Indian independence movement

The Indian independence movement consisted of efforts by India to obtain political independence from British, French and Portuguese rule; it involved a wide spectrum of Indian political organizations, philosophies, and rebellions between 1857 and India's independence on August 15, 1947.

The initial Indian rebellion of 1857 was sparked when soldiers serving in the British East India Company's British Indian Army and Indian kingdoms rebelled against British hegemony. After the revolt was crushed, India developed a class of educated elites whose political organising sought Indian political rights and representation while largely remaining loyal to the British Empire. However, increasing public disenchantment with British rule — owing to the suppression of civil liberties, political rights, and culture as well as alienation from issues facing common Indians — led to an upsurge in revolutionary activities aimed at overthrowing British authority.

The movement came to a head when between 1918 and 1922, the first series of non-violent campaigns of civil disobedience were launched by the Indian National Congress under the leadership of Mohandas Gandhi. Gandhi and the Congress took charge of the movement, which comprised large numbers of peoples from across India and obtained cultural, religious, and political unity. Committing itself to Purna Swaraj in 1930, the Congress led mass struggles between 1930 and 1932, followed by an all-out revolt in 1942 demanding that the British leave India (a movement called the Quit India Movement). The raising of the Indian National Army in 1942 by Subhash Chandra Bose would see a unique — though ultimately futile — military campaign to end British rule. Following the trial of Indian National Army officers at the Red Fort, a Naval Mutiny in Bombay, and widespread communal rioting in Calcutta, on 15th August, 1947, India gained independence from British rule, but only at the expense of the Partition of the country into India and Pakistan.

European rule

European traders came to Indian shores with the arrival of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498 at the port of Calicut in search of the lucrative spice trade. After the 1757 Battle of Plassey, during which the British army under Robert Clive defeated the Nawab of Bengal, the British East India Company established itself. This is widely seen as the beginning of the British Raj in India. The Company gained administrative rights over Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa in 1765 after the Battle of Buxar.

The British parliament enacted a series of laws to handle the administration of the newly-conquered provinces, including the Regulating Act of 1773, the India Act of 1784, and the Charter Act of 1813; all enhanced the British government's rule. In 1835 English was made the medium of instruction. Western-educated Hindu elites sought to rid Hinduism of controversial social practices, including the varna (caste) system, child marriage, and sati. Literary and debating societies initiated in Bombay and Madras became fora for open political discourse. The Educational attainment and skilful use of the press by these early reformers meant that the possibility grew for effecting broad reforms, all without compromising larger Indian social values and religious practices.

Even while these modernising trends influenced Indian society, Indians increasingly despised British rule. The memoirs of Henry Ouvry of the 9th Lancers record many "a good thrashing" to careless servants. A spice merchant, Frank Brown, wrote to his nephew that stories of maltreatment of servants had not been exaggerated and that he knew people who kept orderlies "purposely to thrash them". As the British increasingly dominated the continent, they grew increasingly abusive of local customs by, for example, staging parties in mosques, dancing to the music of regimental bands on the terrace of the Taj Mahal, using whips to force their way through crowded bazaars (as recounted by General Henry Blake), and mistreating sepoys. In the years after the annexation of Punjab in 1849, several mutinies among sepoys broke out; these were put down by force.

Regional movements prior to 1857

Several regional movements against foreign rule were staged in various parts of pre-1857 India. However, they were not united and were easily controlled by the foreign rulers. Examples include an 1787 ethnic revolt against Portuguese control of Goa known as the Conspiracy of the Pintos and uprisings by South Indian local chieftains against British rule. Notable among the latter is Veerapandiya Kattabomman, who ruled the present-day Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu. He questioned the need for native Indians to pay taxes on agricultural produce to foreign rulers and battled the British until the latter, victorious, hanged him. An Advanced History of India. By Majumder, Raychoudhary, Datta. Other movements included the Santal Rebellion and the resistance offered to the British by Titumir in Bengal.

1857: The First War of Independence

The First War Of Indian Independence, or The Indian Mutiny (also Sepoy Mutiny) as the British like to call it, was a period of uprising in northern and central India against British rule in 1857-1858.

