CONSPIRACY CASES IN FREEDOM MOVEMENT IN INDIA

1. IMPORTANT INCIDENTS & CONSPIRACY
CASES IN FREEDOM MOVEMENT
Dr.B.Athmanathan
Assistant Professor
Department of History
Mannar Thirumalai Naicker College
Madurai - 625004

2. THE GHADAR PROGRAMME
• It included assassination of officials, publication of
revolutionary literature and work among Indian troops
abroad and raise funds.
• The front page of each issue of Ghadar carried the slogan
Angrezi Raj ka Kachha Chittha. It preached militant
nationalist with a completely secular approach and the
party was pledged to wage a revolutionary war against the
British in India.
• In North America, the Ghadar was organized by Lala
Hardayal, Kartar Singh Saraba, Barkatullah and Bhai
Parmanand. They attempted to bring about an armed
revolt in India on February 21, 1915 amidst favourable
conditions created by the outbreak of First World War and
the Komagata Maru incident. The plan was foiled due to
treachery.

3. THREE EVENTS
• Three events brought the Ghadar movement to a head:
the arrest and escape of Hardayal, the Komagata Maru
incident, and the outbreak of the First World War.
• Hardayal was arrested on 25 March, 1914 on the
stated ground of his anarchist activities though every-
body suspected that the British government had much
to do with it.
• Released on bail, he used the opportunity to slip out
of the country. With that, his active association with
the Ghadar movement came to an abrupt end.

5. • Considerable stir was created in the Punjab by what is
known as the Komagata Maru incident.
• One Baba Gurdit Singh, a public-spirited Sikh, who had
settled in Singapore chartered a Japanese ship Komagata
Maru for Vancouver along with some other Sikhs. It sailed
from Hong Kong on April 4, 1914. After it reached
Vancouver, the Canadian authorities refused permission to
the ship to land and the ship returned to Budge Budge,
Calcutta on 27 September, 1914.
• The inmates of the ship and many Indians believed that the
British Government had inspired the Canadian authorities.
• The Government of India ordered all the passengers to be
carried direct by train to Punjab. The already explosive
situation in Punjab worsened with a band of fresh
malcontents. Large-scale political dacoities were committed
in Punjab.

6. Baba Gurdit Singh

7. Commemorative issue
Centenary of Komagata Maru incident
Obverse
Lion capitol of Ashoka Pillar, value below beside rupee symbol
Reverse
Image of historic ship KOMAGATA MARU that has been sailed to Canada
and consequently 352 out of 376 passengers were resend back to India as
they were of Sikhs, Muslim, hindi and British subjects.

8. Hopeful passengers dressed to go ashore,
Vancouver,23 May 1914, Gurdit Singh is
attending on the left in light coloured suit

9. KOMAGATA MARU - BOOK

10. • The third and most important development that made the Ghadar
revolution eminent was the outbreak of World War I.
• During this period Hardayal and other Indians abroad moved to Germany
and set up the Indian Independence Committee in Berlin. The Committee
planned to mobilize Indian settlers abroad to make all efforts- send
volunteers to India to incite rebellion among the troops, to send
explosives to Indian revolutionaries, and even organize an invasion of
British India-to liberate the country. Several thousand men volunteered to
go back to India.
• Finally, 21 February 1915, was fixed as the date for an armed revolt in the
Punjab. Unfortunately, the authorities came to know of these plans and
took immediate action. The rebellious regiments were disbanded and
their leaders were either imprisoned or hanged.
• The leaders and members of the Ghadar party in the Punjab were arrested
on a mass scale and tried. Forty-two of them were hanged, 114 were
transported for life, and 93 were sentenced to long terms of
imprisonment. Many of them, after their release, founded the Kirti and
Communist movement in the Punjab. Some of the prominent Ghadar
leaders were: Baba Gurmukh Singh, Kartar Singh Saraba, Sohan Singh
Bhakna, Rahmat Ali, Bhai Parmanand and Mohammad Barkatullah.

11. • Inspired by the Ghadar party, 700 men of the 5th Light Infantry at
Singapore revolted under the leadership of Jamadar Chisti Khan and
Subedar Dundey Khan. They were crushed after a bitter battle in which
many died. Thirty-seven others were publicly executed, while 41 were
transported for life.
• Other revolutionaries were active in India and abroad. In 1915,
during an unsuccessful revolutionary attempt, Jatin Mukherjee popularly
known as ‘Bagha Jatin’ gave his life fighting a battle with the police at
Balasore. Rash Bihari Bose, Raja Mahendra Pratap, Lala Hardayal, Abdul
Rahim, Maulama Obaidullah Sindhi, Champakaraman Pillai, Sardar Singh
Rama, and Madame Cama were some of the prominent Indians who
carried on revolutionary activities and propaganda outside India, where
they gathered the support of socialists and other anti imperialists.
• A temporary respite in revolutionary activities came with the close of
World War I when the Government released all political prisoners arrested
under the Defence of India Act.

12. HINDUSTAN SOCIALIST REPUBLICAN ARMY
• HRA and its Object: The revolutionaries in
northern India reorganized under the leadership of
the old veterans, Ramprasad Bismil, Jogesh
Chatterjee and Sachindranath Sanyal whose Bandi
Jiwan served as a textbook to the revolutionary
movement.
• At a conference held at Kanpur in October, 1924,
they formed a central All-India Organization called
Hindustan Republic Association (HRA) whose object
was to establish a Federal Republic of the United
States of India by an organized and armed revolution.
It functioned in Bihar, UP, Punjab and Delhi.

