The other road to freedom
While the Congress debated and Gandhi fasted, another line of fighters chose a different weapon. Their story runs from Bengal's secret societies to the gallows at Lahore.
The revolutionary movement was the armed stream of India's freedom struggle. Its members formed secret societies, attacked officials and treasuries, and accepted death sentences as the price. It rose in two waves: the first after the Partition of Bengal (1905), the second in the 1920s, after Non-Cooperation was withdrawn and its young disappointed cadres looked for a harder path.
The organisations, mapped
| Organisation | Where and when | Key names |
|---|---|---|
| Anushilan Samiti | Bengal, 1902 | Founded by Satish Chandra Basu; patron Pramathanath Mitra; associated with Aurobindo and Barindra Kumar Ghosh |
| Abhinav Bharat | Maharashtra, 1904 | V.D. Savarkar — grew from his earlier Mitra Mela |
| Jugantar | Bengal, 1906 | The more action-oriented offshoot of Anushilan; Jatindranath Mukherjee (Bagha Jatin) among its leaders |
| Ghadar Party | USA and Canada, 1913 | Lala Hardayal and Punjabi emigrants; paper Hindustan Ghadar; tried to trigger mutiny in India during World War One |
| Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) | Kanpur, 1924 | Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Sachindranath Sanyal |
| Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) | Delhi, 1928 | HRA renamed with a socialist aim; Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad |
The HRA was founded in 1924 at Kanpur. In 1928, at Delhi, it was renamed HSRA — the extra S stands for Socialist — reflecting the influence of Bhagat Singh's generation, who wanted not just the British out but an equal society after them. A question dating the HSRA to 1924 or crediting Bismil with the socialist name is mixing the two stages.
The famous actions — first wave
Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki threw a bomb at a carriage meant for the judge Kingsford at Muzaffarpur; two Englishwomen died instead. Khudiram, still a teenager, was hanged. The crackdown that followed produced the Alipore Bomb Case, in which Aurobindo Ghosh was tried and brilliantly defended by Chittaranjan Das.
A bomb was thrown at Viceroy Hardinge during his state entry into Delhi. Rash Behari Bose, the organiser, escaped and later fled to Japan — where decades on he would help create the INA.
During World War One, Ghadar members returned to Punjab to raise mutiny among Indian soldiers, coordinating with Rash Behari Bose. The plan was betrayed and crushed; many were hanged or transported in the Lahore conspiracy trials.
The famous actions — second wave
HRA men led by Ram Prasad Bismil stopped a train near Kakori and seized government money. Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Roshan Singh and Rajendra Lahiri were hanged. Ashfaqulla's friendship with Bismil — a Muslim and a Hindu hanged for the same cause — became legend.
Lala Lajpat Rai died after a police lathi-charge during the anti-Simon Commission protest at Lahore. To avenge him, Bhagat Singh and Rajguru shot police officer J.P. Saunders at Lahore.
Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly — deliberately harmless ones, aimed at making the deaf hear, and stayed to be arrested. The slogan they raised, Inquilab Zindabad, outlived them.
Surya Sen, called Masterda, led young revolutionaries — including Pritilata Waddedar and Kalpana Datta — in seizing the Chittagong armouries. Sen was captured later and executed in 1934.
On 23 March 1931, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were hanged at Lahore in the Lahore Conspiracy Case. Bhagat Singh was twenty-three. The date is remembered as Shaheed Diwas.
Chandrashekhar Azad kept his vow never to be captured alive — he died fighting the police at Alfred Park, Allahabad, on 27 February 1931. And in 1940 Udham Singh shot Michael O'Dwyer — the Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab at the time of Jallianwala Bagh — in London.
The first wave fought for the nation; Bhagat Singh's generation fought for the nation and an idea of what it should become. They read socialism, rejected religious politics — Bhagat Singh wrote the essay Why I Am an Atheist in jail — and used their trials as classrooms, turning the courtroom into a stage for their ideas. Their target was empire; their message was revolution — Inquilab Zindabad, Long Live Revolution.
