Indian independence movement

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The Indian Revolution, also known as Indian Independence Movement, was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India also known as British Raj. It lasted until 1947.

The first nationalistic

The stages of the independence struggle in the 1920s were characterized by the leadership of

Few leaders followed a more violent approach, which became especially popular after the Rowlatt Act, which permitted indefinite detention. The Act sparked protests across India, especially in the Punjab province, where they were violently suppressed in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

The Indian independence movement was in constant ideological evolution. Essentially

India remained a Crown Dominion until 26 January 1950, when the Constitution of India established the Republic of India. Pakistan remained a dominion until 1956 when it adopted its first constitution. In 1971, East Pakistan declared its own independence as Bangladesh.^[1]

Background

Early British Colonialism in India

The first European to reach India via the Atlantic Ocean was the Portuguese explorer

• 
  Robert Clive with

  Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah of Bengal in Plassey made the battle one of the main factors of British supremacy

  in the sub-continent.
• 
  The Last Effort and Fall of Tipu Sultan by Henry Singleton, c. 1800. After the defeat of Tipu Sultan of Mysore, most of South India was now either under the company's direct rule, or under its indirect political control.

Early rebellions

In

The

The toughest resistance the Company experienced was offered by Mysore. The

In 1766 the Nizam of Hyderabad transferred the Northern Circars to the British authority. The independent king Jagannatha Gajapati Narayan Deo II of Paralakhemundi estate situated in today's Odisha and in the northernmost region of the then political division was continuously revolting against the French occupants since 1753 as per the Nizam's earlier handover of his estate to them on similar grounds. Narayan Deo II fought the British at Jelmur fort on 4 April 1768 and was defeated due to superior firepower of the British. He fled to the tribal hinterlands of his estate and continued his efforts against the British until his natural death on the Fifth of December 1771.

• 
  Puli Thevar
• 
  Veerapandiya Kattabomman
• 
  Maveeran Azhagu Muthukon
• 
  Statue of Bakshi Jagabandhu, the leader of Paika Rebellion
• 
  Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu, leaders of Santhal rebellion

Rebellion of 1857

The Indian rebellion of 1857 was a large uprising in northern and central India against the East India Company.^[37] The conditions of service in the company's army and cantonments had increasingly come into conflict with the religious beliefs and prejudices of the sepoys.^[38] The predominance of members from the upper castes in the army, perceived loss of caste due to overseas deployment, and rumours of secret designs of the government to convert them to Christianity led to growing discontent.^[39] The sepoys were also disillusioned by their low salaries and the racial discrimination practised by British officers in matters of promotion and privileges.^[40]

The indifference of the British towards native Indian rulers and the annexation of

The final spark was provided by the rumoured use of tallow (from cows) and lard (pig fat) in the newly introduced Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle cartridges. Soldiers had to bite the cartridges with their teeth before loading them into their rifles, ingesting the fat. This was sacrilegious to both Hindus and Muslims.^[41]

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a turning point. While affirming the military and political power of the British,^[46] it led to a significant change in how India was to be controlled by them. Under the Government of India Act 1858, the East India Company's territory was transferred to the British government.^[47] At the apex of the new system was a Cabinet minister, the Secretary of State for India, who was to be formally advised by a statutory council;^[48] the Governor-General of India (Viceroy) was made responsible to him, while he in turn was responsible to the government.

In a

Rise of organized movements

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

Rise of Indian nationalism

By 1900, although the Congress had emerged as an all-India political organisation, it did not have the support of most Indian Muslims.

Nationalistic sentiments among Congress members led to a push to be represented in the bodies of government, as well as to have a say in the legislation and administration of India. Congressmen saw themselves as loyalists, but wanted an active role in governing their own country, albeit as part of the Empire. This trend was personified by Dadabhai Naoroji, who went as far as contesting, successfully, an election to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, becoming its first Indian member.

Dadabhai Naoroji was the first Indian nationalist to embrace Swaraj as the destiny of the nation.^[55] Bal Gangadhar Tilak deeply opposed a British education system that ignored and defamed India's culture, history, and values. He resented the denial of freedom of expression for nationalists, and the lack of any voice or role for ordinary Indians in the affairs of their nation. For these reasons, he considered Swaraj as the natural and only solution. His popular sentence "Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it" became the source of inspiration for Indians.

