Harisankar's: India - 59th independence day

European traders came to Indian shores with the arrival of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498 at the port of Calicut, Kerala in search of the lucrative spice trade, And ended up in a colonial rule by the British for about 200 years. The Indian independence movement was a series of steps taken in the Indian subcontinent for independence from British colonial rule, beginning with the Rebellion of 1857. The term 'Indian independence movement' is fairly diffuse, since it involves several different movements with similar objectives. The mainstream movement was led by the Indian National Congress, which followed non-violent agitation and civil disobedience under Mahatma Gandhi, among others. Other leaders, notably Subhash Chandra Bose, also adopted a military approach to the movement.

The war of 1857 was a major turning point in the history of modern India. The British abolished the British East India Company and replaced it with direct rule under the British crown. A Viceroy was appointed to represent the Crown. In proclaiming the new direct-rule policy to "the Princes, Chiefs, and Peoples of India," Queen Victoria promised equal treatment under British law, but Indian mistrust of British rule had become a legacy of the 1857 rebellion.

India's option for an entirely original path to obtaining swaraj (self-rule, sometimes translated as Home Rule or Independence) was due largely to Mohandas Gandhi, commonly known as "Mahatma" (or Great Soul.) Gandhi's ideas and strategies of nonviolent civil disobedience appeared impractical to many Indians. In Gandhi's own words, "civil disobedience is civil breach of unmoral statutory enactments," but as he viewed it, it had to be carried out nonviolently by withdrawing cooperation with the corrupt state. Observers realized Gandhi's political potential when he used satyagraha during the anti-Rowlatt Act protests in Punjab. In 1920, under Gandhi's leadership, the Congress was reorganized and given a new constitution, whose goal was swaraj (independence). Membership in the party was opened to anyone prepared to pay a token fee, and a hierarchy of committees was established and made responsible for discipline and control over a hitherto amorphous and diffuse movement. The party was transformed from an elite organization to one of mass national appeal.

During his first nationwide satyagraha, Gandhi urged the people to boycott British educational institutions, law courts, and products; to resign from government employment; to refuse to pay taxes; and to forsake British titles and honors. Although this came too late to influence the framing of the new Government of India Act of 1919, the magnitude of disorder resulting from the movement was unparalleled and presented a new challenge to foreign rule. Gandhi was forced to call off the campaign in 1922 because of atrocities committed against police forces. He was imprisoned in 1922 for six years, but served only two. On his release from prison, he set up the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, on the banks of river Sabarmati, established the newspaper Young India, and inaugurated a series of reforms aimed at the socially disadvantaged within Hindu society - the rural poor, and the untouchables. Emerging leaders within the Congress --Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose, and others-- accepted Gandhi's leadership in articulating nationalist aspirations but disagreed on strategies for wresting more concessions from the British. The Indian political spectrum was further broadened in the mid-1920s by the emergence of both moderate and militant parties, such as the Swaraj Party.

In April 1930 there were violent police-crowd clashes in Calcutta. Approximately 90,000 people were imprisoned in the course of the Civil disobedience movement (1930-31). While Gandhi was in jail, the first Round Table Conference was held in London in November 1930, without representation from the Indian National Congress. The ban upon the Congress was removed because of economic hardships caused due to the satyagraha. Gandhi, along with other members of the Congress Working Committee, were released from prison in January 1931. In March 1931, the Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed, and the government agreed to set all political prisoners free. In return, Gandhi agreed to discontinue the civil disobedience movement and participate as the sole representative of the Congress in the second Round Table Conference, which was held in London in September 1931. However, the conference ended in failure in December 1931. Gandhi came back to India and decided to resume the civil disobedience movement in January 1932.

