-violence." The personality of the Mahatma and his teachings had a huge impact on many national leaders who led the liberation movement in the East. Gandhi's socio-political methods of struggle became widespread both in African continent as well as in Latin America. In the US, movements against racial and national discrimination are also based on the ideals and principles proclaimed by Gandhi. Here is what Martin Luther King Jr. had to say about him: “Love was for Gandhi a powerful tool for social change. It was in the meaning that Gandhi attached to love and non-violence that I found the method of social reform that I had been looking for for many months. I realized that this is the only morally and practically correct method available to an oppressed people in the struggle for liberation.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) - one of the leaders and ideologists of the Indian independence movement from Great Britain. Actively devoting himself to the national liberation movement, Gandhi formulated the philosophy of non-violent struggle - satyagraha - which became the spiritual, moral and socio-political foundation of the supporters of peaceful transformations.
The goals and methods of Gandhi's struggle were close to some utopian trends and Tolstoyism. Gandhi himself noted: “Three contemporaries had a strong influence on me: Raichandbay with his direct communication with me, Tolstoy with his book “The Kingdom of God is within you” and Ruskin with his book “At the last line”. Thus, the views of Hinduism, Christianity and socialism were surprisingly intertwined in the life of one person.
The fundamental feature of the national liberation struggle of Mahatma Gandhi was that he rejected any form of violence. Preaching his philosophy for more than three decades, the great ascetic contributed to the moral renewal of Indian society. His lofty ideals and principles, changing social stereotypes, greatly influenced the alignment of political forces in the country. Thanks to a broad popular front of non-violent resistance, as well as the reasonable activity of the political core at a decisive moment, in 1947 India gained independence from Britain peacefully.
“In this small, physically weak man, there was something hard, like steel, indestructible, like a rock, something that no physical force, no matter how great, could cope with ... He possessed some then with royal grandeur, inspiring involuntary reverence to those around him ... He always spoke simply and to the point, without extra words. The listeners were affected by the absolute sincerity of this man, his very personality; it seemed that inexhaustible sources of inner strength were hidden in it ... Having found inner peace, he radiated it to those around him and walked along the winding paths of life fearlessly, with a firm step, ” Jawaharlal Nehru wrote.
Mahatma Gandhi's childhood name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was born on October 2, 1869 in the Gujarati principality of Porbandar. Gandhi's ancestors belonged to the Vaishyas (merchants) - the third caste-varna of Hinduism. Gandhi's father served as a minister in a number of principalities of the Kathiyawar Peninsula. Gandhi's worldview was formed under the influence of the Hindu religion, in the family its customs were strictly observed.
Upon reaching the age of 19, Gandhi was sent to England to receive a law degree. After graduating from it after 3 years, in 1891 Gandhi returned to his homeland, having received a lawyer's practice in Bombay. But already in 1893, Gandhi went to serve as a legal adviser to a Gujarat trading company in South Africa.
Faced with the facts of the oppression of Indians, Gandhi leads the fight against racial discrimination and organizes peaceful demonstrations, as well as petitions with demands to the government. This first attempt at non-violent resistance brought real success: some discriminatory laws against South African Indians were repealed.
The tactics of non-violent struggle developed in South Africa, Gandhi called Satyagraha. In two wars, the Anglo-Boer (1899-1902) and the Anglo-Zulu (1906), Gandhi creates sanitary detachments from among the Indians who help the British soldiers. By his actions, he wanted to demonstrate the loyalty of the Indians to Great Britain, although he considered the struggle between the Boers and the Zulus (by his own admission) fair. According to Gandhi, these actions were to convince the British to abandon the colonization of India and give it self-government.
In the South African period, Gandhi got acquainted with the works of L. N. Tolstoy, entered into correspondence with him. This had a great influence on him. Subsequently, Gandhi repeatedly emphasized that he considered Leo Tolstoy his teacher and spiritual mentor.
In 1915, Gandhi returned to his homeland. Here he becomes close to the Indian National Congress (INC) party and soon takes the position of one of the key leaders of the national liberation movement in India - he becomes the moral inspirer and ideological leader of the INC.
World War I 1914–1918 had a profound effect on the life of Indian society. Contradictions between the local population and the colonialists sharply escalated. And after the Great October Socialist Revolution, a mass anti-imperialist movement began in India. This helped Gandhi to realize that in the fight against the colonialists for any social and political concessions, it is necessary to rely on the broad sections of society, that only the support of the masses will allow the national liberation movement to achieve the independence of the country.
From that time on, Gandhi and his followers began to travel throughout the country, speaking at crowded rallies calling for resistance against British rule over India. At the same time, Gandhi's supporters condemned the class approach and revolutionary calls to fight the colonialists. They preached the resolution of social conflicts through peaceful judicial means.
These methods of non-violent resistance seemed perfectly reasonable to the Indian bourgeoisie. And therefore created in late XIX in. Hindu bourgeois and intellectuals of the INC accepted and supported Gandhi. Under the leadership of Gandhi, the INC from 1919 to 1947 turned into a serious social movement, becoming a mass and influential national anti-imperialist organization - this is one of the main historical achievements of Gandhi, as it happened thanks to the unconditional trust of a huge number of people in the personality and ideas of Gandhi himself. It is no coincidence that Gandhi received the high name Mahatma - "Great Soul".
The first Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi called Mahatma Rabindranath Tagore. And this high appreciation of Gandhi by the great writer accurately expressed the attitude of the Indian people towards their great son.
The philosophy and educational activities of Gandhi represented a new stage in the development of spiritual and religious humanism of the twentieth century. His ideas of achieving peace, goodness, a happy life for people were equally significant for most peoples.
From childhood, Gandhi learned to behave according to the rule expressed in the Indian aphorism "There is nothing higher than truth." He also learned that non-harming and non-violence is the highest virtue("ahinsa paramo dharma"). Although the principle of "ahinsa" is well known in the Hindu parts of India, it was applied most strictly by the Vaishnavist and especially by the Jainists (whose influence turned Gandhi's homeland of Gujarat into a country of the strictest vegetarianism).
In London, Gandhi diligently studied everything great and valuable that the West had created: the works of French and English philosophers, the books of the Old and New Testaments. Gandhi writes: « New Testament makes a peculiar impression, especially the Sermon on the Mount, which won my heart. I compared it to the Gita. “And I tell you, do not resist (do not resist) evil: but if someone hits you on the right cheek, turn to him the other too ...” My inexperienced mind tried to combine the teachings of the Gita, the “Light of Asia” and the Sermon on the Mount. Such self-denial was for me the highest form of religion, which most attracted me.
By the time he left London for India, in 1891, all the basic principles of his life were firmly established; accordingly, habits took shape. He becomes a supporter life path, which, in his opinion, is the best, contributing to the development of the world under the leadership of great people, and in which East and West can come together. The later years of Gandhi's life in India, South Africa, and finally India again must be seen in the light of the practical application of his original beliefs and their development in all aspects of his life.
During this period, Gandhi studied the interpretation of Christianity made by Tolstoy and Ruskin and its application in the individual and public life. Tolstoy's book "The Kingdom of God is within us" prompted Gandhi to comprehend the practical application of the principle of non-resistance. Gandhi was also influenced by the American moral reformer and writer Henry David Thoreau, whose work Civil Disobedience he read with admiration. It is interesting to note that both Thoreau himself and his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson were heavily influenced by the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads.
The discriminatory legislation drafted by the British rulers effectively disenfranchised Indians. Gandhi decided that it was possible to change this reality through the use of the principle overcoming evil through love. To this end, he developed and applied the practice of passive civil resistance: it was suggested to ignore immoral laws, despite prosecutions, threats of imprisonment and all kinds of suffering, but not to feel desires for retribution, hidden hatred or anger. Gandhi hoped that in this case, even the most cruel rulers would eventually soften, realize their mistakes and correct them. Gandhi had very high hopes for his method, for he had a deep faith in the goodness of mind of the British people, which he thought could be developed with the help of morality - by showing in an effective form the authenticity of grievances and the rightness of one's cause.
As we know, this method of non-violent struggle eventually led to success. However, this success was not determined at all by the kindness of the British. Success was preceded by a long preparation of Gandhi himself, training of associates by his personal example, readiness to make any sacrifices and inflexibility in matters of truth and justice.
Gandhi believed that since he wholeheartedly, faithfully serves society and teaches the same followers, he should give up money and pleasures, lead a simple and restrained life, and teach others such a life by his personal example. Gandhi put these beliefs into practice, in major social experiments. In South Africa, he founded a farm in the village and attracted followers of different nationalities, confessions, different skin colors to organize a commune based on the principles of simple life and high ideological values.
This commune was a large international family with a common table and common property and lived thanks to the work of each member according to his (or her) abilities. In South Africa, Gandhi tried as many professions as one person can hardly imagine in one lifetime. He worked as a teacher, accountant, publisher, gardener, hairdresser, tailor, shoemaker, nanny, midwife, therapist, etc.
Several times during the wars of Great Britain, Gandhi used his influence among the Indian people to organize a field hospital corps, he himself led it, he himself picked up the wounded and looked after them. Selfless work enriched his heart, deepened his convictions, increased the number of his followers and supporters, and his silent self-denial won the admiration of the peoples of the whole world. People began to be convinced that the highest ideals of religion and morality can be applied even in political life.
During these years, Gandhi formulated for himself the basic life principle, which he tried to adhere to throughout his life: "Never demand from a person what you do not do yourself."
