Indian Independence

It took some time to start growing the sentiment of nationalism in Indian
people although the Indian national congress was formed in1885. Mid of the 19th
century saw the growing awareness about the nationalism and the unrest towards
British rule started growing more and more afterwards. Although it has been a
moderate start for the congress, it became more and more determined as the time
passed on. The other factor that pushed it further was the lethargic stance of
the British governance towards India.

The British government did not even fulfil the most reasonable demands put
forward by the Indian National Congress. Indian freedom fighters and common
people were agitated and became restless due to the approach of the British
rulers towards India. This resulted in increased number of attacks on the
British Rule.

By the mid of Nineteen Century, Indian National Congress grew more and more
sceptic of the British government. Many members of the Indian National Congress
were known to be extremists. This propensity of the congress members produced a
lot of negativity regarding British rule over India. Some of the early members
of Indian National Congress had a lot of indifferences among themselves and the
partys moderate policies. This led to more and more assaults on the British Empire.

However, the attitude of the British governance remained the same. They did not
make any changes in their approach at all. To take care of this problem British
government played a game. They came up with the idea of Divide and rule. The
British government succeeded in dividing the National Movement that led to the
birth of another significant party. The formation of Muslim League was the
result of British strategy to weaken the freedom movement. British succeeded in
this and tried to push Indian National Congress to the corner regarding their
demands by isolating them. However, in 1916, the Muslim league and the Congress
were able to unite themselves but this ceasefire lived for a short time. As the
time passed, the freedom movement became more aggressive. This occurred during
1920s. Mahatma Gandhi took charge of the Indian National Congress and initiated
large scale agitation against the British Rule.

During 1920 and 1922 AD Mahatma Gandhi launched the Non-cooperation movement
against the British Empire. This was the first national movement against the
British Empire. There was some quiet period after that. However, again he
launched Civil disobedience Movement. There were many other individuals and
organisations thatfought for the independence of India but the congress were considered in the
front of freedom struggle. The fight for an independent nation sustained in the
1930s but the real thrust for freedom was witnessed with the beginning of World
War II.

During the Second World War, National Congress gave their full cooperation to
British Empire to fight the war. The reason they helped British Empire fight
the war was because they felt that British will leave India after the war is
over. But the actual intent of British were soon realised. They were in no mood
to leave India. It was then that under the guidance of Mahatma Gandhi the
National Congress started preparing for the Quit India Movement in 1942. After the world war two ended the British started thinking
that now it was impossible for them to continue their rule in India.

At the same time, the Muslim League had been determined with a demand of
separate state for Muslims. They named it Pakistan. They had this feeling that
after India becomes an independent Nation, it will be under the control of
Hindus and interests of Muslims will not be safeguarded. Muslim League under
Mohammed Ali Jinnah won thirty seats in Assembly in the winters of 1945-1946.

Muslims were afraid and they felt that congress had no desire to share power
with the Muslim League at the centre. Jinnah declared august 16, 1946 as a
Direct Action Day and that led to communal rioting and massacre in different
parts if India. Thousands of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs lost their lives it
spread like civil war. On June 3, 1947, Viscount Louis Mountbatten who was the
viceroy announced a partition of the British Indian Empire into Pakistan and
India. This step was taken because of the possible civil war that took too many
lives. However Gandhi was not happy with this idea. Reluctantly, he gave in to the mounting pressure.

In July 1947, Indian Independence Act was passed by Britains Parliament. So 14 August and 15 August were set to divide the United India
into India and Pakistan.