The rebellion was the result of decades of ethnic and cultural differences between Indian soldiers and their British officers. The indifference of the British towards Indian rulers like the Mughals and ex-Peshwas and the ruthless annexation of Oudh were political factors triggering dissent amongst Indians. Dalhousie’s policy of annexation, the Doctrine of lapse or escheat, and the projected removal of the descendants of the Great Mughal from their ancestral palace to the Qutb, near Delhi also angered some people. The specific reason that triggered the rebellion was the rumoured use of cow and pig fat in .557 calibre Pattern 1853 Enfield (P/53) rifle cartridges. Soldiers had to break the cartridges with their teeth before loading them into their rifles, so if there was cow and pig fat, it would be offensive to Hindu and Muslim soldiers. In February 1857, sepoys (Indian soldiers in the British army) refused to use their new cartridges. The British claimed to have replaced the cartridges with new ones and tried to make sepoys make their own grease from beeswax and vegetable oils, but the rumour persisted.

In March 1857, Mangal Pandey, a soldier of the 34th Native Infantry, attacked his British sergeant and wounded an adjutant. General Hearsay, who said Pandey was in some kind of "religious frenzy," ordered a jemadar to arrest him but the jemadar refused. Mangal Pandey was hanged on 7 April along with the jemadar. The whole regiment was dismissed as a collective punishment. On May 10th, when the 11th and 20th cavalry assembled, they broke rank and turned on their commanding officers. They then liberated the 3rd Regiment, and on 11 May, the sepoys reached Delhi and were joined by other Indians. Soon, the revolt spread throughout the northern India. Some notable leaders were Ahmed Ullah, an advisor of the ex-King of Oudh; Nana Saheb; his nephew Rao Saheb and his retainers, Tantia Topi and Azimullah Khan; the Rani of Jhansi; Kunwar Singh; the Rajput chief of Jagadishpur in Bihar; and Firuz Saha, a relative of the Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah.

The Red Fort, the residence of the last Mughal emperor Bahadur, was attacked and captured by the sepoys. They demanded that he reclaim his throne. He was reluctant at first, but eventually agreed to the demands and became the leader of the rebellion.

About the same time in Jhansi, the army rebelled and killed the British army officers. Revolts also broke out in places like Meerut, Kanpur, Lucknow etc. The British were slow to respond, but eventually responded with brute force. British moved regiments from the Crimean War and diverted European regiments headed for China to India. The British fought the main army of the rebels near Delhi in Badl-ke-Serai and drove them back to Delhi before laying a siege on the city. The siege of Delhi lasted roughly from 1 July to 31 August. After a week of street fighting, the British retook the city. The last significant battle was fought in Gwalior on 20 June 1858. It was during this battle that Rani Lakshmi Bai was killed. Sporadic fighting continued until 1859 but most of the rebels were subdued.

Aftermath

The war of 1857 was a major turning point in the history of modern India. The British abolished the British East India Company and replaced it with direct rule under the British crown. A Viceroy was appointed to represent the Crown. In proclaiming the new direct-rule policy to "the Princes, Chiefs, and Peoples of India," Queen Victoria promised equal treatment under British law, but Indian mistrust of British rule had become a legacy of the 1857 rebellion.

The British embarked on a program of reform, trying to integrate Indian higher castes and rulers into the government. They stopped land grabs, decreed religious tolerance and admitted Indians into civil service, albeit mainly as subordinates. They also increased the number of British soldiers in relation to native ones and allowed only British soldiers to handle artillery.

Bahadur Shah was exiled to Rangoon, Burma where he died in 1862, finally bringing the Mughal dynasty to an end. In 1877, Queen Victoria took the title of Empress of India.

Rise of organised movements

The decades following the Sepoy Rebellion were a period of growing political awareness, manifestation of Indian public opinion and emergence of Indian leadership at national and provincial levels.

The influences of socio-religious groups, especially in a nation where religion plays a vital role cannot be undermined. The Arya Samaj was an important Hindu organization which sought to reform Hindu society of social evils, counter-act Christian missionary propaganda. Swami Dayanand Saraswati's work was important in increasing an attitude of self-awareness, pride and community service in common Indian peoples. Raja Ram Mohan Roy's Brahmo Samaj was also a pioneer in the reform of Indian society, fighting evils like sati, dowry, ignorance and illiteracy.

