India celebrates 71 years of independence from the British rule. Here are some things you should know about the country’s bid for freedom:
1. The British East India Company came to India in 1600 to trade items including cotton, silk and tea. From a trade company, it gradually became a political ruler in the country.
2. India’s first independence movement against the British started in 1857 and is widely regarded to have been instigated by Mangal Pandey, an Indian soldier in the British East India Company. After quashing the rebellion, the British government took over the rule of India from the British East India Company.
3. The British established the Cellular Jail in Port Blair, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands off India’s eastern coast. Indian freedom fighters were deported there for punishment.
4. During British rule, India had more than 560 princely states. A princely state was autonomous but had to give allegiance to the British authorities. Some of the largest princely states were Hyderabad, Gwalior, Baroda, Mysore, Cochin, Jammu and Kashmir.
5. Kolkata, which was then known as Calcutta, was the capital of India until 1911 when the administration moved to Delhi.
6. Khudiram Bose, one of the youngest freedom fighters, was hanged by the British in 1908 when he was 19.
7. Mahatma Gandhi started his strategy of non-cooperation against British rule in 1920 in a bid to win freedom through non-violent resistance.
8. In March 1930, Gandhi, who later became known as the father of the nation, marched in protest against the British rule from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat across the state to Dandi, covering a distance of around 250 miles.
9. India’s national song “Vande Mataram,” which means “I bow to thee mother,” was written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1882 in his novel “Anandamath.”
10. India also has a national anthem ‘Jana Gana Mana,’ which was first sung on Dec. 27, 1911, during a meeting of the Indian National Congress party in Calcutta. The song’s title translates to, “Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people.”
11. Rabindranath Tagore, who wrote India’s national anthem, is the first Indian to win a Nobel Prize. He won it for literature in 1913. He was the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.
12. In 1943, Subhash Chandra Bose formed the Indian National Army to attempt to drive the British out of India.
13. The British agreed to a peaceful transfer of power, which came into effect in 1947.
14. The border between India and the newly-formed Pakistan was established by the Boundary Commission, a body appointed by Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India. The commission was headed by Sir Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer. Pakistan was created to provide a homeland for Muslims, but the partition led to an estimated one million deaths in communal violence after the two nations became independent.
15. On Aug. 15, 1947, the first day of India’s independence, crowds reportedly a million-strong thronged central Delhi. There were many sightings of a rainbow forming in the sky as a salute was fired to the newly-hoisted Indian tricolor. “I had never noticed how closely a rainbow could resemble the new Dominion flag of saffron, white and green,” Lord Mountbatten wrote in his official report of the event to the British government.
16. Lord Mountbatten read out a message in Delhi from Britain’s King George VI. “Freedom-loving peoples everywhere will wish to share in your celebrations,” the message said. “For with this transfer of power by consent comes the fulfillment of the great democratic ideal to which the British and Indian peoples alike are firmly dedicated.”
17. Rajendra Prasad was the first president of India.
18. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was closely working with Gandhiji and so, he was called Frontier Gandhi. Pandit Nehru writes: “There were many Muslims in the Congress. Their numbers were large and included many able men and the best-known and the most popular Muslim leaders in India were in it.
19. The Republic of Congo, Bahrain and South Korea also celebrate gaining independence on Aug 15.
20. The official Indian flag was designed by Pingali Venkayya. It initially had a spinning wheel in the middle, later replaced by the “Dharma Chakra,” which represents a wheel of law.
