Good morning!

The independence movement in India under Gandhi did face brutality at the hands of British officials and military personnel. Fortunately, a number of British and American journalists were interested in Gandhi, and so the coverage of these incidents was more comprehensive than might have happened otherwise. Slowly, due to Gandhi's leadership and the press coverage, world opinion (and most importantly, British opinion) was repelled by the sight of unarmed protesters being beaten by police and the military. One important turning point was the Great Calcutta Killing on April 13, 1919.

The Rowlatt Act came into effect on 10th March in 1919. In Punjab the protest movement was very strong. On 10th April, two outstanding leaders of the congress Dr.Satya Pal and Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlu, were arrested and taken to an unknown place. To protest against the arrests, a public meeting was held on 13th April at Jallianwala Bagh, a small park enclosed by buildings on all sides in Amritsar. General Dyer with his British troops entered the park, closed the only exit and without giving any warning ordered the troops to fire. A peaceful meeting also attended by women and children was fired upon. Firing lasted about 10 minutes and about 1600 rounds were fired. As the exit, which was a narrow passage, had been closed, no one was allowed to escape. About 1000 dead, according to unofficial estimates, and about 2000 wounded persons lay unattended to in the Bagh. The monstrous act provoked unparalled disgust throughout the country. (from Great Speeches of Leading Personalities)

This same pattern of non-violent protest, legal backlash, violent oppression, and eventual withdrawal of approval from violent authorities by the greater public applied in the American South during the Civil Rights Movement. It didn't take as long, though, because it occurred within the borders of the country, not in an imperial possession, and because communication had speeded up. Imagine Gandhi and TV.

The Irish Problem persists in part because the Irish are only now beginning to be looked upon in Britain as human beings. (E.g.: The expression "Irish brogue", which the Irish have perversely adopted the way the Americans adopted "Yankee Doodle", is an insult. A brogue is a boot. The Irish, it says, speak English as if they wear boots on their tongues.) The persistant image of the stupid, drunken, venal Irish, intended to justify the British appropriation of their neighbors' land and the enslavement of the Irish under the absentee landlord system, is still alive.

Regards--
Mary Anne