When the clock struck 12 at midnight on August 15 this year, it was 69 years since India achieved independence and Jawaharlal Nehru delivered his iconic ‘Tryst with destiny’ speech at the Constitution Hall in Delhi. Freedom was won after a long battle of nearly a century which began with the revolt of 1857.
1. Revolt of 1857
The first widespread rebellion against British rule took place in 1857 and went on till 1858. It was the result of growing resentment of people across the country with the dominance of the British. Policies of annexation like Doctrine of Lapse snatched power away from the princely states which had ruled for centuries.
The final nail in the coffin was the launch of a new Enfield rifle which required the sepoys or Indian soldiers to bite off a cartridge greased with a mixture of pigs’ and cows’ lard. This offended Hindu and Muslim soldiers alike and Mangal Pandey, a sepoy, attacked British officers in a garrison at Barrackpore in March 1857.
Revolts were seen in places such as Delhi, Agra, Kanpur and Lucknow and prominent leaders included the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, Nana Sahib, Rani Lakshmibai and Tantya Tope .
2. Formation of the Indian National Congress
After the rebellion was suppressed, there was a need for Indians to form an organisation to coordinate the efforts to battle colonialism and this was how the Indian National Congress (INC) was born. A group of Indians with the assistance of a retired British civil servant Allan Octavian Hume created this as a platform for dialogue and met for the first time on December 28, 1885. The INC went on to become a key driving force in achieving independence.
3. Partition of Bengal
The division of the state of Bengal into west and east portions in 1905 by the Viceroy of the time Lord Curzon was done despite severe opposition from the people of the state and the country at large. It was viewed as a split on communal lines as the eastern part was occupied by a majority of Muslims and the western section by Hindus. It was protested with a boycott of British goods and mass meetings.
4. Champaran campaign
Champaran, a small town in Bihar, holds the distinction of being the location of the first satyagraha or act of peaceful resistance of the freedom struggle. Thousands of farmers were forced to cultivate indigo. Indigo was a cash crop, and they had to grow it instead of the food crops they needed for subsistence, causing a severe famine.
Gandhiji visited the plantations in 1917 and surveyed the plight of the cultivators there. He led protests and strikes against the farm owners and was joined by youth from around the country. As a result, an agreement was signed to give farmers more control over farming and cancellation of revenue hikes till the end of the famine.
5. Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
The year 1919 saw turbulent times in the country and a massacre at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar added fresh fuel to the fire.
On April 13 a group of around 10,000 people gathered in the park, some to protest a ban on gathering in public places and some to celebrate the festival of Baisakhi. The only exit was sealed by General Dyer and his men who then opened fire on the unarmed crowd, killing an estimated 379 people and injuring several hundred more. The incident sparked widespread resentment across the nation and a commission was appointed to look into it.
6. Non-cooperation movement
One effect of the massacre and other events was the Non-cooperation Movement which was launched in December 1920 under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. The non-violent satyagraha was to include acts of silent protest such as resigning from official posts and boycotting official institutions and foreign goods. But the movement turned violent in several areas. An example was the Moplah rebellion in Kerala. The murder of police officers by a mob in the village of Chauri Chaura in February 1922 led to the movement being called off by Gandhiji.
7. Simon Go back
In 1927, a commission jointly headed by a lawyer named Sir John Simon and future British Prime Minister Clement Atlee was appointed to study the working of the Indian Constitution . As the commission did not include a single Indian, the INC and other nationalist parties boycotted it. Slogans of ‘Simon Go Back’ and black flags greeted the Commission when it arrived in Bombay. Similar protests took place in many cities and Lala Lajpat Rai, a leading freedom fighter was fatally injured in Lahore when the police began to use violence to suppress the protests.
8. Civil Disobedience Movement
One of the most iconic images of the freedom struggle is that of Gandhiji leading the Dandi March against a tax that had been imposed on salt.
This march that took place in March 1930, marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement which aimed to get 11 demands of the INC met by the British Government. One of them was the abolition of the salt tax. Over 90,000 people from different walks of life took part in this mass movement against imperial rule. This movement lasted till 1931 and was also crucial. It saw the participation of thousands of women and brought them more actively into the struggle.
9. Round Table Conferences
The Round Table Conferences were three key meetings held between 1930 and 1932 in London to discuss the future of India and its fight for self-governance. The INC boycotted the first session held between November 1930 and January 1931 but Gandhiji represented the party in the second session between September and December 1931. The final session was held in 1932. The series of meetings did not lead to any major conclusions, but led to the passing of the Government of India Act, 1935, that established provincial autonomy.
10. Quit India Movement
When Indians were forced to participate on the side of the Allies in World War II that was raging in Europe, it further added to their frustration. With the Quit India Movement launched in August 1942, the INC and other parties increased the pressure on the British Government to withdraw from the country immediately.
The British moved quickly to put down the movement and many INC leaders were arrested and kept in prison for most of the war. Though the rebellion was not a success in many ways, the British became aware that granting independence was imminent.
11. Execution of Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev
The death of Lala Lajpat Rai in Lahore triggered a quest for vengeance in some young revolutionaries including Bhagat Singh. In 1928 Singh and his comrades killed a British officer J.P. Saunders as an act of revenge and fled to avoid death penalty. A year later, Singh threw a bomb at the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi to protest an unfavourable act passed by the British Government. He was finally executed in 1931 for the murder of Saunders.
12. Lucknow Pact
The INC and Muslim League came to an understanding over several issues at a joint session of both parties at Lucknow in December 1916. Among these was the agreement that Muslims would have a separate electorate in provincial council elections. Four-fifths of provincial and central legislatures were to be elected and half the executive council members were to be Indians . The Lucknow session also saw a reconciliation between the warring moderate and extremist factions of the Congress.
13. Mountbatten Plan
After the end of World War II in 1945, efforts to gain independence were strengthened and the British Government began to make efforts to set up the transfer of power to the Indian people.
In Februrary 1947, the British Prime Minister Clement Atlee announced that full self-government would be granted to British India by 1948 at the latest.
In June, a plan, which agreed to the principle of the partition of India into India and Pakistan and granted the two nations the implicit right to secede from the British Commonwealth, was proposed. It was named the Mountbatten Plan after the Indian Viceroy of the day Lord Louis Mountbatten.
14. Home Rule Movement
While the INC was the leading political party during the freedom struggle, other organisations also sprung up. The Home Rule movements were launched by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Annie Besant in Poona and Madras respectively, at different points in 1916. The former worked mainly in western India but Besant’s movement gained traction all over the country. Both tried to increase public support for the idea of self-government. But they were short-lived and were effective mainly during World War I.
15. Formation of the Muslim League
In 1906, the need for an organisation to protect the interests of Muslims in India arose and the Muslim League was founded. This move was encouraged by the British as it tied in with their policy of ‘divide and rule’. The Muslim League remained in the official good books till they began to stress on the need for self-government. Mohammed Ali Jinnah and other leaders of the League were strong proponents of Hindu-Muslim unity and it was only in 1940 that the idea of a separate state for Muslims after independence began to take shape.
16. The final step
The Mountbatten Plan received the royal assent in July 1947 and August 15 was decided as the day on which power would be transferred to the people of India. Pakistan was created a day earlier and marks its Independence Day on August 14.
On August 15 each year the nation remembers its heroes who dedicated their lives to the cause freedom from the British and the struggle they went through for India to gain the prized independence we all enjoy today.
