The Indian Independence movement began in 1857 to remove Britain from India and to divide the country for religious separation, India being primarily composed of Hindu peoples and Pakistan being primarily composed of Muslim peoples.
The Indian National Congress, formed in 1885, pushed for more civil services and land ownership rights in pre-independent India. From 1920 onwards Mahatma Gandhi was the leader of the Indian independence movement. His methods for political revolution through nonviolence and civil rights inspired a generation of activism.
In 1942 the Quit India bill was passed in the Indian National Congress, but during this time Britain was leading the Allies against the Nazis in WWII so they promised India freedom if they could use Indian troops during the war. Though Britain was hesitant to follow through with their promise they were weakened after the war and could not contain India any longer.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the leader of the Muslim League at this time and argued that Muslims should have their own state. This prompted the Mountbattan plan which dIvided British India by religion. The problem with the Mountbattan plan was that there were millions of Hindus and Sikhs living in Muslim majority Pakistan and millions of Muslims living in Hindu majority India. The Radcliffe Line was proposed on August 9th of 1947 by Sir Cyril Radcliffe. This line divided the country bases on district majority. The Radcliffe line was put into effect 5 days after his proposal was submitted.
King George VI remained head of India until 1950 when their Constitution was finished. He remained head of Pakistan as well until 1956 for the same reason. In the months following the enactment of the Radcliffe Line 15 million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, fearing discrimination from each other, migrated from Pakistan to India and vise versa. This transition inevitable cost millions of lives. Train cars overflowing with people arrived in the twin cities of Lahore and Amritsar in the province of Punjab, up to 1 million people did not survive the journey. The people that did survive the migration were put into camps in the cities, which were already experiencing looting, food shortages, and intense violence. 10S of thousand hid behind the walls of Humayans Tomb waiting for safe passage into Pakistan. Houses were burnt to the ground, as well as rampant rape and murder throughout the new countries. The hasty, poorly planned partition killed hundreds of thousands.
India and Pakistan have fought 3 wars with each other, two of which were over the Muslim majority province of Kashmir. Initially, because Kashmir was not declared to either country, the Muslim majority in Kashmir rose up against the Indian Maharaja. In response, Pakistani tribesmen raided the province in an attempt to keep order which prompted India to march troops into Kashmir. In this battle of territory, hundreds of thousands of Muslims were slaughtered by Hindu mobs whiles others were able to flee to Pakistan. Kashmir was eventually divided between the nations by the Line of Control (LoC), which remains a tense and dangerous place to this day.
The Indian National Congress, formed in 1885, pushed for more civil services and land ownership rights in pre-independent India. From 1920 onwards Mahatma Gandhi was the leader of the Indian independence movement. His methods for political revolution through nonviolence and civil rights inspired a generation of activism.
In 1942 the Quit India bill was passed in the Indian National Congress, but during this time Britain was leading the Allies against the Nazis in WWII so they promised India freedom if they could use Indian troops during the war. Though Britain was hesitant to follow through with their promise they were weakened after the war and could not contain India any longer.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the leader of the Muslim League at this time and argued that Muslims should have their own state. This prompted the Mountbattan plan which dIvided British India by religion. The problem with the Mountbattan plan was that there were millions of Hindus and Sikhs living in Muslim majority Pakistan and millions of Muslims living in Hindu majority India. The Radcliffe Line was proposed on August 9th of 1947 by Sir Cyril Radcliffe. This line divided the country bases on district majority. The Radcliffe line was put into effect 5 days after his proposal was submitted.
King George VI remained head of India until 1950 when their Constitution was finished. He remained head of Pakistan as well until 1956 for the same reason. In the months following the enactment of the Radcliffe Line 15 million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, fearing discrimination from each other, migrated from Pakistan to India and vise versa. This transition inevitable cost millions of lives. Train cars overflowing with people arrived in the twin cities of Lahore and Amritsar in the province of Punjab, up to 1 million people did not survive the journey. The people that did survive the migration were put into camps in the cities, which were already experiencing looting, food shortages, and intense violence. 10S of thousand hid behind the walls of Humayans Tomb waiting for safe passage into Pakistan. Houses were burnt to the ground, as well as rampant rape and murder throughout the new countries. The hasty, poorly planned partition killed hundreds of thousands.
India and Pakistan have fought 3 wars with each other, two of which were over the Muslim majority province of Kashmir. Initially, because Kashmir was not declared to either country, the Muslim majority in Kashmir rose up against the Indian Maharaja. In response, Pakistani tribesmen raided the province in an attempt to keep order which prompted India to march troops into Kashmir. In this battle of territory, hundreds of thousands of Muslims were slaughtered by Hindu mobs whiles others were able to flee to Pakistan. Kashmir was eventually divided between the nations by the Line of Control (LoC), which remains a tense and dangerous place to this day.