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Name :- Neel Anil  Sawale Roll No:- 41 Class:- 5 th School:- KVS Aurangabad

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C ause  Indian  First  W ar  of independence

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The revolt of 1857 was initiated due to various factors which are stated below:  ● Religious & Social Causes - Racism or racial discrimination was believed to be a major reason for the revolt of 1857 wherein Indians were exploited and were kept away from mixing with Europeans. The whites also started interfering in the religious and cultural affairs of Indians and tortured them as well.  ● Political Causes - The British expansion had led to the propagation of unjust policies that led to the loss of power of the  Nawabs  and  Zamindars  residing at various places of India. The introduction of unfair policies like the policy of Trade and Commerce, the policy of indirect subordination (subsidiary alliance), the policy of war and annexation, the policy of direct subordination (doctrine of lapse), the policy of  misgovernance  (through which  Awadh  was annexed) greatly hampered the interests of the rulers of the native states, and they one by one became victims of British expansionism. Therefore, those rulers, who lost their states to the British, were naturally against the British and took sides against them during the revolt.  ● Economic Factors -There were various reforms in the taxation and revenue system that affected the peasants’ heavily. British Government had imposed and introduced various administrative policies to expand their territory.

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List of Important Leaders associated with the revolt of 1857

Place Revolt of 1857 -Important  Leaders Delhi  Bahadur  Shah II, General  Bakht  Khan  Lucknow   Begum  Hazrat   Mahal ,  Birjis   Qadir ,  Ahmadullah   Kanpur  Nana Sahib, Rao Sahib,  Tantia  Tope,  Azimullah   Khan Jhansi  Rani  Laxmibai   Bihar  Kunwar  Singh, Amar Singh  Rajasthan  Jaidayal  Singh and  Hardayal   Sing   Farrukhaba   d  Tufzal   Hasan  Khan  Assam  Kandapareshwar  Singh,  Maniram  Dutta  Baruah   Orissa  Surendra   Shahi ,  Ujjwal   Shahi

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In India, the term First War of Independence was first popularized by  Vinayak   Damodar   Savarkar  in his 1909 book The History of the War of Indian Independence.

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What was the immediate reason for the revolt of 1857?

The immediate factor was the introduction of the ‘Enfield’ rifle. It was said that the cartridge of this rifle was wrapped in the fat of cow and pig. The cartridge had to be bitten off before loading it into the gun. Thus the Hindu and Muslim soldiers were reluctant to use the ‘Enfield’ rifle

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On 28 December 1885, the first session of the Indian National Congress (INC) was held at Bombay and continued till 31 December. It was started by a retired British civil servant Allan Octavian Hume along with  Dadabhai   Naoroji  and  Dinshaw   Wacha .

