Revolutionary movement spearheaded by a highly charged youth brought in a new trend in Indian freedom struggle.

1. REVOLUTIONARY
NATIONALISM
IN INDIA
DR. MONICA SHARMA

2. •The emergence of revolutionary ideology in India during the
late nineteenth century was the result of several internal and
external influences working on the minds of the youth.
•Early phase of revolutionary movement in India was
predominantly in Bengal, Maharashtra ,Uttar Pradesh and
Punjab as these regions were more politically active than other
parts of the country

3. Bengal
Yugantar
Anushilan samiti
Uttar Pradesh
Hindustan Socialist Republican
Association
Maharashtra
Abhinav Bharat Secret Society
Kotwal Dasta
Overseas
India House
Gadar Party
Berlin Committee
Revolutionary
Movement

4. FACTORS LEADING TO THE RISE OF REVOLUTIONARY TERRORISM
• Nationalism among youth: Most vital factor which contributed to amplify the spirit of
nationalism among the countrymen was the 'economic exploitation' of Indians by the
British Government and the Partition of Bengal.
• Failure of Moderate and extremist congress: Younger element was not ready to retreat
after the decline of national militancy phase. Fallout of Swadeshi and Boycott Movement
was the immediate reason.
• Leadership’s failure to tap revolutionary energies of the youth.
• Government repression left no peaceful avenues open for the protest.
• Ideological appeal of ideas: Freedom through revolution, heroic action, supreme
sacrifice, on the lines of Irish nationalists or Russian nihilists . Wanted to assassinate
unpopular British officials, strike terror in hearts of rulers and arouse people to expel the
British with force attracted the new nationalists

5. • During this period a whole generation of nationalist youth especially in
Bengal, were:
• Angered by repression
• Convinced of the futility of the moderate path and
• impatient with the inability of the extremists to either extract immediate
concessions from the government or to achieve a full scale mobilisation of
the masses.
• This young generation turned to the path of individual heroic action or
revolutionary terrorism, a path that had hen taken before them by the Irish
nationalists and the Russian Nihilists.

6. • Though believing in the necessity, in the long-run, of an armed
mass revolt by the people in order to overthrow imperialism, the
initial activities revolved around the assassination of individual
British officials, especially the unpopular ones.
This was done:
 To create terror among officials
 To remove the fear and inertia of the people
 Arouse their nationalist consciousness.

7. ‘FATHER OF REVOLUTIONARY THOUGHTS' OF INDIA
• Bipin Chandra Pal is known as
the ‘Father of Revolutionary
Thoughts’.
• He was among the triumvirate
of Lal, Bal, Pal
• Which consisted of Lala Lajpat
Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and
Bipin Chandra Pal

8. WHO INITIATED THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT IN INDIA?
• It was Aurobindo Ghosh, his brother Barin Ghosh,
Bhupendranath Datta, Lal Bal Pal and Subodh Chandra
Mullick initiated the revolutionary activity against the British
rule.
• They formed a Jugantar party in April 1906 AD as an inner
circle of the Anushilan Samiti.

9. REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT IN MAHARASHTRA:
• Maharashtra was in fact birth place of revolutionary movement in India. Bal
Gangadhar Tilak was the father of Indian revolutionary movement in Maharashtra.
He tried to plant revolutionary idea among the young people.
• He highlighted the ancient glories of India and appealed to them to revive the same
and take their country to the new height. He organised Ganapati and Shivaj festival
to arise patriotic feeling of among the people
• Damodar & Bal Krishna Chapekar committed first political murder on 22nd June
1897.Descendants of the Peshwas they founded the society for the removal of
obstacles to Hindu religion Initially, this society merely provided physical and
military training but later resorted to terrorist activities. They targeted Mr. Rand the
plague commissioner of Poona.

