WikipediaExtracts:Indian independence movement
Extracted from Wikipedia --
The Indian independence movement was a series of political efforts from the middle of the nineteenth century to 1947, that took place in the Indian subcontinent with the aim of ending British colonial rule.
The first nationalistic movement took root when the Indian National Congress (INC) was formed in 1885. Prominent moderate leaders of the INC worked on such demands as the right to appear for Indian Civil Service examinations in British India, more economic rights for the Indians, among other rights.
The first half of the 20th century saw a progressively radical approach towards self-rule. From the protests against the Partition of Bengal (1906) that exposed the limits of the reformist agenda of the moderate leaders to the Non cooperation movement (1919-1922) that saw demands for not cooperating with the colonial authorities through the Civil Disobedience Movement (1929-1931) that called for active disobedience to the colonial government to the Quit India Movement (1942) that categorically demanded the end of British colonial presence in India, the independence movement gathered momentum steadily and ultimately resulted in the transfer of power in 1947.
The stages of the independence struggle in the 1920s were characterised by the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and Congress's adoption of Gandhi's policy of non-violence and civil disobedience. Some of the leading followers of Gandhi's ideology were Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Maulana Azad, and others. Intellectuals such as Rabindranath Tagore, Subramania Bharati, and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay spread patriotic awareness. Female leaders like Sarojini Naidu, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Pritilata Waddedar, and Kasturba Gandhi promoted the emancipation of Indian women and their participation in the freedom struggle.
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 anti-colonial, it was supplemented by visions of independent, economic development with a secular, democratic, republican, and civil-libertarian political structure. After the 1930s, the movement took on a strong socialist orientation. It culminated in the Indian Independence Act 1947, which ended Crown suzerainty and partitioned British India into the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. On 26 January 1950, the Constitution of India established the Republic of India. Pakistan adopted its first constitution in 1956. In 1971, East Pakistan declared its own independence as Bangladesh.