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The INC was the first national movement of a political kind in India with the initial aim of getting more Indians involved in the governance of the country. Later on, its purpose upgraded to complete independence. And, post-independence, it emerged as a major political party in the country. For the first session, Hume obtained permission from the then Viceroy of India Lord  Dufferin . It was initially supposed to be held in Poona but was moved to Bombay due to the outbreak of cholera in Poona. In 1883, Hume had written an open letter to Calcutta University graduates expressing his idea of having a body for educated Indians to demand more share in the government and also for a platform by which dialogue could be initiated and sustained between educated Indians and the British government. The first session was attended by 72 delegates from all the Indian provinces. There were 54 Hindus, 2 Muslims and the rest were Jain and  Parsi  members. The president of the first session was  Womesh  Chandra  Bonnerjee . Prominent attendees of the maiden session were  Dadabhai   Naoroji ,  Dinshaw   Wacha , William  Wedderburn ,  Pherozeshah  Mehta, etc. In its early years, the INC was a moderate  organisation  and limited its means to constitutional methods and dialogue. Its demands were limited to including more Indians in the civil service and the armed forces. It never talked of independence. After a few years, the party became more radical in its demands and approach. By 1905, there was a clear rift in the party which was now divided between old moderates and the newer group, the extremists – who were so called because of their radical methodologies. The 1905 partition of Bengal saw the party transforming into a mass movement. The extremist faction was led by  Bal   Gangadhar   Tilak . The party split openly in the  Surat  session  in 1907. The congress truly became a mass party with the arrival of Mahatma Gandhi, who returned from South Africa in 1915. Gandhi introduced methods like  satyagraha  and civil disobedience to the independence struggle. Gandhi remained a spiritual leader for the party and his presence drew a lot of support from both the elite and the masses. More young leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru,  Vallabhbhai  Patel, Dr.  Rajendra  Prasad, C Rajagopalachari,  Subhash  Chandra Bose, etc. made their presence felt. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was also a member of the party and although he joined the Muslim League in 1913, he continued to be a Congress member as well until 1920. Starting with home rule, by 1929, the demand for  poorna   swaraj  was being made. The Congress was now a party that had huge mass support and was the chief political party in the Indian freedom struggle. After the  Government of India Act 1935  was passed, provincial elections were held in 1936-37 and out of the 11 provinces, the Congress formed the government in 8 of them except Sindh, Punjab and Bengal. It must be noted that the INC was not the sole Indian political force, there were other parties like the Hindu  Mahasabha , the Forward Bloc, etc. After independence, the first Prime Minister of the country, Jawaharlal Nehru was from the party. In the first general elections in 1952, the Congress had a thumping victory and Nehru became the first directly elected PM of India. He was in power till his death in 1964. Other Prime Ministers from the party are  Gulzarilal  Nanda (acting PM),  Lal   Bahadur   Shastri , Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P V  Narasimha  Rao and  Manmohan  Singh. Even the non-Congress Prime Ministers like  Morarji  Desai,  Charan  Singh, V P Singh, Chandra  Shekhar ,  Deve   Gowda  and I K  Gujral  were formerly members of the Congress.

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First Phase of Indian Nationalism (1885- 1915)

This phase was dominated by moderates. This phase was initially called as the ‘Early Nationalist’ phase, however, with the rise of extremism in the closing stages of the 19th Century, this phase was described as the ‘age of moderates’. 1. Establishment  of Indian National Congress (INC) : a) The INC was established in 1885, by A.O. Hume, a retired civil servant who was staying in Shimla post-retirement. b) He invited many Indian leaders regarding the Indian cause, and he laid the foundation of the ‘Indian National Union’. c) But, after the suggestion of  Dadabhai   Naoroji , its name was changed to ‘Indian National Congress’. The word ‘Congress’ was taken from the American Constitution.

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What was the real reason for the establishment of the Indian National Congress?

There are two broad theories behind this: a)  Mythical Theory : This suggested that it was the humanistic approach of A.O. Hume that was cited as one of the factors that led to the establishment of the INC. In fact, it was said that Hume was deeply moved by the political plight of the Indians, and he wanted to establish a political platform for Indians that could serve as the ‘voice for Indians’ so that the grievances could reach the British and the discontentment which was gradually growing between the British ruling system and the Indians could be minimized. The biographer of A.O. Hume,  William  Wedderburn , who later on also became the President of the INC as well, deeply believed in the humanistic approach of A.O. Hume. b)  Realistic Theory : The extremist elements in India like  Lala   Lajpat   Rai ,  Bal   Gangadhar   Tilak ,  Bipin  Chandra Pal, etc. laid down the theory known as ‘Safety- valve’ theory. Lala   Lajpat   Rai  wrote two books, ‘Unhappy India’, and ‘Punjabi’. In these two books, he explained and criticized the policy of the British regarding the establishment of the INC. According to him, it was a conspiracy of  Lord  Dufferin , and  A.O. Hume,  that lead to the establishment of the INC. In the second half of the 19th Century with the growing tide of nationalism, the aggression of Indians kept on increasing against the British policies, thus the British think-tanks derived a concept by which it was said that in between the British Government in India and the Indian public, there would be a buffer organization known as the Indian National Congress (INC). Thus the INC would work as a buffer organization, or in other words, it would work as a safety-valve. The safety-valve theory got a strong momentum in the political circles of India. But, on the basis of modern analysis, the INC was a result of many a regional consciousness uniting together under the context of commonality of interests. In fact, with the beginning of the 19th Century itself, there were many cultural organizations which were established by social reformers. And cultural organizations always lead to political and social awareness. Thus, in this regard, we find that immediately after the socio-cultural movement in India (i.e. 19th-century renaissance), we find various political organizations being established like: The Landholders Society , which was established by  Dwarakanath  Tagore. This was also known as  Zamindar   Sabha . There were many other organizations like,  East India Association ,  Bengal British East India Association, Poona  Sarvajanik   Sabha , and the Indian League, established by  Sisir  Kumar Ghosh.