The inculcation of religious reform and social pride was fundamental to the rise of a public movement for complete independence. The work of men like Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Sri Aurobindo, Subramanya Bharathy, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Rabindranath Tagore and Dadabhai Naoroji spread the passion for rejuvenation and freedom. Lokmanya Tilak, though with non-moderate views, was very popular amongst the masses. He gave the concept of "Swaraj" to the Indian peoples while standing trial. His popular sentence "Swaraj is my Birthright, and I shall have it" became the source of inspiration for Indians. The flames of the spirit of freedom were ignited by learned men like them, who gave reason for common Indians to feel proud of themselves, demand political and social freedom and seek happiness. They were the teachers who sparked the passion of learning and achievement for thousands of Indians, and the poets expressing the inner fires of the freedom-fighter's soul.

Inspired by a suggestion made by A.O. Hume, a retired British civil servant, seventy-three Indian delegates met in Bombay in 1885 and founded the Indian National Congress. They were mostly members of the upwardly mobile and successful western-educated provincial elites, engaged in professions such as law, teaching, and journalism. They had acquired political experience from regional competition in the professions and by securing nomination to various positions in legislative councils, universities, and special commissions.

It should be noted that Dadabhai Naoroji had already formed the Indian National Association a few years before the Congress. The INA merged into the Congress Party to form a bigger national front.

At its inception, the Congress had no well-defined ideology and commanded few of the resources essential to a political organization. It functioned more as a debating society that met annually to express its loyalty to the British Raj and passed numerous resolutions on less controversial issues such as civil rights or opportunities in government, especially the civil service. These resolutions were submitted to the Viceroy's government and occasionally to the British Parliament, but the Congress's early gains were meagre. Despite its claim to represent all India, the Congress voiced the interests of urban elites; the number of participants from other economic backgrounds remained negligible.

By 1900, although the Congress had emerged as an all-India political organization, its achievement was undermined by its singular failure to attract Muslims, who felt that their representation in government service was inadequate. Attacks by Hindu reformers against religious conversion, cow slaughter, and the preservation of Urdu in Arabic script deepened their concerns of minority status and denial of rights if the Congress alone were to represent the people of India. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan launched a movement for Muslim regeneration that culminated in the founding in 1875 of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh (renamed Aligarh Muslim University in 1921). Its objective was to educate wealthy students by emphasizing the compatibility of Islam with modern western knowledge. The diversity among India's Muslims, however, made it impossible to bring about uniform cultural and intellectual regeneration.

Partition of Bengal

In 1905, Lord Curzon, the Viceroy and Governor-General (1899-1905), ordered the partition of the province of Bengal for improvements in administrative efficiency in that huge and populous region, where the Bengali Hindu intelligentsia exerted considerable influence on local and national politics. The partition created two provinces: Eastern Bengal & Assam, with its capital at Dhaka, and West Bengal, with its capital at Calcutta (which also served as the capital of British India). An ill-conceived and hastily implemented action, the partition outraged Bengalis. Not only had the government failed to consult Indian public opinion, but the action appeared to reflect the British resolve to divide and rule. Widespread agitation ensued in the streets and in the press, and the Congress advocated boycotting British products under the banner of swadeshi. During this period nationalist poet Rabindranath Tagore penned and composed a song (roughly translated into English as "The soil of Bengal, the water of Bengal be hallowed ... ") and himself led people to the streets singing the song and tying Rakhi on each other's wrists. The people did not cook any food (Arandhan) on that day.

The Congress-led boycott of British goods was so successful that it unleashed anti-British forces to an extent unknown since the Sepoy Rebellion. A cycle of violence and repression ensued in some parts of the country (see Alipore bomb case). The British tried to mitigate the situation by announcing a series of constitutional reforms in 1909 and by appointing a few moderates to the imperial and provincial councils. A Muslim deputation met with the Viceroy, Lord Minto (1905-10), seeking concessions from the impending constitutional reforms, including special considerations in government service and electorates. The All-India Muslim League was founded the same year to promote loyalty to the British and to advance Muslim political rights, which the British recognized by increasing the number of elective offices reserved for Muslims in the India Councils Act of 1909. The Muslim League insisted on its separateness from the Hindu-dominated Congress, as the voice of a "nation within a nation."

In what the British saw as an additional goodwill gesture, in 1911 King-Emperor George V visited India for a durbar (a traditional court held for subjects to express fealty to their ruler), during which he announced the reversal of the partition of Bengal and the transfer of the capital from Calcutta to a newly planned city to be built immediately south of Delhi, which later became New Delhi.

