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While studying the American revolution for this article, at a certain point I observed many similarities and common events between this and the Indian Independence War. It may sound weird as both countries got their freedom more than 171 years apart, so let us investigate them by categorizing into Pre-independence events and Post-independence outcomes –
Attention – If you are not much familiar with the US History, you can read this too.
Pre-Independence –
1. Common Enemy –
Yes, America and India both got their freedom from British.
In America, the British fought majorly with the people from Europe while in India they implemented the Divide and Rule policy and created a huge gap between the Indian community based on caste, religion, and region.
George Washington, the founding father was Commander-in-Chief from the patriots’ side. He also led the British into a Seven-year war against the French. British won. When he led, patriots (Americans), America became victorious.
In India, the situation was different, the British used Indian Army and Police to oppress Indians. Many small battles were fought, even before the first revolt of 1857, but they were not organized and completely stifled.
2. Date of Independence
The US didn’t get Freedom on 4 July 1774. They declared independence on this day until the British accepted their defeat in Paris treaty on 3 September 1783.
India also declared its independence on 26 January 1929 but the British House of Commons passed the Indian Independence Act and declared it as an Independent country on 15 August 1947. This day India celebrates as Independence Day. Indian Constitution came into effect on 26 January 1950 and the country became the Republic of India.
3. Massacres –
The Boston Massacre was a confrontation on March 5, 1770, in which British soldiers shot and killed 5 people while being harassed by a mob in Boston.
India has a very bad record on this account, though there were many but most infamous was Jallianwala Bagh Massacre where people, celebrating a Festival Baisakhi on 13 April 1919, were surrounded and opened the fire by British Indian Army. It killed over a thousand unarmed people, who were celebrating a religious festival.
4. Group and Symbolism
The American Revolution was mainly led by Sons of Liberty which was a secret revolutionary group founded by Samuel Adams. It was in 13 colonies to fight the taxation British Government. They advocated the use of violence and boycott of British goods and trades.
Sons of Liberty used this symbol Death of stamp as a protest of various tax imposed by British empire.
In 1857, during the first revolution, the Chapati movement took place and people forwarded the chapatis to others and continued the chain. Some instances also show the circulation of Chapati (also known as Roti) with lotus.
Indian freedom fight was led by the Indian National Congress. This group was founded by Allan Octavian Hume, on 28 December 1885. It was formed to have a platform to have civil and political dialog among educated Indians. It mainly focused on having more civil and administrative rights in a non-violent way. In 1906, A new party Muslim League was formed as Muslims thought congress is NOT suitable for them. Later Indian National Congress was divided on the ground of implementation of violence and nonviolence for freedom. Mahatma Gandhi was part of the nonviolent faction Indian National Congress. Both factions of Congress followed the boycott of British goods and trades.
5. Boston Tea Party –
One of the main triggering events in the US freedom was the Boston Tea Party, where patriots disguised as Mohawk warriors (a native Indian community), boarded the 3 ships, and dumped all the 342 chests of Tea in the water, estimating then over 10K pounds. It happened on December 16, 1773.
Tea was imported from India through East India Company but with a twist. East India Company would sell tea to the British empire and they were then sent to different colonies. There were many restrictions/Acts that restricted colonies to buy tea from other sources.
6. Lord Cornwallis –
Charles Cornwallis surrendered on 19 October 1781 to Patriots led by George Washington which ended significant hostilities in North America.
Later Cornwallis was sent to India to avoid the conflict with the company’s neighbors. He negotiated with Marathas and Nizam of Hyderabad. He had a battle with Tipu Sultan and defeated him in 1793. In order to restrain further aggressiveness, two sons of Tipu Sultan were delivered to Cornwallis as hostages.
These two pictures speak the story –
Post-Independence –
1. Geography
After Independence, US annexed many new territories which are shown in this photo.
India was divided into many parts and Kashmir issue from then is still the biggest reason for conflict between India and Pakistan.
An interesting fact was the partition of India and Pakistan was done on the basis of religion and it was done by a British lawyer Cyril John Radcliffe without any survey. He had never been to India and delivered the partitioned map on 9 August 1947 and boundaries were announced on 14 August 1947.
2. Parliamentary Structure –
American parliamentary (known as Congress) has two houses, known as Senate and House of representatives. Senate has a total of 100 members, i.e. 2 from each state. The House of Representatives has 435 members.
Indian Parliament (called Sansad) also shares the concept of two houses known as Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. Rajya Sabha has 245 members while Lok Sabha has 543 members.
Head of state in the US is President and in India is Prime Minister. The election procedure in these two democracies is totally different.
In summary, both countries follow bicameral legislature.
3. Constitution
The USA has the first written constitution while India has the biggest written constitution. This also resembles democracy as the oldest and largest between the US and India respectively. Indian constitution is highly inspired by the US constitution.
A) Bill of rights and Fundamental Rights –
The US Constitution gives its citizens the fundamental rights with 10 amendments while the Indian constitution has guaranteed the fundamental rights of the Indian people from articles 14 to 34.
B) Supremacy of Federal Government –
In both constitutions, Central govt has the supreme power. Though their power segregation is different.
C) Separation of powers –
Both constitutions apply the three-basic division as executive, legislature, and judiciary.
- For the US, they are President, Congress, and Judiciary/many courts respectively.
- For India, they are Prime Minister, Parliament/Sansad, and different courts respectively.
D) Powers of Checks and Balances –
Broadly, it can be considered as a cabinet of ministers and opposition to prevent the executives to be dictators and save the soul of democracy.
I have summarized the common events in Indian and the American Independence war. For American history, you can refer to this article and for Indian history, I will soon write a new article.
