History of the Indian Freedom Struggle|By Blaze
Throughout our lives we are exposed to a seemingly endless amount of injustices in the world. We can’t choose what these injustices are but we can choose how we react to them. A great example of how people react to injustices in a positive way is the Indian Freedom Struggle. In this social movement, Indian people were experiencing many injustices brought to them by the British government. The Indian Freedom Struggle was a result of many years spent under British rule which forced the Indian people into economic, social, and political conditions that were equally terrible as they were unjust to the Indian people.
The Indian people were exposed to unjust and unfair political conditions while under the British Rule. To understand how the British affected India’s politics one must first understand how India was before British control. India was separated into many states, each being different from the next. Each state had its own language and its own unique aspects of their culture. Some of these states didn’t get along and often fought. The British used this information to aid them in gaining control over India by offering protection from enemy states in return for the British to be involved with their government. They then forced the state to replace their army with British troops. From that point forward the British would practically have complete control over that state. Then to ensure that they maintain control, they would make the state surrender their right to make alliances with foreign states as a way to keep them from making any attempts to rebel. Using these methods, by the 19th century there were no Indian powers strong enough to even challenge to the British. On top of that, the British also denied Indians political rights and the British officers treated them as if they did not belong in their own country. Indians were not allowed high rankings within the government or military. The courts of law were also made to be extremely expensive so the people represented in the courts would not represent the majority of India. The British were able to do all of this by bringing a new system of law and justice to India. One that they would use to manage India’s affairs. The Indian people experienced all of these unjust conditions as a result of the British having political control over India and its people.
After the British gained control of India, they forced the Indian people into unjust economic conditions by commercializing India. Around this time there was something big happening back in England, the Industrial Revolution.This revolution was essentially the reason that the British went to India in the first place. They basically saw India as a source of raw materials and not as its own country under the proper control of its inhabitants. These raw materials were important to the British because it meant that they would be able to manufacture more goods and make more money. The British ended up controlling India’s trade by establishing something called the East India Company. This company paved the road for England to extend their power and control into India by assisting with financing the government. The East India Company not only allowed England to increase its power, it also eliminated the rival european powers who wanted to benefit from India. The East India Company monopolized trade with India by doing so.
Racism played a part in the British’s treatment of the Indians. It was known that the British thought that they were better than the Indian natives because of their so called “inferior” skin color. They treated them like they were less than human and were also treated as if they were slaves, and they essentially were slaves to the British since no one wanted to defend their rights. The British used this and other social differences as methods to increase their power over the Indian people. This was able to happen because of something called the caste system. This system is thousands of years old and was originally used to divide people based on their skill set or experience into four categories. The highest ranking of all of them were the priests and the professors. Then the businessmen and following them, the soldiers. Finally the people in the lowest caste were known as the untouchables. They were the poorest and had the worst jobs, like cleaning toilets and other jobs that do not require much skill.. Those people were called the untouchables because they basically had no rights at all and were completely separated from the others, geographically and socially. They also did not receive any real form of education. Then religion got more involved with the system, the result being that if you were apart of the more popular religion, hinduism, then you are probably also in one of the higher castes. Religion also created sub categories within the castes based on religion. This just made each caste more separate from each other. This system is designed to be self sufficient in the sense that one is forced to identify in a caste their entire life. One social rule that helped this happen is that Indians were not allowed to marry outside their caste. This kept people from different castes from mixing and starting families. Another thing that kept this system self sufficient is that it is way easier to get a job that is designed for people in your cast. People basically kept doing what they already have been doing for years because it was the easiest thing to do that allowed them to survive. The caste system along with general racism from the British played a part in the social takeover of India by England.
Without leaders to inspire change in India, the Indian Freedom Struggle might have never happened in the first place. The most well known leader from the Indian freedom struggle, and possibly the world, is Mahatma Gandhi. He is very well known for his nonviolent behavior and beliefs during the Indian Freedom Struggle. Gandhi was against verbal and physical harm because he believed that the good effects that comes from it are only temporary, but the bad effects that it causes are permanent. Gandhi was raised in a decent family and went to law school to later become a lawyer in England. Before Gandhi made his decision to return to India to help his people break free from British injustices, he was already “fighting” for civil rights for Indians in South Africa. This really shows that Gandhi was truly committed to the freedom struggle of his people. Gandhi participated in many significant events during the Indian Freedom Struggle, but one of the most significant was the Salt March that took place in 1930. It was a 240 mile march that took place over 24 days and was led by Gandhi. This event happened as a result of the British putting unjust taxes on salt. Indians during that time needed to consume a lot of salt to replace what was lost when they sweat from working each day. The British also made it illegal for Indians to produce their own salt in any way. As a result, Gandhi and 78 others set out on a march to the ocean with a plan to make his own salt from the sea as a protest to the government. Along the way he was greeted and joined by thousands of supporters at many towns and villages. Many reporters and journalists joined him in the march in order to get a story and spread the word. When they finally reached the coast there were over 50,000 people gathered. The next morning he produced illegal salt and many others joined him in doing so. This strategy did not succeed based on the fact that the British did not change their taxes, however it did succeed in drawing attention from other countries and possible supporters. Gandhi is also well known for having been very wise and is often quoted as a result. One of his quotes that is very fitting with his actions, especially the Salt March was, “Whatever you will do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” This means that no matter what you do the actions of a single person alone are not going to be very effective. Power comes from numbers. On the contrary, if you do nothing at all, you would be taking away from the collective power that comes from many people. This was how Gandhi was able to set the Indian Freedom Struggle in motion and better the lives of thousands of people.
The Indian Freedom Struggle would not have happened without the support of the Indian people who stood up against the British. This was necessary for the Indians to achieve the freedom and social justice that they deserved from the oppressing conditions that were established by the British. It is important to know the history of the Indian Freedom Struggle because from studying the movement we are able to recognize when people are in a similar situation in the modern world. Without that knowledge we might still be making the same mistakes now as we were making a long time ago. We, as a community of people from all parts of the world, need to learn from our history in order to evolve and better ourselves as a whole. Doing that will leave a greater impact on the world than any specific event because by learning and changing from the past we are also changing our future.