This is how, in reflection and experience, the basic principles of Gandhi's philosophy were formed (given below).
First, a person is the highest value. That is, a person must be treated with respect, without making any exceptions. The Indian thinker considered mankind as a whole, and not as a collection of different peoples or religions. In his opinion, all people are equal, and everyone has the right to respect. Therefore, Gandhi waged an uncompromising struggle against caste inequality and did everything possible to improve the lives of the “untouchables”.
Secondly, any person has a conscience and, therefore, everyone is ready to recognize in himself the desire for the best, for personal development, for the fight against violence and bad phenomena in Everyday life. But it is worth doing this without showing reciprocal evil.
Thirdly, it is not enough just to realize the desire for growth in oneself. There should be regular self-improvement and the manifestation of the principles of non-violence in life, in practice.
Gandhi argued that a person's reaction to injustice has three forms: reciprocal aggression, passivity, active non-violence. Reciprocal anger is contrary to the principle of respect for a person. Passivity - too, because inert submission to evil only makes it stronger. But active non-violence allows you to destroy fear, insist on your own position in life, and not move away from it, and eventually achieve results.
Here are 10 quotes from the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi
Forgiving is more courageous than punishing. The weak cannot forgive. Forgiveness is the property of the strong.
Overcome hatred with love, untruth with truth, violence with patience.
An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.
The only tyrant I accept in this world is a quiet inner voice.
Happiness is when what you think, say and do is in harmony.
Live as if you will die tomorrow; learn as if you will live forever.
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops in the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
One ounce of practice is worth more than tons of sermons.
What difference does it make for the dead, the orphans and the homeless, in the name of which arbitrariness and destruction are being created - in the name of totalitarianism or in the name of democracy and liberalism?
Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words will become your actions. Your actions will become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values will become your destiny.
The moral principles worked out by Gandhi in many years of social struggle served as the foundation of his philosophical teachings. In Gandhi, the idea of mass non-violent resistance to social arbitrariness for the first time takes the form of a political struggle. Gandhi chooses a name for this movement for a long time and stops at the term "satyagraha", which means "firmness in truth."
In My Life, Gandhi recalled: “No matter how hard I struggled, I still could not find a suitable term. Then I launched a competition among the readers of the Indian Opinion for the best proposal in this sense. Maganlal Gandhi [youngest son of Gandhi. - N. Kh.] composed the word "satagraha" (sat - truth, agraha - firmness) and received a prize. In an effort to make the word more understandable, I changed it to 'satyagraha', and this term in the Gujarati language has since become the designation of our struggle. Satyagraha is a word that combines both strength, and sincerity, and determination, and conviction, like no other accurately expressed the essence of the concept of resistance. This is not yielding passivity, not subservience of the weak to the strong, but also not the hostile principle of "an eye for an eye." Perfidy and violence are opposed to fortitude and inner conviction that one is right.
The basic principles of Satyagraha were formed during the period of Gandhi's political struggle in the Republic of South Africa. Historically, events developed as follows.
Published on August 22, 1906 by the government of the Transvaal, a draft law on the registration of all persons of Indian nationality (starting from the age of 8) aroused Gandhi's deep indignation. Under this law, the entire Indian population, under the threat of arrest and expulsion, had to leave fingerprints in the police registry and receive special documents. According to this law, the police were endowed with special powers: they received the right to invade the homes of Indians and even enter the traditionally inviolable female half to check documents. After reviewing the draft law, Gandhi said: “Better to die than to accept such a law.”
The indignation of the Indians knew no bounds, many threatened that they would shoot anyone who dared to break into their house. Gandhi suggested another way of resistance: “We will not appeal to world public opinion, the Indians themselves are able to stand up for themselves. Let everyone who swears not to obey the shameful law decide for himself whether he has enough firmness, despite any persecution and even death, to keep this oath. The struggle will continue for a long time, perhaps for years, but I boldly and with full confidence declare that if even a small part of the people will remain true to their word, our struggle can end in only one thing - victory.
Despite Gandhi's warning that if the law passed, many Indians would proclaim Satyagraha, the government passed the discriminatory law.
In response to this, on January 1, 1908, the Indians went to a rally in Johannesburg. At the rally, subpoenas to the police for registration were defiantly burned. Gandhi, as the organizer of the Satyagraha and the rally, was arrested and thrown into prison. Together with him, many participants of the rally were arrested. But the confrontation only flared up: the repressions did not stop the popular indignation.
When Gandhi is released from prison, he decides to start Satyagraha throughout South Africa. In 1913 he managed to organize a miners' strike in Natal. After that, waves of strikes spread throughout the country. The government used weapons against the miners, many of the workers were shot for refusing to work during the strike. Mass arrests began. Thousands of people, including women and teenagers, ended up in dungeons. The conditions of their detention were unbearable, many died. Gandhi was again arrested and, while in prison, tried to encourage people and alleviate the suffering of sick prisoners. But the protest movement was unstoppable, and the authorities had to release Gandhi.
After leaving prison, Gandhi announces the famous "peaceful protest march" from Natal to the Transvaal. On November 6, 1913, a column of many thousands began its journey. The campaign itself was already a demonstrative violation of the law, since the Indians were forbidden to move from one province to another, and the campaign could end for them in prison and expulsion. But the courage and determination of Gandhi, who walked ahead of the stream of many thousands, inspired and strengthened the participants in the campaign, whose number grew every day. The troops sent to suppress the campaign did not dare to shoot, but tried to disperse the column, running into people with horses. When the participants lay down on the ground, the soldiers were confused, because the horses did not go over the people lying on the ground.
News of the unrest in South Africa quickly spread throughout the world and exploded public opinion not only in Europe but also in America. Many famous politicians supported the Indians. A. Einstein, B. Shaw, B. Russell came out with indignant letters to the press. The suppression of the protest of the Indians created too wide a negative resonance for the South African government. The authorities had to make concessions. On June 30, 1914, all the laws most offensive to Indians were repealed. It was a serious political victory - Gandhi showed the effectiveness of the principle of non-violent resistance.
This is how a new tactic of non-violent struggle for independence historically crystallized at the beginning of the 20th century. This method of peaceful resistance to colonial rule took two forms: non-cooperation and civil disobedience. The main idea of Gandhi was the desire to psychologically influence the enemy through the renunciation of violence (akhinsa) and the willingness to endure pain and suffering.
The meaning and purpose of the socio-psychological technology of Satyagraha is the transformation of an opponent into an ally and friend. Gandhi argued that the appeal to conscience is more effective than threats and violence. He emphasized that violence sooner or later leads to an increase in violence, but non-violence interrupts the spiral of evil and makes it possible to turn the enemy into a like-minded person. At the same time, Gandhi pointed out that satyagraha is not a weapon of the weak, but, on the contrary, a weapon of the strongest in spirit, since it requires will and readiness for difficult trials from those who make decisions.
Here is how A. Sukharev describes one of the most important episodes of the Satyagraha initiated by Gandhi: “The symbol of the new satyagraha is the charkha, the traditional Indian spinning wheel.<...>At the call of the Mahatma, the whole country goes into self-sufficiency, refusing to buy English goods, including expensive fabrics. Mahatma himself sits down at the spinning wheel and makes himself clothes and shoes. Indians don't break the law, they just don't cooperate with the authorities. They buy only Indian goods (even if they are worse in quality!), they burn English fabrics that they once bought... For the whole nation, this was a spiritual breakthrough, an inner discovery. It turns out that their political and economic dependence on England is the result of their cooperation with the colonialists!
At first, the British shower Gandhi with ridicule, but soon they begin to experience shock - they are not noticed, their traditions are not revered, their trading companies suffer enormous losses. It gets to the point that the Indians do not notice the Crown Prince of Wales, who comes to India. The streets of cities die out when a distinguished guest appears there, the embodiment of the sacred royal power..
The principle of civil disobedience implies the deliberate violation of laws that are contrary to morality. The main type of civil disobedience is tax evasion. Consciously inducing punishment (arrest and imprisonment) in a non-violent way of resistance, the participant of satyagraha prepares to patiently endure suffering. At the same time, it is assumed that politeness and friendliness are simultaneously shown towards the guardians of law and order, they are by no means provoked to aggression.
The principle of non-cooperation means the rejection of any agreements and contacts with unfairly working power structures. At the same time, non-cooperation is addressed not to the representatives of power themselves, but to their unworthy and unfair actions. Satyagraha supporters can cooperate with the authorities in what they consider to be fair and legal, and in this way convince the authorities to abandon bad deeds. At the same time, Gandhi emphasizes that the Satyagraha fighter must have an unlimited ability to endure suffering without the desire to avenge them.
Refusal to purchase and use British goods has become one of the most effective methods of non-cooperation. After it, it was already supposed to move on to the refusal to pay taxes by the population.
Tax evasion, however, goes beyond the non-cooperation movement. This, according to Gandhi, is already a transition to the principle of disobedience to tax laws. Gandhi understood that this was a much more dangerous step, and he warned against going over to this method of resistance. In December 1920, Gandhi stated: “I contend that the masses of the people are not ready to stop paying taxes. They still lack self-control. If I could be sure of non-violence on their part, I would ask them today to stop paying and not waste free moments of people's time.
In this regard, Gandhi emphasized that participation in nonviolent resistance requires high moral qualities from its supporters. And he formulated a system of vows that an adherent of satyagraha should give, while stipulating that only a person with spiritual strength can give a vow. Gandhi wrote that the main principle here is “Do what needs to be done at any cost. Anyone who justifies himself that he can do something "as far as possible" shows moral weakness. If it is intended to do "as far as possible" in advance, then this means a willingness to succumb to the first temptation. Can't stick to the "as far as possible" mindset.
