# Book traces 12 trials that shaped India’s freedom struggle 2026-08-16T01:49:54+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet New Indian Express reviews Akash Vajpai's 'Freedom on Trial: Twelve Cases That Shaped India's Struggle for Independence', published by Rupa. The book opens with the 1945 INA trial at the Red Fort and runs backwards to Mangal Pandey's 1857 court-martial, covering Gandhi, Tilak, Bhagat Singh, Savarkar and others. Justice DY Chandrachud's foreword argues these trials matter for the questions they left open, warning that legality detached from moral purpose can become an instrument of injustice. The review notes Vajpai's lawyerly attention to how the colonial legal system was rewired, such as the May 1930 ordinance removing appeal rights in the Lahore Conspiracy Case. The reviewer criticises the book's verbatim-heavy structure and absence of any chapter on women defendants who faced colonial prosecution. The epilogue measures colonial practices against India's new criminal codes of 2023 and argues such interference would now be impossible. ## Coverage - newindianexpress.com This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: Akash Vajpai, Rupa Publications Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/book-traces-12-trials-that-shaped-indias-freedom-struggle/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/book-traces-12-trials-that-shaped-indias-freedom-struggle/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/