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World History says
Editor|World History Says
The national question existed in India until the 19th century. After the British occupied India, in order to accelerate its colonial expansion, try to maintain its ruling order, and vigorously promote the unification of India.
Thus, the pattern of a multi-ethnic state has been formed within India. After India's independence, the ethnic question became more prominent and increasingly became an important issue in India's political life.
India celebrates the 62nd anniversary of independence
The contradictions between Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists are particularly pronounced. Religious contradictions directly affect ethnic contradictions.
Ethnic issues
During British rule, in order to maintain its colonial interests and privileges, a caste-based hierarchy was introduced in India.
In the 40s of the 19th century, the British government issued the Indian Caste System Act, which divided Indians into five castes: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Sudras. The caste system has strained relations between the various ethnic groups in India.
During British colonial rule, Hinduism predominated, while Islam had little influence in India.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Muslims began to enter the Indian hinterland. In the 20s and 30s of the 19th century, the number of Muslims increased dramatically. By the beginning of the 20th century, Muslims made up about 12% of the country's population.
After the end of British colonial rule in the late 40s of the 19th century, Islam became increasingly dominant in India.
Culturally
During the period of British colonial rule, a variety of cultures emerged in India, both British Indian culture, influenced by British culture, and Indian culture, influenced by Eastern traditions.
During the colonial rule, the British colonists created a new language and culture with English as the mother tongue, so that the national language, religion, customs, etc. of India were preserved and continued, but many new factors also penetrated in.
This foreign culture has had a great impact on Indian society. For example, in the 40s of the 19th century, with the penetration of traditional Indian society by Western colonists, English spread rapidly in India.
According to statistics, in 1866 alone, newspapers in 30 different languages were published in British India. Among them, 16 newspapers are published in English.
As English was widely spread in India, many Indians began to write and read in English, and English became the most widely spoken language in India.
During the colonial period, British colonists also introduced Western civilization in India. In 1885, the British established the Republic of India.
Half of the British Parliament formed that year were British. The British colonists also promoted the "civilized education" system and the "civilized life" education system, trying to make the British colonists the ideal people that the society yearned for at that time.
The period of Western colonial rule was a time of strong ideological shock for Indians. They began to awaken to ideas of democracy, freedom, equality, and progress.
However, due to the long-term imprisonment and restraint of people's minds by the feudal autocracy, their demands could not be realized.
Nevertheless, during the period of modern Western colonial rule, a large number of bourgeois thinkers and intellectuals emerged in India, such as Marx, Engels, Lenin, etc., all of whom were famous thinkers and intellectuals who grew up during this period.
1. The birth of Marxism
Marx and Engels were famous bourgeois thinkers and intellectuals who emerged in India after capitalism entered the imperialist stage in the mid-19th century.
Marx devoted a great deal of space to the class struggle in capitalist society in Capital, arguing that there are three classes in capitalist society: the proletariat, the bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie.
The proletariat is the most oppressed class, the proletarians in capitalist society, and they are in an exploited and oppressed position.
Marx also believed that socio-economic relations were the root cause of class formation and struggle, and pointed out that only the overthrow of the capitalist system could emancipate the proletariat.
From the perspective of class analysis, Marx and Engels divided the struggle of the Indian colonial people against British colonial rule into three stages:
The first stage was the period when the British colonialists were under colonial rule in India, and the Indian people took the British colonialists as the object of their liberation struggle; The second stage was the national liberation movement between the British Indian people and the rulers of the princely states of India from 1848 to 1856; The third stage was the class liberation movement between the Indian people and the British Indian people after 1857.
Marx and Engels pointed out that there are two fundamentally opposed classes in class society, namely the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.
The proletariat is the most oppressed, least free, most exploited, the most unequal, the most deprived class, and it is a part of the entire socio-economic relationship.
The bourgeoisie emerged and developed only after the development of European capitalism to the stage of imperialism, and it is the class that capital creates in the stage of primitive accumulation and is used to exploit the working people.
Marx and Engels divided the working class into two parts according to its historical status and social development:
One part is the most oppressed, the most exploited, the most unequal and the most deprived part, and the other part is the part that is the least oppressed, the least exploited, the least deprived, the less deprived and has certain democratic freedoms.
Marx and Engels made a detailed analysis of the Indian colonial peoples and put forward the famous thesis that the proletarian revolution must presuppose the overthrow of the bourgeoisie.
Marx and Engels also pointed out the depth of oppression and exploitation of workers under capitalism.
2. The rise of the Hindu nationalist movement
During the period of Western colonial rule, the national consciousness of the Indian people began to awaken, and nationalist movements rose. After India's independence, the basic goal of the Indian government and people on the national issue was to establish a unified and powerful Indian Republic.
This goal sets India apart from other countries as a special country.
However, the internal ethnic contradictions in India are very sharp, not only in India, but also in British India.
Therefore, until the 30s of the 20th century, the national movement in India was not carried out effectively.
In 1928-1939, the most influential nationalist movement in the British Indian Republic was the activities of the "Indian Party".
It demands independence, equality and freedom. However, as the movement was used and manipulated by the British colonial government, serious consequences were achieved.
