Question

What was the implications of first world war on the growth of nationalism in india?

Answer 1

On February 13, 1919, the Japanese government first made a proposal for racial equality within the committee responsible for drafting the Covenant of the League of Nations at the Paris Peace Conference in Versailles, to the effect that elimination of racial discrimination should be clearly stated in the Covenant.

Though broadly supported, it did not become part of the Treaty of Versailles, largely because of the opposition of Australia and the United States, two powers with long established de jure and de facto systems of racial discrimination and policies of White Supremacy. Its rejection led to the alienation of Japan, India and other non - European countries and peoples from the European led international community with colonial ambitions, and stirred increased nationalism leading up to World War II.

USA and western allies manipulated world events including imposing a total oil embargo on Japan demanding vacating lands held by Japan in China and Indo - China, in return for lifting the oil embargo. No such demand was made by USA on western countries to vacate their colonies in Asia. The rejection of a level playing field in the international arena by Western powers convinced Japan, India and other Afro - Asian countries, that freedom from western hegemony would never come to them except through a sustained struggle for liberation. Gandhi chose Non - Violence as the method to seek freedom. Japan chose to speak in the same language that the West best understood. Though Japan was ultimately defeated on the military front, it achieved a huge political victory by forcing western countries battered and weakened by Japanese military assaults to give up their colonies including India, soon after the end of the war in 1945. The retreat of the West from the East largely due to Japanese entry into the second world war and stunning Japanese military victories, can be identified as the single most important happening of the 20th century.

Answer 2

The First World War Forced recruitment of soldiers bred resentment in villages.

The First World War created a new economic and political situation by leading to huge expenditures in defence which were to be financed by increasing taxes and raising custom duties.

Crop failures and spread of influenza epidemic led to widespread hardships.

Muslims were disenchanted with the treatment meted out to Ottoman Empire by the imperial powers. This led to a groundswell of support for non-cooperation.

The business classes reacted against policies that restricted their business.