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Glossary Terms
| Term (EN) | Definition | Exam Relevance |
|---|---|---|
| Azad Hind Fauj | Indian National Army (INA) founded by Subhas Bose (1943) — fought with Japan against British in Burma | |
| Chauri Chaura | Village (Gorakhpur, UP) where protesters burned a police station (22 policemen killed), 4 Feb 1922 — Gandhi called off Non-Cooperation | Key turning point — Gandhi's decision to suspend movement |
| Civil Disobedience | Deliberate, non-violent breaking of unjust laws — the core tactic of Gandhi's 1930 movement | Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March — key examples |
| Do or Die | Gandhi's slogan for the 1942 Quit India Movement — complete resolution to achieve independence or die in the attempt | Quit India Movement 1942 |
| Dyarchy | Constitutional arrangement (GoI Act 1919) where some subjects were "transferred" to Indian ministers, others "reserved" for British | Constitutional framework of interwar period |
| HSRA | Hindustan Socialist Republican Army — Bhagat Singh's organisation (1928–31) | Revolutionary stream — Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad |
| Home Rule | Demand for self-governance within the British Empire — less than full independence; Tilak and Besant leagues (1916) | Precursor to Purna Swaraj demand |
| Lucknow Pact | 1916 agreement between Congress and Muslim League accepting separate Muslim electorates | Hindu-Muslim unity — brief period; also healed Moderate-Extremist split |
| Purna Swaraj | Complete independence — declared as Congress goal at Lahore session, December 1929 | Shift from dominion status to full independence demand |
| Rowlatt Act | 1919 law allowing detention without trial for 2 years — triggered nationwide protests and Jallianwala Bagh events | Context for 1919 agitation |
| Salt Satyagraha | Gandhi's campaign against salt tax — Dandi March (1930); breaking unjust law non-violently to invite mass arrest | Most iconic single act of Civil Disobedience Movement |
| Satyagraha | Gandhi's philosophy of non-violent resistance — "truth force"; suffering accepted willingly to transform the opponent | Core Gandhian concept — Champaran, Non-Cooperation, Civil Disobedience |
| Simon Commission | All-British constitutional review commission (1927–28) — no Indian members; boycotted by all Indian parties | Triggered Lala Lajpat Rai protest; his death prompted Bhagat Singh's action |
| Swaraj | Self-rule; used by Tilak for political independence; Gandhi also used it with broader meaning of self-discipline and decentralisation | Core demand of Indian national movement across all phases |
| Cripps Mission | March–April 1942 mission by Sir Stafford Cripps offering dominion status after WWII and right to secede — rejected by Congress as "a post-dated cheque on a crashing bank" (Nehru) | Context for Quit India Movement 1942 |
| Cabinet Mission | March–June 1946 mission of three British Cabinet ministers (Pethick-Lawrence, Stafford Cripps, A.V. Alexander) proposing a federal India with limited central government — rejected by Muslim League | Last serious British attempt to keep India united; failure led to Partition |
| Partition of Bengal | 1905 division of Bengal by Viceroy Curzon into East Bengal (Muslim majority) and West Bengal (Hindu majority) — official justification was administrative; annulled 1911 | Trigger for Swadeshi Movement and mass nationalism |
| Jallianwala Bagh | 13 April 1919: Brigadier Dyer ordered firing on 20,000 unarmed people in Amritsar — 379 officially dead, 1,200 wounded; Tagore returned his knighthood | Turning point — ended Indian faith in British justice; made Non-Cooperation Movement inevitable |
| Khilafat Movement | 1919–24 agitation by Indian Muslims for preservation of Ottoman Caliphate (Khalifa); Congress-Khilafat alliance gave Gandhi's Non-Cooperation Movement its Hindu-Muslim united character | Largest Hindu-Muslim unity moment in Indian independence struggle |
| Swadeshi | Movement for self-sufficiency through Indian goods; triggered by Partition of Bengal (1905); revived by Gandhi in 1920s | Economic nationalism — boycott of British goods |