Going viral: Slogans that built solidarity during freedom struggle
This article explores the historical significance of slogans in India's freedom struggle, framing them as rhetorical devices that fostered national consciousness. It highlights how phrases like 'Maaro Firangi ko' and 'Swaraj is my birthright' mobilized diverse groups against colonial rule.
Why it matters
It provides historical context on how language and communication were used as tools for political mobilization and social change.
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. 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 time, excavating bits and pieces of a national consciousness and the idea of a nation-wide resistance. For the British, this was a shocker.
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