World War I

World War I began with an unprecedented outpouring of loyalty and goodwill towards the United Kingdom, contrary to initial British fears of an Indian revolt. India contributed generously to the British war effort by providing men and resources. About 1.3 million Indian soldiers and labourers served in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, while both the Indian government and the princes sent large supplies of food, money, and ammunition. But high casualty rates, soaring inflation compounded by heavy taxation, a widespread influenza epidemic, and the disruption of trade during the war escalated human suffering in India. The prewar nationalist movement revived, as moderate and extremist groups within the Congress submerged their differences in order to stand as a unified front. In 1916, the Congress succeeded in forging the Lucknow Pact, a temporary alliance with the Muslim League over the issues of devolution of political power and the future of Islam in the region.

The British themselves adopted a "carrot and stick" approach in recognition of India's support during the war and in response to renewed nationalist demands. In August 1917, Edwin Montagu, the secretary of state for India, made the historic announcement in Parliament that the British policy for India was "increasing association of Indians in every branch of the administration and the gradual development of self-governing institutions with a view to the progressive realization of responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire." The means of achieving the proposed measure were later enshrined in the Government of India Act of 1919, which introduced the principle of a dual mode of administration, or diarchy, in which both elected Indian legislators and appointed British officials shared power. The act also expanded the central and provincial legislatures and widened the franchise considerably. Diarchy set in motion certain real changes at the provincial level: a number of non-controversial or "transferred" portfolios, such as agriculture, local government, health, education, and public works, were handed over to Indians, while more sensitive matters such as finance, taxation, and maintaining law and order were retained by the provincial British administrators.

The Rowlatt Act and its aftermath

The positive impact of reform was seriously undermined in 1919 by the Rowlatt Act, named after the recommendations made the previous year to the Imperial Legislative Council by the Rowlatt Commission, which had been appointed to investigate "seditious conspiracy." The Rowlatt Act, also known as the Black Act, vested the Viceroy's government with extraordinary powers to quell sedition by silencing the press, detaining political activists without trial, and arresting any individuals suspected of sedition or treason without a warrant. In protest, a nationwide cessation of work (hartal) was called, marking the beginning of widespread, although not nationwide, popular discontent.

The agitation unleashed by the acts culminated on 13 April 1919, in the Amritsar Massacre (also known as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre) in Amritsar, Punjab. The British military commander, Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, ordered his soldiers to fire into an unarmed and unsuspecting crowd of some 10,000 people. They had assembled at Jallianwala Bagh, a walled garden, to celebrate Baisakhi, a Sikh festival, without prior knowledge of the imposition of martial law. A total of 1,650 rounds were fired, killing 379 people and wounding 1,137 in the episode, which dispelled wartime hopes of home rule and goodwill in a frenzy of post-war reaction.

The Gandhian generation

India's option for an entirely original path to obtaining swaraj (self-rule, sometimes translated as Home Rule or Independence) was due largely to Mahatma Gandhi, (Mahatma meaning Great Soul). A native of Gujarat who had been educated in the United Kingdom, he had been a timid lawyer with a modest practice. His legal career lasted a short time, since he immediately took to fighting for just causes on behalf of the Indian community in South Africa. Gandhi had accepted an invitation in 1893 to represent indentured Indian labourers in South Africa, where he stayed on for more than twenty years, lobbying against racial discrimination. Gandhi's battle was not only against basic discrimination and abusive labour treatment; it was in protest of suppressive police control akin to the Rowlatt Acts. After several months of non-violent protests and arrests of thousands of indentured labourers, the ruler of South Africa, Gen. Jan Smuts released all prisoners and repealed the oppressive legislation. A young, timid Indian was now blooded in the art of revolution, and well on course to Mahatma-hood. His victory in South Africa excited many Indians at home.

He returned to India in 1915, virtually a stranger to public life but fired with a patriotic vision of a new India. It should be noted, however, that Gandhi did not yet believe that political independence from the Empire was the solution to India's problems. Upon his return, he had candidly stated that if as a citizen of the Empire, he wanted freedom and protection, it would be wrong of him not to aid in the defence of the Empire during World War I.

A veteran Congressman and Indian leader Gopal Krishna Gokhale became Gandhi's mentor, and Gandhi travelled widely across the country for years, through different provinces, villages and cities, learning about India's cultures, the life of the vast majority of Indians, their difficulties and tribulations.

