India, a country rich in resources always had takers from around the world. No doubt history records invasions from all sides. After the Aryans, Gupta’s and the Mughal rule that invaded from the north, foreigners reached the south shore.
Wars were inevitable with the Dutch, that invaded first, followed by the French and Portuguese. But it was the British that invaded with full strength and conquered most of India. They set up the East India Company to milk the country of its resources.
Indians worked under the British as soldiers, government officials and servants. As there were very few occupations other than agriculture. The English were very crude in their administration and would carry out fatal attacks on Indians who did not comply.
Over the years the oppression faced by the Indians led them to become freedom fighters. Indian freedom fighters erupted from the army, from the villages from everywhere. They joined hands irrespective of religion, they had one motto ‘freedom’.
There were thousands of freedom fighters that fought for the country, but only few name surfaced in the history text book. We all know Mangal Pandey, Chandrashekhar Azad, Ravindra Nath Tagore, Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Dadabhai Navroji.
Those who could not fight physically would do so by printing text in newspapers, so that every freedom fighter would have information on what’s happening across the country.
Besides the local fighters, India gave birth to freedom fighters that made radical improvisations. Like Subhash Chandra Bose, who created the Indian army, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi whose non-violence weapon led to a peaceful struggles. He fought but in a calm manner that did not lead to fatal attacks.
His satyagraha movement, dandi march and other non-violent movements won over the British. Infact there were some Englishmen that were on Indian side. Like Annie Beasant, C. F. Horniman, Madeleine Slade and more. They helped Indians in procuring freedom. Many laid down their life, but the martyrdom did not go vain. Ultimately after decades of the freedom struggle, India got independence on 15th August 1947.
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