World War I was a victory for democracy for non-European powers like India and Iran in Persia, as they were able to be independent from British control. The end of European imperialism started these countries’ democracies as Britain had less power to dictate affairs of non-European powers. Each country had different hardships and challenges as India struggled with ethno-religious differences and Iran struggled with secularism and religion. However, even though the nature of gaining independence varied for each country, both India and Iran used modernization and nationalism efforts to achieve independence from European influence.

When India got independence from British influence, one of the main challenges in India was managing ethno-religious differences. However, through the use of secular nationalism, India was able to gain independence from Britain. In 1919, the Indian government established reforms to expand the participation and power of Indian citizens over politics to give Indian citizens more political power in India, since Britain still held a lot of authority over the Indian government (118). The disappointments following World War I made Gandhi, an Indian lawyer, start a Indian nationalist movement against British rule in the Indian government. This peaceful, yet powerful nationalist movement stood against Britain rule and Gandhi was hoping to bring together the different religions in the effort to build Indian nationalism — less “required” more that it was a goal — he was somewhat successful, but ultimately did not fully achieve this goal and he was eventually assassinated by a Hindu extremist because of his efforts to support the Muslim minority. The Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs were able to temporarily put aside their differences to fight against British rule in Indian affairs, but these conflicts and tensions rise and lower over time, and never fully go away. Thus, in 1946, the Muslim league helped permanantly remove the British from the Indian government (126). As independence became more immediate in the Indian government, these conflicts within the ethno-religious groups became more acute. The hasty departure of Britain did not solve the problems and pain of the Indo-Pakistani to the South Asians who crossed the border — conflicts still rose in India due to ethno-religious differences. Thus, the tense atmosphere in India added with the fear of massacres affected communities to the point where 10–15 million people left their homes to find a safer place to live, divided based on one’s religion: the Hindus and Sikhs moved to India while Muslisms traveled to Pakistan. The partition and violence amongst the ethno-religious groups ended up in a million deaths because to revenge-killings. Even though the different ethno-religious groups didn’t fully accept each other’s religions, they were able to come together in nationalist aspirations against Britain’s authority in the Indian government.

One of the key challenges Persian nationalists faced in statebuilding was modernization and secular nationalism on their path to democracy and independence from Britain. In the wake of World War I, Britain tried to maintain power in Persia to protect their oil interests, but couldn’t afford to maintain an occupation force in Persia (204). At this time, Persia was occupied by the Russians and Britain and the state was on the edge of total breakdown; hence, British envoys encouraged Reza Shah to take leadership in Persia to improve its economy (204). Britain hoped to maintain power over Persia without putting in employing British force. However, Reza Shah’s leadership in 1926 was the start of independence for Persia from Britain influence. The shah made a political blueprint called the “New Order” that promoted modernization, centralization, nationalism, and westernization to gain independence from Britain’s influence (204). Specifically, Reza Shah used defensive developmentalism by expanding the military and put a divide between Persia and foreigners to eliminate foreign control of Persia’s economy. Defensive development removed Europe from all Iranian affairs, separating and unifying Iran from other powers. As part of the state-making process, in 1935, Reza Shah changed the name of Persia to Iran to empower and unify citizens with a national identity. Due to Reza Shah’s motivations for Iranian nationalism, Reza Shah enforced secularism to prioritize the role of the state above religion; he limited the state’s engagement in religion by banning ethnic and religious clothing (112). Reza Shah used secular nationalism to centralize and unify Iran’s power from a once divided state. Thus, Reza Shah’s New Order changed the fate of Iran by improving and unifying Iran from a shambled and tattered state. Reza Shah’s rule and his changes brought Iran the institutions of modern state that expanded into new domains and formed a powerful nation away from Britain’s influence.

The pattern emerging within these non-European countries, India and Iran, is the slow journey to freedom from European imperialism and being under European control. While India used a strong nationalist movement to break free from European influence, Iran used methods of westernization and defensive developmentalism to modernize their government and become independent.