3. The development of modern Indian literature
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, with the spread of Western capitalist cultural ideas, modern Indian literature also came into being. Modern literature inherits the tradition of classical realism in content, with the theme of criticism of real life.
Most of India's modern writers are intellectuals who, under the influence of the national liberation movement, regard their works as fighting weapons against feudalism and national independence.
They are full of dissatisfaction and resistance to capitalist society, and at the same time they are influenced by Marxism and use their literary works as tools to transform society.
They use realism to expose the contradictions and darkness of Indian society. For example, Prashad Das, Rajiv Shah, Haryana Swamy, etc. are all famous realist writers.
They criticized not only feudalism, but also bourgeois society. Modern Indian literature has adopted many new forms and methods in language to make the works more attractive and appealing.
Many excellent works in modern Indian literature were written during the colonial rule, which reflected the struggle of Indians for national independence and liberation at that time, and expressed the dissatisfaction and resistance of intellectuals against capitalist society.
Modern Indian literature was born and developed under the influence of Western cultural thought, and it is inextricably linked with capitalist society. Although most of these literary works are bourgeois in nature, there are also excellent works among them.
Historically
During the colonial era, India's economic and cultural development lagged behind.
During the colonial period, the British colonial government comprehensively controlled India in terms of political, economic, cultural and social life by implementing colonial and religious policies, making India a British colony.
During the period of colonial rule, India's feudal production relations developed to a certain extent.
Although these feudal production relations and forms have not changed, the exploitation and oppression of the Indian people by the British colonial government has made the life of the Indian people even poorer.
After India's independence, India established a relatively perfect political, economic, cultural and social system, and gradually embarked on the socialist road.
However, due to the influence of British colonialism and the political, economic and religious policies of the British government, there were still some problems after India's independence.
1. The ethnic question
The Indian ethnic question mainly refers to the contradiction between Hinduism and Islam. In a sense, India's ethnic problems are mainly caused by contradictions between the two religions.
Although Muslims make up the vast majority of the population in India, Hindus do not make up a large proportion of the total population. Many Muslims do not form a unified religion between Hindus and Hinduism, so it is easy to create contradictions within Hinduism.
Especially in some parts of India, there is a sharp contradiction between Islam and Hinduism. Although Muslims are a minority in India, they are not happy with the Indian government.
The contradiction between Islam and Hinduism is due to the disagreement between Muslims and Hindus on religious issues.
Because there are divisions within Muslims and Islam, there are contradictions between Muslims and Hinduism, which has led to ethnic contradictions.
2. Religious issues
India is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country. After India's independence, politically, although the political system of the people's democratic dictatorship was established, India's religious belief remained a big problem.
In India, there are various religions such as Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, etc. Despite the predominance of Hinduism, there are still many Muslims.
Although the relationship between Muslims and Hindus is very tense, there are many contradictions in the Hindu faith.
There are many contradictions and conflicts in Indian religious beliefs, such as the contradiction between Hinduism and Islam, the contradiction between Hinduism and Buddhism, and the contradiction between Hinduism and Islam.
Since there are many differences between Hindus and Muslims in their religious beliefs and daily life, there are great differences and conflicts between them.
Politically, after India's independence, both Muslims and Hindus had the right to participate in political life. But due to different religious beliefs, there are many contradictions and conflicts between them.
For example, the conflict between Hinduism and Islam is great. Due to different religious beliefs, there are also great differences in social life. For example, Muslims do not allow women in some areas, while Hindus do.
3. Development issues
During the colonial period, the British government used the Indian people as its slaves in order to colonize India. Due to the British government's aggression and colonial rule against India, the Indian people have been exploited and oppressed to varying degrees.
After India's independence, the British colonists adopted a series of policies in favor of the British colonists in order to maintain Indian rule.
For example, after India's independence, the British colonial government maintained India's financial monopoly by issuing currency, establishing banks, issuing paper money, etc.
In addition, in order to maintain political domination and military occupation in India, the British colonialists took enterprises, factories, military installations and important cities in many countries as their sphere of influence.
These provided the material basis for the rule of the British colonists in India. Despite the brutal exploitation and oppression of the Indians by the British colonizers, due to the crimes committed by the British colonists against the Indian people during the colonial period.
Author's point of view
The impact of British colonial rule on India was complex, with both positive and negative sides.
Colonial rule brought advanced technology and culture to India, raised India's economic and scientific and technological level, and laid the foundation for the Indian people to fight for national liberation and independence.
But it has also brought many negative effects that have limited India's national liberation movement. In short, although the British colonial rule of India had some negative effects on India, it played a positive role in promoting the Indian national liberation movement.
It was British colonial rule that made India gain independence and laid the foundation for India's later economic and social development.
Resources:
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[2] Zheng Haojie. Vicissitudes of India,2014,No.138(06):20-22.DOI:10.13514/j.cnki.cn14-1186/k.2014.06.007.
[3] LIU Li. The influence of British colonial rule on Indian political culture[J].Journal of Huaihua University,2014,33(01):55-57.DOI:10.16074/j.cnki.cn43-1394/z.2014.01.019.)