On the 15th of August, 2023, we celebrate the 76th year of Indian independence. As a nation, our independence is rooted in the courage of people who sacrificed their lives to bring us to this day. When we go back in time and attempt to understand the spirit of independence and the struggle of the Indian freedom fighters to liberate the country from British rule, we witness the insurmountable pain it entailed for us.
Hearts swell up and eyes fill with tears when we uncover that some of our most prominent freedom fighters were children who, at a tender age of 13 and 14, had set their minds on defeating the longstanding invaders. It was a collective struggle. The British authorities systematically imposed their culture on India, leading to a loss of identity and individual significance as a resident of the land. Cultural oppression was a major contributor to the widespread sentiment of nationalism and the need to no longer retain the identity of being a colonial subject. It was every individual’s ardent desire to live through mornings that weren’t infested by colonial rule.
Our battle for independence lasted for nearly two centuries, from 1857 to 1947. Numerous elements, including economic exploitation, political repression, and cultural oppression, contributed to the Indian liberation fight.
The revolt of 1857-59 was a widespread but unsuccessful rebellion against the rule of the British East India Company. It was the first expression of organized resistance against the British which began as a revolt of the sepoys of the British East India Company’s army but eventually secured the participation of the public.
The Dandi March, also known as the Salt March and the Dandi Satyagraha was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience led by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The march lasted from 12th March 1930 to 6th April 1930 as a campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly. Civil disobedience broke out all across India, as a result involving millions of Indians. The British authorities arrested Gandhi on 5th May, but the march continued to be in action without him. In January 1931, Gandhi was released from prison. He later met with Lord Irwin, the viceroy of India, and agreed to call off the satyagraha in exchange for an equal negotiating role at a London conference on India’s future.
The Quit India Movement was an intense movement launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 9 August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule in India. Gandhi made a call to Do or Die in his Quit India movement delivered in Bombay on 9 August 1942 at the Gowalia Tank Maidan.
The Partition of India in 1947, the most significant consequence of the freedom struggle in the history of British India, was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in the Indian subcontinent and the creation of two independent nations: India and Pakistan. The partition was outlined in the Indian Independence Act 1947. The change of political borders notably included the division of two provinces of British India, Bengal and Punjab.
Provisions for self-governing independent Pakistan and India officially came into existence at midnight on the 14th and 15th of August 1947, respectively.
The historical documentation of our continuous attempt to stand as an independent nation is a testimony to the innumerable lives that were devoted to our freedom struggle and continued to be sacrificed until the day we were officially liberated as a country. It seems unfair to not consider the retaliation at a minuscule level. Indian independence is not merely a day to remember every year, it is an emotion that is deeply engraved in our hearts. Each passing year is a reminder of the lives lost and names forgotten, buried under the dust.