10. FIRST CASE CHAPEKAR BROTHERS (1897)
• The first political assassination of a British officer in India post-1857 Revolt.
• Brothers Damodar, Balkrishna and Vasudeo Chapekar shot at WC Rand, ICS,
Chairman of the Special Plague Committee in 1897.
• Rand’s military escort Lieutenant Ayerst died on the spot whereas Rand died a few
days later due to wounds.
• The brothers were against the atrocities committed by the British authorities under
Rand during the plague epidemic in Pune.
• The government in order to curb the spread of the epidemic ended up harassing
Indians and employing extreme measures.
• All the three brothers were hanged for the assassination.

11. Chapekar Brothers

12. • Shyamji Krishna Verma was another revolutionary in Maharashtra.
He was also connected with Rand murder case and went to England
to avoid punishment.
• In 1905, he started India Home rule society , popularly known as
India House in London.
• He started a monthly journal called Indian sociologist to spread his
view.
• He also instituted a fellowship to enable Indian youth to go abroad to
train themselves for missionary activities.
• A group of Indian revolutionary including V.D. Savarkar, Hardayal and
Madan Lal Dhingra became member of the Indian House.

13. Madan Lal Dhingra
V.D Savarakar

14. • V. D. Savarkar along with Shyamji Krishna Verma continued vigorous revolutionary
propaganda till 1907 and they shifted to Paris, due to fear of British police.
• In May 1907 the India house celebrated the golden jubilee of the Indian revolt of
1857 and V.D. Savarkar described it, as a war of Independence. His ideas and
philosophy were published in his book entitled, The Indian war of Independence.
• V.D. Savarkar established Abhinav Bharat Society in India.
• Madan Lal Dhingra was another important member of India House . In 1909 he
short dead Col. William Curzon, political A.D.C. to India office.
• Dhingra was arrested and hanged.
• In 1909, the unpopular District Magistrate, Mr. Jackson was short dead by Anant
Laxman Kanhera.

15. REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT IN BENGAL:
• Bengal provided suitable atmosphere for strong revolutionary movement.
• Growing education, unemployment and growth of hostile attitude provided a climate
for terrorist activities. Its early history is associated with the name of Pramatha
Mitra. When Surendra Nath Banerjee was imprisoned for defamation, he hatched
plot to rescue him, from the jail.
• He also organized a secret revolutionary society named Anushilan Samiti.
• The spread of revolutionary movement was formed by a band of young men under
the leadership of Barindra Ghose, younger brother of Arbinda Ghose.

16. ANUSHILAN SAMITI
• Established by Pramathanath Mitra it became one of the most organised revolutionary associations,
especially in the Eastern Bengal
• The members of Anushilan Samiti, mostly young students were trained in military drill, sword play,
boxing, wrestling and other kinds of exercise. The Anushilan Samiti had over five hundred branches
• The chief means of propaganda was the publication books and periodicals to preach the gospel of
revolution.
• The first book entitled Bhawani Mandir published in 1905, gives detailed plan of establishing a religious
sanctuary as the basic or centre of revolutionary activities.
• Another book written by Abinash Chandra Bhattacharya “entitled Bartaman Rananitl” which was
published in 1907.
• It is a plea for military training and necessity of war for achievement of India’s freedom. It discusses
various military details, especially those of guerilla warfare, which the youths will gradually became
fearless and experts in sword play and other tactics.
• In the 1920s, the Kolkata faction supported Gandhi in the Non-Cooperation Movement and many of
the leaders held high posts in Congress.

17. JUGANTAR
• Jugantar was initially formed by an inner circle of the Kolkata Anushilan Samiti. The Yugantar
(New Era) started in March 1906, openly preached sedition and disloyalty in order to create
revolutionary mentality among the people.
• Brian Ghosh was the main leader. Along with 21 revolutionaries including Bagha Jatin, he started
to collect arms and explosives and manufactured bombs.
• Some senior members of the group were sent abroad for political and military training.
• One of them, Hemchandra Kanungo obtained his training in Paris.
• After returning to Kolkata he set up a combined religious school and bomb factory at a garden
house in Maniktala suburb of Calcutta.
• However, the attempted murder of district Judge Kingsford of Muzaffarpur by Khudiram
Bose and Prafulla Chaki (30 April 1908) initiated a police investigation that led to the arrest of
many of the revolutionaries.

