1. India’s
Independence
Nationalism & Gandhi

2. Standards
SS7H3 The student will analyze continuity and change in Southern and Eastern Asia leading to the 21st century.
a. Describe how nationalism led to independence in India and Vietnam.
b. Describe the impact of Mohandas Gandhi’s belief in non-violent protest.

4. East India Trading Co.
In the 1601, Great Britain came to India through the East India Trading Company to set up trading forts.
At first, they were only looking to trade goods (ivory, gold, silks, dyes) and spices (cinnamon, saffron, pepper, sugar, vanilla).
By 1760, Britain had gained political and economic power over India.

5. Sir James Lancaster commanded the first East India voyage in 1601.

6. Inequality
Indians began to resent being ruled by a foreign government.
They were treated as second-class citizens.
The best jobs and education were only available to the British.
Indians were also taxed heavily by the British on goods that were found in their own country.

7. Nationalism
In the 1800s, a feeling of nationalism began to surface in India.
Nationalism is a belief that people should be loyal to those with whom they share common history and customs.
The first two groups to work for the rights of Indians were the Indian National Congress in 1885 and the Muslim League in 1906.
As they became better organized, they began to call for independence from Britain.

8. WWI’s Impact
During WWI, millions of Indians joined with the British army.
The British Parliament promised that when the war ended, Indians would be able to have more control of their government.
Unfortunately, nothing changed after the war…

9. Indian Medic Troops During WWI

10. Amritsar Many Indians were upset with the British false promises.
Those who protested were arrested and sent to jail for up to two years without a trial.
In 1919, outside of the Temple of Amritsar, British soldiers starting shooting a large group of Indians because they were gathering illegally.
During this terrible tragedy, over 400 people were killed and 1200 were injured.
It was this awful massacre that spurred Mohandas Gandhi into action to fight for India’s independence.

11. Jallianwala Memorial – Amritsar

12. Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in India on October 2nd, 1869 and studied law in England.
After spending time in South Africa during Apartheid, he returned to India in 1914 with a determination that people should be treated equally, no matter their race or religion.
He was shocked by the way Indians were segregated and oppressed by British authorities.
After Amritsar, Gandhi decided to quit practicing law and to devote his life to fighting for the equality of all Indians.
He believed it was time for the people of India to stop obeying the unjust British laws.

13. 1909
Late 1930s

14. Nonviolence
Gandhi encouraged his followers to practice nonviolent protests against the British in order to bring about social change.
He developed what he called a system of civil disobedience and believed that it would make the world recognize the injustice in India and force change without using violence.
Gandhi believed that acts of goodness produced positive reactions while violence only produced negative ones.

15. Gandhi’s Handwriting –
“God is truth the way to truth lies through Ahimsa (non-violence). Sabarmati,
March ”
M K Gandhi

16. Gandhi with textile workers in 1931.

17. Social Change
Gandhi led his followers in boycotts, hunger strikes, and nonviolent protests.
In 1930, when he led a march that was aimed at closing a British salt factory, the guards responded by clubbing and beating the peaceful protestors.
News of this event spread worldwide and people around the world began to call for the British to grant Indian independence.

18. Gandhi during the Salt March, 1930.

19. Independence
Many Indians followed Gandhi’s nonviolent acts of protest and forced the British to recognize their desire for independence.
After fighting in WWII, Britain no longer had enough money or people to keep India under its rule.
On August 15, 1947, Great Britain formally gave up their colonial claims to India and the Republic of India was established.
Today, many Indians credit India’s independence to the efforts of Gandhi.

20. India’s Independence Day

21. More Problems
Even though India had won its independence, things were not peaceful in the country.
Hindus and Muslims could not reach a solution as to how to rule an independent India.
Eventually, the country was split into India for the Hindus and East & West Pakistan for the Muslims.
The partition of India led to genocide.
Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in widespread violence.

