India Overview

A Supplement to Gandhi

Part 1: Introduction to India

Demographics

• Over 500,000 villages• Over 2000 cities

India• 80% Hindu, 13% Muslim• Today: 1.13 billion people

Pakistan • 90% Muslim, 2% Hindu • Today: 168 million people

1920: 300 million

Caste System

• Hindu society was divided into major castes or classes

• People are born into a caste and upward mobility is next to impossible – people only married within their caste

• Caste determined job within community

• Connected to Hindu belief of reincarnation – live well and follow rules, then you will be reborn into a higher caste

Major Hindu Castes

• Brahmins – Priests and scholars

• Kshatriyas – Warriors

• Baishyas – Farmers and merchants

• Shudras – Laborers and serfs

• Untouchables – People who were below the caste system and completed the most undesirable of jobs

British East India Company

• Became leading commercial power by 1757

• Exploited Indian indigo, cotton, and tea

• Ruled India, politically and economically (called raj or "rule")

British East India Company

• Made alliances with different tribes and ethnic groups, employed sepoys (Indian soldiers)

• Considered the "jewel in the crown" of the British Empire

Direct Control

• 1857 Sepoy Rebellion takes place

• Started with misunderstanding that new bullets had animal grease on them (sacred to Hindus and unclean to Muslims)

• British government saw uprising as a sign that Indians could cause more problems in the future and took direct control of government

Domination

• English and Western ideas promoted as elite – including education and dress

• Restricted domestic industries, forced Indians to purchase British goods

Part 2: Indian National Congress

Indian National Congress

• 1885 – Met for the first time to bring more Indians into the British controlled government

• Over then next thirty years they began to push for home rule and then independence

Indian National Congress

• Party members generally were English educated and did not represent the 350 million Indians who mostly worked in the fields of rural India

• Many did not separate the Congress members in their minds from the British because they advocated similar ideas (i.e. industrialization), but under Indian rule

Part 3: Hindu / Muslim Tensions

Map of the Muslim World c.A.D.900

Map of the Muslim World c.A.D. 1100

Map of the Muslim World c.A.D. 1500

Muslim Conquests

• 711 CE – Muslim invaders take Lower Sind

• 1200 CE - Delhi Sultanate in Northern India

• 1500 CE – Mughal Empire established

• 1750 CE – British East India Company begins control

Ongoing Conflict

• Muslim invasions were bloody conflicts

• Hindu temples razed, Mosques built in place

• Violent uprisings by Hindus throughout Muslim rule

• British used differences to help maintain control

• Bitterness between the two lead to great violence during the independence process