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Indian Independence movement

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Politics and government

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   The Indian Independence Movement incorporated the efforts by Indians to
   liberate the region from British, French and Portuguese and form the
   nation-state of India. It involved a wide spectrum of Indian political
   organizations, philosophies, and rebellions between 1857 and India's
   emergence as an unified nation-state on August 15, 1947.

   The initial Indian Rebellion of 1857 was sparked when soldiers serving
   in the British East India Company's British Army and Indian kingdoms
   rebelled against the British. After the revolt was crushed, the British
   partitioned the region into British India and the Princely States,
   focusing on the industrial development of the former region. India
   developed a class of educated elites whose political organizing sought
   Indian political rights and representation. However, increasing public
   disenchantment with the British authority— their curtailing of Indian
   civil liberties (such as the Rowlatt Act), political rights, and
   culture as well as alienation from issues facing common Indians — led
   to an upsurge in revolutionary activities aimed at overthrowing the
   European colonial powers, particularly the British.

   The movement came to a head between 1918 and 1922 when the first series
   of non-violent campaigns of civil disobedience were launched by the
   Indian National Congress under the leadership of Mohandas Gandhi- whose
   methods were inspired to a large extent by the philosophy and methods
   of Baba Ram Singh, a Sikh who led the Kuka Movement in the Punjab in
   the 1870s. Gandhi's movement came to encompass people from across India
   and across all walks of life. These initial civil-disobedience
   movements soon came to be the driving force that ultimately shaped the
   cultural, religious, and political unity of a then still dis-united
   nation. Committing itself to Purna Swaraj in 1930, the Congress led
   mass struggles between 1930 and 1932. By the late 1930s, however, with
   growing disenchantments over the delaying tactics of the Raj and the
   Congress's failure to extract commitment on self-rule and political
   independence, a faction within the movement turned towards more radical
   ideas of Subhash Chandra Bose. Bose's actions proved controversial
   among the congress party but popular within the Indian populace, when
   Bose defeated in Gandhi's candidate in leadership elections in the
   Tripuri Session of the Congress Working Committee. However, this was
   the parting of ways between the radical and the conservatives. Bose
   left the Congress to found his own party. During the war, who sought
   first Soviet and then Axis help to raise a liberation force. The
   raising of the Indian National Army in 1942 by Subhash Chandra Bose
   would see a unique military campaign to end British rule. Following the
   trial of Indian National Army officers at the Red Fort, mutinies broke
   out in the navy, in the Air Force, and in the army. The congress also
   led a civil disobedience movement in 1942 demanding that the British
   leave India (a movement called the Quit India Movement). Following
   these and widespread communal rioting in Calcutta, the Raj ended on the
   mid-night of 15th August, 1947, but only at the expense of the
   Partition of the country into India and Pakistan.

European rule

   Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive
   Enlarge
   Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive

   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. They then annexed Punjab in 1849 after the death of
   Maharaja Ranjit Singh d.1839 and the First Anglo-Sikh War (1845–1846)
   and then Second Anglo-Sikh War (1848-1849).

   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 skillful 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 the Sannyasi
   Rebellion in Bengal in the 1770s 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 Veerapandya 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. Other movements included the Santal Rebellion and the resistance
   offered to the British by Titumir in Bengal, the Kittur rebellion led
   by Rani Chennamma and Sangolli Rayanna in Karnataka.

The Indian Rebellion of 1857

   The Indian Rebellion of 1857
   Enlarge
   The Indian Rebellion of 1857

   The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a period of uprising in northern and
   central India against British rule in 1857–58.

   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 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 Sahib; his nephew Rao Sahib 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.
   Secundra Bagh after the 93rd Highlanders and 4th Punjab regiment fought
   the rebels, Nov 1857
   Enlarge
   Secundra Bagh after the 93rd Highlanders and 4th Punjab regiment fought
   the rebels, Nov 1857

   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.

   In Tamil Nadu (during 1910's) one of the earliest challenges to the
   Imperial British trade monopoly was attempted by V. O. Chidambaram
   Pillai. A lawyer born in Ottapidaram, Tirunelveli district of Tamil
   Nadu, he later started a small shipping company offering services to
   Ceylon in competition to the British, later to be arrested and put to
   rigorous imprisonment, with his bar license stripped. Later he would
   die penniless in Kovilpatti. He would later inspire another freedom
   fighter Vanjinathan, killed then collector Ash and shot himself.

   The inculcation of religious reform and social pride was fundamental to
   the rise of a public movement for complete nationhood. 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.