According to Gandhi, an adherent of Satyagraha makes vows, which are the foundation for the development of his spiritual strength. First four vows: truth, non-violence or love, chastity, renunciation of property. Other vows: courage, bravery; moderation (including in food); do not steal; necessary work; equality of religions; anti-untouchability; self-discipline.
Thus, in the complex political struggle of civil disobedience and passive resistance, the philosophical concept of Gandhi took shape. Satyagraha is a peaceful but uncompromising struggle without anger and shots. In this struggle, the supporters of the resistance have no other weapon than own life. Non-violent resistance begins when people cannot do otherwise, because they are deprived of their honor and the right to a decent life.
The struggle for Indian independence began to take on a massive character with the return of Mahatma Gandhi to his homeland in 1915. He became national hero. His political victories in South Africa not only provided the Indians with an example of the success of the strategy of non-violent resistance, but also made Gandhi the "spiritual father" of India and the leader of the struggle against the colonial regime.
And this struggle with the end of the First World War escalated, especially because the British authorities canceled all the political "indulgences" that were given to the Indians during the war years, when India sent 985,000 soldiers to the British army. It was this cruel step on the part of Britain that gave impetus to the development of the program of non-violent struggle, which Gandhi developed into the philosophy of non-violence - satyagraha.
The outstanding role of Mahatma Gandhi in organizing mass non-violent resistance campaigns in the 20-40s brought him universal love and respect in India. During this period, Gandhi not only became the ideological leader of the INC, but also launched a persistent campaign of religious reconciliation among the Hindus, Muslims and Christians of the country in the name of a united and free India. In many respects, it was thanks to the influence and perseverance of Gandhi that a broad and active, and moreover, a nationwide, anti-colonial front was formed and strengthened in the country.
The formation of this front was largely determined by the fact that India in that era was an almost entirely peasant and deeply religious country. Peasants not only made up the vast majority of its population, but also the working class that was forming in this era, and the majority of artisans, and a significant part of the urban and rural bourgeoisie - many of them were recent peasants and retained strong peasant roots. Gandhi, with his deep understanding of the traditions, beliefs and psychology of the lower classes, with a brilliant knowledge of the texts of sacred books and the poetics of the religious and cultural heritage of the country, with precise addressing to this heritage rooted in the masses of the people, always knew how to find the right words to express his ideas, affecting hearts.
Sometimes Gandhi is accused of a certain "primitiveness" of his socio-philosophical constructions. These accusations are clearly unfair. Gandhi became a Mahatma precisely for the reason that he fully used in his philosophy and political agitation the deep layers of ancient Indian culture rooted in the minds of the masses and was able to combine the religious, moral-ethical and socio-political content of this culture in his teaching on Satyagraha. The principles of non-violent resistance declared by Gandhi were deeply in tune with popular religious, moral and social ideals. Including those historical utopias of the social system of justice and general welfare, which were described in the canonical sacred texts.
Gandhi found the necessary images and words, because he drew them from the cultural, historical and religious tradition. Therefore, his ideas and appeals were understandable and close to the peasant, and the artisan, and the worker, and the merchant. They were passed from mouth to mouth, became "new folklore" and quickly spread throughout the country.
We emphasize that Gandhi's philosophy not only declared non-violence to be the core of the liberation process, but also resolutely denied the class struggle, considering it the most dangerous mechanism for the destruction of anti-colonial national unity. It was this feature of Gandhism that determined the active participation in the movement not only of the lower classes, but also of broad layers of the bourgeoisie and a noticeable part of the Indian aristocracy, who were keenly interested in the peaceful elimination of British colonial rule.
Political opponents often reproached Gandhi for making compromises with the British authorities and not using the opportunities of mass non-violent resistance that opened up to the end. However, Gandhi very accurately sensed the mood of the masses and understood when there was a threat of overflowing the protest into a violent register. And in these cases, with his authority, he decisively stopped the protest, realizing how much the movement is capable of discrediting and destroying itself if it starts to develop into bloody excesses.
History has shown that these fears of Mahatma Gandhi were not in vain - the violation of the principle of non-violence was the tragedy of the movement. In 1947, the British policy of provoking conflicts between Hindus and Muslims led to an increase in sectarian clashes, and then actually escalated into a sectarian civil war that claimed millions of lives. The result of this war was the division of the country on religious grounds into two states: India and Pakistan. Gandhi himself became a victim of this war: in January 1948, shortly after the assertion of India's independence, he was killed by a Hindu religious fanatic.
Returning to India from South Africa in 1915, the 54-year-old Gandhi became the ideological and moral leader of the liberation movement.
On May 25, 1915, Gandhi established a satyagraha ashram called Kochrab near Ahmedabad. In April 1917, he organizes the first Satyagraha campaign in Champaran. In 1919, he published the first issue of the Young India newspaper.
Note that this is the era of the Great October revolution, the echo of which quickly reached India and caused an aggravation of the anti-colonial struggle in the country. The Indian national press described with obvious enthusiasm the revolutionary upsurge throughout the world, referring to the prospects of the national liberation struggle. So, for example, the Allahabad newspaper "Abhyudaya" wrote on March 24, 1917: "The Russian Revolution convinces us that there is no force in the world that life-giving nationalism could not overcome".
Of course, this could not but alarm the British colonial administration. Viceroy of India Chelmsford announced to the British government the need for policy changes in India. In particular, a law was passed through parliament expanding the composition of voters in the central and provincial assemblies, as well as providing Indians with a quota of seats in the executive councils under the viceroy and provincial governors. In a number of provinces, Indians became heads of education and health departments, and also took up posts in other departments.
Against this background, Gandhi's political activity could not go unnoticed. His two successful Satyagraha campaigns in India and his participation in the organization of a labor union in Ahmedabad made Gandhi one of the most famous figures of the Indian anti-colonial resistance. Gandhi's influence grew in the Indian National Congress, with which the Mahatma increasingly collaborated. Gandhi published extensively in the Indian press and often spoke at rallies.
At the same time, Gandhi never lost sight of his main goal - to raise the broad masses of the people to active non-violent resistance, which he considered the main mechanism for moving the country towards independence. However, he was convinced that such advancement was possible only if all the political forces of society were united under a single national leadership. Therefore, Gandhi was an opponent of the class struggle and a strong supporter of maintaining civil peace and always advocated a compromise peaceful settlement of the constantly emerging economic, social, ethnic, religious conflicts.
And there were enough conflicts, which was facilitated by the deep religious and caste disunity of Indian society. And therefore, Gandhi paid special attention to the establishment in the country of the mass ideology of the patriotic unity of Hindus and Muslims, ethno-national and caste groups. One of the practical political forms of the formation and demonstration of such national unity was the “hartals” (in Hindi - “closures”), that is, campaigns for the simultaneous, widespread closing of shops and workshops for prayer and fasting. Hartals, held in many cities of the country in April 1919, marked the start of a new stage in the development of revolutionary events in India. There was a transition from the economic strikes of workers in 1918 to mass demonstrations by broad sections of the urban population, which in some places spilled over into armed uprisings.
The intensity of the strike struggle grew: in 1920-21, 400-600 thousand people went on strike in India. Workers increasingly held strikes of solidarity. In Bombay, Jamshedpur and other industrial centers, the oppressed sections of Indian society came out to protest. New trade union organizations sprang up in some places. Objectively, the conditions were developing for the organization of an all-Indian trade union center.
At the turn of 1920, a new stage of the national liberation movement began in India. This stage is associated primarily with the activities of the Indian National Congress (INC), which began to turn into a mass party. Gandhi became the ideological inspirer and leader of the Congress. In its struggle against the colonialists, the INC adopted broad campaigns of "non-violent non-cooperation" with the authorities and "civil disobedience" - satyagraha.
Adopted in 1920, the Charter of the INC declared the goal of the INC to be the achievement of Swaraj (partial independence of India in the status of a British dominion) by "peaceful and legal means." At the same time, a group of "swaradjists" in the Congress began to use political struggle in the country's parliament to achieve this goal.
In 1927, the INC put forward the slogan of the struggle for the complete independence of India from Britain, which marked a new upsurge in the national liberation struggle in the country, and in 1931 adopted a program of bourgeois democratic reforms. During this period, the left-nationalist faction, headed by Ch. Bos and J. Nehru, grew stronger in the INC.
In 1934, within the INC, the Congress Socialist Party emerged, which developed a program of radical transformations, including those of a socialist nature. The struggle of the INC against the reactionary constitution of 1935 drawn up by the colonialists was actively supported by the communists, who understood the need to strengthen the united anti-imperialist front in the country.
At the same time, satyagraha remained the main method of struggle. Gandhi emphasized that its participants do not impose their goals on opponents, but encourage the enemy to reconsider their views and abandon injustice. In this, Gandhi saw the fundamental advantages of his concept of non-violent struggle: a decision made voluntarily and consciously is lasting; the parties to the conflict are not tempted to revise it soon. Another advantage of Satyagraha was that it did not require either weapons or large material resources; it thus gives everyone the opportunity to take part in the struggle for justice.
Of course, the ideal scheme of satyagraha, based on non-violent self-sacrifice, was far from the practice of a mass movement. Not all of its participants had such an ardent faith in the principles of non-violence as to give up their lives for them. But still, few people had to sacrifice their lives. And Satyagraha campaigns increasingly proved to be politically effective.