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A hero’s welcome awaited Gandhi when he landed on January 9, 1915, at the Apollo  Bunder  in Bombay. Three days later he was honored by the people of Bombay at a magnificent reception in the palatial house of a Bombay magnate  Jehangir  Petit. The Government of India joined with the people of India in showering  honours  on Gandhi. He received a "Kaiser-I-Hind" gold medal in the King’s birthday  honours  list of 1915. His association with  Gokhale  was guarantee enough of his being a safe politician. Of course, he had led an extra-constitutional movement in South Africa, defied laws and filled  gaols , but the cause for which he had fought appeared as much humanitarian as political, dear to all Indian as and all Englishmen whose sense of humanity had not been blunted by racial arrogance or political expediency. Lord  Hardinge’s  open support of the Satyagraha movement had in any case removed the stigma of rebellion from South Africa’s Indian movement. Gandhi was in no hurry to plunge into politics. His political mentor on the Indian scene was  Gokhale . One of the first things  Gokhale  did was to extract a promise from Gandhi that he would not express himself upon public questions for a year, which was to be a "year of probation".  Gokhale  was very keen that Gandhi should join the Servants of India Society in Poona. Gandhi was only too willing to fall in with the wishes of  Gokhale , but several members of the Society feared that there was too great a gap between the ideals and methods of the Society and those of Gandhi. While the question of his admission as a ‘Servant of India’ was being debated, Gandhi visited his home towns of  Porbandar  and Rajkot and went on to  Shantiniketan  in West Bengal, the cosmopolitan University of the Poet Rabindranath Tagore.

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The  Champaran  Satyagraha  of 1917 was the first  Satyagraha  movement led by  Gandhi  in India and is considered a historically important revolt in the  Indian Independence Movement . It was a farmer's uprising that took place in  Champaran  district of  Bihar ,  India , during the  British colonial period . The farmers were protesting against having to grow  indigo  with barely any payment for  it.When   Gandhi returned to India from South Africa in 1915, and saw peasants in northern India oppressed by indigo planters, he tried to use the same methods that he had used in South Africa to organize mass uprisings by people to protest against  injustice.Champaran   Satyagraha was the first popular  satyagraha  movement. The  Champaran  Satyagraha gave direction to India's youth and  freedom struggle , which was tottering between  moderates  who prescribed Indian participation within the British colonial system, and the  extremists  from Bengal who advocated the use of violent methods to topple the  British colonialists  in India. [ 2] Under  Colonial-era laws, many tenant farmers were forced to grow some indigo on a portion of their land as a condition of their tenancy. This indigo was used to make  dye . The Germans had invented a cheaper artificial dye so the demand for indigo fell. Some tenants paid more rent in return for being let off having to grow indigo. However, during the First World War the German dye ceased to be available and so indigo became profitable again. Thus many tenants were once again forced to grow it on a portion of their land- as was required by their lease. Naturally, this created much anger and resentment .

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1919 The tragic  Jallianwala   Bagh  Massacre