Gandhi's ideas and strategies of non-violent civil disobedience initially appeared impractical to some Indians and veteran Congressmen. In Gandhi's own words, "civil disobedience is civil breach of unmoral statutory enactments," but as he viewed it, it had to be carried out non-violently by withdrawing cooperation with the corrupt state. Gandhi's ability to inspire millions of common people was initiated when he used satyagraha during the anti-Rowlatt Act protests in Punjab.

In Champaran, Bihar, Gandhi took up the cause of desperately poor sharecroppers, landless farmers who were being forced to grow cash crops at the expense of crops which formed their food supply, and pay horrendously oppressive taxes. Neither were they sufficiently paid to buy food. By now, Gandhi had shed his European dress for self-woven khadi dhotis and shawls, as is seen in the picture at the head of the article and his most famous pictures.

This simple Gandhi instantly electrified millions of poor, common Indians. He was one of them, not a fancy, educated elitist Indian. His arrest by police caused major protests throughout the province and the British government was forced to release him, and grant the demands of Gandhi and the farmers of Bihar, which were the freedom to grow the crops of their choosing, exemption from taxation when hurt by famine or drought, and proper compensation for cash crops.

It was with his victory in Champaran, that Gandhi was lovingly accorded the title of Mahatma. It was given not by journalists or observers, but the very millions of people for whom he had come to fight.

In 1920, under Gandhi's leadership, the Congress was reorganized and given a new constitution, whose goal was Swaraj (independence). Membership in the party was opened to anyone prepared to pay a token fee, and a hierarchy of committees was established and made responsible for discipline and control over a hitherto amorphous and diffuse movement. The party was transformed from an elite organization to one of mass national appeal and participation.

Gandhi always stressed that the movement should not be directed against the British people, but the unjust system of foreign administration. British officers and leaders are human beings, emphasized Gandhi, and capable of the same mistakes of intolerance, racism and cruelty as the common Indian or any other human being. Punishment for these sins was God's task, and not the mission of the freedom movement. But the liberation of 350 million people from colonial and social tyranny definitely was.

During his first nationwide satyagraha, Gandhi urged the people to boycott British educational institutions, law courts, and products; to resign from government employment; to refuse to pay taxes; and to forsake British titles and honours. Although this came too late to influence the framing of the new Government of India Act of 1919, the magnitude of disorder resulting from the movement was unparalleled and presented a new challenge to foreign rule. Over 10 million people protested according to Gandhi's guidelines in all cities and thousands of towns and villages in every part of the country. But Gandhi made a tough decision and called off the campaign in 1922 because of an atrocious murder of policemen in Chauri Chaura by a mob of agitators. He was deeply distressed with the act, and the possibility that crowds of protestors would lose control like this in different parts of the country, causing the fight for national freedom to degenerate into a chaotic orgy of bloodshed, where Englishmen would be murdered by mobs, and the British forces would retaliate against innocent civilians. He felt Indians needed more discipline and had to understand that they were not out to punish the British, but to expose the cruelty and evil behind their discrimination and tyranny. As much as liberating India, he hoped to reform the British, see them as friends and break the back of racism and colonialism across the world.

He was imprisoned in 1922 for six years, but served only two. On his release from prison, he set up the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, on the banks of river Sabarmati, established the newspaper Young India, and inaugurated a series of reforms aimed at the socially disadvantaged within Hindu society - the rural poor, and the untouchables.

Emerging leaders within the Congress -- C. Rajagopalachari (Rajaji), Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, and others-- championed Gandhi's leadership in articulating nationalist aspirations. The Indian political spectrum was further broadened in the mid-1920s by the emergence of both moderate and militant parties, such as the Swaraj Party, Hindu Mahasabha, Communist Party of India and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Regional political organizations also continued to represent the interests of non-Brahmins in Madras, Mahars in Maharashtra, and Sikhs in Punjab.