In 1907, Congress was split into two factions: The radicals, led by

The temperance movement in India became aligned with Indian nationalism under the direction of Mahatma Gandhi, who saw alcohol as a foreign importation to the culture of the subcontinent.^[62][63]

Movements

Partition of Bengal, 1905

In July 1905,

The British newspaper, The Empire, wrote:[66]

Khudiram Bose was executed this morning;... it is alleged that he mounted the scaffold with his body erect. He was cheerful and smiling.

• 
  Prafulla Chaki was associated with the Jugantar. He carried out assassinations against British colonial officials in an attempt to secure Indian independence.
• 
  Indo-German Conspiracy

  .

Jugantar

• 
  Aurobindo Ghose was one of the founding member of Jugantar, as well as being involved with nationalist politics in the Indian National Congress and the nascent revolutionary movement in Bengal with the Anushilan Samiti

  .
• 
  Barindra Kumar Ghosh, was one of the founding members of Jugantar and younger brother of Sri Aurobindo.
• 
  Jugantar Party

  that was the central association of revolutionary Indian independence fighters in Bengal.

Bagha Jatin was one of the senior leaders in Jugantar. He was arrested, along with several other leaders, in connection with the Howrah-Sibpur Conspiracy case. They were tried for treason, the charge being that they had incited various regiments of the army against the ruler.^[67]

• 
  The trial room, Alipore Sessions Court, Calcutta, depiction from 1997.
• 
  Muraripukur garden house, in the Manicktolla suburbs of Calcutta. This served as the headquarters of Barindra Kumar Ghosh and his associates.
• 
  Hare Krishna Konar, was connected with Civil disobedience and Calcutta arms act case and was deported to Cellular Jail. There he founded Communist Consolidation.
• 
  A wing of the Cellular Jail, Port Blair; showing the central tower where many revolutionaries for Indian independence were held imprisoned.

Communist Consolidation

Several leaders of Jugantar group were imprisoned in various jails, one of which was a prominent jail of

The

• 
  Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy.[1]
• 
  United Provinces

  .

Howrah gang case

Most of the eminent

The All-India Muslim League was founded by the All India Muhammadan Educational Conference at Dacca (now Dhaka, Bangladesh), in 1906. Being a political party to secure the interests of the Muslim in British India, the Muslim League played a decisive role behind the creation of Pakistan in the Indian subcontinent.^[76]

In 1916,

First World War

The initial response throughout India to Lord Hardinge’s announcement was, for the most part, enthusiastic support. Indian princes volunteered their men, money, and personal service. Support from the Congress Party was primarily offered on the hopes that Britain would repay such loyal assistance with substantial political concessions—if not immediate independence or at least dominion status following the war, then surely its promise soon after the Allies achieved victory. Contrary to initial British fears of an Indian revolt, Indians contributed considerably 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. Nonetheless, Bengal and

The

Other related events include the

Ghadar Mutiny

The

First Lahore Conspiracy Trial and Benares Conspiracy Trial which saw death sentences awarded to a number of Indian revolutionaries, and exile to a number of others. After the end of the war, fear of a second Ghadarite uprising led to the recommendations of the Rowlatt Acts and thence the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

The

In the aftermath of the First World War, high casualty rates, soaring inflation compounded by heavy taxation, a widespread influenza pandemic and the disruption of trade during the war escalated human suffering in India.

The pre-war nationalist movement revived moderate and extremist groups within the Congress submerged their differences in order to stand together as a unified front. They argued that their enormous services to the British Empire during the war demanded a reward to demonstrate Indian capacity for self-rule. In 1916, Congress succeeded in forging the Lucknow Pact, a temporary alliance with the All India Muslim League over the issues of devolution and the future of Islam in the region.^[87]

British reforms

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,

Government of India Act, 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. The 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.^[88]

