Maurya empire (1st empire 324-185 BC)
 Emperor Asoka expanded his empire across the sub- continent. He was horrified at the
death he saw. He then vowed it would be his last war- converted to Buddhism and
promoted peace.
 Principals for a just government and how to live a morale life were carved in stone
across empire. He urged people to learn about other religions to learn tolerance for
others. He encouraged loyalty, self control, kindness, etc.
 After empire ended, empires were Hindu, Buddhist migrated north and east to China,
Bhutan, Nepal, and SE Asia.
Mughal Empire
 The Mughal Empire grew out of descendants of the Mongol Empire who were living in
Turkistan in the 15thcentury. They had become Muslims and adopted the culture of the
Middle East, while keeping elements of their Far Eastern roots.
 The Mughal Empire ruled most of India and Pakistan in the 1500s-1600’s
 The Mughals brought many changes to India, two of which were:
1. centralizing government to bring many smaller kingdoms together
2. a style of architecture that was very intricate and extravagant (Taj Mahal). The Taj
Mahal marks the peak of the Mughal Empire, it symbolizes stability, power and
confidence.
Muslim and Hindu Relationships During Mughal Empire
 In the beginning……
o Muslim government included many Hindus in positions of responsibility - the
governed were allowed to take a major part in the governing. People were happy!
o Policy of religious toleration—even further by breaking away from traditional
Islam, creating a new religion, Sikhism.
 Towards the end of the Mughal Empire……
o religious tolerance was outlawed and Hindu community had to live under Islamic
law.
o Hindu temples and shrines were destroyed and restored the punishing tax for not
being Muslim. (Minority ruling the majority=HINDUS OPPRESSION)
o Purdah requirement for women
End of the Mughals
 The Hindu fought back against the Mughals (Muslims), supported by the French and
British, who used helping the Hindu as an excuse to take over land. (Beginnings of
Colonialism. Sound familiar?)
 In the decades that followed, Europeans and European-backed Hindu princes conquered
most of the Mughal territory.
 The last Mughal Emperor was deposed by the British in 1858.
 The power of the British spread across India and by the 1850’s, almost the entire
country was under its total control.
British in India
 The East India Company continued its business affairs and India came to be known as
“The Jewel in the Crown”. Sri Lanka and the Maldives also became colonies. Nepal and
Bhutan remained independent because of Himalayan/ isolation.
 The British army, missionaries, and merchants brought technology, railroads, telegraphs,
steamships, new ways of farming. Established British laws, and English as official
language.
 Some Indians continued to live as they had, some hated British customs and laws, some
adopted British lifestyle.
The Sepoy Rebellion
 There was a rumor that gun cartridges issued in the army were greased with beef and
pork fat: offensive to both Muslims and Hindu. Sparked revolt!
 Indian soldiers took over a British fort and killed 200 women and children. However, the
Sepoy Rebellion “strengthened the British hold on India.”
 In 1858, India (and the East India Company) officially handed power over to the British
crown giving Queen Victoria a new state and title, the Queen-Empress.
Battle for Independence
 In the decades following the Sepoy Rebellion and the transfer of power to Queen
Victoria, nationalism began to grow very rapidly, and there was a boycott of British
goods. (British Salt boycott)
 Gandhi used nonviolence to fight British. He wanted all Indians to be treated equally.
 World War I did not help the British in gaining back Indian support, and in 1919
Mohandas Gandhi gained control of the Congress.
Ghandi
 Mohandas K. Gandhi was born in 1869. In South Asia he worked endlessly to improve
the rights of the immigrant Indians. It was there that he developed his philosophy of
peaceful protest against injustice and was frequently jailed as a result of the protests
that he led.
 When fellow Muslim and Hindu countrymen committed acts of violence, whether
against the British who ruled India, or against each other, he fasted until the fighting
stopped. Independence in 1947 was not a military victory but a triumph of human will.
To Gandhi's disappointment, however, the country was split into Hindu India and
Muslim Pakistan.
Ghandi Assassination
 The last two months of his life were spent trying to end the horrible violence between
Muslims and Hindu which followed, leading him to fast to the brink of death which
finally ended the riots. In January 1948, at the age of 79, he was killed by a Hindu
assassin as he walked through a crowded garden in New Delhi to take evening prayers.
