Mahatma Gandhi & Indian Republic Day

The last stages of the freedom struggle from the 1920s saw the Congress adopt the policies of nonviolence led by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi; and several campaigns of civil resistance ensued. Some leaders, such as Subhash Chandra Bose, later came to adopt a military approach to the movement, and others like Swami Sahajanand Saraswati who along with political freedom wanted economic freedom of peasants and toiling masses of the country. The World War II period saw the peak of the movements like the the Quit India movement led by Gandhi and Indian National Army (INA) movement led by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Indian Republic Day

These various movements led to the formation of the Dominions of India and Pakistan in 1947. India remained a dominion of The Crown until 26 January 1950, when it adopted its Constitution and proclaimed itself a republic and Pakistan proclaimed itself a Republic in 1956. In 1971, the Pakistani Civil War broke out, which subsequently led to the 1971 War which saw the splintering-off of East Pakistan into the nation of Bangladesh.

Indian Independence

In 1942, after rejection of his offer to cooperate with Great Britain in World War II if the British would grant immediate independence to India, Gandhi called for satyagraha and launched the Quit India movement. He was then interned until 1944. Gandhi was a major figure in the postwar conferences with the viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, and Muslim League leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah that led to India's independence and the carving out of a separate Muslim state (Pakistan), although Gandhi vigorously opposed the partition.

When violence broke out between Hindus and Muslims, Gandhi resorted to fasts and tours of disturbed areas to check it. On Jan. 30, 1948, while holding a prayer and pacification meeting at New Delhi, he was fatally shot by a Hindu fanatic who was angered by Gandhi's solicitude for the Muslims. After his death his methods of nonviolent civil disobedience were adopted by protagonists of civil rights in the United States and by many protest movements throughout the world.