Question

State your opinion.

In America, the process of colonization and the freedom happened way before than India.

Answer 1

1. The act of a developed nation occupying the land of a less developed, distant nation and establishing their rule on the occupied country is known as ‘colonialism’.
2. The Europeans needed to capture newer marketplaces for selling their surplus goods, which were increasingly accumulating as the result of mass production, caused by the industrial revolution. They now turned to America and its neighbouring states to seize the lands of the original inhabitants and they were also forced into slavery.
3. Events such as ‘Boston Tea Party’, First Continental Congress gave momentum to the American independence movement against European powers. Thirteen colonies in America came together and declared independence from Great Britain. On 4th July 1776, in the meeting known as the ‘Second Continental Congress’, a document is known as the ‘Declaration of Independence’ was adopted. The document announced that the 13 American colonies were independent sovereign states.
4. India drew inspiration from the American Indepndence movement to some extent, however, both the movements are very different from each other. When American Colonies witnessed extreme colonialism, the Indian empire was not colonised entirely. Hence, the timeline of both these movements does not correspond.
5. Moreover, Indians were not united as they shared a huge gap of cultural, regional, geographical and religious diversity. The sense of nationality and belonging to “India” developed in the early part of the 20th century. Also, the parts of the Indian Subcontinent were already under the control of various Kings which further delayed the annulment of kingdoms and the advent of democracy.
6. Therefore, in my opinion, America was entirely colonised way before Indian Subcontinent fell prey to the clutches of colonialism and the geographical diversity amongst the colonies was not as significant as the Indian territory. Thus, the freedom movement commenced much earlier than in India and it is said that ‘State without a King’ is a phenomenon, which is a gift to the world from America. Likewise, India showed the wonders of a non-violent approach to the world.