India and Africa South of the Sahara

Abstract

During the years immediately following the Second World War, India's prestige rose high in colonial Africa—and for several reasons. Among the dependent countries of Asia and Africa, India alone had an unusually long and unbroken record of resistance to colonial rule. This record earned greater respectability as India approached the threshold of political independence. Success more than any other element in the Gandhian technique of mass movement impressed colonial peoples all over the world. Among the African nationalists, the Indian National Congress became the model for waging successful mass struggle. In many cases they even adopted the nomenclature “Congress” to identify their respective parties.1 References to Mahatma Gandhi and his satyagraha became usual with the African nationalist leaders. Wrote Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana: “After months of studying Gandhi's policy and watching the effect it had, I began to see that, when backed by a strong political organization, it could be the solution to the colonial problem.”2 Other leaders in other territories expressed similar views, and indeed it appeared for a time that the Gandhian model would become an inseparable part of the African nationalist heritage.