Independence Day 2025: 20 inspiring quotes from India's freedom movement to set every Indian heart on fire

Mint

2 days ago

India will celebrate its 79th Independence Day on August 15, 2025. Here are 20 inspiring quotes by prominent Indian leaders and freedom fighters:
"We want complete Swaraj, not merely a change of masters." - Jawaharlal Nehru, during the Lahore Session of the Indian National Congress (INC) on December 31, 1929
"The British will have to give us freedom, or we will take it." - Bal Gangadhar Tilak, during a Home Rule League rally in Poona (now Pune) on April 28, 1916
"The only way to meet the British is with the sword.' - Subhas Chandra Bose, during a speech in Singapore on July 5, 1943, after taking charge of the Indian National Army.
"If we have to fight, we must fight clean; if we have to sacrifice, we must do so with a pure heart." - Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, during the Quit India Movement in Ahmedabad on August 9, 1942.
"It is easy to kill individuals, but you cannot kill the ideas. Great empires crumbled while the ideas survived." - Bhagat Singh, writing from prison in 1930–31
"Better remain silent, better not even think, if you are not prepared to act." - Annie Besant, during the Home Rule League movement, 1916–17.
"The shots that hit me are the last nails to the coffin of British rule in India." - Lala Lajpat Rai, after being injured in a lathi charge during protests against the Simon Commission, 1928.
"The power of the people is stronger than the people in power." - B.R. Ambedkar, speech to the Depressed Classes Conference in Nagpur in July 1942
"We will face the enemy's bullets. We have lived free, and we will remain free." - Chandrashekhar Azad, pledge before his final encounter with British forces, 1931.
"India will not be free until the last untouchable is free." - B.R. Ambedkar, during a speech at the Depressed Classes Conference in Yeola, Maharashtra, on October 13, 1935
"A country's greatness depends not on the size of its army, but on the love its people have for it." - Sarojini Naidu, likely during 1910-1930
'Better is a thousand times to die at the hands of the oppressor than to live a moment under his rule.' - Alluri Sitarama Raju, leading the Rampa Rebellion (1922–1924)
"Inquilab Zindabad" (Long live the revolution) - Coined by Maulana Hasrat Mohani in 1921, popularised by Bhagat Singh during the independence movement.
'Let India awake to the light of freedom.' - Mahadev Govind Ranade, urging social and political awakening in the late 19th century
'The British may rule our bodies, but they cannot rule our souls.' - Aurobindo Ghose, written in an editorial in Bande Mataram on May 15, 1908
'India's freedom will be incomplete without the emancipation of her women.' - Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, during a speech at the All-India Women's Conference in Delhi on December 29, 1939
"Freedom is the birthright of every nation, and India will claim it through sacrifice.' - Bipin Chandra Pal, during a public meeting in Calcutta (now Kolkata) on August 7, 1907
"The chains of India are the chains of humanity.' - Rabindranath Tagore, from the essay, 'Nationalism in India (1917)
'Do or Die.' - Mahatma Gandhi, during the Quit India Movement 1942
"Revolution is an inalienable right of mankind. Freedom is an imperishable birthright of all." - Bhagat Singh, articulating his political philosophy in 1929–30