WH 5-4 Instructional Resources


 

Lesson Ideas

Inquiry Tasks 

  • Reinforce student understanding of the Indian challenges to British colonialism, including efforts to resist British rule, the protests that drew international attention, and series of events leading to independence. Ask students to use information from the presentation India's Independence to develop a storyboard of significant milestones toward Indian independence. In what ways were experiences of British citizens in North America and India similar? 

  • Indian Independence, an inquiry lesson from New York State Teachers Consortium, guides students through a study of resources and historic evidence in order to trace the events contributing to an end of British rule in India and a partitioning with Pakistan. Encourage students to explore the interactive timeline provided in the lesson. Invite students to create an additional events for the timeline representing the current status of India's relationship with Pakistan. 

  • Use the presentation India Since Independence to extend student learning of events following independence and the on-going territorial disputes with Pakistan. In what ways were the first decades tumultuous for the new republic? Ask students to investigate contemporary features of India's economy and politics in order to compose a letter to Gandhi, describing progress since independence. Would Gandhi have approved of India today? Why or why not?

  • India and Pakistan, an extended inquiry and authentic assessment from the Choices Program at Brown University, challenges students to investigate the causes of India's partitioning and the impact of massive migration of the region's people. Ask students to engage in a simulated conference to deliberate on the best option for India's future. 

  • India: Conflicts Within, a lesson from the Choices Program, encourages students to examine the historic roots of conflict between Pakistan and India prior to and since independence through the examination of a set of primary and secondary sources. Ask students to consider reasons why the original dispute may be less relevant and how different interpretations of the dispute's causes might affect the process of finding solutions to the conflict today.

  • Partition of India, is an inquiry lesson from the Stanford Education Group, which asks students to analyze primary sources in order to assess the reasoning and wisdom behind the plan for partitioning, as well as its lasting effect on the region. What other alternatives would have created less hardship, if any? Is separation between such diverse ethnic and religious groups a plausible solution in the modern world?  

Primary Sources 

Secondary Sources