Dandi March and the civil disobedience movement

Following the rejection of the recommendations of the Simon Commission by Indians, an all-party conference was held at Bombay in May 1928. The conference appointed a drafting committee under Motilal Nehru to draw up a constitution for India. The Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress asked the British government to accord dominion status to India by December 1929, or a countrywide civil disobedience movement would be launched. The Indian National Congress, at its historic Lahore session in December 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, adopted a resolution to gain complete independence from the British. It authorised the Working Committee to launch a civil disobedience movement throughout the country. It was decided that 26 January 1930 should be observed all over India as the Purna Swaraj (complete independence) Day. Many Indian political parties and Indian revolutionaries of a wide spectrum united to observe the day with honour and pride.

Gandhi emerged from his long seclusion by undertaking his most famous campaign, a march of about 400 kilometres from his commune in Ahmedabad to Dandi, on the coast of Gujarat between 12 March and 6 April, 1930. The march is usually known as the Dandi March or the Salt Satyagraha. At Dandi, in protest against British taxes on salt, he and thousands of followers broke the law by making their own salt from seawater.

In April 1930 there were violent police-crowd clashes in Calcutta. Approximately over 100,000 people were imprisoned in the course of the Civil disobedience movement (1930-31), while in Peshawar unarmed demonstrators were fired upon in the Qissa Khwani bazaar massacre. While Gandhi was in jail, the first Round Table Conference was held in London in November 1930, without representation from the Indian National Congress. The ban upon the Congress was removed because of economic hardships caused by the satyagraha. Gandhi, along with other members of the Congress Working Committee, was released from prison in January 1931.

In March of 1931, the Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed, and the government agreed to set all political prisoners free. In return, Gandhi agreed to discontinue the civil disobedience movement and participate as the sole representative of the Congress in the second Round Table Conference, which was held in London in September 1931. However, the conference ended in failure in December 1931. Gandhi returned to India and decided to resume the civil disobedience movement in January 1932.

For the next few years, the Congress and the government were locked in conflict and negotiations until what became the Government of India Act of 1935 could be hammered out. By then, the rift between the Congress and the Muslim League had become unbridgeable as each pointed the finger at the other acrimoniously. The Muslim League disputed the claim of the Congress to represent all people of India, while the Congress disputed the Muslim League's claim to voice the aspirations of all Muslims.

Revolutionary activities

Apart from a few stray incidents, the armed rebellion against the British rulers were not organized before the beginning of the 20th century. The revolutionary philosophies and movement made its presence felt during the 1905 Partition of Bengal. Arguably, the initial steps to organize the revolutionaries were taken by Aurobindo Ghosh, his brother Barin Ghosh, Bhupendranath Datta etc. when they formed the Jugantar party in April 1906 Banglapedia article by Mohammad Shah.Jugantar was created as an inner circle of the Anushilan Samiti which was already present in Bengal mainly as a revolutionary society in the guise of a fitness club.

The Jugantar party leaders like Barin Ghosh and Bagha Jatin initiated making of explosives. The Alipore bomb case, following the Muzaffarpur killing tried several activists and many were sentenced deportation for life, while Khudiram Bose was hanged. Madan Lal Dhingra, a student in London, murdered Sir Curzon Wylie, a British M.P. on 1 July 1909 in London.

The Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar opened several branches throughout Bengal and other parts of India and recruited young men and women to participate in the revolutionary activities. Several murders and looting were done, with many revolutionaries being captured and imprisoned. During the First World War, the revolutionaries planned to import arms and ammunitions from Germany and stage an armed revolution against the British. Rowlatt Report (§109-110}; First Spark of Revolution by A.C. Guha, pp424-434 .

The Ghadar Party operated from abroad and cooperated with the revolutionaries in India. This party was instrumental in helping revolutionaries inside India catch hold of foreign arms.

After the First World War, the revolutionary activities suffered major setbacks due to the arrest of prominent leaders. In 1920s, the revolutionary activists started to reorganize. Hindustan Socialist Republican Association was formed under the leadership of Chandrasekhar Azad. Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw a bomb inside the Central Legislative Assembly on 8 April 1929 protesting against the passage of the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Bill. Following the trial (Central Assembly Bomb Case), Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were hanged in 1931.

Surya Sen, along with other activists, raided the Chittagong armoury on 18 April 1930 to capture arms and ammunition and to destroy government communication system to establish a local governance. Pritilata Waddedar led an attack on European club in Chittagong in 1932, while Bina Das attempted to assassinate Stanley Jackson, the Governor of Bengal inside the convocation hall of Calcutta University. Following the Chittagong armoury raid case, Surya Sen was hanged and several other were deported for life to the Cellular Jail in Andaman.

