Decolonization Review for History Test

Noncooperation in India

• Indians withdrawing their cooperation from the British government in various ways

  • including boycotting schools, courts, and foreign goods, and refusing to pay taxes

Champaran Campaign

• led by Mahatma Gandhi in 1917, was a pivotal event during India's decolonization, specifically focusing on the peasants' trouble in Champaran, Bihar

• demonstrating the power of non-violent resistance and establishing Gandhi as a key figure

• aimed to address the exploitation of farmers forced to cultivate indigo under the Tinkathia system, where they had to allocate 3/20th of their land for indigo production

Homespun Movement

• led by Mahatma Gandhi

• advocated for self-sufficiency by encouraging Indians to spin their own cotton and weave their own cloth (khadi) rather than relying on British-made textiles

• also trying to challenge British dominance

Salt March

• a nonviolent protest led by Mahatma Gandhi in 1930 against the British salt tax in India

Gandhi’s Hunger Strikes

• these fasts, ranging from a few days to a month, were a powerful tool in his philosophy of Satyagraha

• emphasizing non-violence and truth

• he used them to protest against British rule, for the rights of the untouchables, for Hindu-Muslim unity, and against communal violence

Partitioning of India and Pakistan

• involved dividing the British Raj into two independent dominions: India (mostly Hindu) and Pakistan (mostly Muslim)

• this division was accompanied by massive displacement, widespread violence, and one of the largest forced migrations in history, with millions of people relocating across the new borders

Jawaharlal Nehru

• was the first Prime Minister of India, serving from 1947 to 1964

• he was also a key leader in the Indian independence movement, closely associated with Mahatma Gandhi

• is remembered for his role in shaping India's post-independence policies, particularly his focus on modernizing the country and adopting a non-aligned foreign policy during the Cold War

Muhammad Jinnah

• was the founder and first leader of Pakistan

• He's known for advocating for a separate Muslim homeland within the Indian subcontinent

  • which ultimately led to the creation of Pakistan in 1947

Non-Alignment Movement

• asking themselves if they want to join the US or Soviet Union

• deciding to not join Cold War (third world)

• began as a policy of non-participation in the military affairs of a bipolar world and in the context of colonialism

• aimed towards optimum involvement through multi-polar participation towards peace and security

Green Revolution

• pushing more grains

• less of general farming crops

Apartheid

• was a system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination enforced by the white minority government of South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s

• this Afrikaans word, meaning "apartness," involved laws that classified people by race, restricted their movement, and denied them basic rights based on their racial identity

Sharpeville Massacre

• ANC members gather to protest

• police fire 705 rounds in one minute, killing 69 people

• supposedly nonviolent

• not trying to kill as many people as possible

• took preemptive strikes- African National Congress

uMkhonto we Sizwe / Spear of the Nation

• was the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress (ANC), founded by Nelson Mandela

• in the wake of the Sharpeville massacre

• its mission was to fight against the South African government to bring an end to its racist policies

Soweto Massacre

• a 1976 protest by black South African schoolchildren in the township of Soweto against the implementation of Afrikaans

• as a medium of instruction in schools

• shot two kids

• the protests escalated into widespread violence, leading to hundreds of deaths and injuries as police responded with force

• the uprising is a key moment in the history of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and is commemorated annually as Youth Day

Stephen Biko

• was a South African anti-apartheid activist and the founder of the Black Consciousness Movement

• is remembered as a hero in the struggle against apartheid for his promotion of Black pride and his philosophical ideas about liberation

• was tragically murdered by the apartheid government in 1977

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

• prominent South African Anglican clergyman and anti-apartheid activist

• known for his leadership and advocacy for human rights and reconciliation

• received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his role in ending apartheid

• later served as chair of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Nelson Mandela

• South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, a political leader, and the country's first black president

• fought for the rights of black South Africans and spent nearly 30 years in prison for his activism against the discriminatory apartheid regime

• after his release, he played a key role in ending apartheid and oversaw South Africa's transition to majority rule

1994 Presidential Election

• Mandela wins

• 1st election all races could vote in South Africa

Truth and Reconciliation Commission

• effort to document the truth rather than a court system

• a temporary body established to investigate and uncover the truth about past human rights violations

• typically in post-conflict or post-dictatorship societies