Gandhi had been a leader of the Indian nationalist movement in

The agitation unleashed by the acts led to demonstrations and British repressions, culminating on 13 April 1919, in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre (also known as the Amritsar Massacre) in Amritsar, Punjab. In response to agitation in Amritsar, Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer blocked the main, and only entrance, and ordered troops under his command to fire into an unarmed and unsuspecting crowd of some 15,000 men, women, and children. They had assembled peacefully at Jallianwala Bagh, a walled courtyard, but Dyer had wanted to execute the imposed ban on all meetings and proposed to teach all protestors a lesson the harsher way.^[92] A total of 1,651 rounds were fired, killing 379 people (as according to an official British commission; Indian officials' estimates ranged as high as 1,499 and wounding 1,137 in the massacre.)^[93] Dyer was forced to retire but was hailed as a hero by some in Britain, demonstrating to Indian nationalists that the Empire was beholden to public opinion in Britain, but not in India.^[94] The episode dissolved wartime hopes of home rule and goodwill and opened a rift that could not be bridged short of complete self-rule.^[95]

First non-co-operation movement

From 1920 to 1922, Gandhi started the Non-Cooperation Movement. At the Kolkata session of the Congress in September 1920, Gandhi convinced other leaders of the need to start a non-co-operation movement in support of

The British swiftly responded to the Quit India Movement with mass arrests. Over 100,000 arrests were made, massive fines were levied, and demonstrators were subjected to public flogging. Hundreds of civilians were killed in violence many shot by the police army. Tens of thousands of leaders were also arrested and imprisoned until 1945. Ultimately, the British government realised that India was ungovernable in the long run, and the question for the postwar era became how to exit gracefully and peacefully.^[98][99]

Purna Swaraj

• 
  Civil disobedience movement

  .
• 
  V. K. Krishna Menon in 1928 founded India League in London and demanded total independence from the British rule.
• 
  Jawaharlal Nehru in 1929 demanded "complete independence from Great Britain."
• 
  Vallabhbhai Patel was appointed as the 49th President of Indian National Congress, organising the party for elections in 1934 and 1937 while promoting the Quit India Movement.

Congress leader and famous poet Hasrat Mohani and Communist Party of India leader Swami Kumaranand had demanded complete independence (Purna Swaraj) from the British in 1921 and put the resolution during an All-India Congress Forum at the Ahmedabad Session of AICC.^[100] Maghfoor Ahmad Ajazi supported the 'Purna Swaraj' motion demanded by Hasrat Mohani.^[101]

In 1928, India League was established by V. K. Krishna Menon in London to demand total independence from the British rule.^[102][103] This organisation has been described as "the principal organisation promoting Indian nationalism in pre-war Britain".^[104]

Following the rejection of the Simon Commission's rejections, an all-party conference was held at Mumbai in May 1928 to instill a sense of camaraderie. The conference appointed a committee under Motilal Nehru to create a constitution for India. The Kolkata session of the Indian National Congress asked the British government to accord India dominion status by December 1929, or face a countrywide civil disobedience movement.

Amid rising discontent and increasingly violent regional movements, a call for complete sovereignty and an end to British rule found greater support from the people. At the

Elections and the Lahore resolution

The

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.

Bhagat Singh (left), Sukhdev (center), and Rajguru (right) are considered among the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement.

Front page of the Tribune (25 March 1931), reporting the execution of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev by the British.

Apart from a few stray incidents, armed rebellions against the British rulers did not occur before the beginning of the 20th century. The Indian revolutionary underground began gathering momentum through the first decade of the 20th century, with groups arising in

Indian nationalism made headway through Indian societies as far as Paris and London. In London

Sir Andrew Fraser.^[116]

• 
  Shyamji Krishna Varma, who founded the Indian Home Rule Society, India House and The Indian Sociologist in London.
• 
  William Hutt Curzon Wyllie,^[117] a British official who was "old unrepentant foes of India who have fattened on the misery of the Indian peasant every [sic] since they began their career".^[118]
• 
  V. V. S. Aiyar subscribed to the militant form of resistance against the British.
• 
  Pandurang Mahadev Bapat, acquired the title of Senapati, meaning commander, as a consequence of his leadership during the Mulshi Satyagraha.^[119]
• 
  Chandra Shekhar Azad reorganised the Hindustan Republican Association under its new name of Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA) after the death of its founder, Ram Prasad Bismil.

The activities of nationalists abroad is believed to have shaken the loyalty of a number of native regiments of the

Lala Hardayal

.

Senapati Bapat, M. P. T. Acharya, Anant Laxman Kanhere and Chempakaraman Pillai

.

However, the emergence of the Gandhian movement slowly began to absorb the different revolutionary groups. The Bengal Samiti moved away from its philosophy of violence in the 1920s, when a number of its members identified closely with the

Chandrashekhar Azad

in north India.

