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The
Indian National Congress and the Independence Movement |
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A set of drawings of most of the presidents
of the Indian National Congress |
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The gods of the Hindu pantheon bless the
leaders of the Independence Movement |
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Agricultural development is also blessed,
liquor is depicted as a traditional demon-witch, and untouchability is
deplored |
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Bharat Mata, "Mother India," a new nationalist
goddess of the Independence Movement (*Manushi
142*) |
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Sarojini Naidu, poet, activist, and Congress
leader, was also a kind of symbolic mother figure |
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Gopal Krishna Gokhale, mentor of both Gandhi
and Jinnah |
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At Gandhi's insistence Congress supported
the Khilafat Movement, in alliance with Maulana Mohamed Ali |
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Rabindranath Tagore, poet, sage, and educator,
who followed his own path |
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Starting with Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856-1920),
an increasingly militant strain in the Independence movement began to develop |
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Militants were often sent to the Andaman
Islands penal colony-- where in 1872 a prisoner named Sher Ali assassinated
the Viceroy, Lord Mayo |
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The young Khudiram Bose, hanged in 1908
for an attempted bomb assassination of a British officer, was one of the
first militant martyrs, but far from the last |
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There were also martyrs to the fight against
communalism: patriots who died trying to stop Hindu-Muslim riots |
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Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, founder of
the Nazi-sponsored "Azad Hind Fauj" (Indian National Army), was a hero
to many Indians |
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Shivaji was envisioned as a warrior-comrade
of Subhash Chandra Bose and the militant Chandra Shekhar Azad-- and as
blessed by the Goddess |
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Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1884-1966), inventor
of "Hindutva" |
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Nehru was superimposed on the map of India,
with Gandhi hovering over his right shoulder and Netaji over his left |
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