August 15, 1947

On this day in history in 1947 India and Pakistan won independence from Great Britain.

Under British Rule

During the high-time of imperialism, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, countries believed the more land they held, the more powerful they were. This was embraced by Great Britain more so than any other country. At the height of the British Empire they controlled nearly 60 colonies with territories ranging from Australia, to Canada, to Fiji, and to India.

The British East company was a British joint-stock company formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region. They eventually seized control of the Indian subcontinent.

The British East India Company functioned as a sovereign power in India on behalf of the British Crown beginning in 1757. A hundred years later there was a major uprising in India known as the Indian Rebellion. The yearlong rebellion saw India rise up against the rule of the British East India Company. The British squashed the rebellion and their government took it as an opportunity to assume direct control of India in the form of the new British Raj. This period of direct rule over the Indian subcontinent lasted until 1947.

Gaining Independence

Mohandas Gandhi was crucial to India gaining its independence from Britain

The movement for independence began after WWI when Mohandas Gandhi organized the first of his many passive-resistance campaigns to protest the oppressive British rule. The British government gave some concessions but when World War II broke out they feared losing India to the Axis powers and re-tightened their grip on the subcontinent. Gandhi organized the "Quit India" campaign, hoping to hasten the British departure, but he was jailed. Anti-British demonstrations accelerated after the war.

In 1947 Pakistan was created to appease the Muslim league and independence negotiations finally concluded. On August 15, 1947 the Indian Independence Bill took effect and India and Pakistan gained their independence from Great Britain after nearly 200 years under their rule. Unfortunately the turmoil did not end here for the Indian subcontinent. Religious turmoil in India and Pakistan resulted in the deaths of thousands in the coming years, including the assassination of Gandhi in 1948.