Yes, I'm Indian, not just by culture/background, but also by nationality and residence. In fact, I'm a journalist in the nation's capital, so stuff like the census and caste issues are actually part of my daily working life!
History is another matter altogether; more a hobby, so I'm not promising to be an expert if you do want to pick my brains. Stuff like the freedom struggle, however, is basic knowledge, so will do my best. To start with, your timelines mesh almost perfectly if you intend to use India's liberation and Gandhiji's assassination in your story.
Of course, the Quit India movement which you reference was launched in August 1942, so was not yet in existence at the time Edmund made his comment to Peter. But the bigger picture will work out perfectly: India won freedom in August 1947, and Gandhiji was assassinated in January 1949, just months before the Pevensies themselves are killed.
Interestingly, Quit India was closely linked with WWII. The movement was started in the context of rifts within the leadership of the freedom struggle over whether to support the British in the war or not, since the Governor-General Lord Linlithgow had unilaterally brought India into the war without any consultation with local leaders. Some supported the British in hopes that the British would support their own aspirations in return. Others went with the "my enemy's enemy is my friend concept" and actively supported the Axis powers, with Subhash Chandra Bose actually forming the Indian National Army with the support of the Japanese. Gandhiji himself would not support the British declaration of war, as he was a pacifist, but at the height of the Battle of Britain, he expressed his support for the fight against fascism and for the British War effort, stating that he did not seek to raise a free India from the ashes of Britain.
It was in this context that the British sent the Cripps Commission to India in March 1942 to negotiate with the Indian leaders a deal to obtain total co-operation during the war, in return for progressive devolution and distribution of power from the crown and the Viceroy to an elected Indian legislature.
When these talks failed, the Quit India movement was launched. One day after the call for massive civil disobedience, the British, who were already alarmed by the advance of the Japanese to the India-Burma border, responded by arresting Gandhiji. All top freedom struggle leaders were arrested (among 100,000 arrests nationwide) and held for over three years, until the war was over.
So as TQSiT correctly shows, there were plenty of linkages between anti-colonialism and the War, not just in Tashbaan, but also in Terebinthia.
(LJ is cutting me off again, so I'll put some stories of Gandhiji in the Pevensies' London in the next comment.)
no subject
History is another matter altogether; more a hobby, so I'm not promising to be an expert if you do want to pick my brains. Stuff like the freedom struggle, however, is basic knowledge, so will do my best. To start with, your timelines mesh almost perfectly if you intend to use India's liberation and Gandhiji's assassination in your story.
Of course, the Quit India movement which you reference was launched in August 1942, so was not yet in existence at the time Edmund made his comment to Peter. But the bigger picture will work out perfectly: India won freedom in August 1947, and Gandhiji was assassinated in January 1949, just months before the Pevensies themselves are killed.
Interestingly, Quit India was closely linked with WWII. The movement was started in the context of rifts within the leadership of the freedom struggle over whether to support the British in the war or not, since the Governor-General Lord Linlithgow had unilaterally brought India into the war without any consultation with local leaders. Some supported the British in hopes that the British would support their own aspirations in return. Others went with the "my enemy's enemy is my friend concept" and actively supported the Axis powers, with Subhash Chandra Bose actually forming the Indian National Army with the support of the Japanese. Gandhiji himself would not support the British declaration of war, as he was a pacifist, but at the height of the Battle of Britain, he expressed his support for the fight against fascism and for the British War effort, stating that he did not seek to raise a free India from the ashes of Britain.
It was in this context that the British sent the Cripps Commission to India in March 1942 to negotiate with the Indian leaders a deal to obtain total co-operation during the war, in return for progressive devolution and distribution of power from the crown and the Viceroy to an elected Indian legislature.
When these talks failed, the Quit India movement was launched. One day after the call for massive civil disobedience, the British, who were already alarmed by the advance of the Japanese to the India-Burma border, responded by arresting Gandhiji. All top freedom struggle leaders were arrested (among 100,000 arrests nationwide) and held for over three years, until the war was over.
So as TQSiT correctly shows, there were plenty of linkages between anti-colonialism and the War, not just in Tashbaan, but also in Terebinthia.
(LJ is cutting me off again, so I'll put some stories of Gandhiji in the Pevensies' London in the next comment.)