After the uprising of 1857, the British Crown took direct control of India in 1858. Queen Victoria issued a royal proclamation.

• Princely states were promised protection of their rights and dignity.
• The princes continued to rule their states under British supremacy.
• The British promised not to interfere with religious beliefs.
• In practice, British Residents and Political Agents interfered in princely states.
• Economic exploitation continued.
• Heavy land taxes contributed to hardship and famines.
• Indian industries faced competition from cheap British goods.

• Indians were often paid less than British employees doing similar work.
• Indians faced discrimination in courts and public institutions.
• Indians were sometimes excluded from clubs and certain public spaces.
• The Arms Act of 1878 restricted Indians from keeping arms.
• The Vernacular Press Act of 1878 regulated and censored Indian-language press.

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay used literature to develop pride in Indian culture and history.

• Anandamath was published in 1882.
• The novel was connected with the Sannyasi Rebellion and the 1770 famine.
• The poem Vande Mataram was composed earlier, in 1875.
• Rabindranath Tagore set the poem to music and sang it at the 1896 Congress Session in Calcutta.
• In 1950, the Constituent Assembly adopted it as India’s National Song.

Swami Vivekananda encouraged Indians to develop self-confidence, strength, education and social responsibility.

• He represented India at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1893.
• He founded the Ramakrishna Mission.
• He encouraged science and education.
• He opposed blind imitation of the West.
• He encouraged Indians to draw strength from India’s cultural heritage.
• His birthday, 12 January, is observed as National Youth Day.

The Indian National Congress was launched in 1885. Allan Octavian Hume helped bring together Indian political workers. Dadabhai Naoroji and Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee were also important in the early Congress.

• First session: Bombay, 1885
• First president: Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee
• About 72 delegates attended.
• Initially, Congress sought greater Indian participation in governance, civil rights and reforms.
• Its early leaders used constitutional and moderate methods.

Indian National Congress – early Congress history

👳 Kuka / Namdhari Movement

Baba Ram Singh led and strengthened the Kuka Movement in Punjab. Followers promoted social reform, self-reliance and rejection of foreign goods. The British brutally suppressed the movement in 1872.

📰 Bal Gangadhar Tilak

Tilak criticised colonial policies through his newspaper Kesari. He popularised Ganesh Chaturthi and Shivaji festivals as public events. He became known as Lokmanya.

🌳 Birsa Munda

Birsa Munda led tribal resistance in the Chota Nagpur region. His uprising of 1899–1900 is known as Ulgulaan, or the Great Tumult.

🌾 Revolutionary Groups

Anushilan Samiti was founded in 1902. Abhinav Bharat was founded in 1904. These groups promoted revolutionary activity and physical and intellectual training.

In 1905, Lord Curzon announced the partition of Bengal. The decision was widely opposed.

Swadeshi

Swadeshi means using goods made in one’s own country. Indians promoted Indian industries and products.

Boycott

People avoided foreign-made goods and, in some cases, British institutions. Foreign cloth was publicly burnt in some places.

National Education

Nationalists promoted educational institutions that combined modern subjects with Indian cultural and intellectual traditions.

In 1906, the Congress session at Calcutta declared Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott and National Education as objectives.

Aurobindo Ghose became the first principal of the Bengal National College.

Mother India / Bharat Mata

The idea of Bharat Mata represented India as a motherland and became an important cultural image during the nationalist movement.

The All-India Muslim League was founded in Dhaka in December 1906. Its initial objective was to protect Muslim political interests in British India.

Some Muslim leaders feared that Muslims would not receive adequate political representation in the Congress.

The Congress became divided between the Moderates and the Nationalist group. The Surat session of 1907 saw serious disagreement.

Revolutionary groups believed that armed resistance could challenge British rule. Several young revolutionaries sacrificed their lives.

Khudiram Bose

Attempted an attack on a British judge and was executed at a young age.

Bhagat Singh

Revolutionary who participated in the Assembly bombing and was executed in 1931.

Ghadar Movement

The Ghadar Movement of 1914–15 attempted to trigger a mutiny in the British Indian Army during World War I. The plan was uncovered and suppressed.

Cellular Jail

The Cellular Jail in the Andaman Islands was used by the British to imprison and isolate revolutionaries. It became a symbol of the suffering of freedom fighters.

• Tilak and Annie Besant launched the Home Rule Movement in 1916.
• It demanded self-government for India within the British Empire.
• The Lucknow Pact of 1916 promoted cooperation between Congress and the Muslim League.
• Congress accepted separate electorates for Muslims under the pact.

Mahatma Gandhi returned to India from South Africa in 1915. He developed satyagraha, based on truth, non-violence and willingness to suffer for a just cause.

The Rowlatt Act of 1919 allowed detention without trial and greatly angered Indians. Gandhi promoted nationwide protest.

The Non-Cooperation Movement was formally launched by Congress in 1920. People were encouraged to boycott foreign goods, schools and courts.