What other leaders have we talked about who remind you of Gandhi?
 Both MLK and Mandela adopted Gandhi policy of “Satyagraha” or non-violent protest.
 Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the
mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man." – Gandhi
Jawaharlal Nehru
 Jawaharlal Nehru was elected president of the Congress. Nehru was very supportive of
the freedom cause, but was Western in his ideas about technology and industry, and
was liked by the British.
 In August of 1947, after a long struggle for freedom and what some say was a WWII
fighting/ally agreement between India and the British, India gained its independence
and Nehru became its first prime minister.
 India is now the world’s largest democracy. It’s a constitutional Democracy.
End of British Rule
 The end of 200 years of British rule in India came after World War II. Britain promised to
grant India independence if it would fight with the British. At the end of WWII Indian
leaders held Britain to its promise.
 A Muslim politician at the time, Muhammad Jinnah, convinced the British to divided
India into 2 countries and create an area of India for the Muslims who made up about
20 percent of the population. (The Muslims and Hindu didn’t get along, they couldn’t
live among one another without violence.)
 On August 14, 1947, Jinnah flew to Karachi, the new capital; the Islamic Republic of
Pakistan was born.
 The violence that followed, however, was more than anyone had bargained for.
Partitioning of India
 The partition was planned by the British without much thought (does this sound like the
Berlin Conference and Africa???)
 The migrations that followed pitted Muslims against Hindus and Sikhs on the other side.
 The mutual hatred and distrust between the two rivals has led to three wars and a race
for nuclear weapons to obliterate the other side. They’re still fighting each other today!
Partitioning of Pakistan
 The territory where 145 million Pakistani Muslims now live belonged to India and since
the Muslims and Hindu didn’t get along, Muslims had to move out of India while Hindu
had to move out of Pakistan
 The partition that created Pakistan uprooted 10 million Sikhs (a religion that mixes Islam
and Hindu practices) and Hindus, whose ancestors had lived there for generations or
even centuries, and sent them running to India for their lives.
 Likewise, millions of Muslims fled India into Pakistan, because they were no longer
welcomed in the land of their birth.
The Great Migration
 Approximately 10 million Sikhs and Hindus, not wanting to end up in Muslim Pakistan,
moved south while 7 million Muslims, fearing a violent backlash in India, moved north
across the newly formed border.
 This exodus created hardship, loss of property and life, and terror. People were forced
to leave their businesses, jobs, schools, possessions, homes, fields, farm animals, and
the only life they'd ever known.
 As many as one million people died in the violence. Today stories of robbery, butchery,
and murder still exist on both sides of the border, told in vivid detail by the older
generation, continuing to fan the flames of ethnic and religious hatred more than five
decades later.
Two Pakistans?
 Dividing India proved to be a monumental task due to complications involving location,
humanitarian needs, religious preferences, politics, and language barriers.
 Two Pakistans, not one: West Pakistan (modern-day Pakistan) and East Pakistan
(modern-day Bangladesh).
 The creation of the two Pakistans (East and West) was doomed to failure from the start.
The two halves, separated by 1,000 miles of India, had very little in common. It was
HARD to rule being separated!
The End of 2 Pakistans and the Birth of Bangladesh
 When it looked as if East Pakistani representatives would win a vote for independence
in the National Assembly in 1971, the elections were cancelled.
 East Pakistan announced a name change to Bangladesh and declared its independence.
 War erupted, and Bangladesh asked for India's help. On December 3, 1971, India sent
troops to Bangladesh, and two weeks later Pakistan surrendered.
 Hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi civilians lost their lives in a matter of months.
District of Gurdaspar
 The British awarded this strategic strip of land, although mostly Muslim, to India, thus
securing India's route to Jammu and Kashmir.
 Without Gurdaspur, India would have been cut off from Kashmir. It was thought that
the award of Gurdaspur to India would avoid future wars by allowing the Indian army
access to Kashmir, keeping a political balance. In fact, the opposite occurred. India and
Pakistan continue today fight over Kashmir.