That is, Mahatma Gandhi offered the people of India a fundamentally new way of reviving the country. He rejected both the path of an armed uprising and the path of petitions to the colonialists as unpromising, proclaiming the "third path" of ahinsa, non-violence. Gandhi repeated that ahinsa means the inner decision of a person, which is based on the recognition of love for a person and all living things as the highest value of life. Gandhi called out: “In the world there is not a struggle between good and bad people, but a struggle between Life and Death, Good and Evil in the soul of every person. Everyone is capable of refusing to support Evil, and Evil is powerless against this decision. At the same time, the refusal to participate in the affairs of Evil leads a person to the Path of Building a new world - the World of Good.
The practice of Satyagraha, however, was far from easy. One of the main difficulties was the need to maintain the framework of non-violence, but at the same time increase the intensity of the struggle. And here Gandhi required not only consistency, but also ingenuity. One of the main thrusts of Satyagraha was the expanding campaigns to boycott the actions and state institutions of the colonial administration. This included the boycott of elections, and the boycott of official receptions, and the boycott of English courts, English schools and colleges, and the boycott of English goods, and refusals to do business with the British, serve in their administration and enlist in the army, and refusals of honorary titles, positions and British government awards. Gandhi himself defiantly returned the British decorations he had received for his service in South Africa.
One of the most striking episodes of the policy of "non-cooperation" was the refusal of the Indians to participate in the meeting of the heir to the British throne, the Prince of Wales, who arrived on a visit to India on November 17, 1921. When the Prince of Wales landed in Bombay, Gandhi announced hartal - "a day of prayer and fasting." And then in all the cities where the prince came, it was on the day of his meeting that the streets and bazaars were empty, shops and workshops were closed - there was fasting and prayer everywhere. This publicly and silently "spoken" disrespect for the arrival of the prince was an unheard-of insult for the British. And the Indians, apparently for the first time, were allowed to fully realize the power and influence of their "non-violent non-cooperation." And it was especially important that the protest actions of non-cooperation - both at this point and later - were jointly led by the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League.
At the same time, Gandhi always strictly warned his comrades-in-arms about the danger of the defiance movement developing into an uncontrolled violent phase. But on February 4, 1922, an incident occurred that brought the massive satyagraha actions to the brink of collapse. After the protesters were shot by the police, the indignant peasant crowd burned several policemen driven into the premises. Gandhi strongly condemned this act of lynching and announced an end to the civil non-cooperation campaign. Confidence in the authority of the Mahatma was so great that the passions of the rebels immediately cooled down.
The effectiveness and mass support of the non-violent non-cooperation movement gave Gandhi the opportunity to present rather tough political demands to the British authorities. At the turn of 1930, the INC put forward a demand to grant the country the status of a dominion (a self-governing territory of the British Empire). January 26, 1930 was declared Independence Day.
From "Independence Day Pledge":
“We consider the inalienable right of the Indian people, as of any other people, the right to freedom, the right to enjoy the fruits of their labor and the right to the necessary means of subsistence. The people need these rights so that they have every opportunity for their development. We also believe that if any government deprives the people of these rights and oppresses them, the people have the right to change such government or abolish it. The British Government in India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom, but bases its policy on the exploitation of the masses and has undermined the economic, political, cultural and spiritual life of India. We therefore believe that India should break the ties that bind her to England and achieve Purna Swaraj, that is, complete independence.<...>
We recognize, however, that the most effective path to our freedom is not through violence. Therefore, we must prepare for the fight by cutting off, as far as possible, all kinds of voluntary cooperation with the British government, and we must also prepare for a civil disobedience movement, including tax evasion. We are convinced that as soon as we stop voluntary assistance and payment of taxes, without resorting to violence even in cases of provocation, this inhuman regime will be doomed.”
In the same 1930, Gandhi put forward demands to the British administration: to reduce the land tax, reduce the salaries of British officials, abolish the government monopoly on salt, and release all political prisoners. And after the refusal of the authorities to satisfy these demands, Gandhi began a new, largest Satyagraha - the so-called salt campaign.
In the spring of 1930, Gandhi went along the roads of India at the head of a column of associates growing every day. On the seashore, the participants of the campaign evaporated salt in an ancient artisanal way, that is, they directly violated the law on salt monopoly and proved that they could do without English goods.
The colonial authorities at first did not take this action seriously. But when millions of Indians along the coast of India began to evaporate the salt, the situation very quickly acquired a far from comic turn. Trade in English goods was almost completely paralyzed. Government orders were openly sabotaged.
And further, in the district of Dharshan, the participants of the Satyagraha, led by the son of Gandhi Manidal, made an attempt to occupy the salt pans. The column of protesters was met by a police detachment armed with thick sticks with iron tips. But the demonstrators went to the chain of policemen and fell under their blows. Other people stood in the places of the wounded and killed and, without resisting, again went under the blows.
Authorities arrested Gandhi and tens of thousands of movement activists. But this did not stop Satyagraha. In response to the government's campaign of violence, an all-India hartal began. Factories, railways, post office, educational institutions, trade stopped working. The British administration had to release Gandhi and other leaders of the INC and - for the first time in Indian history - start negotiations.
In March 1931, the Viceroy of India, Lord Irving, and Mahatma Gandhi signed an agreement providing for the termination of the campaign of civil disobedience under the terms of an amnesty for all political prisoners, the abolition of the government monopoly on salt, permission to propagandize for the independence of India from England, recognition of the INC as the official political parties. The government complied with almost all of these requirements. And only after that Mahatma Gandhi announced the suspension of satyagraha. It was a very big political victory for the national liberation movement.
In 1932, Mahatma Gandhi was again in prison. And from here he sharply opposes the adoption of the drafted by the colonial authorities electoral law, which shares the caste of the untouchables and the rest of the Hindus. Gandhi announces an indefinite hunger strike in protest against this law. Almost no one believed that this action of Gandhi would be crowned with success in a country where the tradition of caste division of society dates back three thousand years. But love and trust in Mahatma Gandhi, as well as fears for his health, turned out to be stronger than tradition. Millions of people went to the houses of the untouchables, ate meals with them, fraternized with the untouchables, flooded the prison recluse with letters and telegrams of support. And London relented, changing the electoral law. Only after this Gandhi ended his hunger strike.
In August 1935, the British Parliament adopted a program of political reform in India. The reform included expanding the participation of Indian citizens in elections to 12% of the population by reducing property and other qualifications, as well as granting fairly broad rights to local legislatures. Other constitutional changes sought by the INC were not adopted. However, by this time the campaigns of non-violent resistance had already significantly undermined the colonial regime.
In the elections to the central and provincial legislatures under the new electoral system, held in 1937, the INC won a majority of elective seats in 8 of the 11 provinces of India and formed local governments in them. This not only provided the INC with the opportunity to acquire and accumulate experience in parliamentary political struggle, but also became a major step for the party to seize power in the country.
In the late 30s and early 40s, Mahatma Gandhi led an individual satyagraha. He calls in public speeches for the need for the independence of India from England, announces hunger strikes and writes letters calling for peace and freedom. For this, Gandhi spends a lot of time in prison.
With the outbreak of World War II, the national liberation struggle in India continued under new, significantly changed conditions. Gandhi, although he does not hold any official positions in the INC, is still the national leader and the main inspirer of this struggle. He, like no one else, understands and feels that this struggle for a new free India is entering its final and decisive stage. Gandhi writes: “With the outbreak of war, the time has come for the complete separation of India from England,” and puts forward the slogan “Get out of India!”. The INC supported this slogan and demanded the immediate granting of independence to India.
Welcoming the party's decision to fight uncompromisingly for the liberation of India, Gandhi uttered his famous words "Act or die".
The name Gandhi remained a symbol of selflessness and sacrifice in the name of independence. However, his ideas of non-violence, as well as his views on the foundations of statehood (the ideal of complete equality of citizens within autonomous self-sufficient communities), were increasingly critically evaluated by most of the allies in the INC and even by many associates. Against the background of the war and the growth of protest movements, the leaders of the INC lost faith in the effectiveness of non-violence and its future prospects, and Gandhi gradually lost control over the protest masses.
The political proscenium of India was actively occupied by the new leaders of the anti-colonial protest - J. Nehru, C. Bose and others, who were ready to use harsh methods of national liberation. By the end of the war, the revolutionary struggle in India less and less retained the framework of non-violence according to Gandhi. Nevertheless, Gandhi tried to bring the struggle back into the mainstream of his satyagraha, hoping that after the war, England would voluntarily grant dominion status to India, and that this would ensure free elections and the adoption of a new Constitution.
However, these hopes of Mahatma Gandhi did not come true. There was no dominion status, the national liberation struggle escalated against the backdrop of mass protests against the use of Indian troops to suppress the liberation movement in Indochina and Indonesia. The leaders of the INC demanded an end to British intervention in Southeast Asia. Another factor in the aggravation of the political situation in India was the fate of the Indian National Army (INA), which was created in Burma during the Japanese occupation by one of the leaders of the INC, Chandra Bose, with the support of the Japanese command for the war against the British.
In 1945, the British troops took the INA numbering 20 thousand people. in full captivity. The authorities could not leave unpunished the fact that the INA had acted against Great Britain. But the British did not dare to judge this entire army, realizing the risk of consequences. As a result, the colonial administration decided to bring only three senior INA officers from the country's three main religious communities - Hindu, Muslim and Sikh - to court-martial.
