ABSTRACT
While this quotation, from Rajendra Prasad’s speech on the occasion of the independence of India, may seem rather obsequious – particularly as it was made in the presence of the last Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten – it is important when assessing the nature of the struggle for Indian independence. It stresses that there were many factors which were vital for the movement’s success: the strategy and tactics of the participants themselves, the international context, and, perhaps most importantly if India and Tibet are to be compared, the attitudes and responses of the colonising forces.
