What options India had other than getting its independence from Britain?
score:3
Honestly, even if the Indians had trusted the British, the British themselves would have refused this. Many countries had tried to convert their colonies into integral provinces (such as French Algeria), but could not retain them. Moreover, India's leaders had by 1929 publicly asked for complete independence. The British Indian Army itself was unwilling to remain a colonial army any longer (see Royal Indian Navy Mutiny). The Indians never felt that they had much to gain from such an arrangement. All these ensured that there would not remain any political ties between India and Britain.
Upvote:5
IN THEORY, if you assumed that India had very skilled political leaders, they might have pushed for "one man one vote" within the British Commonwealth, and taken over "Britain" in a "reverse takeover" by the sheer weight of numbers.
In practice, it's very hard for two culturally different and widely separated populations to be administered on an equitable basis. the best example is East and West "Pakistan," or Bangladesh, where the one "needed" (and obtained) independence from the other. The difference in cultures and distances are a fraction of those between Britain and India.
Upvote:11
First of all, Hong Kong is now China (from 1997), based off your question, I wasn't sure if you knew.
India and Hong Kong were very different stories. India was most definitely hurt by Great Britain. For example, Great Britain had a total monopoly on Indian salt. That meant that the Indians produced salt, and then, the British took it and sold it back to the Indians for exorbitant prices. Another example, the British bought Indian cotton and brought it back to Manchester for manufacturing, then they exported the cloths to India which sold for exorbitant prices. If India had control of these markets for them selves, they would have been much richer, so, they left, because British rule hurt them. (The British justified this by saying they were enforcing "free trade")
Hong Kong on the other hand, was not a colony that really produced much, (at first) rather it was used as a base to import, among a few other items, Opium, for Chinese tea and silk. Hong Kong didn't suffer from this British style free trade, but rather it benefited all the jobs the trading created. More importantly than this, When the British Empire was finally weakening, the Communist party was taking power in China. Hong Kong, used to the British freedom, rathered foreign rule than Communist rule, so they stayed loyal. When the Hand Over happened, most of the Hong Kong population actually left Hong Kong because they were still afraid of China.
It really was necessary for India to gain independence, because British rule was sucking India dry.
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