The movement was withdrawn after the violent incident at Chauri Chaura in February 1922.

On 13 April 1919, troops under Brigadier-General Dyer opened fire on a crowd gathered at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar.

The massacre shocked people across India and deeply damaged trust in British rule.

Rabindranath Tagore protested by returning his knighthood.

The Khilafat Movement began in India in 1919. Muslim leaders including the Ali brothers and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad sought to protect the position of the Caliph after World War I.

Gandhi supported the movement as a way of encouraging Hindu-Muslim cooperation. The Khilafat Movement later ended after the Turkish sultanate and Caliphate were abolished.

The Simon Commission arrived in India in 1927 without any Indian member. This led to widespread protests with the slogan “Simon Go Back!”

Lala Lajpat Rai was injured during a lathi charge in Lahore and died later.

The Hindustan Republican Association and later the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association were associated with revolutionary activities.

The Lahore session of Congress in December 1929 demanded Purna Swaraj, meaning complete independence.

The Civil Disobedience Movement began in 1930 with Gandhi’s Salt March to Dandi.

The salt law was chosen because salt was an essential item and the colonial government controlled its production and taxation.

• Women participated in processions and protests.
• Many broke the salt laws.
• Women participated in picketing foreign cloth and liquor shops.
• Sarojini Naidu played an important role in the Civil Disobedience Movement.
• Aruna Asaf Ali became an important figure during Quit India.
• Kanaklata Barua became a young martyr during the Quit India Movement.

In 1931, Gandhi and Viceroy Irwin reached an agreement. Political prisoners not involved in violence were released and limited private salt manufacture was allowed.

The Civil Disobedience Movement was suspended temporarily and Congress agreed to participate in the Round Table Conference.

The Government of India Act of 1935 introduced provincial autonomy, although the British retained important powers.

Gandhi and B.R. Ambedkar both wanted to address discrimination against the Depressed Classes, but they differed on political representation.

Ambedkar supported separate electorates for the Depressed Classes. Gandhi opposed separate electorates because he feared they would permanently divide Hindu society.

The disagreement was settled through the Poona Pact, which provided reserved seats instead of separate electorates.

Muhammad Iqbal discussed a separate territory for Muslims in northwestern India in 1930. Later, Muhammad Ali Jinnah supported the idea of Pakistan.

Many Congress leaders, including Maulana Azad and Abdul Ghaffar Khan, opposed the Two-Nation idea and supported a united India.

India was brought into World War II without the consent of Indian political leaders. More than 2.5 million Indian soldiers served during the war.

Subhas Chandra Bose

Subhas Chandra Bose disagreed with Gandhi’s nonviolent approach and sought international support against British rule.

He travelled to Germany and later to Southeast Asia. In 1943, he organised the Indian National Army in Singapore and declared the Azad Hind government.

The INA fought alongside Japanese forces in Burma and northeastern India but was militarily defeated.

The Quit India Movement, 1942

The Cripps Mission came to India in 1942 with proposals for post-war dominion status. Most Congress leaders rejected the proposal as insufficient.

In August 1942, Gandhi launched the Quit India Movement with the famous call: “Do or Die.”

Most Congress leaders were arrested, but protests continued across India. Students, workers, peasants and women participated.

After World War II, Britain moved towards transferring power. The Cabinet Mission came to India in 1946, but political disagreements continued.

Communal violence increased after Direct Action Day in August 1946.

In 1947, the British decided to partition British India into India and Pakistan. Cyril Radcliffe was given a short period to draw the boundary.

Partition led to massive migration, violence, displacement and loss of life.

India became independent on 15 August 1947.

India had more than 560 princely states. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel played an important role in integrating these states into India through persuasion and, where necessary, stronger measures.

His work helped create a geographically integrated Indian Union.

• Mass political movements and popular resistance.
• Revolutionary activities.
• Quit India Movement.
• Mutinies in the Royal Indian Air Force and Royal Indian Navy.
• Economic and political weakening of Britain after World War II.
• Growth of worldwide decolonisation.
• Increasing difficulty of ruling India without Indian cooperation.

🔵 True or False

🟣 Who Am I?

India’s road to independence was a long journey beginning with resistance to colonial rule and continuing through political organisations, social reform, Swadeshi, boycott, revolutionary activities and mass movements.

The Indian National Congress developed from a moderate political organisation into a major force demanding self-rule and independence. Leaders followed different approaches, including constitutional methods, revolutionary action and Gandhian non-violence.

Major movements such as Non-Cooperation, Civil Disobedience and Quit India brought millions of ordinary Indians into the struggle. Women, peasants, workers, students and tribal communities also made important contributions.

World War II weakened Britain and increased political pressure. The INA, mutinies, mass movements and the worldwide process of decolonisation were among the factors involved in the final transfer of power.

India became independent on 15 August 1947. However, independence came together with Partition, which caused enormous suffering, violence and displacement.