E-Paper
HT podcast: The story of India’s Azadi
From civil rights struggle in the United States to the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela’s hero was the Mahatma.
The road to Indian Independence was long. It was tough. It was marked by moments of political high, interspersed with long periods of political low. But the freedom struggle eventually succeeded, with the British leaving the land that they had no business occupying in the first place.
In this finale, HT senior editor Prashant Jha looks back at how the Indian freedom struggle galvanised anti-colonial movements across Asia and Africa and opened the doors for freedom from imperialism as well as internal political and racial discrimination. From civil rights struggle in the United States to the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela’s hero was the Mahatma.
Jha also traces the big takeaways from the series – the brutality, duration and deviousness of colonial apparatus which saw London use India to meet its political, economic and imperial objectives; the Empire’s systematic policy of encouraging a Hindu-Muslim divide that left India with a tragic Partition and a communal rift that the nation is struggling with to this day; and the brilliance and bravery of Indian nationalists who repeatedly encountered setbacks but slowly built the edifice of the freedom struggle and offered India a vision of an inclusive, progressive and internationalist nationalism. It was this rich anti-imperialist nationalist movement, piloted by the Mahatma and the Indian National Congress, that led to the triumph of August 15, 1947. India was finally free.
Link to podcast: https://www.htsmartcast.com/history-podcasts/1947-road-to-indian-independence/ep-13-series-finale-the-story-of-azaadi/
