Trace and Tell your Family's Empire Stories
Country Histories
India celebrates its Independence Day on 15 August, commemorating the end of British rule in 1947. The Raj, taken from the Hindi word for 'rule', had lasted for less than ninety years, but British influence on the subcontinent dates from the beginning of the seventeenth century.
Over the course of time this meeting of cultures has involved the movement of millions of people in both directions for a wide variety of reasons, from trade to military action, employment, education, and tourism.
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Growing dissatisfaction with the injustice of British rule accounts for the emergence of a nationalist movement. The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 and steadily grew in the years leading up to the First World War.
Initially it was a loosely-organised association of groups dominated by young Indian professionals who deeply resented their unequal treatment. Indian participation in government was gradually introduced and extended by the British in these years, but there was no question of self-government.