As voices inside and outside the Congress became more strident, the British appointed a commission in 1927, under Sir John Simon, to recommend further measures in the constitutional devolution of power. The British failure to appoint an Indian member to the commission outraged the Congress and others, and, as a result, they boycotted it throughout India, carrying placards inscribed "Simon, Go Back." In Lahore, Lala Lajpat Rai and Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya protested to the commission in open about their displeasure. Thousands joined in the silent demonstration. Police troops charged the demonstration, and Lala Lajpatrai was hit with a lathi (bamboo stick) on the head several times by an officer Scott. He succumbed to the injuries.Bhagat Singh, a young marxist from Punjab, vowed to take revenge and with the help of Chandrashekhar Azad, Rajguru and Sukhadev, plotted to kill Scott. Unfortunately, he killed Mr. Sanders, a junior officer, in a case of mistaken identity. This issue is not clear according to a folklore they couldn't find Scott and killed Sanders instead.The British, under the Defense of India Act, gave more power to the police to arrest persons to stop processions with suspicious movements and actions. The act brought in the council was defeated by one vote. Even then it was to be passed in the form of an ordinance in the "interest of the public." Bhagat Singh volunteered to throw a bomb in the central assembly where the act was to be passed. It was a carefully laid out plot, not to cause death or injury, but to draw the attention of the government. It was agreed that Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt would court arrest after throwing the bomb. On 8 April 1929, at Delhi Central Assembly, Singh and Dutt threw handouts, exploded a bomb in the corridor, and courted arrest after shouting the slogan "Inquilab Zindabad!" (Long Live, Revolution!). Bhagat Singh thought the court would be an ideal place to get publicity for the cause of freedom, and did not disown the crime. He was found guilty, and was hanged on 23 March 1931.

Though the Congress was initially reluctant to participate in World War II, it was eventually persuaded to do by the British government with the promise of full independance after the end of the war. During the war the Indian armed forces were the largest all-volunteer forces fighting alongside the allied powers. This was strongly opposed by Subhash Chandra Bose, who had been elected president of the Congress twice, in 1937 and 1939. After lobbying against participation in the war, he resigned from Congress in 1939 and started a new party, the All India Forward Bloc. He was placed under house arrest, but escaped in 1941. He surfaced in Germany, and enlisted German and Japanese help to fight the British in India.

In 1943, he travelled to Japan from Germany on board German and Japanese submarines. In Japan, he helped organize the Indian National Army (INA) and set up a government-in-exile. During the war, the Andaman and Nicobar islands came under INA control, and Bose renamed them Shahid (Martyr) and Swaraj (Independence). The INA engaged British troops in northeastern India, hoping to liberate Indian territories under colonial rule. Its attempts ended with the surrender of Japan in 1945. It is agreed by many that Subhash Chandra Bose was killed in an air crash in August 1945. But his death is still controversial.

In an effort to bring the British to the negotiating table, Gandhi launched the Quit India movement in August 1942. He issued the call "to do or die" from a large meeting ground in Bombay (since re-named August Kranti.) However, almost the entire Congress leadership were arrested within a span of 24 hours after Gandhi's speech. Large scale violence resulted in the aftermath of the Quit India movement.

World War II not only changed the map of the world and reduced Britain to a second rate power, it also helped mature British public opinion on India. The Labour Party's election victory in 1945 helped reassess the merits of the traditional policies. While the British was negotiating to transfer power to India, the Muslim League renewed its demand for the formation of Pakistan. Jinnah was opposed to sharing power with the Indian National Congress, he declared 16 August 1946 as Direct Action Day, which brought communal rioting in many places in the north. On 3 June 1947, Viscount Louis Mountbatten, the Viceroy (1947) and Governor-General (1947-48), announced plans for partition of the British Indian Empire into secular India, and Muslim Pakistan, which itself was divided into east and west wings on either side of India.

At midnight, on August 15, 1947, amidst ecstatic shouting of "Jai Hind" (Long Live India), India became an independent nation, with its first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru delivering his famous speech on India's tryst with destiny. Gandhi did not support the idea of partition of India, so he did not participate in the celebration of Indian Independence. Concurrently, the Muslim northwest and northeast of British India were separated into the nation of Pakistan. Violent clashes between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs followed this partition. The area of Kashmir in the far north of the subcontinent quickly became a source of controversy that erupted into the First Indo-Pakistani War which lasted from 1947 to 1949.