13. Famous Conspiracy Cases
• Muzzafarpur conspiracy-attempt on Kingsford, Judge of Muzaffarpur by Prafful
Chaki & Khudi Ram Bose in 1908
• Alipore Conspiracy Case-Aurobindo Ghosh arrested
• Delhi Conspiracy Case (1911)-Sachin Sanyal and Rash Behari Bose were accused of
attempting to assassinate Lord Hardinge
• Peshawar Conspiracy Case (1922-23) – Many Muslim Muhajirs went to Moscow to
receive communist and military training. On their return they were caught and
tried at Peshawar.
• Kanpur Conspiracy Case (1924)-British government started the case against four
communists-Muzaffar Ahmed, S.A. Dange, Shaukat Usmani and Nalini Gupta. The
government alleged that the Communists wanted to deprive the British king of the
sovereignty of British India.
• Kakori Conspiracy Case-On August 9,1925, ten revolutionaries held up the 8-Down
train from Saharanpur to Lucknow at Kakori and looted its official railway cash.
Asfaqullah Khan, Ramprasad Bismil were hanged.
• Lahore Conspiracy Case-Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Raj Guur assassinated Saunders, a
police official, at Lahore to avenge Lala Lajpat Rai’s death. (December 1928).
• Meerut Conspiracy Case (1929)-Bhagat Singh and Batukeswar Dutt were asked to
throw a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly on April, 8th 1929 against the
passage of Public Safety bill and Trade Disputes Bill

14. Kakori Conspiracy
• Kakori Conspiracy was planned by the members of Hindustan Republican Army (HRA).
• On 9 August, 1925, Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqullah robbed a train at the Kakori
village which carried Government treasury.
• The accused of the case were hanged in December 1925.
• On 8 April, 1929, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw a bomb in the legislative
assembly.
• They were executed on 23 March, 1931.
• Surya Sen and his associates planned to raid the armours at the Chittgong army camp.
• Their plan was executed an 18 April, 1930.
• Surya Sen has arrested on 16 February, 1933 and was hanged on 12 January, 1934.
• In March, 1929, a group of 31 labour leaders were tried in the Meerut conspiracy
case.
• The national leaders like Nehru supported their cause.
• The trail continued for nearly four years and most of them were heavily punished.
• The trade unions were banned by the British govt.

15. Lahore Conspiracy
• Lahore Conspiracy : Even though the HSRA and its leadership was
rapidly moving away from individual heroic action and assassination
towards mass politics, Lala Lajpat Rai’s death, as a result of the
brutal lathi-charge when he was leading an anti-Simon Commission
demonstration at Lahore on 30 October, 1928, led them once again
to take to individual assassination.
• To avenge his death, on 17 December, 1928, Bhagat Sigh, Azad and
Rajguru assassinated, at Lahore, Saunders, a police official involved
in the lathi-charge on Lala Lajpat Rai.
• The police unleased a reign of terror on the Lahore civilians and the
general public reaction was that while the revolutionaries escaped
after daring acts, the public had to suffer the consequences of their
doings. To efface this impression, the Punjab unit of the HSRA
decided to send two volunteers to commit a crime and court arrest.

18. Surya Kumar Sen (1893-1934): One of
founders of the revolutionary group in
Chittgong, involved in the Assam Bengal
Railway political dacoity at Chittgong,
averted arrest and worked for the re-
organisation of the revolutionary
movement, implicated with the setting
up of the Dakshineshwar bomb factory
but could not be traced by the police; in
1928 returned to Chittagong and
reorganized his group as Indian
Republican Army (Chittgong Branch); on
16 February 1933, caught as a result of
treachery, subjected to brutal torture
and executed.

19. Ashfaquallah Khan (1900-
1927): Involved in nationalist
activities from his school
days, joined the Non-
Cooperation Movement,
became Bismil’s trusted
comrade, an important
member of the Hindustan
Republican Association, a
leading figure in the Kakori
hold-up of August 1925,
caught by the police in
December, 1925 through the
betrayal of a friend, tried in
the supplementary Kakori
case and sentenced to death.

20. Jatindra Nath Das (1904-1929):
Joined the Non Cooperation
Movement and was sentenced
for six months imprisonment for
picketing; started manufacturing
high explosive bombs for the
revolutionaries; in June, 1929
arrested in supplementary
Lahore conspiracy case; in
protest against the brutal
treatment of political under-trails
and prisoners and to enforce a
distinct class for them, went on
hunger strike in Lahore Borstal
Jail on 13 July, 1929; removed to
the hospital and died there after
63 days of heroic struggle.

21. Chandra Shekhar Azad (1906-1931):
Arrested during the Non-Cooperation
Movement and flogged for ridiculing the
Court by giving his name as Azad, father’s
name as Swatantrata, and his address as
‘the prision’, the name Azad stuck
thereafter; joined the Hindustan republican
Association, involved in the Kakori
conspiracy (1925), evaded the police,
reorganized the revolutionary movement
and established links with the compatriots
in Bengal; in September, 1928 when the
party turned into the Hindustan Socialist
Republican Army, became its top leader and
the “Commander of the Military Division”;
associated with the attempt to blow up the
Viceroy’s train, the Assembly Bomb incident,
the Delhi Conspiracy, the shooting of
Saunders at Lahore and the second Lahore
Conspiracy; surprised by an armed police
party in Allahabad, died fighting a lone
battle.

22. THANK YOU