The term Indian Independence Movement is diffused, incorporating various national and regional campaigns, agitations and efforts of both Nonviolent and Militant philosophy and involved a wide spectrum of Indian political organizations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending the British Colonial Authority as well as other colonial administrations in the Indian subcontinent. The initial resistance to the movement can be traced back to the very beginnings of colonial expansion by the British East India Company, as early as the middle and late 1700s. The mainstream movement from the latter part of the 1800s was increasingly led by the Indian National Congress with prominent moderatist leaders seeking Dominion status within the commonwealth. Beginning of early 1900s saw a more radical approach towards political independence proposed by leaders as the Lal Bal Pal and Sri Aurobindo. Militant nationalism also emerged in the first decades, culminating in the failed Indo-German Pact and Ghadar Conspiracy during the World War I. The end of the war saw the Congress adopt the policies of nonviolent agitation and civil disobedience led by Mahatma Gandhi. Other leaders, such as Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, later came to adopt a military approach to the movement. The World War II period saw the peak of the movements like INA movement led by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose from East Asia and Quit India movement India remained a Dominion of The Crown till 26 January 1950, when it adopted its Constitution to proclaim itself a Republic. Pakistan proclaimed itself a Republic in 1956 but faced a number of internal power struggles that has seen suspensions of democracy. In 1971, the Pakistani Civil War culminating in the 1971 War saw the splintering-off of East Pakistan into the nation of Bangladesh.

The Independence Movement also served as a major catalyst for similar movements in other parts of the world, leading to the eventual disintegration and dismantling of the British Empire and its replacement with the Commonwealth of Nations. Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolent resistance inspired the American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968) led by Martin Luther King, Jr., the quest for democracy in Myanmar led by Aung San Suu Kyi and the African National Congress's struggle against apartheid in South Africa led by Nelson Mandela. However not all these leaders adhered to Gandhi's strict principle of nonviolence and nonresistance.