The HSRA had strong influences from leftist ideologies.

communist ones, while many of the activists were kept under hold in different jails across the country. Indians who were based in the UK, joined the India League and the Indian Workers Association, partaking in revolutionary activities in Britain.^[124]

Within a short time of its inception, these organisations became the focus of an extensive police and intelligence operations. Operations against

Rowlatt act

) to thwart any possible revival of the Samiti in Bengal and the Ghadarite movement in Punjab.

In the 1920s,

Chintapalle, Rampachodavaram, Dammanapalli, Krishna Devi Peta, Rajavommangi, Addateegala, Narsipatnam and Annavaram. Raju and his followers stole guns and ammunition and killed several British Indian Army officers, including Scott Coward near Dammanapalli.^[125] The British campaign lasted for nearly a year from December 1922. Raju was eventually trapped by the British in the forests of Chintapalli then tied to a tree and shot dead with a rifle.^[125]

The Kallara-Pangode Struggle was one of some 39 agitations against the Government of India. The Home department has later notified about 38 movements/struggles across Indian territories as the ones that culminated in self-rule ended the British Raj.

• 
  Lahore jail after a 63-day hunger strike

  .
• 
  Ghadar Party

  in the United States.
• 
  Surya Sen, best known for leading the 1930 Chittagong armoury raid.
• 
  Bhikaiji Cama, raised "Flag of Indian Independence" in Stuttgart, Germany.

Vanchinathan, in a letter found in his pocket, stated the following:

I dedicate my life as a small contribution to my motherland. I am alone responsible for this.

The

Sanatana Dharma of the Hindus and destroy them. Every Indian is trying to drive out the English and get swarajyam and restore Sanatana Dharma. Our Raman, Sivaji, Krishnan, Guru Govindan, Arjuna ruled our land protecting all dharmas, but in this land, they are making arrangements to crown George V, a mlecha

, and one who eats the flesh of cows.
Three thousand Madrasees have taken a vow to kill George V as soon as he lands in our country. In order to make others know our intention, I who am the least in the company, have done this deed this day. This is what everyone in Hindustan should consider it as his duty.
I will kill Ashe, whose arrival here is to celebrate the crowning of cow-eater King George V in this glorious land which was once ruled by great Samrats. This I do to make them understand the fate of those who cherish the thought of enslaving this sacred land. I, as the least of them, wish to warn George by killing Ashe.
Vande Mataram. Vande Mataram. Vande Mataram

-Vanchinathan

Final process of Indian self-rule movement

• 
  Ram Prasad Bismil Udyan (

  British imperialism

  .
• 
  Rajendra Lahiri was the mastermind behind Kakori conspiracy and Dakshineshwar bombing.
• 
  Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan and Rajendra Lahiri

  .
• 
  River Ravi

  .

In 1937,

provincial elections

were held and the Congress came to power in seven of the eleven provinces. This was a strong indicator of the Indian people's support for complete self-rule.

When the Second World War started, Viceroy Linlithgow unilaterally declared India a belligerent on the side of Britain, without consulting the elected Indian representatives. In opposition to Linlithgow's action, the entire Congress leadership resigned from the provincial and local governments. The Muslims and Sikhs, by contrast, strongly supported the war effort and gained enormous stature in London. Defying Congress, millions of Indians supported the war effort, and indeed the British Indian Army became the largest volunteer force, numbering 2,500,000 men during the war.^[127]

• 
  National celebration at the founding of the Provisional National Indian government at the Free India Center, Berlin, with

  Secretary of State Wilhelm Keppler

  speaking, on 16 November 1943.
• 
  José P. Laurel, Subhas Chandra Bose

  .
• 
  Unreleased postage stamps

  of the Azad Hind government.
• 
  Lal Bahadur Shastri, was sent to prison for one year, for offering individual Satyagraha support to the independence movement.^[128]

Especially during the

Quit India

movement. There was some violence but the Raj cracked down and arrested tens of thousands of Congress leaders, including all the main national and provincial figures. They were not released until the end of the war was in sight in 1945.

The self-rule movement included the

Axis Powers to fight Britain.

