Inqhilab Zindabad, اِنقلاب زِندہ باد (Nastaleeq)) is a Urdu phrase which translates to "Long Live Revolution". It was a common phrase used by revolutionaries during the British rule

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

 over India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. It was popularized in the activities of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association

Hindustan Socialist Republican Association

Hindustan Socialist Republican Association was a revolutionary organisation established in 1928 at Feroz Shah Kotla New Delhi by Chandrasekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and others...

 by socialist revolutionaries such as Subhas Chandra Bose, Ashfaqulla Khan

Ashfaqulla Khan

Ashfaqulla Khan was a Muslim freedom fighter in the Indian independence movement who had given away his life along with Ram Prasad Bismil. Bismil and Ashfaq, both were good friends and Urdu poets...

, Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad, who used it to urge future generations to endorse and support the political's party rebellious actions.Lately this phrase was made popular during the Anna Hazare anti-corruption movement.

This phrase is first recorded in prose and used by Maulavi Hasrat Mohani

Hasrat Mohani

Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a romantic poet of Urdu language, journalist, politician, parliamentarian and a fearless freedom fighter of Indian Sub-continent . His real name was Syed Fazl ul Hasan. He was born in 1875 at Mohan in Unnao district of U.P...

 at a labour strike in Kolkata

Kolkata

Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

 (then, in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, Calcutta) for the first time. In one famous incident, a Pathan

Pathan

Pathan may refer to a member of the:*Pashtun people; an ethnic group native to Pakistan and Afghanistan*Pathans of Punjab*Pathans of Rajasthan*Pathans of Uttar Pradesh*Pathans of Bihar*Pathans of Gujarat*Rohilla...

tribal continued their movement, demanding the release of Badshah Khan, Malang Baba and Inquilab, assuming Inquilab to be another great leader in prison as they were chanting "Badshah Khan Zindabad," "Malang Baba Zindabad," and "Inquilab Zindabad."