18. • Jugantar, along with other revolutionary groups, and aided by
Indians abroad, planned an armed revolt against the British rulers
during the First World War.
• This plan largely depended on the clandestine landing of German
arms and ammunitions in the Indian coast.
• This plan came to be known as the Indo-German Plot.
• However, the planned revolt did not materialise.
• After the First World War Jugantar supported Gandhi in the Non-
Cooperation Movement and many of their leaders were in
the Congress.
• Still, the group continued its revolutionary activities, a notable
event being the Chittagong armoury raid.

19. KHUDIRAM BOSE AND PRAFULLA CHAKI
• The real launching of the new trend is, however, identified with the throwing of a
bomb in April 1908, by Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki on a carriage in which
they believed Kingsford, the unpopular district judge of Muzaffarpur, to be
travelling.
• But unfortunately, the carriage was carrying two British ladies who were thus
inadvertently killed.
• Prafulla Chaki shot himself dead'rather than be arrested, but Khudiram Bose was
arrested and later hanged. The government also used the opportunity to involve
Aurobindo Ghosh his brother Barin, and many others in a conspiracy case in which
Aurobindo himself was acquitted but his brother and many others were sentenced
to deportation and harsh prison terms.

20. KHUDIRAM BOSE
• He was the youngest revolutionary freedom
fighter who was executed at the age of 18, on
August 11, 1908 for his role in the Muzaffarpur
conspiracy case.
• Along with Prafulla Chaki, he tried to assassinate
a British judge, Douglas Kingsford.
• Prafulla Chaki committed suicide before the
police could arrest him. Bose was arrested and
later he was sentenced to death.
• He was also part of the Anushilan Samiti in
Calcutta

21. PRAFULLA CHANDRA CHAKI
• He was associated with the
Jugantar group of
revolutionaries who carried out
assassinations against British
colonial officials in an attempt to
secure Indian independence.

22. BRITISH REACTION
• On 1.May.1908, the Police Commissioner called an emergency meeting in the aftermath
of the Bombing at Muzaffarpur.
• In the early hours of 2, May.1908, the Police carried out simultaneous raids in Calcutta
at several locations and arrested around twenty suspected revolutionaries including Sri
Aurobindo, who was believed to be their real leader.
• The Police succeeded in recovering arms, ammunition, explosives and other
documentary evidence. The raids continued through the month and other arrests were
made bringing the total number up to around forty.

23. THE 'ALIPORE BOMB CASE'
• It was "the first big state trial in India".
• The British Government arrested Sri Aurobindo, a prominent Nationalist Leader at the time,
Barindra Ghose, and many young revolutionaries.
• They were charged with "Conspiracy" or "waging war against the King" - the equivalent of
high treason and punishable with death by hanging.
• The case dragged on with preliminary hearings in the Magistrate's court, involving 1000
artefacts as evidence and 222 witnesses followed by a trial in Sessions Court, involving 1438
exhibits and 206 witnesses.
• During this period, the under-trial prisoners were illegally held in Presidency Jail under
torturous conditions (including solitary confinement).

24. • The judgment was finally delivered by Judge Beachcroft on 6 May
1909 after a protracted trial of one year.
• Sri Aurobindo was acquitted of all charges with the Judge
condemning the flimsy nature of the evidence against him.
• Of the thirty-seven prisoners on trial, Barindra Ghose, as the head
of the Secret society of revolutionaries and Ullaskar Dutt, as the
maker of bombs, were given the death penalty (later commuted to
transportation for life),
• seventeen others were given varying terms of imprisonment or
transportation and the rest were acquitted.

