India became…?

On a quiz, some students listed Burma, Nepal, and Sri Lanka as countries which emerged from British India, rather than the expected answer of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Are these answers acceptable? According to this source (as well as many others), "British rule in Burma lasted from 1824 to 1948, Britain made Burma a province of India in 1886, and the British separated Burma Province from British India in 1937." Burma is therefore technically an acceptable answer. However, Nepal simply negotiated and allied itself with the British. It was never a British colony, although it was strongly influenced by the British. Sri Lanka, once known as Ceylon, was considered and administered separately from India, so it can not be said to have "emerged from India." Sorry!

1909 political map

1909 religious map

1909 rail map

1947 British India map

1947 India and Pakistan after independence

More about the end of empire--decolonization

In our Unit 8 readings about empire, (and the end of an era of imperialism and colonialism) we learned a little about British India and the independence of India. Nehru was the first prime minister of India and the longest-serving one. Having 14 prime ministers in 62 years means an average term has been over 4 years, but some prime ministers have served longer and others much shorter terms. Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, and Nehru's grandson, Rajiv Gandhi, were also prime ministers. Both were killed on-the-job. Aside from these members of the Nehru-Gandhi family (no relation to Mohandas Gandhi), other long-serving prime ministers were Rao, Vajpayee, and Singh. The heir to the Nehru political dynasty, Rajiv Gandhi's widow, Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, has remained behind-the-scenes as the National Congress Party leader and has not sought to become prime minister herself.

Nehru's speech alludes to the conflicts arising from the partition of India. Relations with Pakistan are often tense, and war has broken out many times. India's takeover of Goa from the Portuguese in 1961 and the Indo-China War in 1962 were two events that show how different Nehru was from independence leader Gandhi.