List of Indian independence activists

The Indian independence movement consisted of efforts by individuals and organizations from a wide spectrum of society to obtain political independence from the British, French and Portuguese rule through the use of many methods. This is a list of individuals who notably campaigned against or are considered to have campaigned against colonial rule on the Indian sub-continent.

Post-independence, the term "freedom fighter" was officially recognized by the Indian government for those who took part in the movement; people in this category (which can also include dependent family members)^[1] receive pensions and other benefits such as Special Railway Counters.^[2]

V.O. Chidambaram Pillai

Rani of Jhansi

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Name	Activity
Ambika Chakrabarty	A revolutionary, he took part in the Chittagong armory raid.
Alluri Sitarama Raju	He led the Rampa Rebellion of 1922.
Amarendranath Chatterjee	A revolutionary, he raised funds and took part in the Indo-German Conspiracy.
Anant Laxman Kanhere	A revolutionary assassin, he was executed by the colonial government for the murder of a British officer A. M. T. Jackson.
Anant Maral Shastri	He participated in the Quit India Movement and used his writings to inspire nationalistic sentiments. As a journalist, he worked with several newspapers to spread awareness against British rule.^[3]
Ananta Singh	A revolutionary, he participated in the Chittagong armoury raid.
Anjana Devi Chaudhry	She was the first woman from Rajasthan state to be arrested during freedom struggle. She was also involved in Bijolia movement and led a procession of 500 women in Bijolia
Anugrah Narayan Sinha	A prominent revolutionary from Bihar known as Bihar Vibhuti. He was a Gandhian and participated in Champaran Satyagraha in 1917.
Atulkrishna Ghosh	A revolutionary, he took part in the Indo-German Conspiracy.
Abdur Rauf Danapuri	He was involved in India's independence movement and opposed British rule. In 1921, he was arrested along with Maulana Azad and Subhas Chandra Bose and was imprisoned for six months.^[4]

Name	Activity
Babu Bhoop Singh	Ruler of Kohra (estate) and leader in the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Badal Gupta	A revolutionary, he died in an attack on police at Writers' Building.
Bagha Jatin	A founding member of Anushilan Samiti, convicted in the Howrah-Sibpur conspiracy case and a participant in the Indo-German Conspiracy.
Baldev Ram Mirdha	He mobilised farmers against british colonial and feudal policies through the Kisan Sabha
Baikuntha Shukla	A revolutionary, he was executed for murdering a government witness.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak	A nationalist, he campaigned for Swaraj (self-rule).
Begum Hazrat Mahal	Also known as the Begum of Awadh, she was the second wife of Nawab of Awadh Wajid Ali Shah, and the regent of Awadh in 1857–1858. She is known for the leading role she had in the rebellion against the British East India Company during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee	A nationalist, he wrote Vande Mataram which inspired many activists and became the national song of India.
Barindra Kumar Ghosh	A revolutionary organizer, he was convicted in the Alipore bomb case.
Basawon Singh	An activist, he was convicted in the Lahore Conspiracy Case trial.
Batukeshwar Dutt	An Indian revolutionary participating in an armed struggle against British rule in India, he threw a bomb in the Central Assembly in 1929.
Benoy Basu	A revolutionary, he died following an attack on police at Writers' Building.
Bhagat Singh	A socialist, anarchist and Marxist revolutionary who worked with several revolutionary organisations and became prominent in the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA).
Bhagwati Charan Vohra	A revolutionary ideologue and bomb-maker, he wrote the article "The Philosophy of Bomb".
Bhavabhushan Mitra	Ghadar Mutiny^{[citation needed]}
Bhikaiji Cama	Bhikaiji Cama was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) in a large, affluent Parsi Zoroastrian family.^[5] While in London recovering from the plague, she met Dadabhai Naoroji, then president of the British Committee of the Indian National Congress, and for whom she came to work as private secretary. Together with Naoroji and Singh Rewabhai Rana, Cama supported the founding of Varma's Indian Home Rule Society in February 1905. She was denied re-entry to India after refusing to sign a statement pledging she would not participate in nationalist activities and, while in exile, Cama wrote, published (in the Netherlands and Switzerland) and distributed revolutionary literature for the movement, including Bande Mataram (founded in response to the Crown ban on the poem Vande Mataram) and later Madan's Talwar (in response to the execution of Madan Lal Dhingra).^[6] These weeklies were smuggled into India through the French colony of Pondichéry.^{[citation needed]} On 22 August 1907, Cama attended the second Socialist Congress at Stuttgart, Germany, where she described the devastating effects of a famine that had struck the Indian subcontinent. In her appeal for human rights, equality and for autonomy from Great Britain, she unfurled what she called the "Flag of Indian Independence".^{[n 1]}
Bhupendranath Datta	A revolutionary, he was editor of newspaper Jugantar Patrika.
Bhupendra Kumar Datta	A revolutionary, editor of the publications of Anushilan Samiti.
Bina Das	A revolutionary, she attempted to assassinate Bengal Governor Stanley Jackson.
Binod Bihari Chowdhury	A revolutionary, he took part in the Chittagong armoury raid.
Bipin Chandra Pal	A staunch nationalist, he was a founding member of the swadeshi movement and campaigned for complete Swaraj Swadeshi movement. Pal is known as the Father of Revolutionary Thoughts in India and was one of the freedom fighters of India.Bipin Chandra Pal made a strong plea for repeal of the Arms Act which was discriminatory in nature. Along with Lala Lajpat Rai and Bal Gangadhar Tilak he belonged to the Lal-Bal-Pal trio that was associated with revolutionary activity. Sri Aurobindo Ghosh and Pal were recognised as the chief exponents of a new national movement revolving around the ideals of Purna Swaraj, Swadeshi, boycott and national education. His programme consisted of Swadeshi, boycott and national education. He preached and encouraged the use of Swadeshi and the boycott of foreign goods to eradicate poverty and unemployment. He wanted to remove social evils from the form and arouse the feelings of nationalism through national criticism.

