As India celebrates its 80th Independence anniversary, we are yet to find a calculator that can measure the real cost the country paid for its freedom.
Our martyrs gave up their lives, their youth and, in many cases, their families and futures so that generations after them could live in a free India. When the Non-Cooperation Movement lost momentum, when the anger following the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919 found no outlet, and when the world was witnessing the rise of Marxism and the Soviet order, a generation of young Indians began searching for a different path.
They were impatient with gradualism. They were willing to confront the armed might of the British Empire and, in their own way, redefine what revolution meant. They bled with solidarity and courage.
“Inquilab Zindabad”, “Mera Rang De Basanti Chola” and “Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna” became more than slogans. They expressed the anger, idealism and sacrifice of a generation.
Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev, Chandrashekhar Azad, Ram Prasad Bismil, Subhas Chandra Bose and countless others became not just symbols but institutions of resistance within themselves. Yet many who stood alongside them remain largely forgotten.
The revolutionaries we must remember
History is not merely a record of the past. It is a way of understanding the values on which the present was built. The freedom struggle brought together people with different ideologies, methods and political beliefs. What connected them was a common dream: that India would one day be free from British rule and that future generations would not have to live under colonial domination.
Some received recognition. Many died without even witnessing how our “Tiranga blew in the soft yet heavy wind of liberation”
Our historians have brought several of these forgotten figures back into public memory, but much remains to be remembered. Their stories deserve to be revisited not as romantic tales of violence, but as accounts of extraordinary courage, conviction and sacrifice.
Khudiram Bose: The early rise of a revolutionary
Born on December 3, 1889, Khudiram Bose was among the youngest revolutionaries of the freedom movement. He became a volunteer at 15 and joined the Anushilan Samiti. Arrested at 16 while distributing anti-British pamphlets, he later participated in an attempt to kill British magistrate Kingsford.
The bombing, however, killed two other British women. Khudiram was arrested, tried and hanged when he was only 18 years, eight months and eight days old.
His age became inseparable from the story of his courage.
Surya Sen: “Master Da” who refused gradualism
Surya Sen, popularly known as Master Da, was a teacher and a brilliant organiser. He became involved in the Non-Cooperation Movement but later moved towards revolutionary politics.
Along with Anant Singh, Ganesh Ghosh and others, he planned the Chittagong Armoury Raid of 1930, seeking to seize arms and demonstrate that Indians could challenge the military prowess of the British.
After fighting the British forces in the Jalalabad hills, he remained underground for nearly two years. Villagers, including many Muslims, provided shelter and food to the revolutionaries.
Surya Sen was finally arrested in February 1933 and hanged on January 12, 1934.
Jatin Das: A hunger strike that shook the country
Born in Calcutta in 1904, Jatin Das joined the revolutionary movement and became associated with the Hindustan Republican Association. In Lahore Jail, he joined fellow revolutionaries in a hunger strike protesting the conditions faced by Indian political prisoners. He continued the strike for 63 days before his death on September 13, 1929.
His death triggered an extraordinary public response. Thousands gathered at railway stations as his body travelled from Lahore to Calcutta, while a massive crowd participated in his funeral in Calcutta. His hunger strike transformed a prison protest into a national statement.
B.K. Dutt: The revolutionary who wanted to rest beside his comrades
On April 8, 1929, B.K. Dutt and Bhagat Singh threw bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly in protest against the Public Safety Bill and Trade Disputes Bill. Their objective was to protest what they viewed as an assault on civil liberties and workers' rights.
Dutt was sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to the Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. After his release, he participated in the Quit India Movement and was imprisoned again.
He was cremated at Hussainiwala in Ferozepur in 1965, close to where Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev had been cremated (as per his last wish).
Raj Kumari Gupta: When patriotism defied social conventions
Raj Kumari Gupta of Kanpur played a lesser-known but important role in the revolutionary movement. Associated with revolutionaries including Chandrashekhar Azad, she was entrusted with supplying firearms connected with the Kakori conspiracy.
She concealed weapons under her clothes and transported them with her young son.
Her association with revolutionary politics came at a personal cost. After her arrest, she was disowned by her in-laws and lived an isolated life. Her story reminds us that the freedom struggle was not only fought on battlefields or in political meetings. It was also fought by ordinary people who were willing to risk family, reputation and security.
Bhagwati Charan Vohra: The intellectual behind the revolution
Bhagwati Charan Vohra was one of the intellectual forces behind the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association and, along with Bhagat Singh, was associated with the Naujawan Bharat Sabha.
A voracious reader and writer, he helped articulate the ideological foundations of revolutionary politics. His response to criticism of revolutionary violence, The Philosophy of the Bomb, became an important statement of the revolutionary position.
He died on May 28, 1930, while testing a bomb on the banks of the Ravi. The device was reportedly intended for an attempt to rescue Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries.
His wife, Durga Devi, popularly known as Durga Bhabhi, was herself an active revolutionary.
Ashfaqulla Khan: A patriot beyond religious lines
Ashfaqulla Khan was a prominent member of the Hindustan Republican Association and one of the key figures associated with the Kakori conspiracy.
After the Kakori train action, he remained underground for nearly two years. He was eventually betrayed by an acquaintance and arrested. His brother appeared as his counsel, but the death sentence could not be avoided.
Ashfaqulla Khan was hanged on December 19, 1927.
His friendship and political association with Ram Prasad Bismil remain among the enduring symbols of the secular character of India's revolutionary movement.
Benoy, Badal and Dinesh: Youth without fear
Benoy Basu, Badal Gupta and Dinesh Gupta were barely in their twenties when they entered the Writers' Building in Calcutta dressed in European attire. Their target was Colonel N.S. Simpson, associated with the harsh treatment of prisoners.
They succeeded in killing him before being surrounded by the authorities. Rather than surrender, the three chose death. Their actions remain a stark reminder of how far young Indians were willing to go for the cause of freedom.
The freedom we inherited
In the trade-off between freedom and blood, these revolutionaries chose freedom.
Their methods may remain subjects of historical and political debate. Their ideologies were not identical, and neither were their approaches to India's future. But reducing their lives to competing political labels would overlook the extraordinary personal sacrifices they made.
India's freedom was not created by one movement, one ideology or one generation alone. It emerged from a vast and complicated struggle involving constitutionalists, mass movements, revolutionaries, workers, students, women and countless ordinary citizens.
As our generations become increasingly immersed in the digital world, perhaps it is time to return to these stories—not merely to glorify the past, but to understand the price at which the present was purchased.
Their courage, sacrifice and resolve helped shape the India we inhabit today: an India that speaks of liberty, democracy, economic strength and national self-reliance.
The least we can do is remember the people who paid for that freedom before they had the opportunity to see it.
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