Mention some of the foreigners who joined the Indian freedom struggle and their contributions materia ruggle The India freedom struggle is a significant and unique event in history because of many reasons like use of ‘satyagraha’, non-violence, contribution from various sections etc. While many Indians joined and led the struggle against the British, the role played by many foreigners can not be underestimated.

The contributions of some foreigners are as follows:

• Annie Besant: She was an Irish lady who became the first woman president of Indian National Congress (INC). She was a leading labour organizer, strike leader and reformer. She helped establish the Indian Home Rule League in 1916. She also wrote against the British in her newspaper – “New India”.
• C. F. Andrews: He was an Englishman who got involved with INC. He helped resolve the 1913 cotton workers’ strike in Madras. He resisted the oppressive policies of the British and openly advocated for the rights of Indians settled in any part of the world. He used to introduce himself as an Indian and dhoti-kurta became his favourite dress.
• Reginald Reynolds: A British man strongly opposed to British colonial policies, he visited Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram and gradually became one of Gandhi’s closest associates. In March 1930, Reynolds delivered ‘Gandhi’s Ultimatum’ to the British Viceroy. Reynolds formed an organisation in Britain called ‘The Friends of India’ and also helped raise money for the Indian cause.
• Michael John Carritt: He is known as a British officer who took the side of the poor peasantry as Chief Magistrate in Asansol. He even allowed the distribution of ‘illegal’ pamphlets by the Bombay branch of the Communist Party of India and also worked to provide shelter to the revolutionaries fighting for the country’s freedom. Between 1935 and 1937, Carritt leaked several intelligence reports to his Indian comrades.
• Madeleine Slade: Daughter of a British Admiral, she was rechristened Mira Behn by Gandhiji on her reaching Sabarmati Ashram in 1925. She went to London with Gandhiji to attend the Round Table Conference. She was arrested multiple times, including during a period of civil disobedience in 1932-33, when she was detained on the charge of supplying information to Europe and America regarding conditions prevailing in India.
• Samuel Stokes: The only American to be jailed for being involved in India’s freedom struggle, who got involved in the freedom struggle after the Jallianwalan Bagh massacre. He worked closely with Gandhiji and took part in the Non-Cooperation Movement. He was imprisoned for six months one the charges of sedition in the Lahore jail and refused bail.
• BG Horniman: Editor of Bombay Chronicle, he published accounts of British brutalities in the Jalianwalan Bagh massacre defying British gag orders, causing international uproar and changing the course of India’s freedom struggle. He also criticised the Hunter Commission after the latter gave clean chit to General Dyer.
• Philip Spratt: Spratt is remembered the most for his involvement in the Meerut Conspiracy Case, where about 30 CPI members, Congress members and others were arrested for organising a series of worker strikes in 1929.
• Catherine Mary Heilemann: Popularly known as Sarala, she came to India in the early 1930s to teach in a school in Udaipur. Inspired by Gandhiji, she suffered two terms of imprisonment during the Quit India movement of the 1940s.

Thus many foreigners made India their home and significantly contributed, as they needled the conscience of Britain, to the Indian freedom struggle.