The All-India Muslim League adopts a resolution calling for independent states in Muslim-majority areas, a step towards the creation of Pakistan.
The Congress launches a campaign demanding an immediate end to British rule in India; Gandhi and other leaders are arrested.
A wartime famine in British-ruled Bengal kills an estimated two to three million people.
British India is partitioned into the independent dominions of India and Pakistan, accompanied by mass migration and violence.
Gandhi is shot dead in New Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist.
Ceylon becomes an independent dominion within the Commonwealth, ending British colonial rule.
Gandhi leads a nonviolent march to Dandi to make salt in defiance of the British salt tax, launching the civil disobedience movement.