The Indian Independence Movement was a mass-based movement

The Indian independence movement was a mass-based movement that encompassed various sections of society. It also underwent process of constant ideological evolution. Although the basic ideology of the movement was anti-colonial but it was also supported by a vision of independent, capitalist, economic development coupled with a secular democratic, republican and civil liberation political structure. 

The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide range of areas like political organizations, philosophies and movements which had the common aim to end the company rule, and then British imperial authority, in India. The independence movement saw various national and regional campaigns, agitations and efforts, some non-violent and other not so. 

During the first quarter of the 19th century Raja Rammohan Roy introduced modern education into India. Swami Viveka Nanda was the Chief architect who profoundly projected the rich culture of India to the west at the end of 19th century. Many of the country's political leaders of the 19th and 20th century, including Mahatma Gandhi and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, were influenced by the teaching of Swami Vivekananda. 

The first organized militant movements were in Bengal, but they later took to the political stage in the form of a mainstream movement in the then newly formed Indian National Congress (INC), with prominent moderate leaders seeking only their basic right to appear for Indian civil service examinations, as well as more rights which are economic in nature for the people of the soil. 

The early part of the 20th century saw a more radical approach towards political Independence proposed by leaders such as the Lal, Bal, Pal and Aurobindo Ghosh. The last stages of the freedom struggle from the 1920’s onwards saw congress adopt Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s policy of non violence and civil, resistance, Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s constitutional struggle for rights of minorities in India, and several other campaigns, legendary figures such as Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh came to adopt political method of revolution to the freedom movement, while others like Swami Sahajanand Saraswati wanted both political and economic freedom for India's peasants and toiling masses. 

The period of the second world war saw the peak of the campaigns by the Quit India movement and the Indian National Army (INA) movement. The work of these various movements led ultimately to the Indian Independence Act 1947, which created the independent dominions of India and Pakistan.