Inqilab Zindabad (Hindustani: इंक़िलाब ज़िन्दाबाद, اِنقلاب زنده باد ) is a phrase which translates to "Long Live the Revolution!" The word inquilab means "revolt" and zindabad means "to live forever". It was a revolutionary chant during the British rule over India. It was popularized in the activities of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association by socialist revolutionaries such as Ashfaqulla Khan, Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad, who used it to urge future generations to endorse and support the political party's rebellious actions.
To better understand the connotation of this phrase one has to study Indian Independence movement. Though we have seen an emergence of this phrase even today with social movements and resistance movements such as India Against Corruption and Bharat Swabhiman Andolan respectively. Though the importance of this phrase lies in its spiritual energy like a mantra when chanted by thousands of people at the same time. This was evident during the Ramdevbaba's agitation against black money stashed in global financial system of developed nations protected by policies such as bank secrecy, resulting in a complex global economic system promoting immorality in so called "developing nations".
This phrase is first recorded in prose and used by Maulavi at a labour strike in Kolkata (then, in English, Calcutta) for the first time. In one famous incident, a Pathan 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."