Modern History - National Movement

India's political news after World War I was driven largely by Gandhi, whom the poet Rabindranath Tagore had christened "Mahatma," the Great One. Since leaving South Africa, Gandhi had become, through his various campaigns for swaraj, or self-rule—independence from Britain—a household name in India. Gujaratis took inordinate pride in seei

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World War II left the British exhausted, and that, coupled with the rise of nationalism in India, a strong desire for self-rule, and an effective, nonviolent resistance movement led by Mahatma Gandhi, spelled the end of the colonial period. As was often the case elsewhere when the colonial period came to an end, violence ensued. Many of India’s Mus

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The idea of a general amnesty eventually became official policy, and was proclaimed in Queen Victoria’s name on 1 November 1858. At the same time, in the Act for the Better Government of India, the British Crown finally assumed all governmental responsibilities held by the East India Company, and its 24,000-man military force was incorporated into

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