Hist 4339          

South Asian Nationalisms in the 1930s and 1940s

Major Nationalist Leaders

• Gandhi

• Jawaharlal Nehru: Gandhi protégé

◦ man of great charisma
◦ idealistic leader

• Muhammad Ali Jinnah: the “sole spokesman”

            ◦ like all of the major nationalist leaders,

a Br-trained lawyer

            ◦ left INC in 1920

◦ deeply Westernized

◦ returned to Indian politics in 1934,

transforming Muslim League

Events of the 1930s and 1940s

• 1935 Government of India Act                                                                      

• 1937 elections: INC takes power in most provinces

• 1939: leftist leader Subhas Chandra Bose driven out of Congress

• 1939: Br again declares war on India’s behalf

◦ INC resigns seats—a crucial mistake?

• 1940: Lahore Resolution (call for Pakistan)

• WWII: Bose forms Indian National Army                                                                              

1946 Elections                                                                         

• Great ML improvement

◦ interpreted as vote for Pakistan

• Congress also did well

◦ maintained position that India should remain united

• British now eager to negotiate settlement that would allow decolonization

1946 Cabinet Mission and Second Simla Conference

• Members of British Cabinet sent to attempt to negotiate for unified India

• Proposed loose federal structure

◦ weak center

◦ largely autonomous provinces

• INC first approved, then rejected the plan

• Jinnah denounced INC “bad faith”

◦ announced that he would “bid goodbye to constitutional methods”

• ML declared “Direct Action Day” on Aug 16, 1946

◦ Great Calcutta Killing

◦ 5000 dead