Check that this is your course

Use this guide if you study Pearson Edexcel A level History, Paper 2, option 2F.1: India, c1914-48: the road to independence. Do not use it simply because your course mentions the British Empire, Gandhi or partition. Other options use different dates and questions.

Paper 2 lasts 1 hour 30 minutes, carries 40 marks and is worth 20 percent of the A level. Section A is a compulsory evaluation of two contemporary sources. Section B asks you to choose one depth essay from two.

You do not need to master everything at once. First learn the four-part story. Then return for precise people, policies and turning points.

Starting orientation

In 1914 the Indian subcontinent was not one uniform political community. British India contained provinces governed through the Raj and hundreds of princely states linked to British paramountcy. People lived within varied regional, linguistic, caste, class and religious communities. British power depended on officials and armed force, but also on Indian soldiers, administrators, landlords, princes and other collaborators.

India mattered greatly to Britain for strategy, trade, revenue and imperial prestige. Yet Indian political activity was growing. The Indian National Congress, Muslim League, Home Rule advocates and other organisations debated reform, representation and self-government. Their aims and memberships changed over time.

Keep one enquiry in mind: why did British rule survive the First World War but end soon after the Second?

Essential vocabulary

• Raj: British imperial rule in India.
• Congress: the Indian National Congress, a changing and internally diverse nationalist organisation.
• Muslim League: a political organisation that increasingly argued for Muslim political safeguards and, eventually, Pakistan.
• Satyagraha: Gandhi's method of disciplined, non-violent resistance based on truth and moral pressure.
• Swaraj: self-rule; its precise meaning changed between limited autonomy and full independence.
• Purna Swaraj: complete independence, adopted as Congress's goal in 1929.
• Communal representation: political representation organised by religious community.
• Partition: the 1947 division that created independent India and Pakistan.

1. War, reform and nationalism, 1914-20

India made an enormous military, financial and material contribution to the First World War. Indian soldiers served across several theatres. Wartime demand stimulated some industries but inflation, shortages, taxation and recruitment created hardship. Loyalty did not exclude expectations: many Indians believed service should bring substantial political advance.

The 1917 Montagu Declaration promised the gradual development of responsible government. The Montagu-Chelmsford reforms and Government of India Act 1919 widened elected participation and introduced dyarchy in the provinces, dividing responsibilities between Indian ministers and British officials. The centre and decisive reserve powers, however, remained under imperial control.

Reform came beside repression. The Rowlatt Acts extended emergency powers into peacetime. Protest culminated in the Amritsar massacre of April 1919, when troops commanded by Brigadier-General Dyer fired on an enclosed crowd. The killings and official responses gravely damaged claims that British rule was just and reforming.

Nationalist politics also changed. Congress broadened its reach. Gandhi emerged as a major leader after earlier local campaigns. The 1916 Lucknow Pact had shown temporary Congress-League cooperation, while Home Rule Leagues pressed constitutional demands. War, Rowlatt and Amritsar did not create nationalism from nothing, but they altered its urgency, leadership and popular reach.

Knowledge check

1. Why did India's wartime contribution increase political expectations? 2. How could the 1919 settlement represent both reform and retained British control?

2. Changing political relationships, 1920-30

Gandhi made non-cooperation a mass political strategy. Supporters boycotted institutions, titles and imported goods while promoting swadeshi, or domestic production. The Khilafat movement helped create a temporary Hindu-Muslim alliance. When violence at Chauri Chaura in 1922 killed police officers, Gandhi suspended the campaign. This showed both his commitment to disciplined non-violence and the difficulty of controlling a diverse mass movement.

Congress reorganised through provincial and local structures, wider membership and constructive work. It contained competing approaches: constitutional participation, village reconstruction, socialism and renewed mass action. Younger figures including Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose pressed more clearly for independence. The Lahore Congress of 1929 adopted Purna Swaraj. Gandhi's 1930 Salt March then turned an everyday imperial monopoly into a powerful act of civil disobedience.

Muslim politics also changed. The end of Khilafat cooperation, disputes over representation and the Nehru Report deepened tensions between Congress and Jinnah. Jinnah's proposals sought safeguards for Muslim political influence. Neither Congress nor the League represented every Hindu or Muslim, and partition was not yet inevitable.

British policy mixed control with concession. The all-British Simon Commission provoked widespread opposition. The 1929 Irwin Declaration accepted dominion status as an eventual goal, but disagreement over timing and power remained.

Knowledge check

1. Why was non-cooperation more than passive protest? 2. Why should disagreement in the 1920s not be treated as proof that partition was inevitable?

3. Consultation and confrontation, 1930-42

Three Round Table Conferences attempted to design a constitutional settlement. They failed because British governments, Congress, Muslim representatives, princes and minorities disagreed about federation, responsibility and representation. Failure still mattered: it clarified competing claims and shaped later legislation.