This united all three denominations in the struggle against the British. Instead of a purely military court, the tribunal became the most important political event. For the Indian masses, the defendants became living heroes who challenged the enslavers of India on the battlefield. Even Gandhi - the apostle of non-violence - expressed his admiration for them. The leaders of the INC came up with the initiative to create a special committee to protect the defendants. It included 17 lawyers, including J. Nehru. Nehru defined the nature of the trial as follows: "The people will be the chief judge and arbitrator in this matter." The sentence was very mild. The INA officers were found guilty, but their punishment was only to be demoted and dismissed from the army, as well as to be deprived of the rights to receive various state benefits.
The trial of the INA command united almost all the political forces of the liberation movement. Even the Muslim League, headed by Muhammad Jinnah, supported the defense of the accused INC, despite the fact that the league was in sharp conflict with the INC because of its project to separate a separate Muslim state from free India - Pakistan. Other all-India parties supported the defense of the INA commanders: the Socialist Party, Akali Dal, Hindu Mahasabha. As a result, the communists, who condemned Bose for collaborating with the Japanese allies of the Nazis, found themselves in complete political isolation in India.
In an attempt to ease political tension in the country, the British at the end of 1945 announced the holding of elections to the central and provincial legislative assemblies. And they succeeded in politically splitting the anti-imperialist forces. The largest of these forces - the INC and the Muslim League - entered the elections with mutually exclusive political programs.
The wave of indignation against British colonial rule reached its climax in 1946. At this point, the army begins to join the anti-imperialist movement. In India, there were about one million soldiers of Indian origin. There were half as many Englishmen in the army as there were Indian soldiers.
The climax was the uprising of the sailors of the navy. In February 1946, unrest began on the Talwar ship. Gandhi supported the rebellious sailors, although he tried to keep them from violent actions. Troops called in by the authorities, consisting of Indian soldiers, refused to fire on the rebels. And then the sailors of Calcutta, Madras, Karachi, Vizagapatam joined the uprising. In Bombay, the rebels were supported by military pilots, and at the same time a general strike of workers began in the city. On the streets of Bombay, Calcutta, Karachi, Madras, barricade battles unfolded.
The position of Great Britain in India turned out to be very serious. The colonial authorities turned for help to the leaders of the national liberation movement - Gandhi, Patel, Jinnah. As a result, the INC and the Muslim League offered the rebels to lay down their arms, and Gandhi acted as one of the mediators in the negotiations between the rebels and the Anglo-Indian authorities.
The uprising in the army and the active actions of the Indian people against colonialism forced the British Prime Minister Atlee to come out with a declaration of England's readiness to grant dominion rights to India and create a commission to grant India independence. In May 1946, a constitutional reform project was prepared, according to which India was declared a single dominion of Britain, albeit with significantly limited political powers.
In June of that year, legislative elections were held. The INC received 70% of the mandates in them, the Muslim League - 30%. In August, J. Nehru was proposed to create a provisional government, which, in addition to the Hindus, included representatives of the Sikhs, Christians and Parsis. The Muslim League refused to enter the government, saying that it did not represent the interests of Muslims, and therefore it would continue to fight for the creation of Pakistan.
The Muslim League's declaration of "direct struggle" over Pakistan sharply complicated Hindu-Muslim relations. And the proclamation of August 16 as the day of the struggle for the creation of the Muslim state of Pakistan - opened a series of bloody conflicts between Hindus and Muslims throughout the country. Three thousand people were killed in Calcutta, ten thousand were wounded. Unrest spread to eastern Bengal, then to Bihar. The clashes between Hindus and Muslims took on a particularly strong scale in Bombay and Punjab at the beginning of 1947.
On February 20, 1947, Prime Minister Atlee of England issued a "Declaration on India", which contained plans for the transfer of power to "Indian hands". At the same time, Great Britain proposed a plan for the division of India (“the Mountbatten plan”), according to which two dominions were created in India - the Indian Union and Pakistan. The 563 principalities that made up India, according to this plan, received the right to choose which of the created dominions they want to enter.
The leaders of the INC, despite the disagreement and warnings of Gandhi, accepted the British proposals for the partition of India. After the viceroy of India, L. Mountbatten, on June 3, 1947, proclaimed the partition of British India and the creation of two independent states - India and Pakistan, religious massacres broke out in the country and huge crowds of refugees appeared. Endless columns of people expelled from their places walked along the roads of the country in opposite directions. In the Punjab alone, the number of victims of the pogroms reached half a million people. About 700,000 people died during this forced relocation, according to official figures.
Mahatma Gandhi devoted the last years of his life to the struggle for the unity of the country and the prevention of its split. He was one of the few leaders of the liberation movement who tried to the end to oppose the policy of dismembering India along religious lines. The division of the country meant for Gandhi the complete and final collapse of his idea of \u200b\u200bHindu-Muslim unity. However, at a session of the All India Congress Committee, Gandhi joined the majority in voting for Mountbatten's plan to transfer power to two independent states. However, Gandhi took this as his personal tragedy.
On August 15, 1947, the independence of India was proclaimed, it received the status of a dominion within the British Commonwealth of Nations. With the direct support of Gandhi, the first government of India was headed by Jawaharlal Nehru. The formation of the basic structures and institutions of Indian statehood began. But it took place in the context of the ongoing Hindu-Muslim massacres. Massacres and expulsions of the population took place in the principalities of Jammu and Kashmir, in Bengal, and in other territories.
Gandhi did everything in his power to stop and prevent communal-religious clashes. On the day of the declaration of independence of India, he was in Calcutta, where more than once Hindu-Muslim pogroms took place. In order to achieve intercommunal peace, Gandhi announced another - the fifteenth in his life - hunger strike. This hunger strike ended only when representatives of all the communities of the city swore at the bedside of Gandhi, weakened by hunger, not to allow interreligious excesses in Bengal.
Gandhi went on another hunger strike in Delhi, trying to prevent clashes between political parties and communities across the country. But his influence on the Indian masses was clearly insufficient. Religious-ethnic clashes in India continued.
Perhaps desperation forced Gandhi to walk alone across the country, passing hundreds of villages, appealing to his fellow citizens for peace, prudence and mutual tolerance. At the same time, Gandhi demanded the creation of normal living conditions in India for Muslims. Radical Hindu organizations for this reason accused Gandhi of betraying the interests of the Hindus and going over to the side of the Muslims. On January 30, 1948, during the beginning of evening prayers, he was killed by three shots by a Hindu fanatic, a former member of the Hindu Mahasabha party.
In India, during his lifetime, Gandhi was called "the father of the nation" » who "embodied the ancient spirit" of India.
Gandhi's teachings formed an integral part of the political culture of independent India. After India gained independence and adopted a constitution, the slogans of general prosperity (sarvodaya) and non-violence (akhinsa) formulated by Gandhi formed the basis of the socially oriented state course of J. Nehru. Since then, the leaders of the INC have insisted that it is the Indian National Congress that is the main heir to Gandhi's teachings on non-violence.
Throughout his life, Mahatma Gandhi tried to prove that the doctrine of non-violence was born not by weakness, but by strength, not by cowardice before the colonialists, but by the courage and selflessness of the fighters for independence. The idea of personal responsibility to oneself and others, personal responsibility for everything that happens in the country, for the fate of India, was the main one in the political struggle of the outstanding thinker and Indian patriot.
Gandhi was born in a colonial country that was awakening to a struggle for self-assertion. The era when his consciousness was formed broke traditions. Spiritual law must manifest itself in politics - that is Gandhi's innovation. In the proclamation of political activity as a duty to God, which implies the absolute necessity of observing religious principles in politics - love, truth, non-violence - lies the fundamental difference between Gandhi's views and most religious systems.
Non-violence for Gandhi is not only a method of resistance, a tactic of struggle, but also the main principle of a holistic worldview, a doctrine of the meaning of individual and social life, the basis of a social and political ideal. By making non-violence the principle of not only personal but also social behavior, Gandhi gave it an offensive character. From non-resistance to evil by violence, he passes to non-violent resistance. To determine this type of socio-political behavior, the concept of "satyagraha" was found, meaning "unshakable in truth", "combination of truth and firmness".
For a Satyagraha participant, non-violence is an unshakable principle. Violence is not allowed not only in actions, but also in words and even in thoughts and desires. Condemnation of sin is combined with love for the sinner. Social contradictions are resolved in the same way as family disagreements - by persuasion, concessions, or, in extreme cases, by turning to non-violent resistance.
However, Gandhi's love for the enemy is combined with the sharpest rejection of injustice. Participating in nonviolent resistance passively is unacceptable. Satyagraha involves the open proclamation of demands and their effective support in a non-violent way. Members of the movement consciously go to suffering, up to death, in the name of justice. Followers of Satyagraha strive by their behavior to actively influence other people, not to force them, but to induce them to abandon evil. The means of influence is the infliction of moral defeat on the enemy.
Many Indians saw Gandhi as God descended from heaven to liberate India. Gandhi's ability to convince people, to help them change for the better, seems supernatural. It was no coincidence that he was called Mahatma - the Great Soul. A small, very thin man, in any weather wrapped only in a piece of homespun canvas, with a childish smile and large protruding ears, he amazed with his inner strength, wisdom and infinite kindness.
Rabindranath Tagore, a great contemporary and friend of Gandhi, defined Mahatma Gandhi's ability to influence people as follows: “He stood at the threshold of the huts of thousands of the destitute, dressed just like them. He addressed them in their language, here, finally, there was a living truth, and not quotations from books ... In response to the call of Gandhi, India opened up again for great achievements, just as it was in early times when the Buddha proclaimed the truth of empathy and compassion among all living."
