India 18851947The Unmaking Of An Empire

This new account of India's struggle for independence gives the full social, political and economic context up to the transfer of power in 1947. Covering the Indian National Congress, the central figure of Gandhi, and the first years of independence, helpful features include a biographical guide to the main protagonists and a chronological outline of the main events. India's struggle for independence is an extraordinary story. The pivotal question posed by this book is how a valued and seemingly permanent imperial possession - the "jewel in the crown" - came to be given its freedom only sixty years after the establishment of the Congress National Congress in 1885. On the face of it, decolonisation seems to have been the direct result of nationalist pressure, but Ian Copland suggests that the reality was more complex - he gives the full social, political and economic context up to the transfer of power in 1947. The account covers * the Indian National Congress * the central figure of Gandhi * the first years of independence Helpful features include a biographical guide to the main protagonists and a chronological outline of the main events. IAN COPLAND is Associate Professor of History at Monash University, Australia. The establishment of the Indian National Congress in 1885 marked a turning point in modern South Asian history. At the time, few grasped the significance of the event, nor understood the power that its leader would come to wield. From humble beginnings, the Congress led by Gandhi would go on to spearhead India s fight for independence from British rule: in 1947 it succeeded the British Raj as the regional ruling power. Ian Copland provides both a narrative and analysis of the process by which Indians and Pakistanis emancipated themselves from the seemingly iron-clad yoke of British imperialism. In so doing, he goes to the heart of what sets modern India apart from most other countries in the region its vigorous democracy.