The Indian national movement was a movement which galvanized millions of people of all classes and ideologies into political action.

There are some outstanding features of the freedom struggle of India :

• A major aspect is the values and modern ideals on which the movement itself was based and the broad socio-economic –and political vision of its leadership ( this vision was that of a democratic, civil libertarian and secular India, based on a self –reliant, egalitarian social order and an independent foreign policy).
• Apart from political strengthening, Indian leaders focused on Socio-religious reforms and to eradicate social evils.
• From the initial stages, the movement adopted a pro-poor orientation which was strengthened with the advent of Gandhi and the rise of the leftists who made the movement adopt a socialist outlook. (Example – Trusteeship and Sarvodaya).
• The leadership popularized democratic ideas and institutions in India. The nationalists fought for the introduction of a representative government on the basis of popular elections and demand that elections be based on a democratic basis and in the form of a parliament. It not only permitted but encouraged free expression of opinion within the party and the movement parliament. It not only permitted but encouraged free expression of opinion within the party and the movement.
• From the beginning, the nationalists fought against attacks by the state on the freedoms of the press, expression and association, and made the struggle for these freedoms an integral part of the national movement.
• The freedom struggle was also a struggle for economic development. In time an economic ideology developed which was to dominate the views of independent India. The national movement accepted ,with near unanimity, the need to develop India on the basis of industrialization which in turn was to be independent of foreign capital and was to rely on the indigenous capital goods sector.
• The movement also increasingly moved towards a programme of radical agrarian reform.
• The national movement was, from its early days, fully committed to secularism. Its leadership fought hard to inculcate secular values among the people and opposed the growth of communalism.
• Throughout, the movement struggled to expand the semi-democratic political arena and prevent the rulers from limiting the existing space within which legal political activities and peaceful political agitations and mass struggle could be organized. Congress ministries, formed in 1937, visibly extended civil liberties to the resurgent peasants, workers and students movements as also to radical groups and parties such as Congress Socialist Party and Communist party.
• The consensus on the practice of non-violence during the national movement also contributed to the creation of a temper of democracy in the country. Discussion, debate and persuasion, backed by public opinion, was emphasized for bringing about political and social change as opposed to glorification of violence.
• The Indian leaders had developed a broad international outlook. Over the year they evolved a policy of opposition to imperialism on a world –wide scale and solidarity with anti-colonial movements in other parts of the world.

Conclusion:

It was because of this emphasis on non-political spheres that India unlike other colonized countries did not find herself in an irreconcilable chaos that was a typical characteristic of newly independent countries.