Indian Independence Movement

Between 1885 and 1947 the Indian independence movement ended British rule through mass nonviolent struggle, while partition divided the subcontinent into India and Pakistan.

Overview

The Indian National Congress, founded in 1885, evolved from elite petitioning into a mass movement. Gandhi return in 1915 introduced satyagraha, nonviolent resistance, tested at Champaran and Kheda and then in the 1919 to 1922 noncooperation movement. The 1930 Salt March to Dandi broke the salt law before world newsreels, and the 1942 Quit India campaign filled the prisons. British exhaustion after the Second World War, naval mutinies, and the bargaining strength of the Muslim League brought transfer of power on 15 August 1947. Partition displaced over ten million people and killed hundreds of thousands to a million or more. The movement became the global template of peaceful decolonization.