Rockport History Book Club
India from British Colony
To Major World Actor
History Book Club
Wednesday, November 30,
2022
Gandhi led 1947 fight for Indian independence
Wednesday, November
30, 2022: India from British Colony to Major World Actor.
Read about how, after World War II ended Mahatma Gandhi led
the fight for India’s independence; then came separation of Hindu India and
Muslim East and West Pakistan; then East Pakistan became Bangladesh and India
and Pakistan went to war. Read about how America’s presidents looked down their
noses at India as it became an ally of the USSR; development of nuclear power;
now read about relations with China, and India’s growing influence in the
world, including the U.S. [Suggested by Craig
Corvo]
Roberts, Elizabeth Mauchline, Gandhi,
Nehru and Modern India, Methuen Educational Ltd. 1974. 96 pp.
Ms.
Roberts focuses her story on a wisp of a little man with big ears and wearing a
white cloth wrap who turned out to be the hero for modern India.
Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi was born in Porbandar, Gujarat on Oct. 2, 1869 to a Hindu
family that was not wealthy, but never suffered from the terrible poverty of
most Indians. His father and grandfather had been prime ministers of various little
states on the Kathiawar peninsula on the Arabian sea, north of Mumbai.
Mohan
started school at age five. He was an average student. At age 13 he married Kasturbai, a girl chosen
by his parents. It was a marriage that lasted 61 years. When he graduated from
high school, his family decided he needed to go to England to become a
lawyer. After three years he returned to
India, then was sent to practice in South Africa. He suffered racial prejudice
terribly there, but he soon learned to practice satyagraha (truth force) that
he would teach all his life. In 1896 he took a quick trip home and brought
Kasturbai and his two sons back to South Africa. He practiced there until 1915.
Gandhi
was shy, but he developed a mystical ability to lead people, no matter what
their caste, color or wealth. He grew the Natal Indian Congress to an effective
minority party. The South African government declared all Indian marriages
invalid, and Gandhi organized Indian women to protest, which led to beatings,
prison and even death. Gandhi was
briefly imprisoned, but all the while he was developing his satyagraha, and
becoming a force to be reckoned with.
In 1885 an
Englishman recently retired from the Indian Civil Service created the Indian
National Congress, a non-political group of mostly journalists or lawyers,
intended to praise the contributions made to India by the English. In 1905 the
congress got involved with a national movement to preserve the Bengal from
partitioning. When Gandhi and his family, (now with four boys) returned to
India in 1915, he still had a great deal of respect for Britain as a colonial
ruler of India. The year 1917, as thousands of Indians and other British
colonials fought for the King against Germany, was the high point for
colonialism in India. From there on to
swaraj (home rule) in 1947, it was all downhill.
Gandhi created a
sort of satyagraha ashram, or community near Admedabad, near his old birthplace
in Gujarat, and Indians came from far and near to enlist his help in righting
the wrongs of millions of desperately poor Indians.
During WWI there
were terrorist bombings in Punjab as some objected to British recruitment
practices, and in 1918 the worldwide flu
epidemic killed 13 million Indians. The British were giving some measures to
placate the Indian population with a suggested goal of eventual home rule.
Trouble in
Punjab was just starting. On April 13. 1919 the British General in charge had
his troops fire on a crowd of Indians crowded into Jallianwala Bagh and killed
379 and wounded 1200. This became known as the massacre at Amritsar, and it
became the beginning of the end for British rule in India.
Amritsar marked
the beginning of Gandhi’s leadership in the Congress party, which he kept for
the next 28 years, until independence in 1947.
Gandhi was assassinated by a
Hindu fanatic on Jan. 30, 1948 in Delhi.
-end-
2022-2023
THERE
WILL BE NO MEETING IN DECEMBER.
Wednesday, January 25, 2023: What will it take to have peace between Palestinians and Israelis? It started as “The Land of Milk and Honey” 6000 years ago. Then there were the crusades. Centuries of mistreatment and exclusion of the Jews; the pogroms; the Holocaust which killed six million Jews in World War II; There was the United Nations General Assembly partitioning of November 1947; The creation of Israel, in 1948; The Six-day War of 1967 which resulted in huge loss of territory by the Arabs; And there were the meetings at Camp David hosted by President Carter with Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin; The Palestinians have steadfastly opposed any plan that gives them land, including part of Jerusalem, most of the West Bank, etc., as long as the Jews are still around. What will it take? Read any book on this subject. [Suggested by Craig Corvo and William Tobin.]
Wednesday, February 22,
2023: Are We Facing Fascism in America? The
term "Fascism" was first used in 1915 by members of Benito Mussolini's
movement, “The Fasces of Revolutionary Action.” Mussolini declared that it was
necessary for Europe to resolve its national problems—including national
borders—of Italy and elsewhere “for the ideals of justice and liberty.” It
molded itself to appeal to Italian conservatives, accepting the Catholic Church and the monarchy as
institutions in Italy. Fascism adopted policies such as promoting family
values, including policies designed to reduce the number of women in the
workforce—limiting the woman's role to that of a mother. They banned literature
on birth control and increased penalties for abortion in 1926, declaring both
crimes against the state. It aimed to appeal to people upset with the new
trends in sexuality and women's rights. The Fascists supported revolutionary
action and committed to secure law and order, with aspirations of
totalitarianism. [Proposed by Ellen Canavan and Sam Coulbourn]
Bread and Roses Strike, Lawrence,
1912
Wednesday, March 29, 2023: Insurrections, Strikes and Riots that Shaped American
History. Our
history is peppered with uprisings, large and small. Read about some and show
how they affected life and our laws. For instance: Shay’s Rebellion,
1786– 1787), uprising in western Massachusetts in opposition to high taxes and stringent economic conditions. The Whiskey
Rebellion (also known as the Whiskey Insurrection) was a
violent tax protest in the
United States (1791-1794) during the presidency
of George Washington. The most violent and widespread insurrection
was the Civil War. The Lawrence Textile Strike, also known
as the Bread and Roses Strike, was a strike of immigrant workers in
Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1912 led by the Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW). In Boston we had the
1919 Boston Police Strike. Also, scores of riots like the 1885
anti-Chinese riot in Wyoming, the anti-Greek riot in Omaha, 1909; the
1921 Anti-Black riot and destruction in Tulsa, and the 1968 riots after
Martin Luther King was assassinated. [Proposed by Mary Beth Smith
and Bill Tobin].
Wednesday, April 26, 2023: Japan from Meiji to WWII: What were they
thinking?
The beginning of the Meiji Era in 1868 marked the introduction of
a secretive, closed world to the world. Soon Japan joined the industrial era,
modernized government and society and became a modern nation, building an armed
force that fought China and won in 1894,
defeated the Russian fleet in 1905, joined the allies against Germany in World
War I, had the third largest navy in the world by 1920, and attacked the United
States, Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands and joined the Axis in World
War II. Read about the dazzling rise of Japan up to its defeat. Read any book
about this history.
What led to it? Examine all or part of the rapid change of a
country closed off from the world, then the Black Ships of Commodore Perry and
the rapid entry of Japan to the world and the world to Japan. [Proposed by
Sam Coulbourn]
Wednesday, May 31, 2023: Presidents
who redefined the presidency and shaped the United States. Here is
your chance, based upon your reading about American presidents, to tell us your
choice for a president who made a difference in growing the country:
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