The Freedom Struggle: Stages and Contributors

What the official syllabus says

UPPCS Main Examination, General Studies I.

The Freedom Struggle: its various stages and important contributors/contributions from different parts of the country.

Topics in detail

Learn the movement stage by stage, and for each stage note its causes, leaders, methods, regional spread and outcome. The syllabus asks specifically for contributors from different parts of the country, so keep a region-wise list.

Early nationalism (1885 to 1905)

• Pre-Congress associations: British Indian Association, Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, Indian Association
• Founding of the Indian National Congress (1885, Bombay; first president W. C. Bonnerjee)
• The Moderates: Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta, Gopal Krishna Gokhale; their methods and achievements

The Swadeshi phase and the Extremists (1905 to 1918)

• Partition of Bengal (1905) and the Swadeshi and Boycott movement
• Lal-Bal-Pal: Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal; Aurobindo Ghose
• Founding of the Muslim League (1906); the Surat split (1907)
• Revolutionary nationalism: Anushilan Samiti, Khudiram Bose, India House in London, the Ghadar Party (1913)
• Home Rule Leagues of Tilak and Annie Besant (1916); the Lucknow Pact (1916)

The Gandhian era (1917 to 1934)

• Champaran (1917), Kheda (1918) and the Ahmedabad mill strike (1918)
• Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre (1919)
• Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22); its withdrawal after Chauri Chaura (Gorakhpur, 1922)
• Swaraj Party; the Simon Commission (1928) and the Nehru Report (1928)
• Lahore session (1929) and the resolution for Purna Swaraj
• Civil Disobedience Movement and the Dandi March (1930); the Round Table Conferences; the Gandhi-Irwin Pact (1931)
• Communal Award and the Poona Pact (1932)

Revolutionary movements of the 1920s and 1930s

• Hindustan Republican Association and the Kakori train action (1925): Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Rajendra Lahiri, Roshan Singh
• Hindustan Socialist Republican Association: Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Sukhdev, Rajguru
• Chittagong armoury raid (1930, Surya Sen)

Towards independence (1935 to 1947)

• Government of India Act, 1935; the 1937 provincial elections and Congress ministries
• Second World War: the August Offer (1940), individual satyagraha (1940), the Cripps Mission (1942)
• Quit India Movement (1942) and parallel governments (Ballia, Satara, Tamluk)
• Subhas Chandra Bose, the Indian National Army and the INA trials; the Royal Indian Navy mutiny (1946)
• Cabinet Mission (1946), the Interim Government, the Mountbatten Plan (3 June 1947) and the Indian Independence Act, 1947

Contributions from different parts of the country

• Peasant movements: Kisan Sabhas and the Eka movement in Awadh, Bardoli satyagraha (1928, Vallabhbhai Patel), the All India Kisan Sabha (1936)
• South India: Vaikom satyagraha, the Self-Respect Movement, Subramania Bharati, C. Rajagopalachari
• North-West Frontier: Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and the Khudai Khidmatgars
• North-East: Rani Gaidinliu; Gopinath Bordoloi
• Women: Sarojini Naidu, Kasturba Gandhi, Aruna Asaf Ali, Usha Mehta (Congress Radio, 1942)
• Depressed classes: B. R. Ambedkar and the demand for social justice
• Workers' and students' movements; the role of the press and of literature

Overlaps

Uttar Pradesh's freedom fighters and its contribution before and after 1857 are in General Studies V. The Prelims General Studies Paper I covers the Indian National Movement too.