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India's Freedom Struggle |
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The India's freedom struggle includes a series of revolutions. Various regional revolutions that rose against the British Empire were Kittur Rebellion in Karnataka, Sannyasi Rebellion in Bengal, Santhal Rebellion in Bengal, Kutch Rebellion in Saurashatra. The main Indian freedom struggle began with the Revolution of 1857. The revolt started because of the growing difference between the Indian soldiers and their British officers. On March, 1857, Mangal Paney a soldier of the Indian army attacked a British Sergeant. For this he was hanged to death. After that the revolt broke out in other places such as Meerut, Lucknow, Jhansi, Kanpur.
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Then India's freedom struggle took a new turn. Organized movement started in India. In the year 1867, Dadabahi Naoroji established East India Association. Surendranath Banerjee formed Indian National Association in 1876. The organization was inspired by A.O. Hume who was a retired British civil servant. Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj and other socio-religious groups were also formed. Great men like Rabindra Nath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Dadabhai Naoroji, Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Subramanya Bharathy, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Sir Syed Ahmed Khan ignited the passion of freedom in the minds of the common people of India.
The Indian national movement took a major turn with the help of the members of the Indian National Congress. Bal Gangadhar Tilak was the first person to demand for Swaraj which means freedom. His famous sentence “Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it” inspired many Indians. In the year 1885 the first meeting of the Indian National Congress was arranged in Bombay. In the year 1907 the Indian National Congress got split into two halves – The Extremist and the Moderates. The prominent leaders of the Extremist group were Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal. The moderates included Dadabhai Naoroji, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Pherozeshah Mehta.
India's freedom struggle gained a new momentum with the entry of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He is a popular Indian leader and joined the Indian freedom struggle after returning from South Africa. Gopal Krishna Gokahale became his mentor. Gandhi's ideas and views about conducting non-violent struggle against the British appeared baseless to some Congressmen.
The first non-cooperation movement urged the common people of India to use Khadi and Indian made goods. It also urged the Indians to boycott everything which has British connection. It became very popular but Gandhiji withdrew the movement after the Chauri Chaura incident which killed twenty two police men. On 12th March, 1930 he started Dandi March or Salt Satyagraha.
In the 1900s many revolutionary activities also started in different states such Bengal, Orissa, Maharastra, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab. India's freedom struggle reached its climax with the formation of Indian National Army or INA in the year 1942. he also started a new party called All India Forward Bloc after resigning from Indian national Congress. In 1942 Gandhiji launched another movement called the Quit India movement. However, the movement failed and many important leaders were arrested. Then series of India's freedom struggle continued to till independence and finally in the year 1947 India became independent.
For further information on Independence of India refer to our website www.india-history.com.
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