The Communal Award of 1932 proposed separate electorates for several communities, including the Depressed Classes. Gandhi opposed a separate electorate for the latter and fasted in prison. The agreement commonly called the Poona or Yeravda Pact reserved seats within a joint electorate. B. R. Ambedkar's independent defence of Dalit political power must not be collapsed into Gandhi's outlook.

The Government of India Act 1935 introduced provincial autonomy, although its planned federation was not implemented and the British retained reserve powers. Congress performed strongly in the 1937 elections and governed several provinces. This demonstrated organisational reach but also exposed internal tensions. The Muslim League initially performed unevenly, then used the experience of Congress ministries to rebuild support and argue that Muslims required stronger protection.

In 1939 the Viceroy declared India at war without consulting Indian leaders. Congress ministries resigned. The League marked a day of deliverance and in 1940 adopted the Lahore Resolution, calling for Muslim-majority areas to become independent states or units. Its wording did not fix the final borders or exact constitutional form of Pakistan. The August Offer failed to settle the crisis, while Bose pursued armed struggle with Axis assistance.

Knowledge check

1. What did provincial autonomy change, and what British powers remained? 2. Why was the Lahore Resolution important without being a complete plan for 1947?

4. War, withdrawal, partition and independence, 1942-48

The Second World War transformed the balance of power. Japanese advance threatened India, wartime mobilisation reshaped the economy, and Britain depended heavily on Indian resources. The United States pressed against traditional imperial arrangements, although strategic priorities limited that pressure.

The Cripps Mission of 1942 offered post-war dominion status and allowed provinces to reject a future union, but it did not transfer immediate wartime power. Congress rejected it and launched Quit India. British authorities imprisoned leaders and suppressed protest. The Muslim League expanded while Congress leadership was confined. The Bengal famine of 1943 killed on a vast scale through interacting harvest, market, transport, wartime and government failures; no single explanation is sufficient.

After 1945 Britain had less financial and political capacity to sustain the Raj. Labour was committed to transfer but faced incompatible claims. Elections strengthened Congress and the League in their respective constituencies. The Cabinet Mission proposed a loose federal union, but disagreement over central power, provincial grouping and sovereignty destroyed it. Direct Action in 1946 and subsequent communal violence further narrowed the space for compromise. An interim government under Nehru did not resolve the conflict.

Lord Mountbatten accelerated the transfer of power. Partition resulted from longer arguments about representation and sovereignty combined with late, contingent decisions; it was not the automatic product of ancient hatred. The Boundary Commission worked under extreme time pressure. Independence in August 1947 created India and Pakistan, but division triggered mass migration, dispossession and killing. British withdrawal, independence and partition were connected developments, not one simple event.

Knowledge check

1. Why did the Second World War weaken British rule more decisively than the First? 2. Which factors made the 1945-47 search for a united settlement fail?

Anchor chronology

• 1916: Lucknow Pact and Home Rule agitation.
• 1917: Montagu Declaration.
• 1919: Rowlatt Acts, Amritsar massacre and Government of India Act.
• 1920-22: non-cooperation movement.
• 1929: Lahore Congress adopts Purna Swaraj.
• 1930: Salt March and First Round Table Conference.
• 1932: Communal Award and Poona/Yeravda Pact.
• 1935: Government of India Act.
• 1937: provincial elections and Congress ministries.
• 1940: Lahore Resolution.
• 1942: Cripps Mission and Quit India.
• 1943: Bengal famine.
• 1946: Cabinet Mission, Direct Action and interim government.
• August 1947: independence and partition.

How to answer this Paper 2 option

For Section A, identify each source's argument, then evaluate it using provenance, language, purpose and precise contextual knowledge. Do not dismiss a source merely because it is biased: ask how its position affects what it reveals and what it cannot establish. Compare the two sources where useful, but evaluate each in relation to the enquiry.

For Section B, answer the exact concept and dates. Build a judgement from criteria such as political reach, ability to alter British decisions, organisational strength, coercive capacity or effect on constitutional possibilities. Use evidence from across the relevant key topics. Avoid a narrative that merely lists events.

Final retrieval check

1. How did war reshape Indian politics in both world wars? 2. How did British policy combine reform and coercion? 3. How did Gandhi change Congress strategy, and what were the limits of his control? 4. Why did relations between Congress and the Muslim League deteriorate? 5. What did the 1935 Act change? 6. Why did the Cabinet Mission fail? 7. Why was partition contingent rather than inevitable? 8. How would you evaluate a contemporary source about Quit India or Direct Action?

Your next action

Retell the four-part story without notes. Then choose one turning point – 1919, 1930, 1937, 1942 or 1946 – and explain both what changed and what remained unresolved. When you can do that clearly, practise one source evaluation and one causal essay plan.