British Colonies: colonization of India and why was it a turning point.

Essay by pinkpigletCollege, UndergraduateA-, March 2004

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(a)The British initially went to India to trade but stayed to rule. The British occupied all the major parts of India and the country was gradually transformed politically, economically and socially.

The British plundered every class of Indian people and ruled India for its own benefit. Due to this invasion people revolted. The revolt was ruthlessly crushed during the first war independence and India became the jewel in the English crown and a major part of the British Empire.

Through the years and after being educated the Indians demanded political and economic rights, as the public grew aware of the this they formed the Indian National Congress in 1885.

A meeting took place on August 8, 1942, which Gandhi asked the British to 'Quit India' and gave the crowded gathering a mantra, 'Do or Die,' The British government declined and Serious disturbances broke out all over India, as the news spread of the arrest of the leaders.

People destroyed government property and all that they considered to be symbols of British rule. The government was ruthless. People were shot down from moving vehicles, tear-gassed and machine-gunned from air. About 10,000 were killed and at the end of 1942 they arrested over 60,000 people. About eighty years after the first war of independence of 1857, India was again gearing up for an armed revolt. A fiery revolutionary which ended in 1945, thousands of INA soldiers were taken prisoners by the British and charged with treason. There was discontent against the government when the war ended in Europe, the government realized that it would be impossible to hold India by force. So, on June 14, 1945, it invited the Indian leaders to a conference to work out a plan for the transfer of power to Indian leaders so that they could...