The Bengal Volunteers started operating in 1928. On 8 December 1930, the Benoy-Badal-Dinesh trio of the party entered the secretariat Writers' Building in Kolkata and murdered Col NS Simpson, the Inspector General of Prisons.

On 13 March 1940, Udham Singh shot Sir Michael O'Dwyer, generally held responsible for the Amritsar Massacre, in London. However, as the political scenario changed in the late 1930s - with the mainstream leaders considering several options offered by the British and the religious politics coming into play - the revolutionary activities gradually declined. Many past revolutionaries joined mainstream politics by joining Congress and other parties, especially communist parties, while many of the activists were kept under hold in different jails across the country.

Elections and the Lahore resolution

The Government of India Act 1935, the voluminous and final constitutional effort at governing British India, articulated three major goals: establishing a loose federal structure, achieving provincial autonomy, and safeguarding minority interests through separate electorates. The federal provisions, intended to unite princely states and British India at the centre, were not implemented because of ambiguities in safeguarding the existing privileges of princes. In February 1937, however, provincial autonomy became a reality when elections were held; the Congress emerged as the dominant party with a clear majority in five provinces and held an upper hand in two, while the Muslim League performed poorly.

In 1939, the Viceroy Lord Linlithgow declared India's entrance into World War II without consulting provincial governments. In protest, the Congress asked all of its elected representatives to resign from the government. Jinnah, the president of the Muslim League, persuaded participants at the annual Muslim League session at Lahore in 1940 to adopt what later came to be known as the Lahore Resolution, demanding the division of India into two separate sovereign states, one Muslim, the other Hindu; sometimes referred as Two Nation Theory. Although the idea of Pakistan had been introduced as early as 1930, very few had responded to it. However, the volatile political climate and hostilities between the Hindus and Muslims transformed the idea of Pakistan into a stronger demand.

The Climax: Second World War

Indians throughout the country were divided over World War II, as the British had unilaterally and without consulting the elected representatives of Indians, entered India into the war. Some wanted to support the British, especially through the Battle of Britain, hoping for independence eventually through this backing during the UK's most critical life-death struggle. Others were enraged by the British disregard for Indian intelligence and civil rights. Many found the allied cause self contradictory and self serving. The British wanted the Indians to fight and die in the name of the very freedom that they were denying the Indians.

In a climate of frustration, anger and other tumultuous emotions, arose two movements that formed the climax of the 100-year struggle for independence

The Indian National Army

The arbitrary entry of India into the war was strongly opposed by Subhash Chandra Bose, who had been elected President of the Congress twice, in 1937 and 1939. After lobbying against participation in the war, he resigned from Congress in 1939 and started a new party, the All India Forward Bloc. He was placed under house arrest, but escaped in 1941. He surfaced in Germany, and enlisted German and Japanese help to fight the British in India. In 1943, he travelled to Japan from Germany on board German and Japanese submarines. In Japan, he helped organize the Indian National Army (INA) and set up a government-in-exile. During the war, the Andaman and Nicobar islands were captured by the Japanese and were nominally handed over by them to the INA; Bose renamed them Shahid (Martyr) and Swaraj (Independence). The INA fought against British and Indian troops in northeastern India, hoping to liberate Indian territories under colonial rule. But the poorly equipped soldiers fighting in dense jungle and with little real support from the Japanese died by the thousands. Their courage and patriotism were insufficient to overcome these heavy odds, and in addition many had doubts both about Japan's commitment to Indian Independence in the event of victory, and about fighting their erstwhile colleagues in the Indian Army. The INA's efforts ended with the surrender of Japan in 1945. It is agreed by many that Subhash Chandra Bose was killed in an air crash in August 1945, but the circumstances of his death are still disputed.

Three Indian National Army officers were put on trial for treason at the Red Fort in Delhi, which sparked widespread protests and a Naval Mutiny in Bombay. As the British had chosen to prosecute one Hindu, one Sikh and one Muslim, they could hardly have given the Independence movement a better rallying-point, and for the last time Congress and the Muslim League joined forces to demand their release. Although they were found guilty, they were immediately set free when the trial ended. Subsequently the Congress Party, which had not supported Bose's use of violence, embraced those who died fighting for the INA and its surviving soldiers as heroes. The Congress set up a special fund to take care of the survivors and the families of the soldiers who lost their lives or were seriously wounded. The veterans of the INA were not permitted to enrol in the Indian Army after independence, but they were granted generous pensions and are still accorded considerable respect in India.

