Albaraa Kayal

History 125 Albaraa Kayal (akayal2@gmu.edu) Paper 3 1-Compare the nature and impact of nationalism in India and in sub-Saharan Africa in the 20th century? Nationalism is known to be an important thing in human nature around the world no matter how educated he is or not educated at all. Over the years people have been divided depending on their nationality and where they originally from and it identify people and what they are famous with and what land they came from. But what is the real definition of nationalism, nationalism is a belief in that you belong to a specific country or place which individually identifies that person belonging to the place he have been raised and born in. For example if you belong to a certain country so you nationality will belong to that specific country in the world India is one of the countries in the world that fought for their nationality with the British to earn the right to call themselves as Indians. The nature of nationalism in India is different than any other country in the world. Elite of native Indian formed groups in India before World War I began, Indian struggled against the British control over India and finally get their independence form the United Kingdom by 1947. Gandhi is the main leader behind the movement of nationalism in India after the World War II. He was an educated lawyer in Britain and he had some unusual political ideas. Gandhi was trying to unite the Muslims and Hindus under nationalism to overcome the British Empire so they can free India from their control and have their own nation in the world.
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India had two different nationalism movements on the same time the first one is the movement of Muslim people to take control of India and have a political power but in the other hand Hindus people wanted the same exact thing that the Muslim wanted which is taking over the India and have a political power in the world. This movement negatively affected India. This movement separated India to two different states the Muslims which known as Pakistan today and Hindus with a minority Muslims which know as India during this time. This is the main impact of nationalism on India today. This movement also had a positive impact which is the getting rid of the foreign ruler s from the country. These impacts are on unique impacts that nationalism movement can have which is basically having a positive outcome and a negative out come from this movement. The nature of nationalism in Africa started with the colonization of Africa by the European in the early 20th century. During that time Christian missionaries set up schools to educate the native African upcoming generations. They taught them in these schools skills and literacy but also included teaching them political westerns ideas as well. By time when these new generation grow older they noticed the difference between the way they are been treated and the way they are discriminated against. They saw the difference in what they have been taught in these schools. This powerful observation was the reason of the nationalism movement in subSaharan Africa during the 20th century. This movement lead sub Saharan Africa to decolonize from the British and the French people or the Europeans in general to gain their own independence between 1957 and the 1970s starting with Ghana in 1957 going to the independence of the other British and French colonies in the 1960s followed by Belgium leaving Congo in 1961 and the gave up of Portugal for it colonies in the middle of the 1970s. Only Rhodesia and South Africa remained under the white
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rule even though the European power is over. These are the nature of nationalism in the sub Saharan Africa. The impact of the sub Saharan Africa nationalism was not very strong because even though they got their independence from the European they still did not change the economic power or their political power in the world they stayed the same to be the poorest countries in the world but also did not learn anything from the Europeans when they were under their the Europeans control except the concept of being free and equal. India and sub-Saharan had some similarities between them in the nature of nationalism and where it came from. India had Gandhi bring the idea of nationalism and independence from the British on the other hand sub Saharan Africa also has been taught this idea from the Europeans Christian missionary schools that was in the 20th century after they got colonized. Both these movements started small group of people and developed to larger groups by time. India divided into two different religious groups with the goal of having political power in the world on the other hand sub Saharan Africa was united under one large group and the goal was just to be free from the European and these are the differences between the nature of nationalism in India and the nature of nationalism in sub Saharan Africa. When you come to talk about the impact of nationalism in India comparing it with sub Saharan Africa. Sub Saharan Africa and India success in the movement of nationalism but the differences here is that sub Saharan Africa never learned anything from the European when they were colonized but India on the other side had negative affect on India because of different religious group in India it affected them to separate into two different countries which known today as Pakistan and India. This lead India into have two different colonize because of the religion differences. Because India and sub Saharan Africa were different when the European
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colonized them there was one major difference between India and sub Saharan was the goods they have in their countries. This different made the British focus with India more because of their different goods they have while on the other hand the sub Saharan Africa did not have much goods they have few goods with no ability to trade with the east or the European. In the conclusion the nature of nationalism in India and in sub-Saharan Africa are different than each other which lead them to have different impact on their countries and own the world but they both ended up succeeding in their nationalism movements but with different consequences on the countries and on the world and these countries one of the biggest countries that were colonized and then work for their own independence.

Reference: Stearns, Peter. N. (Eighth Edition). World History in Brief: Major Patterns of Change and Continuity.