The Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms were reforms introduced by the British Government in India to introduce self-governing institutions gradually to India. The reforms take their name from Edwin Samuel Montagu, the Secretary of State for India during the latter parts of World War I and Lord Chelmsford, Viceroy of India between 1916 and 1921. The reforms were outlined in the Montagu-Chelmsford Report prepared in 1918 and formed the basis of the Government of India Act 1919. Indian nationalists considered that the reforms did not go far enough while British conservatives were critical of them. 

Annie Besant opened the Central Hindu College, Benares (Varanasi), in 1898, later receiving the honorary degree of D. L. by the Benares Hindu University. A vocal supporter for Indian Home Rule, she was interned by the British authorities during the first world war. In 1917, she was declared as the President of the Indian National Congress party. 

The Charter Act of 1833 centralised the administration in India. The Governor General of Bengal, according to the act, was declared as the Governor General of India. The jurisdiction of the Governor General in council was extended considerably.

Dadabhai Naoroji is known as the Grand Old Man of India, was a Parsi intellectual, educator, cotton trader, and an early Indian political and social leader. His book 'Poverty and Un-British Rule in India' brought attention to the drainage of India's wealth into Britain.

Winston Churchill described Mahatma Gandhi as a 'seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a half-naked fakir.' Churchill was provoked to describe Mahatma Gandhi as a 'seditious Middle Temple lawyer' because when Gandhi was in London, as a lawyer, he wore western attire. While on his return to India, a year after the launch of the non-cooperation movement, Gandhi adopted the dress of the poorest Indian-khadi dhoti made of coarse homespun cotton yarn. 

Satyagraha is fundamentally a way of life, which guides the modes of political activism undertaken by the followers of its principle (or satyagrahis). On a personal front it involves a life committed to truth, chastity, non-attachment and hard-work. On the political front, satyagraha involves utilisation of non-violent measures to curb the opponent, and ideally to convert him rather than to coerce him into submission. With satyagraha, Mahatma Gandhi ushered in a new era of civilian resistance on the political scenario of the world. The word was coined to aptly define the mode of non-violent resistance that the Indians at South Africa were building against the oppressive British colonialists.  

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was a scholar, mathematician, philosopher and militant nationalist, who helped lay the foundation for India's independence. He founded (1914) and served as the President of the Indian Home Rule League. Tilak was born into a cultured, middle-class, Brahman family. 

Movement for freedom from British rule 1857-1947, employing a legacy of economic and political protest. Main leaders - Gandhiji, Nehru, Patel, Naidu, W. C. Bonnerjee, Dada Bhai Naoroji, etc. 

Accessibility to education is one of the main advantages to present day education. In the past, education was only for the wealthy. The poor were not given an opportunity to improve their lot in life. Females were also denied an education by virtue of the fact they would get married and so, an education would be wasted on females. 

Gandhiji was a firm believer of the ancient literature. This is where he found the concept for truth and non-violence.

In the Champaran district of Bihar, the cultivators were forced by Europeans to grow indigo, a blue dye, and this imposed on them untold sufferings. They could not grow the food they needed nor did they receive adequate payment for the indigo.

Communal Award was highly controversial and opposed by Mahatma Gandhi, who fasted in protest against it.