Quit India Movement

Main article: Quit India Movement

The Quit India Movement (also known as Bharat Chhodo Andolan) was a

Gandhi

's call for immediate self-rule by Indians and against sending Indians to World War II. He asked all teachers to leave their schools, and other Indians to leave their respective jobs and take part in this movement. Due to Gandhi's political influence, his request was followed by a significant proportion of the population. In addition, Congress-led the Quit India Movement to demand the British to leave India and transfer the political power to a representative government.

During the movement, Gandhi and his followers continued to use non-violence against British rule. This movement was where Gandhi gave his famous message, "Do or Die!", and this message spread towards the Indian community. In addition, this movement was addressed directly to women as "disciplined soldiers of Indian freedom" and they had to keep the war for independence to go on (against British rule).

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,

Cripps' Mission. The purpose of the mission was to negotiate with the Indian National Congress a deal to obtain total co-operation during the war, in return of progressive devolution and distribution of power from the crown and the Viceroy to elected Indian legislature. However, the talks failed, having failed to address the key demand of a timeframe towards self-government, and of the definition of the powers to be relinquished, essentially portraying an offer of limited dominion-status that was wholly unacceptable to the Indian movement.^[130]

To force the British Raj to meet its demands and to obtain definitive word on total self-rule, the Congress took the decision to launch the Quit India Movement.

The aim of the movement was to force 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 renamed 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 24 hours after Gandhi's speech, and the greater number of the Congress were to spend the rest of the war in jail.

On 8 August 1942, the Quit India resolution was passed at the Mumbai session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). 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. At Gowalia Tank, Mumbai, Gandhi urged Indians to follow non-violent civil disobedience. Gandhi told the masses to act as citizens of a sovereign 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. All the major leaders of the INC were arrested and detained. As the masses were leaderless the protest took a violent turn. 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 attacks on allied supply convoys, government buildings were set on fire, electricity lines were disconnected and transport and communication lines were severed. The disruptions were under control in a few weeks and had little impact on the war effort. 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.

All the other major parties rejected the Quit India plan, and most cooperated closely with the British, as did the princely states, the civil service, and the police. The Muslim League supported the Raj and grew rapidly in membership, and in influence with the British.^{[citation needed]}

There was opposition to the Quit India Movement from several political quarters who were fighting for Indian self-rule. Hindu nationalist parties like the Hindu Mahasabha openly opposed the call and boycotted the Quit India Movement.^[131] Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the president of the Hindu Mahasabha at that time, even went to the extent of writing a letter titled "Stick to your Posts", in which he instructed Hindu Sabhaites who happened to be "members of municipalities, local bodies, legislatures or those serving in the army...to stick to their posts" across the country, and not to join the Quit India Movement at any cost.^[131]

The other Hindu nationalist organisation, and Mahasabha affiliate

M.S. Golwalkar

completely abstained from joining in the Quit India Movement as well. The Bombay government (British) appreciated the RSS as such, by noting that,

The Sangh has scrupulously kept itself within the law, and in particular, has refrained from taking part in the disturbances that broke out in August 1942.^[132]

The British Government stated that the RSS was not at all supporting any civil disobedience against them, and as such their other political activities(even if objectionable) can be overlooked.^[133] Further, the British Government also asserted that at Sangh meetings organised during the times of anti-British movements started and fought by the Indian National Congress,

Speakers urged the Sangh members to keep aloof from the congress movement and these instructions were generally observed.^[133]

As such, the British government did not crackdown on the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha at all.

The RSS head (sarsanghchalak) during that time,

M.S. Golwalkar

later openly admitted to the fact that the RSS did not participate in the Quit India Movement. However, such an attitude during the Indian independence movement also led to the Sangh being viewed with distrust and anger, both by the general Indian public, as well as certain members of the organisation itself. In Golwalkar's own words,

In 1942 also, there was a strong sentiment in the hearts of many. At that time too, the routine work of the Sangh continued. Sangh decided not to do anything directly. 'Sangh is the organisation of inactive people, their talks have no substance' was the opinion uttered not only by outsiders but also our own swayamsevaks.^[134][135]

A number of violent incidents against British officials also took place during the Quit India movement around the country. The British arrested tens of thousands of leaders, keeping them imprisoned until 1945. Ultimately, the British government realised that India was ungovernable in the long run, and the question for the postwar era became how to exit gracefully and peacefully.

