Interesting facts about India's freedom struggle, 1857 to 1947

India's independence was not the gift of a single day, movement or leader. It was a struggle of nearly ninety years, joined by farmers, soldiers, students, women, writers and crores of ordinary people. Here are interesting facts about India's freedom struggle, with dates, that help both to understand history and to prepare for exams.

1857: the first big spark

• Mangal Pandey: on 29 March 1857, at the Barrackpore cantonment, the sepoy Mangal Pandey attacked British officers. He was hanged on 8 April 1857.
• It began in Meerut: on 10 May 1857 the sepoys at Meerut rose in revolt, marched to Delhi and declared Bahadur Shah Zafar their leader.
• Many heroes: Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi, Tatya Tope, Nana Sahib, Begum Hazrat Mahal and Kunwar Singh were among its leading figures.
• A big change: after the revolt, in 1858, the rule of the East India Company ended and India came directly under the British Crown.

The era of organised movement

• The founding of the Congress: the Indian National Congress was founded in Bombay on 28 December 1885. Seventy-two delegates attended its first session, presided over by Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee.
• The Partition of Bengal: Lord Curzon partitioned Bengal in 1905. In protest the Swadeshi movement began, and foreign cloth was burned in bonfires. The partition had to be reversed in 1911.
• Gandhiji returns: Mahatma Gandhi returned to India from South Africa on 9 January 1915. Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is observed on 9 January in memory of that day.
• The first satyagraha: the Champaran Satyagraha of 1917, for the indigo farmers, was Gandhiji's first major satyagraha in India.

Did you know? On the Dandi March, Gandhiji set out from Sabarmati Ashram with 78 companions on 12 March 1930 and walked about 385 kilometres in 24 days, reaching Dandi on 6 April.

Mass movements and the decisive years

The path of the revolutionaries

Alongside the non-violent movement, revolutionaries also gave their lives for freedom. On 9 August 1925, Ram Prasad Bismil and his comrades stopped a train carrying government money near Kakori; in this case Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Rajendra Lahiri and Thakur Roshan Singh were hanged in December 1927. Chandrashekhar Azad died fighting the British police in Alfred Park, Allahabad, on 27 February 1931, and on 23 March 1931 Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were hanged in Lahore jail — the day now remembered as "Shaheed Diwas" (Martyrs' Day).

Lesser-known but important facts

• Words had great power in the movement — read the story behind slogans such as "Vande Mataram", "Inquilab Zindabad" and "Do or Die" in Famous slogans of India's freedom struggle.
• Newspapers became the voice of the movement; papers such as Tilak's "Kesari" and Gandhiji's "Young India" woke people up.
• Women came forward — Sarojini Naidu became the first Indian woman president of the Congress in 1925, and in 1942 Aruna Asaf Ali hoisted the tricolour in Bombay.
• The struggles of tribal communities — such as Birsa Munda's "Ulgulan" (1899–1900) — were also part of this long fight.

For more history questions see History GK, and read the events of each day in On this day in history.