LANDMARK EVENTS LEADING UP TO INDIA’S INDEPENDENCE

On the path of achieving freedom, there were several hurdles that we as Indians had to cross to achieve independence. Several incidents combined built pressure on Britishers and led to the day we held our heads high as a free and independent country. Every day had been a battle to expel the anarchist Britishers. Here is a list of five landmark events that helped India gain independence on 15 August 1947.

SWADESHI MOVEMENT

The British Viceroy, Lord Curzon, with the aim of weakening the unity and curbing the Nationalist movement, devised a scheme to separate Bengal and reorganise the territorial distributions dividing the Hindus and the Muslims in 1905. The ‘Boycott’ resolution was adopted at a conference held at the Calcutta Town Hall on 7 August 1905, thus establishing the Swadeshi movement and bringing its previously fragmented leadership under one leadership. A hartal and a day of sorrow were called in Calcutta on 16 October 1905, the day the division came into effect. People observed a fast, and the kitchen hearth was left unlit. Hindus and Muslims tied rakhis to each other to symbolise unity. It was successful, and the partition had to be annulled. 

AZAD HIND BHARAT

On 30 December 1943, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose hoisted the Indian flag at the Gymkhana ground in Port Blair and declared the island to be Independent when the entire nation was clutched under British rule. He further renamed the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as Shaheed and Swaraj to mark the establishment of the Azad Hind government, which also had its own currency and stamps. Upon raising the Azad Hind flag, Bose, the leader of the Azad Hind provisional government, also kept his word that the Indian army would be standing on Indian land by the end of 1943.

CHAMPARAN SATYAGRAHA

The peasants in the Champaran district of Bihar had to endure unimaginable hardships when the Europeans compelled them to plant indigo, a blue dye. First, they weren’t paid enough for the indigo. Secondly, they couldn’t cultivate any other crop, other than indigo. Tired of the agony, the peasants turned to Mahatma Gandhi. As Gandhi’s first Satyagraha movement in India, the Champaran Satyagraha of 1917 is regarded as a pivotal uprising in the history of the Indian Independence movement.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT

Civil disobedience, also known as passive resistance, is the act of refusing to comply with the requests or orders of a government or occupying power without using force or other aggressive forms of resistance. On 6 April 1930, Mahatma Gandhi started the Civil Disobedience movement by breaking the salt law by picking up a handful of salt after the Dandi march from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi. He helped to mobilise the population in the liberation battle. After this incident, the civil disobedience movement expanded across the nation.

QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT

August Kranti or the August Movement are other names for the Quit India movement. Mahatma Gandhi began the “do or die” Bharat Chhodo Andolan, often known as the Quit India movement, on 8 August 1942. All of the Congress Working Committee members began to be arrested on 9 August soon after the movement began. While being placed under house arrest, Gandhi was brought to Ahmednagar Fort. Approximately 940 persons lost their lives as a result of the British’s brutality during this non-violent campaign. There were also 1630 injuries. More than 60, 000 activists were detained at the same time. However, the movement brought the nation together.