'it came to a time when after the second world war, a wave of change was blowing across the Atlantic Ocean, calling for the recognition of humanity all over the world. This therefore coupled with other aspects of the united states flipped the button for the decolonization of major parts of the world especially in Asia and the Far East.'
Decolonization of China and India: A Comparative Approach
The 19th century saw the rise of capitalism in Europe which prompted countries like Britain, which was at the time the naval super power of the Mediterranean venture into new waters in search for regions for support of its economic activities. The venture saw the British establish colonial administrations in regions such as India and china. This invasion and the change of the ways of economy, administration and social life. Therefore, it came to a time when after the second world war, a wave of change was blowing across the Atlantic Ocean, calling for the recognition of humanity all over the world. This therefore coupled with other aspects of the united states flipped the button for the decolonization of major parts of the world especially in Asia and the Far East.
In the period after the end of world war two and the onset of cold war, imperialism was still rife in most parts of Asia. The united states had emerged from the war as a super power who had command on most of the issues going around the world. The country was still in the motion of installing self-determination in all the countries in the world. The then president Franklin D. Roosevelt believed all countries in the world should be given the autonomy of self-government, freedom of speech, movement and equality in the acquisition and access to resources. This wave of change which was the intention of the United States to prevent the spread of communist activities in the Asian continent. The decolonization of china and India was a process which saw instances of protracted revolutions and at times peaceful and orderly.
The decolonization of china was a process which was mired in a protracted revolution which was started by the release of the Sun Yet Sen for prison in London England. He had the plans of changing china into a different transformation. He had dreams of china gaining independence from the monarchial government of china which was a vassal of England and gaining of freedom form all the foreign power entities in the region. He persisted enough to persuade the people of china to gaining uprisings and movements. He intrigued the people of china with the better life proposal. He had ideas which he imbued to the people of china and carved a tradition which was based on basically based on modernizing china to become a democracy.
These ideas of democratizing china were one of the issues which started to froth in within china and influence from other western powers. He had released from his trips to their countries abroad that it was the monarchy which was holding the people of china behind. This realization that china wanted to be free from imperialism was what made china take the path towards independence. In 1946, under the leadership of Mao Ze Dong, fought a war which saw the overthrowal of the monarchy and established the People’s Republic of China and the mainland china was taken over by communism which was an anti-thesis of capitalism which was the backdrop of empiricism. It was after the second world war where there were constant and highly dynamic anti-colonization sentiments within china.
India is one of the countries which won its independence mainly through the peaceful and orderly process. The advent of British in India disrupted most of the harmony and rhythm of life of the people of India. The defeat of the French and the nawab of Bengal saw the establishment of the British colony in the Asian region. The path to independence towards independence India is one which was sparked by the revolution by Bal Gandhar Tilak in the 1900s, and when he became diseased in 1920, mahatma Gandhi took over the mantle to lead the people of India towards independence. The path toward independence of India was along one, which was characterized by many of diplomatic issues especially with the aspect of the congress of India and mahatma Gandhi’s ideas.
Mahatma Gandhi was the idea that struggle for independence was to be attained through the application of nonviolence to the issues which were affecting the people. Instead of confronting the British in public or with a war and physical act, Gandhi was the idea of using satyagraha as a weapon to the British rule. During his stay in south Africa for nearly 25 years, Gandhi serves din the military expeditions of the British with a group of Indians to carry the expounded form the battlefield or help in muzzling in the tribal uprising in the region. It was now when he realized that it was useless to try and engage the British in war or physical act since it would lead to more bloodshed and the loss of lives. He led a nonviolent movement which was in the essence of making people have civil disobedience. This was in the way Indians were to boycott al the British imported goods, especially cotton which he encouraged people to spin by themselves to cripple the British economy. He urgded people to deliberately disobey British rules which are unfair and encouraged people to have peaceful protests.
It was not until 1935 that British allowed India to have a limited self-rule but was not actual independence. However, the arrangement caused the India to have tensions between the Muslims and the Hindu in the region. The minority Muslims were afraid of handing power to the majority Hindu. When the WW II two broke out, the British with the help of the Indian parliament which was by then the self-governing assembly. The war ended in 1945, and the British kingdom was stuck in debt and was ready to grant India independence.