   The Moplah Rebellion occurred in 1921. It was a British-Muslim and
   Hindu-Muslim conflict in Kerala. The reasons for the Moplah rebellion
   are rooted in religious revivalism among the Muslim Moplahs (also known
   as Mappilas), disaffection with British governance, and resentment at
   the land owning Hindu Nair community. Events following the Khilafat
   movement helped organize Moplahs and gave impetus to their actions.
   During the early months of 1921, multiple events including the Khilafat
   movement and the Karachi resolution fueled the fires of rebellion. A
   rumour spread amongst the Moplahs that the British rule had ended and
   the Islamic Caliphate had been re-established at Delhi. On Aug 20, the
   first incident of the rebellion occurred at Tirurangadi when the
   District Magistrate of Calicut with the help of troops attempted to
   arrest a few Moplah leaders who were in the possession of arms,
   resulting in clashes. Arsonists took to the street, burning and
   destroying government property. The initial focus was on the British,
   but when the limited presence of the British was eliminated, Moplahs
   turned their full attention on the Hindus. By the end of 1921 the
   situation was brought back under control by the British with the help
   of a quasi-military battalion. According to official records, the
   government lost 43 troops with 126 wounded while the Moplahs lost 3,000
   (with Moplah accounts putting the number at over 10,000). Though this
   was an act of courage against British rule, it was also an act of
   savagery against the Hindus, on whom unspeakable crimes were committed,
   especially the women. Due to this, it is also considered as a jihad
   against all non-Muslims (Hindu and British) to impose Islamic rule in
   the area.

   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 massively 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 Amritsar Massacre
   Enlarge
   The Amritsar Massacre

   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

   Mahatma Gandhi
   Enlarge
   Mahatma Gandhi

   It can be argued that the movement, even towards the end of First World
   War, were far removed from the masses of India, focussing essentially
   on a unified commmerce-oriented territory and a far cry from the calls
   for an united nation, that came in the 1930s. Possibly one of the
   factors that brought this movement to the masses was the entry of
   Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in Indian Politics in 1915.

   Gandhi had been a prominent leader of anti apartheid movement in South
   Africa and had been vocal basic discrimination and abusive labour
   treatment as well as suppressive police control akin to the Rowlatt
   Acts. During these protests Gandhi had perfected the concept of
   satyagraha, on which he had been inspired by the philosophy of Baba Ram
   Singh(famous for leading the Kuka Movement in the Punjab in 1872). The
   end of the protests in the country saw repeal of the legislations and
   release of political prisoners by Gen. Jan Smuts, head of the South
   African Government of the time.

   However Gandhi, a stranger to India and it’s politics after twenty
   years, had initially entered the fray not with calls for a
   nation-state, but in support of the unified commmerce-oriented
   territory, that the Congress Party had been asking for. Gandhi,
   however, was of the opinion that the industrial development and
   educational development that the Europeans brought with them was
   required to uplift India's problems.

   A veteran Congressman and Indian leader Gopal Krishna Gokhale became
   Gandhi's mentor. 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.

   Gandhi’s vision would soon bring the population of millions into the
   movement. In Champaran, Bihar, the Congress Party brought forth the
   plight 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 oppressive taxes. Neither were they
   sufficiently paid for sustenance. It was at this time also that the
   nationalist cause was integrated to the interests and industries that
   formed the economy of common Indians. The first satyagraha movement
   urged the use of Khadi and Indian material as alternatives to those
   shipped from Britain. It also urged the boycott of British educational
   institutions, law courts,; 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. These movements found widespread support among a people
   awakening to a new sense of nationalism. However, the movement was
   called off by Gandhi following the Chauri Chaura incident, which saw
   the death of twenty two policemen in the hands of an angry mob.

   In 1920, 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 was imprisoned in 1922 for six years, but was released after
   serving 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.

   This era saw the emergence of new generation of Indians from within the
   Congress Party, including C. Rajagopalachari, Jawaharlal Nehru,
   Vallabhbhai Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose and others- who would later on
   come to form the prominent voices of the Indian Independence Movement,
   whether keeping with Gandhian Values, or diverging from it.

   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(Although, some of the key
   revolutionaries were not set free and the death sentence for Bhagat
   Singh and his two comrades was not taken back which further intenced
   the agitation against congres not only outside it but with in the
   congress it self). 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

   Bhagat Singh
   Enlarge
   Bhagat Singh
   Smiling Udham leaving the Caxton Hall after his arrest
   Enlarge
   Smiling Udham leaving the Caxton Hall after his arrest
   Bagha Jatin
   Enlarge
   Bagha Jatin

   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. 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.

