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Indian Freedom League
‐
Advocated for self-government in India by building alliances throughout Britain
Other names
Indian Freedom Association
Indian Home Rule League
About
In 1925 M. A. Khan, Sulaiman Katwaroon and R. E. Franklin began to address meetings on Indian affairs and issued a manifesto. They became the Indian Freedom Association and had the motto 'Freedom within the Empire if possible – outside if necessary'. The organization soon changed its name to the Indian Home Rule League and then the Indian Freedom League.
Members of the Indian Freedom League held meetings on Sundays at Hyde Park, which were open to everyone. Their main mission was to demand self-government for India, and they made various alliances in Britain. They appealed to the British working class through a common fight against capitalism, and the Universal Negro Improvement Association and Negro Welfare Association were allies. However, the IFL failed to gain affiliation or recognition with the Indian National Congress until 1930, when it became an offshoot of the London Branch of the INC. By May 1933 speeches by the IFL at Hyde Park had all but died out.
Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto Press, 2002)
L/PJ/12/256-263, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras
Image credit
© Remaking Britain: South Asian Connections and Networks, 1930s – present