The  Jallianwala   Bagh  massacre , also known as the  Amritsar massacre , took place on 13 April 1919, when Acting Brigadier-General  Reginald Dyer  ordered troops of the  British Indian Army  to fire their rifles into a crowd of unarmed  Indian   civilians  in  Jallianwala   Bagh ,  Amritsar ,  Punjab , killing at least 379 people and injuring over 1,200 other  people.On   Sunday, 13 April 1919, Dyer, convinced a major insurrection could take place, banned all meetings. This notice was not widely disseminated, and many villagers gathered in the  Bagh  to celebrate the important  Hindu  and  Sikh  festival of  Baisakhi , and peacefully protest the arrest and deportation of two national leaders,  Satyapal  and  Saifuddin   Kitchlew . Dyer and his troops entered the garden, blocking the main entrance behind them, took up position on a raised bank, and with no warning opened fire on the crowd for about ten minutes, directing their bullets largely towards the few open gates through which people were trying to flee, until the ammunition supply was almost exhausted. The following day Dyer stated in a report that "I have heard that between 200 and 300 of the crowd were killed. My party fired 1,650  rounds ".The   Hunter Commission report published the following year by the Government of India  criticised  both Dyer personally and also the Government of the Punjab for failing to compile a detailed casualty count, and quoted a figure offered by the  Sewa   Samati  (a Social Services Society) of 379 identified dead ,  and approximately 1,200 wounded, of whom 192 were seriously injured. [6] [7]  The casualty number estimated by the  Indian National Congress  was more than 1,500 injured, with approximately 1,000  dead.Dyer   was lauded for his actions by some in Britain, and indeed became a hero among many of those who were directly benefiting from the  British Raj ,  such as members of the  House of Lords .  He was, however, widely denounced and  criticised  in the  House of Commons , whose July 1920 committee of investigation censured him. Because he was a soldier acting on orders, he could not be tried for murder. The military chose not to bring him before a court-martial, and his only punishment was to be removed from his current appointment, turned down for a proposed promotion, and barred from further employment in India. Dyer subsequently retired from the army and moved to England, where he died, unrepentant about his actions, in 1927 . [ Responses  polarized both the British and Indian peoples. Eminent author  Rudyard Kipling  declared at the time that Dyer "did his duty as he saw it ".  This incident shocked  Rabindranath Tagore  (the first Indian and Asian  Nobel laureate ) to such an extent that he renounced his knighthood and stated that "such mass murderers aren't worthy of giving any title to anyone". The massacre caused a re-evaluation by the British Army of its military role against civilians to  minimal force whenever possible , although later British actions during the  Mau  Mau  insurgencies in Kenya have led historian  Huw  Bennett to note that the new policy was not always carried out .  The army was retrained and developed less violent tactics for crowd control . The level of casual brutality, and lack of any accountability, stunned the entire nation ,  resulting in a wrenching loss of faith of the general Indian public in the intentions of the UK .  The ineffective inquiry, together with the initial accolades for Dyer, fuelled great widespread anger against the British among the Indian populace, leading to the  Non-cooperation movement  of 1920–22 .  Some historians consider the episode a decisive step towards the end of British rule in India . Britain never formally  apologised  for the massacre but expressed "regret" in 2019 .

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The movement of Non-cooperation was launched on 4 September 1920 by Mahatma Gandhi with the aim of self-governance and obtaining full independence ( Purna   Swaraj ) as the Indian National Congress (INC) withdrew its support for British reforms following the  Rowlatt  Act of 21 March 1919, and the  Jallianwala   Bagh  massacre of 13 April  1919.The  Rowlatt  Act of March 1919, which suspended the rights of political prisoners in sedition trials,[1] was seen as a "political awakening" by Indians and as a "threat" by the British. Although it was never invoked and declared void just a few years later,  the  act motivated Gandhi to conceive the idea of  satyagraha  (truth), which he saw as synonymous with independence. This idea was also  authorised  the following month by Jawaharlal Nehru, for who the massacre also endorsed “the conviction that nothing short of independence was  acceptable ”.Gandhi's   planning of the non-cooperation movement included persuading all Indians to withdraw their  labour  from any activity that "sustained the British government and economy in India",  including  British industries and educational institutions. In addition to promoting “self-reliance” by spinning  khadi , buying Indian-made goods only and boycotting British goods, Gandhi's non-cooperation movement called for the restoration of the  Khilafat  ( Khilafat  movement) in Turkey and the end to untouchability. This result in public held meetings and strikes ( hartals ) led to the first arrests of both Jawaharlal Nehru  sahibb  and his father,  Motilal  Nehru, on 6 December  1921.It  was one of the movements for Indian independence from British rule and ended, as Nehru described in his autobiography, "suddenly" in 4 February 1922 after the  Chauri   Chaura  incident. Subsequent independence movements were the Civil Disobedience Movement and the Quit India  Movement.Through   non-violent means or Ahimsa, protesters would refuse to buy British goods, adopt the use of local handicrafts and picket liquor shops. The ideas of Ahimsa and non-violence, and Gandhi's ability to rally hundreds of thousands of common citizens towards the cause of Indian independence, were first seen on a large scale in this movement through the summer of 1920.