It was these human and spiritual qualities that made Mahatma Gandhi what he became: the leader and banner of the national liberation of India.
The Indian subcontinent has experienced the rise of charismatic leaders and successful independence - despite intra-social conflicts.
Discontent and nationalism
Despite India's initial loyalty to Great Britain, with the outbreak of World War I, the hardships that India had to endure as a direct consequence of the conflict entailed a constant increase in discontent in the country. In the 1920s and 1930s the struggle of the Indians for independence from England intensified, and nationalist feelings reawakened. Moreover, although a number of concessions were made by the British - for example, in the form of the Indian Constitution Act of 1919 ("Government o India Act"), which allowed Indians to be part of provincial governments - Britain strongly refused to completely remove itself from control, which led to unrest among the Indian population. Some took the form of peaceful protest, but sometimes there were violent clashes. With the increase in the influx of nationalist ideas, sharp disagreements were again revealed between the Hindu Party (Indian National Congress, INC) and the All India Muslim League (All India Muslim League) - disagreements that before the war were unsuccessfully used by the British to partition Bengal and which were temporarily settled in military years.
Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi was a middle-class Indian. Received legal education in England, after which he defended the rights of Indians in South Africa for more than 20 years, where he himself was discriminated against and opposed it. In 1915 he returned to India, at the end of the First World War he reorganized the Congress and undertook to support national ideas, organizing non-violent resistance actions - strikes, boycotts and tax waivers. In response, the British arrested thousands of Indians, including members of the INC, and Gandhi himself went to jail for 2 years. After his release, Gandhi turned his attention to the most oppressed sections of the Hindu population and pa- I worked with the lower caste - the untouchables; Gandhi encouraged people to return to a simple life.
Above: Lord Louis Mountbatten Earl of Burma (left), the last Viceroy of India, who partitioned India into India and Pakistan, with his wife and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, leader of the All India Muslim League, after negotiations in New Delhi, India 1947
The politically interested middle class supported him as the Mahatma made the INC an institution for the people, and he was followed by peasants who bowed to him as a saint because he advocated social reforms. In this way, Gandhi managed to rally Hindu Indians towards a common goal - independence. He also tried to achieve unanimity between Hindus and Muslims; however, since 1930, the call for the formation of their own Muslim state in northern India began to sound louder and louder.
Path to Independence
In 1928, at comprehensive negotiations, India and meetings of the INC put forward a demand to provide it with the status of a dominion (the status of an independent society and equal membership in the Commonwealth of Nations), and otherwise threatened to return to mass actions of civil disobedience. After the meeting of the INC in December 1929, at which, shortly before, the elected president, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, demanded full independence, similar actions resumed again throughout India. January 26, 1930 was declared Full Independence Day (“Purna Swaraj”), and from March to April Gandhi led the famous “Salt Campaign”. Together with several companions, in protest against the increase in British salt taxes, he walked 400 km from his ashram near Ahmedabad to the village of Dundee to collect small crystals of salt on the coast - which was forbidden, because by doing so he violated the British monopoly on salt. As a result, Gandhi was arrested again. At the same time, the First Conference for round table, the purpose of which was to solve the "Indian question". However, the INC refused to participate in the conference until Gandhi and other spokesmen for the Indian people were released from imprisonment.
In 1931, having been released, Gandhi agreed to stop civil disobedience, and as a return service, according to the Gandhi-Irving Pact, all political prisoners were released. Gandhi went to the Second Round Table Conference as a representative of the National Congress.
However, he was disappointed with the results of the first round of negotiations and in 1932 he decided to reopen the non-cooperation movement. Until 1935, negotiations between the Congress party and the British government had come to a complete halt, and under Viceroy Lord Willington, a new Constitution for India was issued that same year - a major step towards the independence of the subcontinent.
After the elections, eleven self-governing provinces were founded, in eight provinces the INC won a tangible majority of votes, in the remaining three provinces coalitions with the Muslim League had to be organized. However, Gandhi, Nehru and many of their other associates were not satisfied with this: only complete independence could fulfill their demands. Meanwhile, many Muslims, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, feared that they would soon be overwhelmed by the outnumbered Hindus, so there was a growing desire among them to gain independence, not only from Britain, but also from Hindu-dominated India.
World War II and India
In 1939, as World War II broke out, Viceroy Lord Linlithgow announced India's participation without consulting the provincial governments - causing the INC minister to resign and withdraw any support. However, when the Japanese began to approach the borders of India, Great Britain decided to offer India full independence in exchange for support in the war. As a result, numerous Indian soldiers were mobilized to help Britain and fought alongside the Allies.
During the war, Jinnah's demand for a separate Islamic state of Pakistan gained more weight as the British not only agreed to post-war independence but also approved a clause allowing provinces to secede from the federation. Gandhi and Nehru were opposed to these plans: in 1942 they attempted to launch a "Leave India" campaign to challenge Britain to new meetings. And again mass protests of civil disobedience unfolded, Gandhi and Nehru, along with other deputies of the INC, were arrested. The British were confident that the Japanese would soon invade and help the Congress Party to take power.
Independence - division of the country
However, the Japanese never came to India; their surrender followed a few days after the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This ended the Second World War. I In 1945, the British government, led by Clement Attlee, decided to give India independence - however, on the condition that India retain the structure of the federation, while the INC wanted to see a united India with a centralized government. The All India Muslim League pursued its plan for an autonomous Pakistan with great intensity. After the 1945 elections, the political situation in India reached a stalemate, which led to large-scale uprisings and violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims. The British tried to resolve the conflict by military intervention, but civil war was already inevitable. On August 15, India gained its independence. Nehru became prime minister, and West and East Pakistan emerged simultaneously (since 1971 - Bangladesh). Three provinces opposed any integration: Junagadh, Hyderabad and Kashmir. The first two were quickly absorbed by India, while the situation in Kashmir looked more problematic. Both Muslim and Hindu influences split the country and led to conflicts that continued until 1949. As millions of Hindus and Muslims fled across the new frontiers and settled in either predominantly Hindu India or Islamic Pakistan, violent conflicts flared up again everywhere. on both sides; many of those who remained in their original places were waiting for death - this was the case in India and Pakistan. Gandhi, who returned to his public work in Bengal, decided to put an end to the violence: he went on a hunger strike, vowing to die of starvation if the persecution of Muslims in India did not stop. This protest bore fruit - but soon after, in January 1948, he was killed by a Brahmin who saw Gandhi as a traitor.
October 28, 1950; Indian Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (left) at the water lily pond in his garden in New Delhi with his daughter Indira Gandhi (right) and her son Rajiv; both served as prime minister after Nehru.
India after independence
After independence, the history of India was characterized by sporadically erupting uprisings. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru successfully ruled as Prime Minister until the end of his days (1964) and led his nation through a period of relative calm and stability. His daughter, Indira Gandhi, succeeded him. She, too, was a strong ruling personality, but was charged with corruption and in 1978 was placed under arrest for a short time. The following year, she was again elected to the post of prime minister, but in 1984 she died at the hands of Sikh fanatics. The INC remained the dominant political party in India, except for brief periods in the late 1970s, and also in the late 1980s and into the mid-1990s. During these years, the Hindu nationalist party (Bharatiya Janata Party) strengthened its positions, showing a new political force that sought to lead the country; in 1996 she won the elections by a strong margin.
India has a long history of democracy, but that history has always been characterized by tensions between different ethnic and political forces, especially between Hindus and Muslims. Evidence of this is the distrust that exists to this day in relations between India and Pakistan.
Plan.
China at the present stage.
By the end of World War II, there actually existed two Chinas: the territories controlled by the Kuomintang and the liberated areas ruled by the CPC (1/4 of the country's territory). Despite the negotiations (August 1945 - January 1946), hostilities between them continued, which created the threat of an all-Chinese civil war. The decision to form a provisional coalition government (January 1946) could become the basis for the peaceful unification and democratization of China, however, they were thwarted by the leaders of the Kuomintang, who launched an offensive in Northeast China in the spring of 1946.
In the course of the civil war, the crisis of the Kuomintang regime deepened, its anti-national character manifested itself, and the discontent of the masses and the national bourgeoisie increased. The liberated areas were fortified. The agrarian reform of the CPC secured the support of the peasants, and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) grew and strengthened. These factors led to a turn in the course of the war in favor of the revolutionary forces. In the context of the military successes of the CPC in 1947-1948, the Central Committee of the party put forward the task of completing the people's democratic revolution, overthrowing the Kuomintang dictatorship and creating a democratic coalition government. The CPC supported the formation of a united people's democratic front from various classes.
As a result of three major battles in Northeast, North and East China (autumn 1948 - January 1949), the Kuomintang regime faced collapse. He lost over one and a half million soldiers and officers and vast territories. In April 1949, the PLA troops resumed their offensive, crossed the Yangtze River and liberated South and Southwest China. The proclamation of the People's Republic of China (October 1, 1949) was a victory for the people's democratic revolution. It created the prerequisites for strengthening the country's independence and completing the bourgeois-democratic reforms. The question of power was decided in favor of a united front led by the CPC.
Under the new conditions (1949-1957), there was an intensification of the struggle within the CCP over questions of the ways of the country's development after the seizure of power. The political position of Mao Zedong changed - he believed that the time had come for the implementation of the goals of the communist movement, for the implementation of what was essentially a communist barracks utopia. However, many party leaders (Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, Zhou Enlai, and others) spoke in favor of using the concept of "new democracy", designed to renew China over a rather long period of time.
