India’s struggle for independence involved people from different regions, backgrounds and political traditions. While some freedom fighters remain widely remembered, many others played important roles in challenging British colonial rule and are less familiar today. Their lives reflect the varied forms of resistance that contributed to India’s long struggle for independence.
Bhikaji Cama
Bhikaji Cama was born in Bombay in 1861 and later travelled to London, where she met Dadabhai Naoroji and became involved with Indian nationalists. She subsequently continued her political activities in Europe and worked to publicise the cause of Indian self-rule. On August 22, 1907, Cama unfurled an Indian flag at the International Socialist Conference in Stuttgart, Germany.
According to the Ministry of Culture’s Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav archive, she appealed for equality and autonomy from British rule on the occasion. The flag displayed in Stuttgart was an early nationalist design and was not the same as the Indian national flag adopted in 1947. The government archive also records that Cama published material for Indians in England and addressed audiences in the United States about British rule in India.
Bhogeswari Phukanani
Bhogeswari Phukanani was born in 1885 in Barhampur in Assam’s Nagaon district. During the Quit India Movement in 1942, she became involved in resistance to British rule in the Barhampur area. A Ministry of Culture account records that, on September 18, 1942, a public gathering in Barhampur was disrupted after police arrived and began chasing people away. A group of women carrying the Tricolour approached the nationalist camp, and Phukanani intervened when a British officer attempted to stop them.
The government account states that she struck the officer with the pole of the national flag after he disrespected it, following which she was shot. She died from her injuries on September 20, 1942. A separate government record based on a Department of Posts special cover also records that she was shot by Captain Finch and died from her injuries.
Matangini Hazra: The ‘Gandhi Buri’
Matangini Hazra became involved in India’s independence movement and was associated with Gandhian politics. The Ministry of Culture records that she took part in the Civil Disobedience Movement and was arrested in 1932 for breaking the Salt Act. She was later imprisoned for six months after protesting against the colonial tax. Hazra continued her political activities and became associated with the Indian National Congress.
During the Quit India Movement on September 29, 1942, she joined a procession in Tamluk in present-day West Bengal. According to the government’s historical account, she continued advancing with the tricolour after police opened fire and was shot three times. She died in front of the Tamluk Police Station while holding the flag. She was popularly known as ‘Gandhi Buri’, meaning ‘old lady Gandhi’ in Bengali.
Khudiram Bose
Khudiram Bose became involved in revolutionary activities in Bengal while still very young. In 1908, he and Prafulla Chaki were involved in an attempt to assassinate Douglas Kingsford, the Chief Presidency Magistrate who had become a target of revolutionary anger. On April 30, 1908, a bomb was thrown at a carriage believed to be carrying Kingsford in Muzaffarpur, Bihar.
Kingsford was not in the carriage; two British women travelling in it were killed. Bose was subsequently arrested and tried in connection with the case. The Victoria Memorial Hall records that he was sentenced to death and executed on August 11, 1908. His execution at the age of 18 made him one of the most remembered young figures associated with the revolutionary movement in Bengal.
Durga Devi Vohra
Durga Devi Vohra, popularly known as Durga Bhabhi, was associated with the revolutionary movement and the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. She is particularly remembered for helping Bhagat Singh escape from Lahore after the killing of British police officer J.P. Saunders in December 1928. Historical research on Vohra records that she travelled with Bhagat Singh and her young son, allowing Bhagat Singh to present himself as a married man while leaving Lahore. This helped the group evade the police search for Saunders’ killers. Her role, however, was not limited to this episode.
Research published by Oxford Academic and in South Asian History and Culture documents her wider involvement in revolutionary activity and her participation in an armed action in Bombay in 1930. These accounts have also highlighted the active roles played by women within revolutionary organisations rather than portraying them only as relatives or supporters of male revolutionaries.
Freda Bedi: A British-Born
Freda Marie Bedi was born in England in 1911 and met Baba Pyare Lal Bedi while studying at Oxford. The couple married in 1933 and moved to India in 1934. Freda became involved in political and social activities in India and participated in the country’s freedom movement. The Nehru Archive records that she taught English at colleges in Lahore and participated in the freedom movement.
Accounts from her family and contemporary reporting also document her participation in satyagraha and her imprisonment in Lahore. A detailed account published by Shambhala records that she was sentenced to six months’ rigorous imprisonment in Lahore Women’s Jail after offering satyagraha.
Her son Ranga Bedi has also described her as a Congress worker who offered satyagraha and served a six-month jail term. These records establish her participation in the freedom movement without relying on the more difficult-to-verify claim that she was the ‘first Western woman’ to do so.
Tiruppur Kumaran: ‘Kodi Kaatha Kumaran’
Tiruppur Kumaran, born Kumaraswamy Mudaliyar in 1904, participated in the Indian independence movement in Tamil Nadu. He is remembered for his involvement in a protest against British rule in Tiruppur on January 11, 1932. During the protest, police assaulted the demonstrators. Contemporary and later historical accounts record that Kumaran sustained serious injuries but continued to hold the nationalist flag.
He died from the injuries sustained during the police action. Because he was remembered for protecting the flag even as he was being attacked, he became known as ‘Kodi Kaatha Kumaran’, which translates as ‘Kumaran who protected the flag’. All India Radio has also recorded these details in its historical account of his life.
Surya Sen (Masterda)
Surya Kumar Sen, popularly known as Masterda, was born in Chittagong in 1894 and worked as a schoolteacher before becoming deeply involved in revolutionary politics. He had earlier participated in the Non-Cooperation Movement and was associated with the revolutionary Anushilan movement. On April 18, 1930, Sen led a group of revolutionaries in the Chittagong Armoury Raid.
The plan involved attacking the police and Auxiliary Force armouries and disrupting telephone, telegraph and railway communications in an effort to isolate Chittagong from the rest of British India. The revolutionaries were unable to seize the ammunition stored at the armouries, although they disrupted communications and later faced British forces at Jalalabad. Sen remained underground after the uprising before being arrested in February 1933. He was executed at Chittagong Jail on January 12, 1934.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
India’s independence was not shaped by one movement, one region or one political approach. These eight figures represent different forms of resistance, from international advocacy and Gandhian civil disobedience to revolutionary organising. Remembering them is important because a complete understanding of the freedom struggle requires space for stories that are often less prominent in mainstream accounts.
Their histories also remind us that the people who challenged colonial rule came from varied social and geographical backgrounds. Preserving these stories should encourage historical understanding rather than the glorification of violence, and help future generations engage with the past with empathy, context and honesty. Which lesser-known freedom fighter’s story do you believe deserves greater recognition today?
