50 Photos Of Historic Significance That Reflects India’s Struggle For Freedom

15th August 2022 marked the 76th Independence Day of India and in 2023 it is going to be our 77th Independence Day. The country is also set to celebrate Republic Day 2023 which is just around the corner. The entire country celebrates freedom and is covered with the colors of the nation with flags on every corner of the streets.

But have you ever pictured how it would have looked in the 1930s and 40s? Here we will present you with some lesser-seen black-and-white pictures from back in the years.

Here are 50 iconic old pictures that captured India’s history and India’s struggle for freedom. Take a look at these monochrome photos:

1. In 1857, the sepoy mutiny led to a significant change in how India was to be controlled by the British.

Indian signallers from the 1st Regiment of Bombay Infantry are seen keeping watch from a cliff lookout post and relaying their sightings to the troops in this image from circa 1915.

2. Mahatma Gandhi with his wife, during passive non-cooperation, momentarily before his arrest for conspiracy.

3. Image circa 1930. An Indian volunteer in front of a cartload of imported British cloth.

4. Gandhiji begins the Dandi March on 12th March 1930.

5. Mahatma Gandhi and Mohammad Ali Jinnah at Jinnah’s house in the 1940s.

6. This picture depicts the First Day of the Constituent Assembly in India, in 1946.

7. Here you can see Mahatma Gandhi and Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore gave the title of ‘Mahatma’ to Gandhi.

8. On India’s first independence day on August 15, 1947, Nehru with the Mountbattens.

9. The last known photo of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh before his execution.

10. Just before Independence in 1947, Mahatma Gandhi was in Lord Mountbatten’s study in Rashtrapati Bhawan.

11. The 1947-1948 Indo-Pak war fought over Kashmir.

12. Shortly before Independence in August 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru meets the press in New Delhi.

13. The instant when India awakened to freedom.

Pandit Nehru’s speech,

“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.”

15. Salt Satyagraha mass protest.

14. Jawaharlal Nehru addresses a crowd from the balcony of his house, in India.

16. Yusuf Meherally, the man who coined the historic ‘Quit India’ slogan.

17. Human wall during the satyagraha movement.

18. Women’s demonstration during the Quit India movement.

19. Sarojini Naidu and Mahatma Gandhi during Salt Satyagraha.

20. 15th August 1947, the day of Independence.

21. This 1928 poster condemns the Simon Commission sent by London to look at India’s future because it had no Indian members.

22. An officer of the Indian National Army named Lakshmi Sahgal.

23. Tara Rani Srivastava, an active member of the Quit India movement. She lost her husband while fighting for the country.

24. A letter to the Indian Soldiers at the time of struggle.

25. “Bharat Chodo” slogan.

26. People march in a protest against Simon.

27. Gandhi discusses the Quit India movement with Nehru.

28. A member of the Indian Independence Movement and an Indian military officer, Mohan Singh (1909–1989).

29. The ones killed in Muslim-Hindu violence, vultures meandering over them.

30. First Independence Day celebration in Delhi on August 15, 1947.

32. The new face of independent India featured on the front page of the Times of India on 15 August, 1947.

31. At an All India Congress Committee meeting in Bombay, Gandhi during a discussion with Nehru.

33. Mass migration in 1947.

34. Death sentence of Bhagat Singh.

35. Japanese troops at target practice using Indian POWs, 1942.

36. Mahatma Gandhi spinning cotton thread.

37. An old photo of Rash Behari Bose with Azad Hind Fauj.

38. Photo from the day “Provisional Government of free India” was established in Singapore under the leadership of Netaji in 1943.

39. Prime Minister Nehru and chief minister Bidhan Chandra Roy took care of Subhas Chandra Bose’s family as revealed by the declassified Netaji Files.

40. Indian pilots meet their officers in London.

41. During the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, mass migration.

42. Indira Gandhi with her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto.

43. 1952, first General Elections in January.

44. Bose with the crew of a Japanese submarine.

45. Subhash Chandra Bose after resigning from the post of Congress president.

46. In the 1940s, the pre-partition signs in Peshawar.

47. After Operation Polo, 1948, the last Nizam of Hyderabad greets Sardar Patel.

48. A library table divided by the Partition as India and Pakistan in 1947. It is a very rare picture.

49. The Father of the Nation’s last photo was in 1948.

50. First Republic Day parade of India in 1950.

Also read: 39 Historical And Rare Photos From Around The World You Have Never Seen Before