Name	Activity
Chandrashekhar Azad	Indian revolutionary who reorganised the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) under its new name of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) after the death of its founder, Ram Prasad Bismil, and three other prominent party leaders, Roshan Singh, Rajendra Nath Lahiri and Ashfaqulla Khan.
Chaudhary Charan Singh	Singh followed Gandhi in non-violent struggle for independence from the British government and was imprisoned several times and later founded his own party Lok Dal.
Chittaranjan Das	He founded the Swaraj Party and became the leader of the Non-cooperation Movement in Bengal.
Chowdary Satyanarayana	He was an Indian freedom fighter, anti-colonial nationalist, politician, legislature in Andhra Pradesh Assembly (1955–62, 1967–72) and a human rights activist.

Name	Activity
Dadabhai Naoroji	Known as the Grand Old Man of India, Dadabhai Naoroji was born in Navsari, Gujarat within a Parsi Zoroastrian family. He was an Indian political leader, merchant, scholar and writer who was a Liberal Party Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom House of Commons between 1892 and 1895 and the first Asian to be a British MP, other than the Anglo-Indian MP David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, who was disenfranchised for corruption after nine months in office. Naoroji is renowned for his work in the Indian National Congress, of which he was one of the founding members and thrice — in 1886, 1893, and 1906 — elected president. Dadabhai Naoroji is regarded as one of the most important Indians during the birth of the nascent independence movement. In his writings, he came to the conclusion that the exertion of foreign rule over India was not favourable for the nation, and that independence (or at the very least, responsible government) would be the better path for India.
Dhan Singh Gurjar	He was the police chief of Meerut, who participated in the 1857 rebellion and led initial actions against the British East India Company in Meerut.
Dheeran Chinnamalai	An indigenous governor, he took part in guerrilla warfare against the British East India Company.
Dinesh Gupta	A revolutionary, he was executed following an attack on police at Writers' Building.
Durgawati Devi	A revolutionary, she helped operate a bomb factory.

Name	Activity
Ganesh Damodar Savarkar	Founder of the Abhinav Bharat Society. He led an armed movement against the British colonial government in India, he was sentenced to transportation for life as a result. Was the brother of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
Ganesh Ghosh	A revolutionary, he participated in the Chittagong armoury raid.
Gopinath Bordoloi	He met Jawaharlal Nehru in England in 1925. He joined the Indian National Congress and actively participated in the Indian Freedom Movement. In 1942 he was arrested during the Quit India Movement and sentenced to 3+1⁄2 years imprisonment. He was the first Chief Minister of undivided Assam. He died in 1950.

List of Indian independence activists

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Name	Activity
Habib ur Rahman	He was an army officer in the Indian National Army (INA) who was charged with "waging war against His Majesty the King Emperor". He served as Subhas Chandra Bose's chief of staff in Singapore, and accompanied Bose on his last fatal flight from Taipei to Tokyo, sharing the last moments of his life.
Seth Harchandrai Vishandas	A Sindhi politician and influential mayor of Karachi, he fought for Muslim-Hindu unity and the independence movement, particularly in opposing the Simon Commission of 1912. He died while travelling (against doctor's advice) to vote for its boycott.
Hare Krishna Konar	A revolutionary, founder of Communist Consolidation in Andaman Cellular Jail. It is a Nationalist organisation to uproot British Raj from India.
Hemchandra Kanungo	A nationalist, convicted in the Alipore bomb case.
Hemu Kalani	A student revolutionary who was executed for attempted rail sabotage.

