Lesson video

Hello, welcome back to our OAK history lessons.

This is our third lesson looking at how India achieved independence in 1947.

I'm Mr. Mastin.

And as you already know, you need three things for our lessons together.

Now that piece of paper that we have been using in lesson One, and in lesson two, we're ready to use it again in lesson three.

You've divided that piece of paper into four, so if you still have it, that would be wonderful if you could find it.

If you don't have it, then a piece of paper to use this lesson would also be fine.

You need something to write with.

And you need a coloured something to write with.

A coloured pencil or a pen or a highlighter.

So while you're making sure that there are no distractions anywhere, that you have a nice quiet place to work, I will get out of the way.

See you in a moment.

At the end of World War Two, we should have enjoyed five long years of fighting and felt very tired.

Not only was Britain tired, Britain had lost nearly half a million men.

We say that Britain had lost nearly half a million men, but actually the British Empire, soldiers from India, and Australia and Canada and South Africa and from all parts of the British Empire, men had sacrificed their lives for Britain and for the freedom that Britain won in the Second World War.

Not only had nearly half a million lives been lost, but also more than half a million lives had been wounded.

Soldiers returned to their homes in Britain and in India and Australia and South Africa with wounds, some of which they would never recover from.

Britain was also tired and in debt.

Britain had spent a lot of money on five years of fighting, and it also borrowed a lot of money.

Britain was in debt.

Britain had won the war, but now had to repay the cost of fighting those long five years.

As you can see from this photograph, there was also physical damage to Britain.

Streets, had been bombed, houses had been bombed, shops, cities, all of this would have to be repaired, and that would cost a lot of money.

Britain now had to set out on rebuilding the country that had been devastated by war.

But what about the Empire? Well, this poster, at the beginning of the second world war shows the soldiers of the different countries of the Empire, including India, fighting together on the same side.

But it wasn't that simple, was it? There were millions of Indians who supported the war.

And there were millions of Indians, like Gandhi, who were fighting for the independence of their country.

Also, could Britain afford to keep an empire that was so big.

If Britain was having to repay a lot of the cost of the war, on rebuilding the country.

There were many people in Britain, who started to question whether having an empire made any economic sense.

But Britain not only owed money, Britain owed a moral debt to many of the countries in the British Empire, including India.

Without Indian soldiers, Britain would probably not have won World War Two.

So those bullet points there at the side, two of them can apply to India as well.

Britain had lost lives, money, and power.

India had also lost lives, and had spent money on fighting the war.

But Britain's power was growing weaker.

Many in Britain began to say that they should concentrate not on the Empire and on forcing countries to stay in the Empire, but on rebuilding Britain.

Even the Americans who were not big fans of empires, were saying that countries should be free to decide for themselves who ruled them.

The Americans were opposed to the British Empire.

Not only that, when World War Two ended, something called the United Nations was set up.

United Nations was set up to promote equality between countries to prevent wars from happening, and to promote the rights of all human beings in every country around the world.

The United Nations was set up by Britain and the United States and other countries around the world.

It just didn't seem right for Britain to help set up an organisation like the United Nations, while at the same time forcing India to remain part of the British Empire.

One historian, she's at Oxford she's called Yasmin Khan.

She wrote a book about India's experience in World War Two.

And Yasmin Khan says that actually Britain didn't fight the Second World War.

But the British Empire fought the Second World War.

Might want to think about that for a moment.

Yasmin Khan is suggesting that without places like India, Britain would not have fought and won the Second World War.

Britain owed a moral debt to India.

Well back home in India, the war now over Ghandi and Congress was led by someone new.

Gandhi was joined by a man called Nehru.

And Nehru and Ghandi now saw the opportunity.

They argued strongly that now was the time for India to become independent.

India had paid with blood, with the sacrifice of its own men for British freedom.

And the British now owed India a debt.

And that debt could only be paid through independence.

Many Indians went on strike, refusing to work for a period of time to force the British to put pressure on the British to give India independence.

And what about the little bookshop in Poona, run by Vishnu and his father.

Well, if you remember Vishnu and his father had been in prison during the war.

So when the war came to an end, Vishnu sister Sati, had been running the bookshop.

This was quite unusual at the time for a woman to run a bookshop.

This is in the 1940s.

Sati just like her brother Vishnu, and her father and mother also wanted British soldiers out of India.

She'd even been brave enough to put up a big sign outside the shop that said, "Out of bounds to British soldiers." Even Vishnu and his father hadn't put up that sign.

So when Vishnu and his father were released from jail at the end of the Second World War, he and his family were hopeful for India's future.

They were hopeful that India would become independent.

So how did the effects of World War Two, put pressure on the British? How did the effect of World War Two, make the British feel more pressured to grant India independence? Well, if you go back to that piece of paper that we've been using over our last few lessons, I'm hoping that you've kept it safe, you still have it, and we're now in the third box.

Now, if you haven't found the piece of paper, then just a separate piece of paper is fine.

But it would be great if you still had it.

So in that third box, we're thinking of examples of how the effects of World War Two put pressure on the British.

What was it about the effects of World War Two that made the British feel pressured? So you might want to pause the video here, and think of as many examples as you can.

Look through your notes, go through the other slides in the lesson and see how many examples you can find about how the effects of the war put pressure on the British.

So, now you've done that.

We can think about categorising our examples.

What sorts of examples have you come up with? What pressure that the war put on the British? Now I'm hoping that you've come up with economic pressures.

Economic pressures, about money, about trade, about Britain meeting to rebuild because of the effects of the war.

Maybe there are moral pressures as well.

Think of all of the Indians who helped the British in the war, that without those Indians helping, Britain wouldn't have won.

Remember that historian at Oxford University Yasmin Khan, she said that Britain didn't win the war by Britain on Britain's own.

But the British Empire won the Second World War.

So go through with your coloured pencil or your highlighter and look at which examples fall into which categories.

Are they moral examples of pressure, or are they examples of economic pressure? Or maybe there are political examples.

Things to do with power.

After all, Ghandi and the new leader of Congress called Nehru they're beginning to look very powerful in India.

Maybe that's a political example of pressure.

Well, it's now time for some questions.

So question one.

What economic effects did World War Two have on Britain? What economic effects? Now you could write your answers on a separate piece of paper, that would probably be best.

What you don't want to do is to write your answers to these five questions in any of the boxes.

If you don't have a separate piece of paper, you could write them on the back of your piece of paper.

Question two.

What political effects did World War Two have on Britain? What effect were to do with power, to do with who's in control, Who feels strong, Who feels weak because of World War Two.

Question three.

Those leaders of Congress.

Well, very well done year nine, you've worked hard today.

It's been great being with you for this lesson, and if there's anything that you would like me to see, please ask your parent or carer to take a photograph of it and to send it to me at OAK.

And I hope to see you for our next lesson, our fourth and last lesson, looking at how India achieved independence in 1947.

And don't forget that important piece of paper.

You need to keep a hold of it if you still have it, because we're going to be using it one last time in our final lesson.

See you next lesson.