Indian Freedom Movement
The national movement is a long story, but Gujarat's share of it is unusually concentrated: three Congress sessions, four satyagrahas and a set of revolutionaries abroad. Learn the national spine, then hang the Gujarat events on it in date order.
Mental model
Split the national movement into three phases and give each a verb. MODERATES (1885-1905) PETITION: Congress founded by A. O. Hume with W. C. Bonnerjee as first president, demands made by prayer and petition, Dadabhai Naoroji's drain theory as their intellectual weapon. EXTREMISTS (1905-1919) AGITATE: Partition of Bengal triggers Swadeshi and Boycott, Lal-Bal-Pal, Surat split 1907, then the revolutionaries. GANDHIAN MASS PHASE (1919-1947) MOBILISE: Non-Cooperation, Civil Disobedience, Quit India. Every exam question is easier if you first ask 'which phase is this?' — the answer usually follows from the phase's method.
Associations
A short trigger on the left, everything it pulls with it on the right.
Three Congress sessions in Gujarat: 1907 Surat, 1921 Ahmedabad, 1938 Haripura.
Each has one headline. Surat 1907 is the split between Moderates and Extremists. Ahmedabad 1921 falls in the Non-Cooperation years. Haripura 1938, in Bardoli taluka of Surat district, is the session Subhas Chandra Bose presided over — the one candidates most often fail to place in Gujarat.
Kheda 1918 → Borsad 1923 → Bardoli 1928 → Dandi 1930.
Gujarat's satyagrahas in one ladder, each a step up in scale: a district revenue protest, a punitive-tax protest, a no-tax campaign that made Vallabhbhai the 'Sardar', and then a national salt march that started at Sabarmati.
Three Gujaratis abroad: Shyamji, Rana, Cama.
Shyamji Krishna Varma of Mandvi in Kachchh founded India House in London and the Indian Sociologist; Sardarsinh Rana funded and sheltered revolutionaries in Paris; Madam Bhikaiji Cama unfurled an Indian flag at Stuttgart in 1907.
Things to remember
The night-before list. Short enough to recall cold.
- 1The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 at Bombay; A. O. Hume was the moving spirit and W. C. Bonnerjee the first president.
- 2The Surat session of 1907 produced the split between Moderates and Extremists; the two wings reunited at Lucknow in 1916.
- 3The Haripura session of 1938, presided over by Subhas Chandra Bose, was held in Bardoli taluka, Surat district, Gujarat.
- 4The Dandi March began at the Sabarmati Ashram on 12 March 1930 and reached Dandi (Navsari district) on 5 April; the salt law was broken on 6 April.
- 5The Dharasana salt satyagraha that followed was led by Sarojini Naidu and Imam Sahib after Gandhi's arrest.
- 6The Quit India resolution was passed at Bombay in August 1942 with the call 'Do or Die'.
- 7Madam Bhikaiji Cama unfurled a version of the Indian flag at the International Socialist Congress in Stuttgart in 1907.
In detail
- The Indian National Congress was founded in December 1885 in Bombay; A. O. Hume was its founder-organiser and W. C. Bonnerjee presided over the first session.
- The Partition of Bengal was announced by Lord Curzon and took effect in 1905, launching the Swadeshi movement; it was annulled in 1911.
- The Congress split into Moderates and Extremists at the Surat session of 1907 and reunited at the Lucknow session of 1916, where the Congress-League pact was also signed.
- Dadabhai Naoroji explained the 'drain of wealth' in his book 'Poverty and Un-British Rule in India' and was the first Indian elected to the British House of Commons.
- Bal Gangadhar Tilak's slogan was 'Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it'; he started the Ganapati and Shivaji festivals as mobilising tools.
Where people slip
- Haripura is in Gujarat, not in Bengal or Odisha — the Bose connection makes people place it east.
- Dandi is in Navsari district. Options placing it in Surat district or Valsad district are wrong.
Check yourself
Nothing here is scored — it will not change your mastery figures.
The 1938 Congress session presided over by Subhas Chandra Bose was held at:
The Dandi March of 1930 started from which place?
From the question bank
The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 with which person as its first president?
From the question bank
The partition of Bengal, which triggered the Swadeshi Movement, was carried out in which year under Lord Curzon?
Books to read
- NCERT Class XII — Themes in Indian History Part III
- India's Struggle for Independence by Bipan Chandra
- Modern India by Sumit Sarkar
Official sources
Hand-checked official domains only — the notes above carry no links of their own.