At that time, the revolutionary forces were solving tasks: completing the defeat of the Kuomintang troops, establishing power in the southern and western regions and on the islands, fighting counter-revolutionary bands, and creating an apparatus for a new state power. By the middle of 1950, almost the entire territory of China had been liberated; in 1951, the PLA entered Tibet. The remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's troops fled to the island of Taiwan.
The restoration of the PRC's economy took place in line with market (albeit limited) processes, in the conditions of a multi-structural economy. Small-scale production prevailed, the property of the national bourgeoisie was preserved, and as a result of the nationalization of the property of big capital and the Japanese imperialists, the state sector was formed. The policy of the CPC was to simultaneously restore the economy, relying on the economic assistance of the USSR (the slogan "Learning from the USSR"), to strengthen the public sector, capable of ensuring the transition to the construction of socialism. Thus, by 1952, the restructuring of the structure of the economy began (the production of means of production accounted for 40%). The policy towards the national bourgeoisie was to use private capital to rebuild the economy and increase control over it. As a result of the agrarian reform (1950-1953), landlordism was abolished, the influence of the kulaks was undermined, and cooperation began to develop.
Successes in the restoration of the national economy were used by Mao to impose on the party his leftist, adventurist views on the accelerated modernization of China. In 1953, Mao spoke for the first time in favor of an immediate transition to a socialist revolution. His opponents continued to uphold the sustained general line for a long transition to socialism (1953-1967), gradually completing the transformation of agriculture, industry and trade.
Mao's ideological and political victory in the intra-Party struggle led to fundamental changes in the social and economic policy of the CPC, and above all in the agrarian sector: a grain monopoly and a rationing system were introduced. China has made a sharp turn to the path of command-administrative functioning of the national economy and has done so in the shortest possible time. In 1955, the CCP switched to village cooperatives, its pace was sharply intensified, and a transition was made to cooperatives of a higher type. The CPC persistently searched for ways of social and political control over the peasantry.
By the end of 1956, 96.3% of farms were involved in cooperatives (according to the plan - 33%), including 88% of the highest type. This major social event aroused the resistance of the peasants. In 1956, a complete transformation of industry and trade into state-capitalist ones was launched, and in fact, the nationalization of private enterprises for ransom was carried out. In retail trade, the share of private capital by the end of 1956 was only 3%. Thus, radical socio-economic changes took place throughout the country - private property was eliminated and market relations were sharply limited.
The implementation of reforms in the first half of the 1950s revealed such features in the policy of the CPC as the idea of the decisive role of political and ideological campaigns, military-administrative methods, the acceleration of the pace of reforms and the violation of gradualness, lack of experience and personnel, unpreparedness for governing a huge country, forced the nature of the measures, the lack of a technical basis for increasing productivity. A feature of the entire political development of the PRC was the ever-increasing implantation of the ideas and personality cult of Mao Zedong. A system of ideological control and political manipulation is taking shape in society, campaigns are being carried out to re-educate the intelligentsia, and ideas about the intensification of the class struggle are being imposed. Within the CPC, the clash of two ideological and political tendencies continued - the moderately pragmatic and the radical utopian.
Orientation towards friendship with the USSR became the main feature of China's foreign policy. In 1950, an agreement on friendship, alliance and mutual assistance was signed, an agreement on the gratuitous transfer of the rights of the USSR to manage the CER. The help of the USSR played a big role in the construction of a new state and in the restoration of the national economy.
At the end of the 1950s, the country became the arena of Mao's risky experiments for the accelerated development of socialist processes. The first of these was the "Great Leap Forward in Industry and Agriculture" (1958), during which Mao sought to oppose the new course of the CPSU (after the 20th Congress) with his own political line. Its essence is to get ahead of time and overtake the USSR in building a new life. Unable to create a developed economic base in the country in a short time, Mao decided to reduce the leap into the future to the reform of human relations, to the stimulation of labor enthusiasm in conditions of an egalitarian life, barracks forms of existence and with an extreme degree of officialization of life. The "people's communes" combined industry, Agriculture, trade, education and military affairs, socialized labor and the main means of production, all the property of the peasants, an equal distribution of income was introduced, the principle of material interest and distribution according to work was eliminated. The enthusiasm of the working people was fueled by the slogan "Three years of hard work - ten thousand years of happiness."
The results showed up quickly. Already at the end of 1956 and even more acutely in 1959, the country began to experience hunger. The labor activity of the peasants deprived of land and any property has decreased. Production was disorganized, not only in the countryside, but also in the city. The principle of planning in industry has been violated, disproportions have formed in the economy, equipment has been destroyed, and people's enthusiasm has been wasted.
There were also changes in the foreign policy course. The People's Republic of China claimed a special role in Asia and throughout the world. In 1959, incidents began on the Sino-Indian border, shelling of islands in the Taiwan Strait. The PRC abandoned its friendship with the USSR (in 1960, Soviet specialists were recalled), the slogan "self-reliance" began to be promoted, which meant the intention to cut off ties with the socialist countries, to oppose the policy of peaceful coexistence and the possibility of preventing a world war.
At the turn of the 1960s, another grouping of the CPC (“pragmatists”) managed to somewhat improve the situation in the country. But the conflict between Mao and her leaders (Peng Dehuai, Deng Xiaoping) did not stop. In the first half of the 60s, a struggle for the army unfolded, army methods of work were introduced everywhere.
By 1965, disagreements within the leadership of the CPC had become very acute. They concerned the methods, goals and prospects for the development of the PRC, its domestic and foreign policy. The conflict led to a new grandiose social experiment - to the "cultural revolution", under the banner of which a decade passed - the last in Mao's life (1966-1976). It was a struggle for elusive power. Its meaning was reduced to the desire to reckon with the party that interfered with him and questioned his actions, which led to the pogroms of party bodies, the apparatus of power and the entire intelligentsia by detachments of the Red Guards - the Red Guards ("Red Guards"). The latter sacredly believed in the leader deified by them and faithfully carried out his instructions. In the country, instead of democracy, a military-bureaucratic dictatorship was being established with reliance on the army, the Maoist "model of communism" was being affirmed, and the real threat of civil war was growing. The regime of Mao's personal and unlimited power was taking shape, and the traditions of "oriental despotism" were openly revived. The Cultural Revolution cost the country dearly and led the Chinese economy to a deep crisis.
China's internal development determined the nature of its foreign policy. From the 1960s to the beginning of the 1980s, tensions persisted in relations with the USSR, their struggle on a global scale. The number of incidents on the border grew (1967, 1969), claims were put forward for Soviet territory and the thesis about a “threat from the North”. The great-power, nationalist nature of China's policy was manifested. A serious conflict broke out with India (1962), tension arose on the Burmese border, and relations with Vietnam deteriorated sharply (1978). By the beginning of the 70s, the USSR was declared enemy No. 1, preparation for war became the main goal of economic construction. China went to rapprochement with the United States (1976), put forward the goal of creating a "broad international front" against the USSR.
Mao's experiments demonstrated that a Stalinist model was created in China with the rigid power of the classical Eastern type, with the restriction of individual rights and freedoms and the omnipotence of a bureaucratic administration based on powerful ideological pressure. This was facilitated by: the habit of the Chinese to respect a strong personality and a stable administration, habitually dismissive attitude towards merchants and owners, private traders, a high level of social discipline, and a willingness to honor the elders and the wise. An important role was played by the power and authority of the authorities, the style of internal party struggle in the CPC - the fear of a split in the party dictated a tendency to compromise, disagreements did not become open. However, this model did not give the desired results; on the contrary, it turned out to be destructive.
Mao's successors in 1976 - 1978 faced an acute problem: how to get out of the impasse? A sharp political and ideological struggle of factions unfolded in the party. The radical "four" supporters of the continuation of Mao's course were defeated and arrested. "Pragmatists" were strengthened in leadership positions. The failure of the economic activities of these years convinced them of the need for deep structural reforms for China. A powerful campaign began under the slogan - "practice is the only criterion of truth." The Plenum of the CCP Central Committee (December 1978) was a complete victory for Deng's supporters, he sanctioned the reforms.
In the early 1980s, the "pragmatists" went on the offensive: they achieved the condemnation of the "cultural revolution", began the rehabilitation of the victims, raised the question of Mao's personal responsibility, and began the process of de-Maoization of society. The new leadership of the CPC and the PRC approached pragmatically the task of turning China into a wealthy power, de-ideologized their policy and brought to the fore only the patriotic ideas of building a wealthy China. These profound political changes set the stage for the New Economic Policy.
The essence of the economic reforms was simple: the way was opened for the return of the interest of the worker in the fruits of his labor, for which the communes were liquidated, and the land was given to the peasants. Tens of thousands of markets have emerged, commerce is officially legalized. Since 1984, the reform has embraced the city: the role of the State Planning Commission and central regulation has been severely limited, and opportunities have been created for the development of the cooperative-collective and individual sectors. Directors of state-owned enterprises were given broad rights and opportunities. The reforms were radical and carried out quickly and decisively, the first three years (1979-1981) were declared the years of reconstruction, and the planned targets were removed. Appropriations for military needs have been drastically reduced, the army has been reduced, and the military industry has been made responsible for assisting in the restructuring of the economy. The powers of administrative bodies, including party committees, are significantly limited.