Others

Main articles:

Royal Indian Navy Mutiny

See also:

INA trials

• 
  Major

  Mohan Singh, leader of the First Indian National Army

  . Circa April 1942.
• 
  Subhas Chandra Bose founded the Indian Legion and revamped the Indian National Army.
• 
  Sikh soldiers of the Indian Legion guarding the Atlantic Wall in France in March 1944.

India's entry into the war was strongly opposed by

expatriates

in 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 revolt among Indian soldiers of the Raj.

The INA was to see action against the Allies, including the

were captured by the Japanese

and handed over by them to the INA.

While a number of Japanese officers, even those like Fujiwara, who were devoted to the Indian cause, observed Bose as a military incompetent as well as an unrealistic and stubborn man who sees only his own needs and problems and could not observe the larger picture of the war as the Japanese had to.^[137]

The INA failed owing to disrupted logistics, poor supplies from the Japanese, and lack of training.^[138] The Azad Hind Fauj surrendered unconditionally to the British in Singapore in 1945. In the consensus of scholarly opinion, Subhas Chandra Bose's death occurred from third-degree burns on 18 August 1945 after his overloaded Japanese plane crashed in Japanese-ruled Formosa (now Taiwan).

Trials against members of the INA began in late 1945, and included the infamous joint court-martial of key figures Shah Nawaz Khan and Prem Sahgal.

Royal Indian Navy Mutiny

.

The

Calcutta and ultimately came to involve 78 ships, 20 shore establishments and 20,000 sailors.^[139]

The agitations, mass strikes, demonstrations and consequently support for the mutineers, therefore continued several days even after the mutiny had been called off. Along with this, the assessment may be made that it described in crystal clear terms to the government that the

British Indian Armed forces could no longer be universally relied upon for support in crisis, and even more it was more likely itself to be the source of the sparks that would ignite trouble in a country fast slipping out of the scenario of political settlement.^[140]

The mutiny ended with the surrender of revolting the sailors to British officials. Congress and the Muslim League had convinced Indian sailors to surrender. They condemned the mutiny due to the political and military risks of unrest.

Impact of World War II

World War II was one of the most significant factors in accelerating Indian independence, and the independence of many British and non-British colonies. In the period 1945–1965, decolonization led to more than three dozen countries getting freedom from their colonial powers.^[141] Many factors contributed to the downfall of the British Empire.

When Britain reached out to the US asking for help in the war, the US offered help contingent on Britain decolonizing post-WWII, and that agreement was codified in the

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

became the first Prime Minister of India in 1947

Sovereignty and partition of India

Main articles:

Pakistan movement

On 3 June 1947, Viscount

British Commonwealth

. But in 1949, India took the decision to remain in the commonwealth.

Violent clashes between Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims followed. Prime Minister

annexed Goa and Portugal's other Indian enclaves in 1961, and Sikkim voted to join the Indian Union in 1975 after the Indian victory over China

in Nathu La and Cho La.

Following self-rule in 1947, India remained in the Commonwealth of Nations, and relations between the UK and India have since become friendly. There are many areas in which the two countries seek stronger ties for mutual benefit, and there are also strong cultural and social ties between the two nations. The UK has an ethnic Indian population of over 1.6 million. In 2010, Prime Minister David Cameron described Indian – British relations as a "New Special Relationship".^[146]

See also

• Partition of India
• Partition of Bengal (1947)
• Independence Day (India)
• Independence Day (Pakistan)
• Revolutionary movement for Indian independence
• Women of the Indian independence movement
• Communist involvement in Indian Independence movement

Notes

1. English colonial empire, including the territories and trading post in Asia, came under British control following the union of England and Scotland in 1707
   .

References

Citations

1. ^ Zakaria, Anam. "Remembering the war of 1971 in East Pakistan". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
2. ^ "Vasco da Gama reaches India". History.com. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
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Sources and further reading