   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
   ones, 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 to 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: war, Quit India, INA and Post-war revolts

   Indians throughout the country were divided over World War II, as the
   Lord Linlithgow, without consulting the Indian representatives had
   unilaterally declared India a belligerent on the side of the allies. In
   opposition to Linlithgow's action, the entire congress leadership
   resigned from the local government councils. However, many wanted to
   support the British war effort, and indeed the British Indian Army was
   one of the largest volunteer force during the war. Especially during
   the Battle of Britain, Gandhi resisted calls for massive civil
   disobedience movements that came from within as well as outside his
   party, stating he did not seek India's freedom out of the ashes of a
   destroyed Britain. However, like the changing fortunes of the war
   itself, the movement for freedom saw the rise of two movements that
   formed the climax of the 100-year struggle for independence.

   The first of these, the Azad Hind movement led by Netaji Subhash
   Chandra Bose, saw it's inception early in the war and sought help from
   the Axis Powers. The second saw its inception in August 1942 led by
   Gandhi and began following failure of the Cripps' mission to reach a
   consensus with the Indian political leadership over the transfer of
   power after the war.

The Indian National Army

   Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
   Enlarge
   Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

   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. When war broke out, the Raj had put him under house
   arrest in Calcutta in 1940. However, at the time the war was at it's
   bloodiest in Europe and Asia, he escaped and made his way through
   Afghanistan to Germany to seek Axis help to raise an army to fight the
   shackles of the Raj.Here, he raised with Rommel's Indian PoWs what came
   to be known as the Free India Legion. This came to be the
   conceptualisation in embryonic form of Bose's dream of raising a
   liberation Army to fight the Raj. However, the turn of tides in the
   Battlefields of Europe saw Bose make his way ultimately to Japanese
   South Asia where he formed what came to be known as the Azad Hind
   Government as the Provisional Free Indian Government in exile, and
   organized the Indian National Army with Indian POWs and Indian
   expatriates at South-East Asia, with the help of the Japanese. Its aim
   was to reach India as a fighting force that would build on public
   resentment to inspire revolts among Indian soldiers to defeat the Raj.

   The INA was to see action against the allies, including the British
   Indian Army, in the forests of in Arakan, Burma and Assam, laying siege
   on Imphal and Kohima with the Japanese 15th Army. During the war, the
   Andaman and Nicobar islands were captured by the Japanese and handed
   over by them to the INA; Bose renamed them Shahid (Martyr) and Swaraj
   (Independence).

   The INA would ultimately fail, owing to disrupted logistic, poor arms
   and supplies from the Japanese, and lack of support and training . The
   INA's efforts ended with the surrender of Japan in 1945. The existence
   of Azad Hind was essentially coterminous with the existence of the
   Indian National Army. While the government itself continued until the
   civil administration of the Andaman Islands was returned to the
   jurisdiction of the British towards the end of the war, the limited
   power of Azad Hind was effectively ended with the surrender of the last
   major contingent of INA troops in Rangoon. The supposed death of Bose
   is seen as culmination of the entire Azad Hind Movement.

   Following the surrender of Japan, the troops of the INA were brought to
   India and a number of them charged with treason. However, Bose's
   audacious actions and radical initiative had by this time captured the
   public imagination and also turned the inclination of the native
   soldiers of the British Indian Forces from one of loyalty to the crown
   to support for the soldiers that the Raj deemed as collaborators..

   After the war, the stories of the Azad Hind movement and its army that
   came into public limelight during the trials of soldiers of the INA in
   1945 were seen as so inflammatory that, fearing mass revolts and
   uprisings — not just in India, but across its empire —, the British
   Government forbid the BBC from broadcasting their story. Newspapers
   reported the summary execution of INA soldiers held at Red Fort. During
   and after the trial, mutinies broke out in the British Indian Armed
   forces, most notably in the Royal Indian Navy which found public
   support throughout India, from Karachi to Bombay and from Vizag to
   Calcutta.

   Many historians have argued that it was the INA and the mutinies it
   inspired among the British Indian Armed forces that were the true
   driving force for India's independence.

Quit India

   The Quit India Movement (Bharat Chhodo Andolan) or the August Movement
   was a civil disobedience movement in India launched in August 1942 in
   response to Gandhi's call for immediate independence of India. The aim
   was to bring the British Government to the negotiating table by holding
   the Allied War Effort hostage. The call for determined but passive
   resistance that signified the certitude that Gandhi foresaw for the
   movement is best described by his call to Do or Die, issued on 8 August
   at the Gowalia Tank Maidan in Bombay, since re-named August Kranti
   Maidan (August Revolution Ground). However, almost the entire Congress
   leadership, and not merely at the national level, was put into
   confinement less than twenty-four hours after Gandhi's speech, and the
   greater number of the Congress leaders were to spend the rest of the
   war in jail.