23. Two Muslim men carrying an old woman to their new home in Pakistan.

24. Time Magazine cover representing the partition of India – 1947.

25. Gandhi
Gandhi was very much disappointed by the partition; he wanted all Indians to live together peacefully in one country.
Even though he was Hindu, he felt that all religious groups should be welcomed in India.
In 1948, at the age of 78, Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated on his way to a prayer meeting in New Delhi.
He was shot three times by a high-ranking Brahmin who resented Gandhi’s concern for Muslims.

26. Memorial where Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated at 5:17 PM on January 30, 1948 on his way to a prayer meeting.
Gandhi BrainPOP

28. Vietnam’s
Independence

29. Standards
SS7H3 The student will analyze continuity and change in Southern and Eastern Asia leading to the 21st century.
a. Describe how nationalism led to independence in India and Vietnam.

31. Background
Vietnam was ruled by China for a thousand years before it won its independence in 939 CE.
For many years, the country thrived and was one of the most advanced cultures in Asia.
However, by the 1900s, it would become another Southeastern Asian country controlled by a European power.

33. French Control
France laid claim to the land area known as Indochina (now Vietnam) in the 1900s.
The French wanted control of this land because of its seaports and abundance of natural resources.

34. Nationalism
The people who lived in Indochina had worked hard for generations to maintain independence from China.
They resented being treated like second-class citizens in their own country by the French.
Soon, nationalism was on the rise and it was directed at the French colony leaders.

35. Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh was a young man who began to fight for independence from the French.
He believed that the Communist Party was the way to go because they often spoke against European colonial powers.
In the 1930s, he organized the Indochinese Communist Party and staged protests against the French.
The French rulers arrested many of the members, and Minh had to flee the country to escape the death penalty.

36. Ho Chi Minh – Indochinese Delegate to French Communist Congress in 1921

37. Vietminh
On September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam’s independence from France.
He created the Vietminh League, a guerrilla army, to fight against the French.
The Vietminh received assistance from China and the Soviet Union.
For 8 years, the Vietminh fought the French without much success until 1954 when they defeated a French military camp at Dien Bien Phu.
After this Vietminh victory, the French finally decided to surrender control of the country to Ho Chi Minh.

38. Ho Chi Minh with Vietminh in 1950

39. Vie
Vietnamese soldiers resting between advances in a trench at Dien Bien Phu – 1954.

40. Vietminh troops celebrating after French surrender.

41. French troops leaving (in jeep) as Vietminh (back left) take over Hanoi.

42. 17th Parallel
The two sides went to Geneva, Switzerland for a conference to end French involvement in Vietnam.
The US also attended and was alarmed at the idea of Minh & the Communist Party ruling Vietnam.
The US used its influence to have the country split into two parts (at the 17th Parallel), with Minh in control of the northern region and the US in charge of the southern region.
The plan was to keep Vietnam split until the country was stabilized, and then to let the people vote on what kind of government they wanted to country to have.

43. Division of Vietnam after Geneva Conference

44. “Up to a million refugees left communist North Vietnam during Operation Passage to Freedom after the country was partitioned.”

45. Vietnam War
Although he had control over the north, Ho Chi Minh was not satisfied and continued to fight for full Vietnamese unification.
He created another guerrilla army, the Viet Cong, to fight against anti-communist forces in South Vietnam.
In 1965, the US went to war with North Vietnam to protect the South and to prevent the spread of communism.
Over 500,000 US troops fought in Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Cong fought against American forces for almost a decade.

46. “If we have to fight, we shall fight
“If we have to fight, we shall fight. You will kill ten of our men, and we will kill one of yours, and in the end it will be you who will tire of it.”
~Ho Chi Minh

47. Uniting Vietnam
After many years of fighting and the loss of thousands of lives on both sides, the US decided to withdraw its forces from Vietnam in 1973.
The conflict ended in a cease-fire agreement.
The last US helicopter left the American Embassy in Vietnam in April 1975.
The next day, the North Vietnamese army took over the country and unified it as the Republic of Vietnam.
Even though Ho Chi Minh died in 1969, his dream of an independent Vietnam finally became a reality.

48. A CIA employee helps Vietnamese evacuees onto an Air America helicopter.

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