1885: The Indian National Congress is launched in Bombay with
the aim of winning political rights for Indians.
1905: The Partition of Bengal leads to a massive upsurge among
the people, and a call for swadeshi goods, leading to a boycott of
British-manufactured goods.
1906: Formation of the Muslim League; Congress gives a call
for swaraj (self-rule).
1911: Bengal Partition annulled, announcement that the capital
of India to shift from Calcutta to Delhi.
1914-1918: Britain drags India into World War I. Sixty thousand
Indians lose their lives in the First Great War.
1915: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi returns to India from
South Africa; he sets up ashram in Ahmedabad the same year,
which would shift to the site of the Sabarmati ashram two years
later.
1919: Britain seeks to introduce the Rowlatt Act, imposing
severe curbs on civil rights. Indians protest. Massacre at
Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar; 400 men, women and children, who
had gathered to protest peacefully against the Act, killed.
1921-1922: Gandhi launches the Civil Disobedience Movement,
calls for boycott of British goods. Calls off movement a year later
due to Chauri Chaura killing where a mob killed policemen.
1924: Moplah riots between Hindus and Muslims.
1927: The British government appoints the Simon Commission
to recommend political reforms in India, no Indian is part of the
Simon Commission. The Commission is boycotted when it visits
India the following year.
1930: Gandhi leads the Salt Satyagraha to protest against the
British government's monopoly on salt, forcing the government
to amend the law. The Congress boycotts the First Round Table
Conference in London.
1931: Second Round Table Conference leads to the Gandhi-Irwin
pact that ends the civil disobedience movement and grants some
political rights to Indians.
1932: Gandhi concludes the Poona Pact with Dr B R Ambedkar
that does away with separate electorates for 'Untouchables,' but
reserves some electoral seats for them.
1935: Government of India Act, passed by the British, gives
Indian political rights at the provincial level.
1937: Provincial elections. Most provinces elect Congress, some
elect Muslim League.
1939: Outbreak of World War II. Viceroy unilaterally declared
India's participation in the war, leading to Congress ministries
and the Congress boycotting the British in protest.
1941: Subhas Chandra Bose escapes from India, joins hands
with the Axis powers in fight against the British.
March 1942: The British War Cabinet announces the Sir
Stafford Cripps Mission to negotiate India's political status after
the war.
May 1942: Gandhi meets Cripps, but call his proposals a 'post-
dated cheque.' Congress rejects the proposals.
August 1942: The Congress leaders meet in Bombay and pass
the 'Quit India' resolution calling for complete independence
from the British rule. The Congress leadership is arrested;
Gandhi is jailed at the Aga Khan Palace in Poona. Revolts break
out across India as people defy the British and call for
independence. Six hundred demonstrators lose their lives in
clashes with the police.
1943: Bose takes charge of the Indian National Army, begins
march to India, which is stopped outside Imphal.
1945: World War II ends and the Labour Party, which is
sympathetic to India's call for independence, forms the
government.
1946: Gandhi-Jinnah talks break down; communal riots break
out.
June 1947: The British, Congress and Muslim League agree to
Partition and Independence.
August 15, 1947: Independence. Communal riots claim
hundreds of thousands in the Partition riots.