25. • The legal system disallowed under-trial prisoners to be subjected to solitary
confinement or to be held under such torturous conditions. But such niceties of law
were dispensed with when dealing with those accused in affairs related to the
Swadeshi movement or 'Bande Mataram' and hence arrangements were promptly
made for them as desired by the Police....
• ...The British conduct would ordinarily qualify as mean and reprehensible. After all, we
were all gentlemen. Many were scions of Zamindars. Some were, in terms of their
lineage, education, qualities and character, the equal of the highest classes in
England. And these were no ordinary crimes that we stood accused of - insurrection
to liberate the country from foreign rulers and conspiracy for armed revolution.
Further, many of the accused had been arrested merely on the basis of Police
suspicion, in the absence of concrete proof or evidence. It was therefore most
unbecoming of the British Imperial officers to treat us like ordinary criminals in a
prison, nay, like animals in a cage, to serve us food unfit even for animals, to make us
endure scarcity of water, thirst, hunger and to keep us exposed to the sun, the rain
and the cold in the manner that they did....

26. Sri Aurobindo

27. INDIA HOUSE
• The India House was an organisation in London involved in the
freedom struggle of India mainly engaging Indian students in the UK
as its participants.
• Patrons of this organisation included Shyamji Krishna Varma and
Bhikaiji Cama.
• India House became the centre of revolutionary activities for Indian
independence outside India.
• The organisation was liquidated after the assassination of an army
officer Curzon Wyllie by its member Madan Lal Dhingra in 1909.

28. REVOULUTIONARY MOVEMENT IN UTTAR PRADESH
HINDUSTAN REPUBLICAN ASSOCIATION (HRA)
 Established in October 1924 in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh by revolutionaries like Ramprasad Bismil, Jogesh
Chatterjee, Chandrashekhar Azad, Yogendra Shukla and Sachindranath Sanyal.
 The aim of the party was to organise armed revolution to end the colonial rule and establish a Federal Republic
of the United States of India.
 The Kakori train robbery was a notable act of this group.
 The Kakori case led to the hanging of Ashfaqullah Khan, Ramprasad Bismil, Roshan Singh, Rajendra Lahiri. This
was a major setback for the group.
 However, the group was soon reorganised under the leadership of Chandrashekhar Azad and with members
like Bhagat Singh, Bhagwati Charan Vohra and Sukhdev
 On 9 and 10 September 1928– and the group was now christened Hindustan Socialist Republican Association
(HSRA).
• In Lahore on 17 December 1928, Bhagat Singh, Azad and Rajguru assassinated Saunders, a police official
involved in deadly lathi-charge on Lala Lajpat Rai. Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw a bomb inside the
Central Legislative Assembly. The Assembly Bomb Case trial followed. Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and
Shivaram Rajguru were hanged on 23 March 1931

30. REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT OVERSEAS:
GHADAR PARTY
• Lala Hardayal, was moving spirit behind the Ghadr Party, in 1913 at San Francisco in the U.S.A.
A meeting was held there on 13th March 1913, to which 120 Indians including forty
representatives from town and factories were attended.
• Another bigger and more representation gathering was held on 1st November 1913 at San
Francisco to confirm the decision of the first meeting,
• It was decided to bring out a weekly paper “Ghaddar” named in commemoration of the mutiny of
1857, in Urdu, Marathi; and Gurumukhi. This gave the association its now hallowed name-the
Ghadar Party.

32. FAMOUS REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITIES
DELHI-LAHORE CONSPIRACY CASE (1912)
• Also known as the Delhi Conspiracy Case.
• This was an assassination attempt on Lord Hardinge, the then Viceroy of
India.
• The revolutionaries were led by Rashbehari Bose.
• A homemade bomb was thrown into the viceroy’s howdah (elephant-
carriage) during a ceremonial procession in Delhi. The occasion was the
transfer of the British capital from Calcutta to Delhi.
• Lord Hardinge was injured while an Indian attendant was killed.
• Bose escaped being caught whereas a few others were convicted for their
roles in the conspiracy.

