India’s freedom struggle began with the leadership of Indian politics passing into the hands of the middleclass with the foundation of The Indian national Congress. The middleclass started constitutional agitation initially to bring in reforms and later to demand for independence.

This period can be divided into three phases:

1. Period of the Moderates (1885-1905)
2. Period of the Extremists (1905- 1920)
3. The age of Gandhi (1920-1947)

Between1885 to 1905 the politics of The Indian national Congress was characterized by political moderation. -The objective was to bring people together. During this time their demands were placed before the British government through petitions.

The period after 1905 marks the beginning of the extremist Era in Indian politics. The moderate politics did not have the desired effect on the British government. The Extremist leaders therefore felt the need to give the national movement an agitational form.

They attempted to pressurize the British government by creating political consciousness among the people and opposing the British government through agitation. Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal and Lokmanya Tilak. Tilak organized Ganesh festivals and Shivaji Jayanti which is prevalent even today. Political thought spread among the masses.

To counter this the British government portioned Bengal. Bengal of those days comprised of Bangladesh, West Bengal Bihar and Orissa

The viceroy lord Curzon divided the province with East Bengal-a Muslim majority area and West Bengal a Hindu majority area.

The policy of the British failed to divide the Indian people and the national movement assumed a more aggressive form World war I started and so the British promised reforms after the war, because they found themselves in difficulties with the spread of the agitation.

In 1919 the British parliament passed the Govt. Of India act, 1919. Tilak was not satisfied with the act since the reforms were limited and continued the struggle. The Rowlett Act w which authorized the administration to arrest and imprison anyone without trial was passed.  Public meetings were banned. A meeting at Jallianwala Bagh was fired upon indiscriminately. This angered the Indians. The British government therefore appointed a commission of enquiry and the king of England appealed to the Indians to participate in the working of the Act of 1919.

The Extremist laid the foundation of the mass movement that Mahatma Gandhi was soon to begin. Tilak died on Aug 1^st 1920.

The Age of Gandhi- 1920-1947 the history of India’s freedom struggle was unique -1) There was no bloodshed 2) The ruler and the ruled parted as friends.

Gandhiji had gone to South Africa to practice Law. Many discriminatory policies were followed by the British. Gandhiji introduced the new technique of Satyagraha. Nonviolence, truth, love, sympathy, compassion are the basic principles of Satyagraha. This principal was later followed by Martin Luther King in the U.S.A.

In 1915 Gandhiji returned to India and toured the country. He launched Satyagraha at Champaran in Bihar, Ahmedabad and Kheda in Gujarat. In Champaran farmers were forced to cultivate Indigo and sell it to the British at fixed prices. Gandhiji organized the indigo cultivators and launched a satyagraha. The local British officials wanted to arrest Gandhiji but the Delhi government did not give them permission. They did not want him to become popular in India as he had made a name for himself in South Africa. The farmers Champaran called him the Mahatma.

He was then called to Ahmedabad. The mill workers had demanded increase in wages. The mill owners refused. Gandhiji advised them to go on strike. After a few days’ workers found that their families had to go hungry and there was disgruntlement. Gandhiji immediately went on fast. After 2 or 3 days were under pressure. They did not want anything to happen to Gandhiji so they accepted the demands of the workers and raised their wages. In the district of Kheda in Gujarat, the condition of crops was extremely bad. Still the British continued to collect revenue from the famers. Gandhiji advised them not to revenue. Finally, the British addressed the grievances of the farmers.

In 1919 the British government enacted the Rowlett Act due to force conscription into the army and forcible collection of grains to supply to its army there was a lot of agitation. With a view to suppress the unrest, the British passed the Rowlett Act by which anyone could be imprisoned without trial. All proceedings were to be in camera. Gandhiji called for a bandh on 6^th April which was a success. As a protest against the prohibitory laws, the people gathered on 13^th April, Gen. Dyer, the officer in charge issued orders to fire at the unarmed crowd consisting of men, women and children. Curfew was imposed so no medical aid could be provided. Gandhiji announced that cooperation with this kind of government would mean cooperating with the devil. So, he joined hands with the Muslims who had started the Khilafat movement. A proposal of nonviolent and non-cooperative movement was to be started. Thus, Gandhiji bought about a Hindu Muslim unity.

Non-Cooperation Movement – Gandhiji believed that the British Government depended upon the cooperation of the Indians. Without the cooperation of the Indians, the British government of India would collapse so he started the noncooperation movement. It was proposed that government courts, government run schools and colleges, election to provincial legislatures were to be boycotted, there was to be surrender of awards, boycott of foreign goods and anti-liquor campaigns.

The agitation was so effective that import of cloth had reduced from 102 crores in 1920-21 to 57 crores in 1921-22. Women and children participated in the Zenda satyagraha and the mulish satyagraha in large numbers. However, at Chauri chiura in U.P., the police fired upon an unarmed crowd. The people were angry and set fire to the police station, 22 policemen along with an officer were burnt alive. So Gandhiji decided to withdraw the movement.

