publishedIndia was born in the course of the birth pangs of the anti-colonial freedom movement. In the 75th year of the independence won by that freedom struggle, there are enormous challenges for us as we try to honour the memory of the freedom struggle and reflect on its lessons.

One important aspect of this challenge is the immense diversity of the individuals and groups that participated in the freedom struggle – a diversity that makes a one-dimensional or linear history of this struggle impossible. To get a complete picture of the freedom movement, we need to pay attention to all sections of its constituents.

But the foremost hurdle in remembering and honouring the freedom struggle today is posed by the current government and ruling party. The BJP’s parent organisation the RSS stayed aloof from the entirety of the freedom struggle: a fact the BJP seeks to hide. The diversity of the freedom struggle’s participants poses a problem to the RSS and BJP which seeks to define India based on religion. And so we find the BJP and RSS trying to distort the very meaning of “country” and “freedom”.

The history of India’s freedom struggle has a direct bearing on India’s present and its future. Remembering the glorious legacy of this struggle equips us to better take on the challenges we face today, of defending India’s diversity and democracy.

This booklet includes articles written by Comrades Dipankar Bhattacharya (CPIML General Secretary), and Kavita Krishnan (Politbureau member), all but one of which which were published by the CPIML in the course of a year-long ‘Freedom 75’ campaign between August 2021 and August 2022. In this booklet we bring these articles together in this publication, along with excerpts from India's March to Freedom: The Other Dimension by Dipankar Bhattacharya, published by Liberation Publications in 1997 to mark the 50th anniversary of Indian independence, in the hope that they can offer readers resources to understand the significance of India’s freedom struggle, and generate an interest in its less well-known dimensions.

1 August 2022