• Amstutz, Andrew (27 May 2019). "Review essay: Alternative histories of revolutionaries in modern South Asia: context, chronology, and archives". India Review. 18 (3): 324–342.
  S2CID 199354334
  .
• JSTOR 41855198
  .
• Brown, Giles (August 1948). "The Hindu Conspiracy, 1914–1917". The Pacific Historical Review. 17 (3): 299–310.
  JSTOR 3634258
  .
• ISBN 978-0-14-010781-4
  .
• ISBN 978-81-241-1416-2
  .
• ISBN 978-1-85285-457-7
  .
• ISBN 978-0-670-91137-0
  .
• ISBN 978-1-317-91681-9
  .
• Fraser, Thomas G. (April 1977). "Germany and Indian Revolution, 1914-18". Journal of Contemporary History. 12 (2): 255–272.
  S2CID 161813088
  .
• Ghosh, Durba. Gentlemanly Terrorists: Political Violence and the Colonial State in India, 1919-1947 (Cambridge University Press, 2017.)
• Gupta, Amit Kumar (September–October 1997). "Defying Death: Nationalist Revolutionism in India, 1897–1938". Social Scientist. 25 (9/10): 3–27.
  JSTOR 3517678
  .
• ISBN 978-0-19-562798-5
  .
• ISBN 978-0-231-14098-0
  .
• Hoover, Karl (May 1985). "The Hindu Conspiracy in California, 1913–1918". German Studies Review. 8 (2): 245–261.
  JSTOR 1428642
  .
• ISBN 978-0-7195-5017-1
  .
• ISBN 978-0-521-45850-4
  .
• Lahiri, Shompa (2000). Indians in Britain: Anglo-Indian Encounters, Race and Identity, 1880–1930. Psychology Press.
  ISBN 978-0-7146-4986-3
  .
• ISBN 978-1-84885-723-0
  .
• Maclean, Kama. A Revolutionary History of Interwar India: Violence, Image, Voice and Text (Oxford University Press, 2015.)
• Majumdar, Bimanbehari (1966). Militant nationalism in India and its socio-religious background (1897–1917). General Printers & Publishers.
  OCLC 8793353
  .
• Majumdar, Ramesh C (1975). History of the Freedom Movement in India. Vol. II. Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay.
  ISBN 978-81-7102-099-7
  .
• doi:10.1080/14662049708447745
  .
• Mukherjee, Prithwindra (2010). Les racines intellectuelles du mouvement d'indépendance de l'Inde (1893-1918). Editions Codex.
  ISBN 978-2-918783-02-2
  .
• Patel, Hitendra (2008). Khudiram Bose: Revolutionary Extraordinaire. New Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India.
  ISBN 978-81-230-2278-9
  .
• Plowman, Matthew (Autumn 2003). "Irish Republicans and the Indo-German Conspiracy of World War I". New Hibernia Review. 7 (3): 81–105.
  S2CID 144632198
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• Popplewell, Richard James (1995). Intelligence and Imperial Defence: British Intelligence and the Defence of the Indian Empire, 1904-1924. London, England: Frank Cass.
  ISBN 978-0-7146-4580-3
  .
• ISBN 978-0-7619-3338-0
  .

Further reading

• ISBN 978-0-521-08353-9
  .
• ISBN 978-0-19-955201-6
  .
• Brown, Theodore (January 2008). "Spinning for India's Independence". Am J Public Health. 98 (1): 39.
  PMID 18048775
  .
• Gonsalves, Peter (2012). Khadi: Gandhi's Mega Symbol of Subversion. Sage Publications.
  ISBN 9788132107354
  .
• Gopal, Sarvepalli (1975). Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography. Vol. One. Johnathan Cape.
  ISBN 978-0-224-01029-0
  .
• ISBN 978-0-8364-2376-1
  .
• ISBN 978-0-333-90425-1
  .
• Seal, Anil (2007) [First published 1968]. Emergence of Indian Nationalism: Competition and Collaboration in the Later Nineteenth Century. London, England: Cambridge University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-521-06274-9
  .
• ISBN 9788129113788
  .
• Sofri, Gianni (1995–1999). Gandhi and India: A Century in Focus. Janet Sethre Paxia (translator) (English edition translated from the Italian ed.). Gloucestershire: The Windrush Press.
  ISBN 978-1-900624-12-1
  .
• ISBN 978-0-19-503412-7
  .
• ISBN 978-0-19-513060-7
  .

Primary sources

• ISBN 978-0-8070-5909-8
  .
• Prasad, Bimal ed. Towards Freedom, 1945: Documents on the Movement for Independence in India (2008) online
• Yadav, B.D. (1992). M.P.T. Acharya: Reminiscences of an Indian Revolutionary. New Delhi: Anmol.
  ISBN 81-7041-470-9
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Indian independence movement.

• Quotations related to Indian independence movement at Wikiquote