1947Primary sourceWell documented
Indian Independence and Partition
On the timeline · around 1947 ·
What happened
Exhausted by two world wars and faced with a powerful independence movement led by figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, Britain withdrew from India in 1947. The subcontinent was partitioned into India and Pakistan — a hurried division that triggered vast migrations and communal violence in which hundreds of thousands died.
Why it matters
The independence of India, the 'jewel in the crown,' was the decisive blow to the British Empire and the start of a wave of decolonization that would sweep away European empires across Asia and Africa.
Sources
- The National Archives (UK). Indian Independence · Primary source
Related timelines
- History of Democracy → — India becomes the world's largest democracy