INDEPENDENCE
When World War II broke out, the Congress
Party and Gandhi demanded a declaration of war aims and their application to
India. As a reaction to the unsatisfactory response from the British, the party
decided not to support Britain in the war unless the country were granted
complete and immediate independence. The British refused, offering compromises
that were rejected. When Japan entered the war, Gandhi still refused to agree
to Indian participation. He was interned in 1942 but was released two years
later because of failing health.
By 1944 the Indian struggle for independence
was in its final stages, the British government having agreed to independence
on condition that the two contending nationalist groups, the Muslim League and
the Congress Party, should resolve their differences. Gandhi stood steadfastly
against the partition of India but ultimately had to agree, in the hope that
internal peace would be achieved after the Muslim demand for separation had
been satisfied. India and Pakistan became separate states when the British
granted India its independence in 1947. During the riots that followed the
partition of India, Gandhi pleaded with Hindus and Muslims to live together
peacefully. Riots engulfed Calcutta (now Kolkata), one of the largest cities in
India, and the Mahatma fasted until disturbances ceased. On January 13, 1948,
he undertook another successful fast in New Delhi to bring about peace. But on
January 30, 12 days after the termination of that fast, as he was on his way to
his evening prayer meeting, he was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu
fanatic.
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