Valla Bhai Patel decided to start the Bartoli satyagraha, in spite of the fact that Bartoli was reeling under the impact of severe famine, the British had made no remission of tax, instead they increased it by 25%. Valla Bhai Patel organized a no tax campaign, the government confiscated the property of the farmers. They suffered imprisonment but they did not withdraw the no tax campaign, the government was forced to set up an inquiry and the excessive tax was reduced, the farmers then called V Patel as Sardar.

The British had criticized that the Indian political leaders were incapable of agreeing upon a common plan of political reform. So the I.N.C. appointed a committee to prepare a common agreed constitutional proposal’s proposal was for Dominion status and fundamental rights of the citizens. A period of one year was given to the British. However, the British did not have any such plan. The congress appealed to the Indians to observe 26^th January1930 as Independence Day. People all over India celebrated Independence Day by unfurling the tricolor. The congress also passed the Civil Disobedience Bill

The concessions given by the British was not acceptable to the Congress. Gandhiji then launched The Civil Disobedience movement.

While launching the civil disobedience movement Gandhiji decided to break the Salt act which gave the monopoly to the British to manufacture salt. Since the precipitate consumption of salt does not change according to income, the taxes had to be borne by the poorer sections. On 12^th March 1930 Gandhiji along with his followers began the385 km. march from Sabarmati ashram to Dandi in Gujarat. On the way people of different villages laid flower carpets for Gandhiji to walk on. They sat one either side of the road and sang he bhajan Vaishnava Janata. There was overwhelming response. Many people followed him and on 5^th April, he broke the Salt Act at Dandi. Wherever there were sea beaches in India, The Salt Act was broken. Wherever there was no sea, people broke the laws relating to forests. In some places, no rent movement started and people refused to pay land revenue. The police arrested and persecuted the Satyagrahis. Women participated in large numbers.

In the North-West frontier province, Khan Abdul Gafar Khan, also known as Frontier Gandhi, launched a civil disobedience movement. What was significant was that the Gharwal riffles refused to carry out the order to fire at the Satyagrahis. More than 90000 Satyagrahis were arrested all over India.  Since there were no prisons of that size, schools were turned into jails.

The boycott of imperial cloth resulted in 50% reduction in the imports as compared to 1929. People of the princely states also took part in the agitation. The British tried to stop the agitation by holding talks.

When the world war II broke out, the British and the Americans declared that they were fighting Nazism and colonialism and for the freedom of the democratic nations. So, the Congress questioned the British government and said that they could not fight for freedom without granting freedom to India. By this time, leaders of Afro-Asians countries stared attending the congress working committee meetings as observers. In 1940 session, at Ram gad, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru demanded not only for the independence of India but also for other colonies of the British. The war in the East was advancing. To feed troops the British government exported 100000 tons of food grains from India in spite of famine conditions. When beaurocrats stated that people were dying of hunger, Churchill commented, “why Gandhiji doesn’t die?”.  England was worried about its rule in India. It was at this time, that Roosevelt, the president of USA, persuaded England to enlist the support of the people of India. So, talks began but it failed.

So, the Congress then launched the QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT. On 8^th August, the quit India resolution was passed where it was demanded that the British leave India immediately. To achieve this, Country wide non-violent agitation was started.  The British arrested all the leaders. Earlier, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose wanted to take advantage of the war in Europe but the congress did not agree. He resigned from the congress and started the Forward Block.

When the Japanese captured Singapore, The British and Australian troops were evacuated but the Indians were left to the mercy of the Japanese. They became P.O. W’s. Some Indians who settled for trade and commerce in the East had founded the India independence league. Netaji meanwhile had escaped from India and reached Berlin. From Berlin he reached Japan and established the Aazad Hind government in Singapore in 1943. The P.O.V were released and they formed the I.N.A. What was significant was the establishment of the women’s regiment called the Rani Jhansi regiment. The I.N.A. was able to MOWDOC in Assam. But by this time, the Japanese were losing ground and I.N.A soldiers became P.O.W. They were given life imprisonment but due to the outrage in India, the British were forced to cancel the execution of the sentence. In 1946, the navel mutiny started. The Indian army was called to suppress the mutiny, but the army refused to act. The people of Bombay fought the British soldiers who had been called. Finally, on an appeal from Sardar Valla Bhai Patel, the navel uprising came to an end.

By 1945, the India demand for independence stared being dealt with seriousness. So different plans were submitted to the congress the Muslim league. The Muslim league wanted Pakistan and finally the congress accepted the partition of India into India and Pakistan. The Radcliff committee drew a line of partition due to which 55,0000 people died. In modern parlance it would be called a genocide.