Freedom Without Dignity

India's freedom struggle would not have been possible without the financial backing of the industrialists of the time. From the Civil Disobedience Movement to Quit India, whenever Mahatma Gandhi and his fellow freedom fighters stood up to colonial policies that reduced Indians to second-class citizens in their own land, money flowed in from the country's wealthy families. They funded newspapers, relief efforts, legal battles and mass mobilisation. India had a common enemy then, and the desire to see the motherland free united people across class and ideology. It was a moment to reclaim dignity for an ancient civilisation and to secure its long-awaited tryst with destiny.

- Neeraj Thakur

Gandhi never viewed wealth as morally neutral. His ethical test for the country's elites, to recall “the face of the weakest and the poorest man you have seen” before taking any decision, was a call for responsibility beyond the freedom struggle. A struggle not merely against British rule, but also a fight against exploitation and the concentration of power. Bhagat Singh also warned that political revolution could not mean “the transfer of power from the British to Indian” hands alone.

On their different paths, Gandhi and Singh were arguing for the same thing: a freedom that secured dignity not just once, but for all time.