Going viral: Slogans that built solidarity during freedom struggle

Slogans are dispatches, a voice of persuasion and resistance, and hence, carry as much historical and cultural value as our monuments. Though the trajectory of sloganeering has evolved with time, the essence of its purpose is still the same — bringing change.

More than 150 years ago, sepoys in North India echoed three words with intense vigour. Maaro Firangi ko (Strike down the foreigners) kept ringing in the air, shaping the message of the 1857 revolt, the first major and revolutionary uprising against British authority.

What Happened

The revolt also came to be known as the First War of Independence. The slogan was a linguistic weapon, which spread from the sepoys towards the common people like artisans and peasants, awakening and uniting them (cutting across religions) for the first.

• After spending much time in jail in Mandalay, Myanmar for defending, in his newspaper Kesari, Indian revolutionaries and calling for Swaraj (self-rule), Bal Gangadhar Tilak from the Lal Bal Pal trio formed the Indian.

• Young Bhagat Singh, in 1929, popularised Urdu poet Mualana Hasrat Mohani’s “Inquilab Zindabad” in India’s struggle for freedom.

• During the partition of Bengal in 1905, which showcased ‘divide and rule’ policy from the British to weaken the nationalist movement, Vande Mataram took a life of its own.

Key Details

The spirit of resistance, social frustration, and emotional call to action packed in those simple three words had a sense of straightforward urgency. At the most immediate of our understanding of slogans in any case, is this function.

• B.T Ranadive, who was an Indian politician and freedom fighter, wrote in an essay published in 1986 that even schoolchildren who sang Vande Mataram were beaten.

• Under British politician John Simon’s chairmanship, a commission arrived in India in 1928 to review the constitutional reforms in British India.

• On August 8, 1942, Gandhi famously said, “Karo ya Maro”, which translated as “Do or Die”, starting the great Quit India movement.

Why It Matters

In this way, slogans become rhetorical devices. This is why slogans are able to catch the attention as well as support of a large number of people.

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What Reports Say

Coverage of the story so far points to:

• Continued reporting by The Hindu as more details emerge