33. KAKORI CONSPIRACY (1925)
• This was a case of a train robbery that occurred near Kakori in Uttar Pradesh.
• The attack was led by the youth of the Hindustan Republican Association
including Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Chandrashekhar Azad, Rajendra
Lahiri, Thakur Roshan Singh and others.
• It was believed that the train carried money bags belonging to the British
government.
• One person was killed during the robbery.
• The revolutionaries were arrested and tried in court.
• Bismil, Khan, Lahiri and Roshan Singh were sentenced to death. Others were
sentenced to deportation or imprisonment.

34. CHITTAGONG ARMOURY RAID (1930)
• Also known as Chittagong Uprising.
• This was an attempt by revolutionaries to raid the police armoury and the auxiliary forces
armoury from Chittagong (now in Bangladesh).
• They were led by Surya Sen. Others involved were Ganesh Ghosh, Lokenath Bal, Pritilata
Waddedar, Kalpana Dutta, Ambika Chakraborty, Subodh Roy, etc.
• The raiders were not able to locate any arms but were able to cut telephone and telegraph
wires.
• After the raid, Sen hoisted the Indian flag at the police armoury.
• Many of the revolutionaries involved escaped but some were caught and tried.
• The government came down heavily on the revolutionaries. Many were sentenced to
imprisonment, deported to the Andaman, and Surya Sen was sentenced to death by hanging.
Sen was brutally tortured by the police before he was hanged.

35. CENTRAL ASSEMBLY BOMB CASE (1929) & LAHORE CONSPIRACY CASE (1931)
• Revolutionaries Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt sought to draw attention of the British by throwing a bomb
along with leaflets in the Assembly House at Delhi.
• Their intention was not to hurt anyone but to popularize their revolutionary activities and philosophy.
• They did not attempt to escape and were arrested and jailed for the act.
• Bhagat Singh was re-arrested in connection with the murder of a British police officer, JP Saunders. This case was
called the Lahore Conspiracy Case.
• Saunders was killed mistakenly as the real target was another police officer, James Scott, who was responsible for
the lathi charge that killed Lala Lajpat Rai.
• Others involved in this killing were Sukhdev, Rajguru and Chandrashekhar Azad. They were all members of the
Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA).
• While in prison, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev along with other political prisoners went on a hunger strike to
demand better conditions of prisoners in the jails.
• After the trial, all three were sentenced and executed by hanging in March 1931. Azad was martyred the same year
in February in a gun battle with the police in a park in Allahabad.

36. IMPACT OF REVOLUTIONARY TERRORISM-
• It led to the formation of secret societies of the revolutionaries all over the country.
• The Anushilan Samiti, the most famous and long lasting secret society, with its headquarters at Calcutta
created revolutionary centres all over India. Their activities took two forms- the assassination of
oppressive officials, traitors and informers, and dacoities to raise funds for the purchase of arms, etc.
• Their sacrifices aroused the emotions of the Indian people and thus helped the building up of the national
consciousness which gave momentum to the freedom struggle,
• It failed to mobilize the masses. In fact, it had no base among the people. They believed in individual
heroism.
• .

37. CONCLUSION
• This movement failed to achieve its object of independence. With the death of Chandrasekhar Azad in
a shooting encounter in a public park at Allahabad in February 1931, the revolutionary movement
virtually came to an end in Punjab, U.P. and Bihar. Surya Sen’s martyrdom also marked an end to the
terrorist activity in Bengal. A process of rethinking on the part of the revolutionaries lodged in jails and
in Andaman began. A large number of revolutionaries turned to Marxism
• Though the revolutionary movement did not succeed , it made a valuable contribution to the
growth of nationalist spirit in India.
• The sacrifice and the martyrdom of the young revolutionaries did not go waste. It appealed to
the masses. Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Surya Sen, Rajguru etc. became
household name of the Indian people and aroused patriotism among masses.