Name	Activity
Madhusudan Das	A leader, popularly known as "Utkal Gourab". He was the first graduate and advocate of Odisha.^[relevant?]
Maghfoor Ahmad Ajazi	Left studies on call of Mahatma Gandhi and joined the Non-Cooperation Movement in the year 1921. Founded All India Jamhur Muslim League in 1940 to counter the Lahore resolution, passed by the All-India Muslim League, for a separate Pakistan based on Muhammad Ali Jinnah's Two nation theory.^[13]
Mahmud Hasan Deobandi	He and his students launched the Silk Letter Movement and laid the foundation of Jamia Millia Islamia on 29 October 1920.^[14]
Mangal Pandey	He rebelled against his British Indian army commanders and was executed.
Manmath Nath Gupta	A member of the HRA, he took part in the Kakori conspiracy.
Matangini Hazra	An activist with the Quit India Movement, she was fatally shot by British Indian police.
Maulvi Liaquat Ali	A leader of the Sepoy Mutiny, he captured Khusro Bagh in Allahabad and declared the independence of India.
Maveeran Alagumuthu Kone	He is the First Freedom Fighter from Kattalankulam in Thoothukudi District, was an early Chieftain and freedom fighter against the British presence in Tamil Nadu. Born into a yadav community family, he became a military leader in the town of Ettayapuram, and was defeated in battle there against the British and Maruthanayagam's forces. He was executed in 1759 In his memory, the government of Tamil Nadu conducts a Pooja ceremony every year on 11 July. A documentary film based on his life was released in 2012.
Mohammad Farooq Chishti	Coming from an affluent Zamindar family, a leading Independence Activist from Eastern part of Uttar Pradesh. Mr. Chishti fought for the independence of India, actively participated in Quit India Movement and was jailed many times. He strongly opposed Jinnah's two nation theory and rejected his offer many times for ministerial positions in Pakistani Government brought by Raja of Salempur, he dedicated his life to help the underprivileged and economically backward people of India.
Maulana Mazharul Haque	He was an educator, lawyer, independence activist and freedom fighter of the Indian National Movement. A stamp was issued in his honour by the Indian Postal Service in 1981 and in 1998.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi	He was a lawyer, independence activist and freedom fighter of the Indian National Movement.He is known as Father of Nation.
Mithuben Petit	Hailing from the Parsi Zoroastrian community, Mithuben Petit was a female activist in the Indian independence movement,^[15]^[16] who famously participated in Mahatma Gandhi's Dandi March.^[17]^[18] Petit along with Mahatma Gandhi's wife, Kasturba Gandhi, and Sarojini Naidu played a major part in the Salt March,^[19] with Kasturba Gandhi beginning the march at Sabarmati, Sarojini Naidu lifting the salt for the first time at Dandi on 6 April 1930 and Petit standing behind Mahatma Gandhi when he repeated the violation at Bhimrad on 9 April 1930. The march was one of the most important event in the Indian independence movement.^[15] In a time when women were required to take a back seat (due to the patriarchal culture at that time in India), Petit was one of the three women who played a pivotal role in the march and the civil disobedience against tax on salt.^[19] Petit participated in the Bardoli Satyagraha of 1928 which was a no-tax campaign against the British Raj where she worked under the guidance of Sardar Patel.^[20]
Mufti Abdul Razzaq	He participated in the freedom struggle taking part in a fight against the British near Bhopal's Qazi camp.^[21]
Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari	During the Indian Independence Movement, he served as the president of both the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. He was a political figure and patriot from India. He was one of Jamia Millia Islamia University's founders. ^[22]

Name	Activity
Pazhassi Raja	He used guerrilla warfare to fight the British in the Cotiote War (Kottayathu war, 1793–1805) to preserve the independence of his kingdom. He was killed at Mavila Thodu at the present Kerala-Karnataka border.^[23]
Pir of Pagaro VI	A spiritual leader of the Hurs during the Indian independence movement
Prabhavati Devi	A Gandhian leader, she was the wife of activist Jayaprakash Narayan.
Prafulla Chaki	A revolutionary, he killed two innocents in a mistargetted assassination bombing.
Pravanalini Bhandari	A revolutionary, she participated in the Salt March.
Pritilata Waddedar	A Bengali revolutionary, she led the attack on the European Club in Pahartali and committed suicide to avoid capture.
Puli Thevar	He is notable for leading a revolt against Company rule at 1757 in India.he was the first Indian to fight against the British.

Name	Activity
Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu	An Indian politician, he became known as "Andhra Kesari" (lion of Andhra) for leading protests against the Simon Commission in Madras.
Tara Rani Srivastava	An activist, she was part of the Quit India movement.
Tatya Tope	A notable commander in the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Titumir	A freedom fighter who led a campaign against British rule during the 19th century, he eventually built a bamboo fort in Narikelberia village which became the subject of Bengali folk legend. Titumir died of wounds following the storming of the fort by British soldiers.
Titusji	An activist, he was among the 78 marchers selected by Mahatma Gandhi to take part in the 1930 Salt March.
T. V. Thomas	One of the first generation trade union leaders in Kerala and was actively involved in the Indian independence movement.^[relevant?]
Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar	A leader of the socialist All India Forward Bloc, he was arrested and jailed by the British.