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The  Purna   Swaraj  declaration ( Hindi :  पूर्ण , [1]   Purna , meaning "complete",  Hindi :  स्व ,  Swa , meaning "self" and  Hindi :  राज ,  raj , meaning "rule"), [2]  or  Declaration of the Independence of India , was promulgated by the  Indian National Congress  on 26 January 1930, resolving the Congress and Indian nationalists to fight for  Purna   Swaraj , or  complete self-rule  independent of the  British  Empire .The   flag of India  was hoisted by  Jawaharlal Nehru  on 31 December 1929 on the banks of  Ravi river , in  Lahore , modern-day  Pakistan . The Congress asked the people of India to observe 26 January as  Independence Day  (see  Legacy ). The flag of India was hoisted publicly across India by Congress volunteers, nationalists and the public.

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The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha,  Dandi  March and the  Dandi  Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi. The twenty four day march lasted from 12 March 1930 to 6 April 1930 as a direct action campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly. Another reason for this march was that the Civil Disobedience Movement needed a strong inauguration that would inspire more people to follow Gandhi's example. Gandhi started this march with 78 of his trusted volunteers. The march spanned 390 km, from Sabarmati Ashram to  Dandi , which was called  Navsari  at that time (now in the state of Gujarat).  Growing  numbers of Indians joined them along the way. When Gandhi broke the British Raj salt laws at 6:30 am on 6 April 1930, it sparked large scale acts of civil disobedience against the salt laws by millions of  Indians.After   making the salt by evaporation at  Dandi , Gandhi continued southward along the coast, making salt and addressing meetings on the way. The Congress Party planned to stage a  satyagraha  at the  Dharasana  Salt Works, 40 km south of  Dandi . However, Gandhi was arrested on the midnight of 4–5 May 1930, just days before the planned action at  Dharasana . The  Dandi  March and the ensuing  Dharasana  Satyagraha drew worldwide attention to the Indian independence movement through extensive newspaper and newsreel coverage. The  satyagraha  against the salt tax continued for almost a year, ending with Gandhi's release from jail and negotiations with Viceroy Lord Irwin at the Second Round Table Conference. Although over 60,000 Indians were jailed as a result of the Salt Satyagraha, the British did not make immediate major  concessions.The   Salt Satyagraha campaign was based upon Gandhi's principles of non-violent protest called  satyagraha , which he loosely translated as "truth-force".  Literally , it is formed from the Sanskrit words  satya , "truth", and  agraha , "insistence". In early 1930 the Indian National Congress chose  satyagraha  as their main tactic for winning Indian sovereignty and self-rule from British rule and appointed Gandhi to  organise  the campaign. Gandhi chose the 1882 British Salt Act as the first target of  satyagraha . The Salt March to  Dandi , and the beating by British police of hundreds of nonviolent protesters in  Dharasana , which received worldwide news coverage, demonstrated the effective use of civil disobedience as a technique for fighting social and political injustice. The  satyagraha  teachings of Gandhi and the March to  Dandi  had a significant influence on American activists Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, and others during the Civil Rights Movement for civil rights for African Americans and other minority groups in the 1960s. The march was the most significant  organised  challenge to British authority since the Non-cooperation movement of 1920–22, and directly followed the  Purna   Swaraj  declaration of sovereignty and self-rule by the Indian National Congress on 26 January 1930. It gained worldwide attention which gave impetus to the Indian independence movement and started the nationwide Civil Disobedience movement which continued until 1934.

