Indian Nationalism
Many Indians had one thing in common: they were very unhappy about Britain's control over their country. Many Indians were treated unfairly by the British. For example, they weren't given equal job opportunities and had no say in the government. This caused a large surge of nationalism among the people because they all were going through pretty much the same thing and had a common enemy. As a result of this, a group of British lawyers and many other professionals decided to form the Indian National Congress. They discussed many ideas for reform and how to make India a better country for it's people. Some Muslims believed that their voices would not be heard because there weren't as many of them, so the formed the All- India Muslim League, although many of them still agreed with the Indian National Congress. After World War I began, Britain forced the Indians to fight in the war, and in return they gave them a couple of reforms. But since it was too few to really make a big difference, the people of India were still unhappy. In an effort to control the riots by the Indians, the British passed the Rowlatt Acts which took away a couple more of the Indians' rights, which of course just made them more angry. On April 13, 1919, thousands of citizens marched on Amritsar and a British commander told the soldiers to shoot at the crowd. About 400 people were killed and 1200 wounded, and this made the Indians more upset than ever before (see Amritsar Massacre). They would not rest until Britain gave them their full independence. In 1920, Mohandas Gandhi became the leader of the Indian National Congress and inspired many Indians to rebel against the British nonviolently, such as boycotts and Gandhi's Salt March. Gandhi's followers turned from tens to thousands to millions and soon they were able to persuade Britain to give them complete independence over their country.