Independence: Building a New Nation 1947-1977 :: Essays Papers

Independence Building a New community 1947-1977In 1942, after the considerable pressure of Mahatma Gandhis Quit India campaign and needing to respect Indian support against Japanese troops advancing on Indias easterly border, Sir Stafford Cripps proposed a forward-looking constitution to the Indian National Congress, including the right of the rising government to secede from the Commonwealth. The proposal was rejected but the arena of emancipation had been opened and, in 1946, after the defeat of the Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, local and provincial elections were held. The Muslim League, led by Muhammed Ali Jinnah, won most of the Muslim vote.Britain, most of whose military units had disappeared, agreed to Indian self-rule and, in the come through negotiations determined that the date of independence would be midnight of 14 August. Following intensifier rioting, it was also agreed that the demands of the Muslim League should be met and an India-Pakistan partition con ceded at the same meter, defined by the Radcliffe Boundary award. Thus the new governments inaugural difficulty was a divided Punjab and a divided Sikh community. Percival light beam estimates that five and a half million refugees travelled each mode across the Punjab border, the chaos intensified by the continual Hindu-Muslim-Sikh massacres.By the time the 1950 constitution was implemented, Jawarharlal Nehru was in sole leadership of congress and he embarked upon a plan of industrialisation, intensified in 1956 by a series of five-year plans. complaisant reform accompanied this.In 1964, Nehru died and his daughter, Indira Gandhi, became prime minister. Having confirmed this in a 1970 election, she was faced with war between the East and West wings of Pakistan. Refugees poured into India from the author wing, causing a crisis in the economics of the country. Pakistan raided Indian airfields and war was say on 6 December 1971.East Pakistan was captured on 18 December and the n ew state of Bangladesh was created. Mrs Gandhis second crisis came in the shape of O.P.E.C quadrupling of oil prices, change magnitude over-population and massive inflation.