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The Government of India Act, 1935 was passed by British Parliament in August 1935. With 321 sections and 10 schedules, this was the longest act passed by British Parliament so far and was later split into two parts viz. Government of India Act, 1935 and Government of Burma Act, 1935 . The  demand for constitutional reforms in  india  has been quite  old.The   Government of India Act, 1935 derived material from four key sources viz. Report of the Simon Commission, discussions at the Third Round Table Conference, the White Paper of 1933 and the reports of the Joint select committees. This act ended the system of  dyarchy  introduced by the Government of India Act 1919, and provided for establishment of a  Federation of India  to be made up of provinces of British India and some or all of the Princely states. However, the federation never came into being as the required number of princely states did not join  it.It   was the last  constitution  of  British India  which split Burma from it.  It  lasted until 1947, when British territory was split into  Pakistan  and  India .

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During the  Second World War  (1939–1945),  India  was controlled by the  United Kingdom , with the British holding territories in India including over six hundred autonomous  Princely States .  British India  officially declared war on  Nazi Germany  in September 1939. [1]  The British Raj, as part of the  Allied Nations , sent over two and a half million soldiers to fight under British command against the  Axis powers . India also provided the base for American operations in support of China in the  China Burma India Theater . Indians fought with distinction throughout the world, including in the  European theatre against Germany ,  in North Africa against Germany and Italy , in the  South Asian region  defending India against the Japanese and fighting the Japanese in Burma. Indians also aided in liberating British colonies such as  Singapore  and  Hong Kong  after the Japanese surrender in August 1945. Over 87,000 Indian soldiers (including those from modern day  Pakistan , and  Bangladesh ) and 3 million civilians died in World War II. [2] [3]   Field Marshal   Sir Claude  Auchinleck ,  Commander-in-Chief, India , asserted the British "couldn't have come through both wars [World War I and II] if they hadn't had the  Indian Army ." [4] [5] Opinions on India's involvement in the war was divided, with Viceroy  Linlithgow  declaring that India was at war with Germany despite a lack of consultations with Indian politicians. [6]  Political parties such as the  Muslim League  and the  Hindu  Mahasabha  supported the British war effort while the largest and most influential political party existing in India at the time, the  Indian National Congress , demanded independence before it would help Britain. [7] [8]  London refused, and when Congress announced a "Quit India" campaign in August 1942, tens of thousands of its leaders were imprisoned by the British for the duration. Meanwhile, under the leadership of Indian leader  Subhash  Chandra Bose , Japan set up an army of Indian  POWs  known as the  Indian National Army , which fought against the British.  A major famine in Bengal in 1943  led to 3 million deaths due to starvation, and a highly controversial issue remains regarding  Churchill 's decision to not provide emergency food relief. [9] [10] Indian participation in the Allied campaign remained strong. The financial, industrial and military assistance of India formed a crucial component of the British campaign against Nazi Germany and  Imperial Japan . [11]  India's strategic location at the tip of the Indian Ocean, its large production of armaments, and its huge armed forces played a decisive role in halting the progress of Imperial Japan in the  South-East Asian theatre . [12]  The  Indian Army during World War II  was one of the largest Allied forces contingents which took part in the  North  and  East African Campaign ,  Western Desert Campaign . At the height of the second World War, more than 2.5 million Indian troops were fighting Axis forces around the globe. [13]  After the end of the war, India emerged as the world's fourth largest industrial power and its increased political, economic and military influence paved the way for its independence from the United Kingdom in 1947.

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The 1947  Indian Independence Act  [1947 c. 30 (10 & 11. Geo. 6.)] is an  Act  of the  Parliament of the United Kingdom  that  partitioned   British India  into the two new independent  dominions  of  India  and  Pakistan . The Act received Royal Assent on 18 July 1947 and thus India and Pakistan, comprising West (modern day  Pakistan ) and East (modern day  Bangladesh ) regions,  came  into being on 14  August. The  legislature representatives of the  Indian National Congress ,  the  Muslim League ,  and the  Sikh   community  came to an agreement with  Lord Mountbatten  on what has come to be known as the  3 June Plan  or  Mountbatten Plan . This plan was the last plan for independence.