The history behind Indian independence is
very painful and is full of sacrifices. And only because of those
sacrifices India freed herself from the shackles of British Empire on
15th August 1947. It was an endless struggle of millions faceless
Indians, who made the inhabitants united and fought for the freedom of
their own country.
The year 1857 is a benchmark in the history of Indian
independence. On 29th march 1875, a brave Indian soldier first ever
raised his voice against the British Empire and later it resulted to
Sepoy Mutiny.
The
name of the Indian soldier was Mangal Pandey, and the reason behind
his revolt was, low wages of Indian workers than other British
soldiers, racial discrimination and cultural misunderstandings. And
another strong reason was the packing of the cartridges which was
believed to be greased with cow and pig fat and soldiers had to tear
the packing with their teeth in order to use it. And that was something
which considered being very unholy for the hindu soldiers. Combination
of all these issues led to the violent uprising of Barrakpore Sepoy
mutiny. Mangal Pandey, the Hindu soldier of the 34th Native infantry
was hanged as because he had shot his sergeant major on the parade
ground. This incident fanned the fire of the revolution. On 10th may
of the same year the enraged Indian soldiers and the common civilians
of Meerut joined their hands to protest against the ill-treatment of
the British on some native soldiers. Later this revolt took a big form
but it was eventually put down by the effective British military.
In next few decades there were many small and big wars fought against the
empire. Among these wars most prominent were the Battle of Kanpur led
by Nana Shahib of Bittur, the Battle of Jhansi led by the Queen of
Jhansi Rani Laxmibai and Tantia Tope, the fight of Arrah in Bihar led
Kunwar Singh the landlord of Jagdishpur and the war at Lucknow led by
Hazrat Begum. These battles were the indications of the discontent of
the Indians against their European rulers.
In 20th century, the dissatisfaction towards the British Government began to take a concrete shape.
In
the beginning of 1900 there were several revolutionary groups sprang
up in different parts of the country such as Bengal, Punjab, Gujrat,
Assam and the southern states of India. Several extremist organizations
with arms started to sprang up with one aim that is to earn freedom
through violent activities. This discontentment for freedom was not
without reason. The British Government never treated the Indian natives
with the deserving respect. They are always considered as low-lives
comparing to the British counterparts. They don’t treat them with
leniency even for the small crimes while the British civilians were
being let off, even if they were found guilty of committing murders. In
every path of their lives the Indians found themselves deprived. Some
political groups such as Congress were formed to convey the voices of
millions anguished natives to the British Empire in a peaceful manner.
Some of the iconic leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose,
Jawaharlal Nehru and Lala Lajpat Rai , had tried to attain freedom
through peaceful means. On the other hand personalities like Mastarda
Surya Sen, Chandrasekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, had taken extreme measure
to snatch freedom from the British Empire.
In 1930 Mahatma Gandhi started the famous “Salt March” and
after that in 1942 he started the “Quit India Movement”. The amount of
public support and remonstration was more than before. All those
things which were Western were burnt or thrown away. Purna Swaraj or
total freedom was demanded from the British Government. In answer to
this protest the British Government imprisoned thousands of Congress
leaders and civilians along with Gandhi. Subhash Chandra Bose, who
idealisms were extremist, got drifted from Congress and formed a new
party named the All India Forward Block Party and launched his own army
named Indian National Army (INA). And by this military might he tried
to attain freedom from the clutches of the British Empire. Initially
they were successful. But with the sudden demise of Netaji (as Subhash
Chandra Bose was popularly known to his countrymen) the entire nation
saw the evanescent of the INA.
Later with two successive world wars, the resources of the
British Empire were eventually drained to a certain extent that they
found it really very difficult to manage India. And on top of that the
huge discontent of the native Indians who wanted British to leave their
country at any cost was driving them crazy. Non violent protests as
well as extremist activities were being carried out on the daily basis.
On this scenario the British was clear about one thing that their
reign over this country were going to be over soon.
At
last the day came, in the year 1947, June 3rd Viscount Louis
Mountbatten, the last British Governor-General of India, declared that
the British will leave the Indian subcontinent. But before leaving
India they had decided to split up their Indian British Empire into
secular India and Muslim Pakistan. This was done because the Muslims in
India felt that their demands were not thoroughly represented by the
Congress. And after the desired freedom they would not have equal
opportunities as the Congress. They thought that after independence the
Congress would give preference to the Hindus and therefore this
thought lead to the demand for a separate nation. Pakistan was
officially announced as an independent nation on 14th August 1947. And
at midnight, on 15th August 1947, India was declared to be an
independent nation by her first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
That's just beginning......
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