The results of the reforms were felt so quickly that it surprised the whole world. Food production increased sharply: by 1984 the country reached the level of 400 million tons of grain per year, which is quite enough to provide its population (1 billion 300 million) with the necessary minimum of food. The average living standard of the peasantry has grown 2-3 times. There were layers of wealthy peasants and townspeople working for the market. The industry turned its face to the domestic market. The general standard of people's behavior has also changed: they have become freer, personal tastes, preferences, changes in clothing (the uniform of Mao's time has disappeared), behavior, way of thinking, striving for the foundations of the rule of law have appeared.
But there were obstacles in the way of reforms. The party apparatus accustomed to power resisted. There were negative phenomena caused by the market economy (abuse of power, corruption, smuggling, inflation, social tension between the poor and the rich, especially in the countryside). However, against the backdrop of success and high average growth rates (since 1979, the economic growth amounted to 12-18% per year) they were officially recognized only as unfortunate development costs. The CPC congresses fully and unreservedly supported the reform course taken by Deng Xiaoping and largely successfully implemented thanks to his leadership. Ideologically, it was justified by the official recognition that China is a backward developing country and that it is too early to talk about the serious construction of socialism. So far, China is at the initial stage of building socialism, and socialism with Chinese characteristics. It was believed that the chosen development model with a significant inclusion of elements of a market economy corresponds to this. essential role privatized sector operating on the free market. By the end of the 1980s, reforms led the country to high achievements.
But the rapid pace of economic reform led to unexpected socio-political and ideological problems. In 1987, for the first time, they started talking about perestroika political system(introduced the principle of turnover and rejuvenation of leaders). A balanced attitude towards Mao is maintained, although his cult was first recognized and condemned in 1981. In an attempt to solve problems, the country's leadership at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s began to move backwards. The implementation of the reform meant the collapse of the Maoist regime. However, the communists could not actively support the process of formation of private capital. Since 1989, they have clearly seen the example of the USSR, which embarked on the path of structural adjustment and rapidly acquired a state of instability. In addition, they felt that any relaxation in the socio-political and ideological sphere would mean a course not only towards destabilization, but also the rapid collapse of the country. They did not forget about the responsibility that each of those involved in power after that would have to bear.
Thus, the authoritarian regime and command-administrative forms of control over the country had to leave the political scene for the sake of economic development along the market path. The unusual thing about China is that by the turn of the 1980s and 1990s the economic mechanism had unwinded, and the communist leaders associated with the old regime did not want to deepen democratic reforms. The result was the effect of an overheated boiler.
"Overheating of the economy" began to be felt from the mid-80s. At the end of the 1980s, the demands for democratization and the departure of the CPC leadership from power became louder, and influential persons in the leadership (CPC General Secretaries Hu Yaobang, Zhao Ziyang) listened to them. However, the General Secretaries of the CPC did not have all the power - the real power continued to remain in the hands of the architect of reforms, Deng Xiaoping, who had formally departed from it. Deng hesitated for a long time, because he understood that the demand for political reforms was reasonable and just. But he was also aware of something else - agreeing to radical political reforms (following the example of the USSR and Eastern Europe) would lead the regime to collapse with unpredictable consequences. The choice was made in favor of the lesser evil. The democratic movement of students, which spilled out into the streets and squares of Beijing in the summer of 1989, was crushed by tanks on Tiananmen Square. Students were sent to universities for ideological re-education. Again the communist reactionaries raised their heads. Democrats were reproached for being supporters of bourgeois liberalism, which was true (in the early 1990s, this term even became an ideological stigma). The defeat of the democratic movement for a long time removed the question of carrying out political reforms and democratization of the political structure.
After 1989, the economy continued to develop, albeit at a more restrained pace. The demand for the preservation and improvement of "socialism with Chinese characteristics" was affirmed. After the collapse of the USSR, the communist leaders congratulated each other on the choice of 1989. Today, there are two groups in the CPC on the implementation of this concept - radicals (supporters of spasmodic development) and conservatives (evolutionary path). In fact, the Chinese concept
it is a common path for the entire developing world. Emphasizing your specificity is camouflage in order to buy time and prevent a social explosion. China is following the path of bourgeois liberalism, but the leadership, on which this primarily depends, wants this to happen as slowly and smoothly as possible. To accelerate the pace, a generation of veterans of wars and revolutions needs to leave.
In the 1990s, after the first successes of the "settlement" policy (1989-1991), the following directions of economic reform were outlined: the restructuring of state enterprises, the introduction of joint stock ownership, price reform, the privatization of housing, and the creation of a social security system. The CPC congresses (1992, 1997) carried out a decisive turn towards the market, for which all ideological barriers were removed (the task of creating a "socialist market economy" was approved instead of the controversial term "planned commodity economy"). In 1999, the Constitution was amended to recognize the important role of the private sector in China's socialist market economy. The 1990s were seen as an opportunity for a breakthrough. The expansion of the policy of openness to the outside world (free and specialized, border open zones, development and free trade zones) is emphasized. In the 1980s and 1990s, China became one of the most important pillars of the economic structure of East Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, an important producer of finished products for the markets of industrial and developing countries. The country came out on top in the world in the production of cereals, meat, cotton, coal, cement, cotton fabrics. Electronics, mechanical engineering, production of electricity, oil and chemical products are successfully developing. Exports increase by 25% annually. Particular emphasis is placed on the development of infrastructure. Having crossed the line of centuries, China has confidently entered a new stage of modernization - GDP amounted to 8.3% (2000), the average per capita income of citizens was $760, peasants - $273. with the requirements of the market and the reform of public sector enterprises.
In domestic politics, the parliamentary multi-party system and the existence of independent political parties claiming the role of political opposition, political pluralism are rejected, the leading role of public property is preserved, the concept of continuing the class struggle in some areas of society. The CCP did not go back to the 1987 decision to hold political reform. She spoke only in favor of reforming the administrative apparatus and adapting the political system to the needs of economic development. The authority of the authorities is high, and it is no coincidence that the reforms are taking place here without too radical complications. Social tension is removed with the help of ideology. It is evolving today towards patriotism. Therefore, reforms are not accompanied by a crisis, but by stabilization and even prosperity. But the logic of modern economic development requires the inevitable reform of the political system, the development of elements of civil society that are increasingly incompatible with the totalitarian political mechanism.
In the 1990s, power passed to a third generation of leaders - mostly civilians (Jiang Zemin - General Secretary of the CCP and head of state, Deng's "heir" after his death in February 1997). Now the leadership of the CCP is all pragmatists who advocate reform. They are separated only by questions - for whom are the reforms and at what pace? Political reforms rely on stability and continuity in politics, smoothing out sharp corners, and ideological control in culture. The problems remain freedom of speech, human rights and the exercise of political freedoms, corruption in the highest echelons of power and the state apparatus, its reduction, hidden and open unemployment (4%), and the growth of social differentiation. Since 1995, the problem of reforming state-owned enterprises has become more acute (the share of unprofitable enterprises in the state sector has grown to 40-50%, while it accounts for 40% in the economy).
In the early 1980s, there was talk in China of a peaceful international environment, which was required for the implementation of economic reforms. In the 1980s and 1990s, China was guided by the principle: “There are no permanent friends or permanent enemies, but only permanent interests!” They began to assess Soviet foreign policy more calmly, demonstrate commonality with developing countries, and intensified criticism of US policy in the world. The struggle against any hegemonism was declared the main goal, a course was taken to develop relations with the maximum possible number of states, there were statements that world war can and should be prevented. Since the mid-1980s, China has proclaimed peace and development in a multipolar world as its goal, put forward the principle of de-ideologization and the concept of an independent foreign policy. Since 1988, Soviet-Chinese relations have been completely normalized, they began to balance with the United States, Western Europe regarded as a new source of advanced technology and finance. In the first half of the 1990s, the activity of Chinese diplomacy increased: relations with India, Vietnam, Cuba were normalized, they have a “special character” with Japan and South Korea, and contacts with Israel and South Africa expanded. Since 1991, China has acceded to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. On the whole, the success of Chinese diplomacy has given rise to calling our century "the century of Chinese diplomacy."
Relations with the USSR and Russia are based on universal principles: respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-aggression and non-intervention, equality and mutual benefit. The settlement of the border issue has been completed, a zone of confidence has been created with the states of Central Asia, and a joint declaration on strategic partnership in the 21st century has been adopted. (spring 1997). Trade turnover with Russia is planned to be quadrupled by 2010. In 1992, diplomatic relations were established with the Republic of Belarus, which served as the basis for trade and economic cooperation. In 1997, the unification of Hong Kong with China according to the formula "one state - two systems" was completed, and a high degree of interdependence of the two economies was achieved. In 1999, Macau (Aomyn) returned to China. Tensions remain with Taiwan due to differing approaches to reunification.
Tasks for the topic:
1. Name the years of the civil war in China after World War II, the main political forces. What are its results?
2. What options for the development of China existed after the end of civil war?
3. What role did Mao Zedong's victory in the internal political struggle play in China's development? (economic, political and foreign policy spheres).
4. Expand the concept of "policy of the great leap" (when, essence, results).
5. Expand the concept of "cultural revolution" (years, essence, results).
6. How did China's relations with the USSR change in the late 1950s? What is it connected with? Describe Soviet-Chinese relations in the 60-80s?
7. The results of the reign of Mao Zedong in China (by spheres).
8. What are the ways to overcome the consequences of the policy of M. Zedong?
9. Make a thesis plan "The development of China in the 1990-2000s."
Topic 15: "India in the second half of the 20th century."
