Rabindranath Tagore Gitanjali Analysis
Throughout the rule of the British in India, Europeans mainly controlled the government and police force, leaving the Indians with no voice and no protection. According to Dr. Lalvani, the British established an efficient administration over 500 million people. While this was beneficial to the British, the Indians had no control over the taxations and laws that affected them (Doc. #2). Since all of these laws and taxes were targeted to help the British, India’s freedom was stolen, as shown in the Rowlatt Act, a law that allowed the government to imprison people without trial.
India, one of the many colonies England controlled in the past was the “Jewel in the Crown” of the British Empire. Although in the beginning, it was controlled by the British East India Company as a source of cotton, tea, and indigo. The British had indirect control of India until the Sepoy Rebellion in 1857. Although Britain created India’s government and military, improved trade, protected land, claimed to improve education, and increased minority safety, however the government and military controlled and excluded Indians, trade only benefitted the British, statistics show education was better after Indian Independence, valuable land was degraded and minorities still felt fear and insecurity.
The British first took control of India in 1759, when the “East India Company,” a British corporation, used their private military to take advantage of the declining government of India, the Mughal Dynasty. After this, they exploited it for its natural wealth and imposed regulations on India’s people that helped profits, particularly after the British government got involved personally. Finally, after decades of protest and conflict, India gained independence in 1947 due to the efforts of activists such as Mohandas Gandhi and their supporters. As supporters of imperialism would argue, during this Britain maintained structured control, provided trade, and protected Indian culture. However, they restricted freedoms, imposed poverty, and destroyed
Starting in the 1870s, countries in Africa such as Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and India, Vietnam, in Asia were being colonized by the British. In order to gain their independence back they took non-violent and militant actions. Though both strategies were successful one was more successful that the other. Non-violent actions were successful in peacefully getting the countries independence. In document 1, a letter written by Mahatma Gandhi to lord Irwin in 1930 before marching to the sea and breaking the British Salt Tax he states, “Even the salt the peasants must use to live is so taxed as to make the burden fall heaviest on him…
It took more than 200 years for India to shake the oppressive rule of the British. Britain seized control of Indian territory until they controlled the whole sub-continent. At first india was treasured by the British more for its potential rather than its actual profit. Its 300 million people were also a large potential market for British made products. Although Britain created sound law against killing, economic opportunities and health related advancements they caused more harm than good.
Imperialism first began in 1600, when the British East Indie Company was used to control the spice trade. The British East Indie Company increased in power by creating a military, and they eventually established control over almost all of India. Imperialism is the extension of a nation’s power over other lands. From 1880 to 1900, the race for the control of Africa began and Europe ended up taking control of almost all of it. From 1858 to 1947, the British took control of India, with a population of over 300 million.
The British rulers of India helped settle 500 million diverse peoples with different religions all over India during their rulership, providing stronger communities held together by values of religion (Paragraph 6). However, the people of India were given little to no responsibility of themselves and their own nation (Document 1). Meaning the British also created a great divide of the native people and the British imperialists get to dictate what taxes and laws exist, all of which to only better the lives of themselves and did not pertain to the basic human needs for the people who actually lived in India. Paragraph 12 shows that the British did bring several different states of India into one unified nation to help establish an effective justice system, civil service, loyal army, and efficient police force to protect the people of India. On the other hand, document 2 shows that the Indians had no say in the taxes they had to pay to the British or how they spent their money as a nation.
This shows the corrupted British government does not care what happens to India but only uses India for money and power. Gandhi was a lawyer and saw how Indians were truly treated in person which started his dissatisfaction with the government. Thus, said it started in, “1893 in South Africa… My first contact with the British authorities in that country was not happy. I discovered that as a man and as an Indian I had no rights.
Better by Atul Gawande, one aspect that caught my attention that makes me want to do something better in my work setting is patient negligent. When you negligent something, although you may not notice it, it is still consider negligent. When Atul spoke about Peter doctor not noticing a tumor in his x-ray, and later Peter development lymphoma (Gawande, 2007), that is consider negligent. Working at an Adult Day Health center, there are many situations that you hear from clients telling one another how they are unhappy about their kids treating them or simply not getting along with his/her kids. Hearing these stories, it is hard not wanting to do something about it.
The British however did not realize that by utilizing India’s resources, they were supporting India’s economy enough for them to no longer depend on Great Britain. As shown in document 1, this made it almost impossible for India to accomplish any of their goals because England did not trust them enough to support them. This can be reflected in Indian politician, Dadabhai Naoroji’s statement, “Our great misfortune is that you do not know our wants.” However Cecil John Rhodes, like many other Englishman at this time, believed that “[English] are the finest race in the world and the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race.”
Ghandi used many methods to achieve this, including leading nonviolent protests, civil disobedience and negotiation with British authorities. This article provides evidence of the strong relationship between Randolph’s quote and Gandhi's actions Body Gandhi believed that he would not be granted freedom by the British authorities, instead, freedom would have to be won through collective efforts of the
Document Based Question During the Great Trial of 1922, Mohandas Gandhi was put on trial for speaking out about the British Government in India, and how it was doing nothing to benefit the people of India, but instead hurting them to help benefit the British. More specifically, he lectured about the slow deterioration of the liveliness of the natives of India, as the British government in India was taking away the meaning of their lives. Natives were also deprived of any freedom of speech or expression, which only goes to show the level of dehumanization the natives were put through. Gandhi pointed out that the judicial systems and laws were geared towards the benefit of the British government, with no consideration of the natives involved.
In conclusion all of this the greatest independence war in India and fighting could have been prevented if the British respected the Indians religion. If they had been more polite to the Indians than they would of been fine with what Britain was doing. It would of not happened if the British had treated the Indians as equals and not below them, then the fighting and dispute would have never happened. During this period a tiny number of British officials and troops (about 20,000 in all) ruled over 300 million Indians(The National Archive). This was often seen as evidence that most Indians accepted and even approved of British rule(The National Archive).
On March 2, 1930, Gandhi wrote a letter to the Lord viceroy, though he never gained a response. In Gandhi’s attempt to persuade the Lord into changing the English Rule, he uses ethos and pathos as his strategies, but fails to convince him. Although Gandhi and the Lord are on opposing sides, he must try to help get rid of the Salt Taxation and influence the Indian Independence. The main strategies Gandhi uses are ethos, used to gained trust, and pathos, which is used to bring emotion forward from the reader.
The British first came to India not only because of the abundance of raw materials, but also the mass potential they seen. The British East India Company, took advantage of the collapsing Mughal Empire, and broke away from their control to flourished their company. In 1857 the Sepoy army rebelled and that caused the British to come in guns blazing and take over the country. The British rule demolished India through, taxation on anything made in India, and the exportation of raw materials, which caused a plentiful amount of famine,and throughout all of this, the British kept most on India uneducated, and those they did educate, most were forced to become interpreters for the benefits it would make in taking over India and keeping the British in control. Political Paragraph British imperialism had a negative effect on the politics of India because of the corrupt justice system, and the utter lack of respect that killed masses of innocent people.
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