Subhas Chandra Bose's political legacy remains controversial, owing to his alliance with the Axis Powers, but in India he is widely revered as a patriotic hero.

Quit India

The Quit India Movement (Bharat Chhodo Andolan) was the final call, the definitive organized movement of civil disobedience for immediate independence of India from British rule issued by Mahatma Gandhi on August 8 1942, made famous by his slogan Do or Die. Unlike the previous two Gandhi-led revolts, Quit India was more controversial (as it was in the middle of World War II), and specifically designed to obtain the exit of the British from Indian shores after the failure of the Cripps Mission to satisfy any of Congress's immediate demands.

The Congress Party had earlier taken the initiative upon the outbreak of war to support the British, but were rebuffed when they asked for independence in return. On July 14 1942, the Indian National Congress passed a resolution demanding complete independence from the United Kingdom. The draft proposed that if the British did not accede to the demands, a massive Civil Disobedience would be launched. However, it was an extremely controversial decision. The Congress had lesser success in rallying other political forces under a single flag and mast.

On August 8 1942 the Quit India resolution was passed at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). At Gowalia Tank, Mumbai Gandhi urged Indians to follow a non-violent civil disobedience. Gandhi told the masses to act as an independent nation and not to follow the orders of the British. The British, already alarmed by the advance of the Japanese army to the India/Burma border, responded the next day by imprisoning Gandhi at the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. The Congress Party's Working Committee, or national leadership was arrested all together and imprisoned at the Ahmednagar Fort. They also banned the party altogether. Large-scale protests and demonstrations were held all over the country. Workers remained absent en masse and strikes were called. However, not all the demonstrations were peaceful. Bombs exploded, government buildings were set on fire, electricity was cut and transport and communication lines were severed.

The British swiftly responded by mass detentions. A total over 100,000 arrests were made nationwide, mass fines were levied, bombs were airdropped and demonstrators were subjected to public flogging.

The entire Congress leadership was cut-off from the rest of the world for over three years. Gandhi's wife Kasturba Gandhi died and personal secretary Mahadev Desai died in a short space of months, and Gandhi's own health was failing. Despite this, Gandhi went on protest 21-day fasts and maintained a superhuman resolve to continuous resistance. Although the British released Gandhi on account of his failing health in 1944, Gandhi kept up the resistance, demanding the complete release of the Congress leadership.

The war had sapped a lot of the economic, political and military life-blood of the Empire, and the powerful Indian resistance had shattered the spirit and will of the British government. It had made it clear that after the war, a greater movement would be launched and would succeed, as no excuse or distraction from the issue would remain. In addition, the British people and the British Army seemed unwilling to back a policy of repression in India and other parts of the Empire even as their own country lay shattered by the war's ravages. The writing was on the wall, and freedom only a matter of time.

By early 1946, all political prisoners had been released, and the British openly adopted a political dialogue with the Indian National Congress for the eventual independence of India. On August 15 1947, India won freedom.

Independence, 1947 to 1950

On 3 June 1947, Viscount Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last British Governor-General of India, announced the partitioning of the British Indian Empire into a secular India and a Muslim Pakistan. At midnight, on 15 August 1947, India became an independent nation. Violent clashes between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs followed this partition. Prime Minister Nehru and Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel invited Lord Mountbatten to continue as Governor General of India. He was replaced in June 1948 by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari. Patel took on the responsibility of unifying 565 princely states, steering efforts by his “iron fist in a velvet glove” policies, exemplified by the use of military force to integrate Junagadh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Hyderabad state into India.

The Constituent Assembly completed the work of drafting the constitution on 26 November 1949; on 26 January 1950 the Republic of India was officially proclaimed. The Constituent Assembly elected Dr. Rajendra Prasad as the first President of India, taking over from Governor General Rajgopalachari. Subsequently, a free and sovereign India absorbed two other territories: Goa (liberated from Portuguese control in 1961) and Pondicherry (which the French ceded in 1953-1954). In 1952, India held its first general elections, with a voter turnout exceeding 62%; in practice, this made India the world's largest democracy.

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European rule in India | Sovereignty movements | Indian independence movement

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