Book traces 12 trials that shaped India’s freedom struggle

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.