However, the violence between the Hindu and the Muslims was making issues difficult for the granting of independence to India. The matter was resolved when India was partitioned and created two factions which included two nations which are Pakistan and India.
The difference between the attainment of independence between India and china was that the in china, there was a long a protracted war between china and japan to consolidate the whole of the Chinese mainland. On the other hand, India attained its independence by having nonviolence towards her aggressors who are in this case the British. India was much inclined into civil disobedience rather than cause physical violence.
It is in this context that china was engaged in the most brutal war in the Asian arena. It is the making massacre which saw the murder, rape, and plunder of the residents of the Nanjing which was the capital of china at that time. The war occurred in 1937 when chine was attempting to create the Peoples Republic of China, the Japanese invasion of china was an upfront to the dream of Sun Yet Sen had by then given the communist party to mobilize her troops and can match up against the nationalist. It was after the surrender of japan making the eventual end of the second WW II, which led to the end of the Sino-Japanese conflict.
The common thing about the china and India on their path towards independence was that they both had civil wars. The one china is basically the war between the nationalist party (KMT) and the communist (CCP). The KMT was led by the Kai Sheik Chiang, and the of the CCP was led by the Mao Ze Dong. The long war resulted to the communists defeating the nationalist in 1949. The war was primarily fueled by the issues of the cold war where American was mire inclined in ensuring that the communist agenda did not spread beyond U.S.S.R. this external influence by the united states resulted in many of the civilians joining the war against the nationalist. The communists remained in Beijing, and the nationalist escaped to Taiwan. Although the communist had emerged victorious in the civil war, foreign powers saw the nationalist in Taiwan as being the true and valid authority, and government.it brought a sense of benefit to both sides as it had them install autonomous governments.
For India, it was civil unrest between the majority Hindu and the minority Muslims. The conflict arose when British after the edn of WW II decided to grant the territory of India full independence. It was on the matter of which religious group would be handed the mantles pf power. This led to the dislocation of many Hindu who had been living in the region of Pakistan. The conflict culminated in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by Hindu extremists who were against the idea of Gandhi of not confronting Pakistan. Just as china after the civil war created tow independence states china(Beijing) and Taiwan while India was formed and Pakistan on the other.
There was a significant external influence in both regions in their struggle towards independence. The American initiatives and the works of nationalists such as Frans fanon had serious effects on the struggle towards independence. The desire by the Americans to instill the American values of democracy were shaping the nationalistic struggle for independence. It was after the end of the second world war that the then American democracy was spreading its wings to create a new world order, where there was freedom of expression, fear, religion, and want. The Indian struggle for independence was based on the desire by the Indians to thwart economic exploitation while that of china was the struggle between two economic models, the capitalist and communism.
The results of decolonization and the establishment of the autonomy governments were different in the tow regions. It was by the advocating of the fighting of violence with violence by Frans fanon that china by then led by Mao Ze Dong led to the death of many people in the great leap forward and the cultural revolution. The creation of communes by Mao to monitor the production of everyone in the country led to many leaving the farmlands and building factories. The Mao induced famine was a step back for the people of china where why were taken aback, it resulted in the ouster of Mao after the failure of Mao’s wrong doings of establishing a dictatorship in his attempt of creating a Marxist utopian community.
On the part of India, more than ten million people were relocated, and after the assassination of Gandhi, the prime minister who was elected was Jawaharlal Nehru who led India tobe the largest democracy in the world. Nehru emphasized on unity, democracy and the modernizing of India. During the times of the cold war, India did not take any sides and was among the no aligned groups.
Inconclusion, the struggle towards independence of both India and china were not easy ones. The attainment of self-rule was done through the selfless attitudes of leaders such as mahatma Gandhi and Sun Yet Sen who both had served detention by the British government. The most identical thing about both leaders is that they instilled a sense of unity and nationalism to the people who were being segregated and maligned by a foreign power.
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