   At the outbreak of war, the Congress Party had during the Wardha
   meeting of the working-committee in September 1939, passed a resolution
   conditionally supporting the fight against fascism, but were rebuffed
   when they asked for independence in return. 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. The movement also saw widespread acts of sabotage, Indian
   under-ground organisation carried out bomb attcks on allied supply
   convoys, government buildings were set on fire, electricity lines were
   disconnected 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 movement soon became a leaderless act of defiance, with a number of
   acts that deviated from Gandhi's principle of non-violence. In large
   parts of the country, the local underground organisations took over the
   movement. However, by 1943, Quit India had petered out.

RIN Mutiny

   The RIN Mutiny (also called the Bombay Mutiny) encompasses a total
   strike and subsequent mutiny by the Indian sailors of the Royal Indian
   Navy on board ship and shore establishments at Bombay (Mumbai) harbour
   on 18 February 1946. From the initial flashpoint in Bombay, the mutiny
   spread and found support through India, from Karachi to Calcutta and
   ultimately came to involve 78 ships, 20 shore establishments and 20,000
   sailors.

   The RIN Mutiny started as a strike by ratings of the Royal Indian Navy
   on the 18th February in protest against general conditions. The
   immediate issues of the mutiny were conditions and food, but there were
   more fundamental matters such as racist behaviour by British officers
   of the Royal Navy personnel towards Indian sailors, and disciplinary
   measures being taken against anyone demonstrating pro-nationalist
   sympathies. The strike found immense support among the Indian
   population already in grips with the stories of the Indian National
   Army. The actions of the mutineers was supported by demonstrations
   which included a one-day general strike in Bombay. The strike spread to
   other cities, and was joined by the Air Force and local police forces.
   Naval officers and men began calling themselves the Indian National
   Navy and offered left handed salutes to British officers. At some
   places, NCOs in the British Indian Army ignored and defied orders from
   British superiors. In Madras and Pune, the British garrisons had to
   face revolts within the ranks of the British Indian Army. Widespread
   riotings took place from Karachi to Calcutta. Famously the ships
   hoisted three flags tied together — those of the Congress, Muslim
   League, and the Red Flag of the Communist Party of India (CPI),
   singnifying the unity and demarginalisation of communal issues among
   the mutineers.

   The true judgment of contributions of each of these individual events
   and revolts to India’s eventual independence, and the relative success
   or failure of each, remains open to historians. Some historians claim
   that the Quit India Movement was ultimately a failure and ascribe more
   ground to the destabillisation of the pillar of British power in India
   — the British Indian Armed forces. Certainly the British Prime Minister
   at the time of Indepence, Clement Atlee, deemed the contribution of
   Quit India as minimal, ascribing stupendous importance to the revolts
   and growing dissatisfaction among Royal Indian Armed Forces as the
   driving force behind the Raj’s the decision to leave India. Some Indian
   historians however argue that, in fact, it was Quit India that
   succeeded. In support of the latter view, without doubt, 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. However, such historians effectively
   ignore the contributions of the radical movements to transfer of power
   in 1947 Regardless of whether it was the powerful common call for
   resistance among Indians that shattered the spirit and will of the
   British Raj to continue ruling India, or whether it was the ferment of
   rebellion and resentment among the British Indian Armed Forces , what
   is beyond doubt, is that a population of millions had been motivated as
   it never had been before to say ultimately that independence was a
   non-negotiable goal, and every act of defiance and rebel only stoked
   this fire. 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 INA trials in 1945 ( The Red Fort Trial) and the Bombay mutiny had
   already shaken the pillars of the Raj in India. By early 1946, all
   political prisoners had been released. British openly adopted a
   political dialogue with the Indian National Congress for the eventual
   independence of India. On August 15, 1947, the transfer of power took
   place.

   A young, new generation responded to Gandhi's call. Indians who lived
   through Quit India came to form the first generation of independent
   Indians — whose trials and tribulations may be accepted to have sown
   the seeds of establishment of the strongest enduring tradition of
   democracy and freedom in post-colonial Africa and Asia — which, when
   seen in the light of the torrid times of Partition of India, can be
   termed one of the greatest examples of prudence of humankind.

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. 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%; this made it the world’s largest democracy.
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