Why did Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt stay to be arrested after the Assembly bombing?
The bombs were deliberately designed to harm no one. The purpose was not killing but announcement — to make the deaf hear, as their leaflet said. Arrest and trial gave them a public platform from which to explain their revolutionary ideas to the whole country.
The organisations in birth order: Anushilan 1902, Abhinav Bharat 1904, Jugantar 1906, Ghadar 1913, HRA 1924, HSRA 1928. And the second-wave actions: Kakori 25, Saunders 28, Assembly 29, Chittagong 30, gallows 31.
Everything on one look
The societies, the actions and the martyrs.
- Anushilan Samiti, Bengal, 1902 — founded by Satish Chandra Basu
- Abhinav Bharat, 1904 — founded by V.D. Savarkar
- Jugantar, 1906 — Bengal's action wing, with Bagha Jatin
- Ghadar Party, 1913, North America — Lala Hardayal
- HRA, Kanpur, 1924 — Bismil and Sanyal
- HSRA, Delhi, 1928 — the S stands for Socialist
- Muzaffarpur 1908 — Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki
- Kakori 1925 — Bismil and Ashfaqulla hanged
- Saunders shot in 1928 to avenge Lala Lajpat Rai
- Assembly bombing 1929 — Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt
- Chittagong raid 1930 — Surya Sen, Masterda
- 23 March 1931 — Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru hanged
- HRA (1924) and HSRA (1928) are two stages — the S for Socialist came in 1928
- Bhagat Singh belonged to the HSRA, not the Anushilan Samiti
- Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki acted at Muzaffarpur in 1908
- Aurobindo was defended by Chittaranjan Das in the Alipore Bomb Case
- The Ghadar Party was founded in North America in 1913, by Lala Hardayal
- Kakori (1925) was an HRA action led by Ram Prasad Bismil
- Saunders was shot to avenge Lala Lajpat Rai, who died after the Simon protest lathi-charge
- The Assembly bombs of 1929 were deliberately non-lethal
- Surya Sen led the Chittagong raid in 1930 and was executed in 1934
- Udham Singh shot O'Dwyer in 1940 — O'Dwyer, not General Dyer
- The revolutionary movement rose in two waves, after 1905 and in the 1920s
- The Anushilan Samiti was founded in Bengal in 1902 by Satish Chandra Basu
- Pramathanath Mitra was the patron of the Anushilan Samiti
- V.D. Savarkar founded Abhinav Bharat in Maharashtra in 1904
- Jugantar emerged in Bengal in 1906 as the action-oriented offshoot
- Jatindranath Mukherjee was known as Bagha Jatin
- Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki acted at Muzaffarpur in 1908
- Khudiram Bose was hanged as a teenager, becoming an early martyr
- Aurobindo Ghosh was tried in the Alipore Bomb Case and defended by Chittaranjan Das
- Rash Behari Bose organised the 1912 bomb attack on Viceroy Hardinge
- The Ghadar Party was founded in North America in 1913
- Lala Hardayal was the moving spirit of the Ghadar Party
- The Ghadar paper was called Hindustan Ghadar
- The Ghadar mutiny plan of 1915 was betrayed and crushed
- The HRA was founded at Kanpur in 1924 by Bismil and Sachindranath Sanyal
- The Kakori train action took place in 1925
- Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Roshan Singh and Rajendra Lahiri were hanged for Kakori
- The HRA became the HSRA at Delhi in 1928, adding the socialist aim
- Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad led the HSRA
- Bhagat Singh and Rajguru shot J.P. Saunders in 1928
- Saunders was shot to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai
- Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt bombed the Central Assembly in 1929
- The slogan Inquilab Zindabad means Long Live Revolution
- Bhagat Singh wrote Why I Am an Atheist in jail
- Surya Sen, called Masterda, led the Chittagong armoury raid in 1930
- Pritilata Waddedar and Kalpana Datta took part in the Chittagong actions
- Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were hanged on 23 March 1931
- 23 March is observed as Shaheed Diwas
- Chandrashekhar Azad died fighting at Alfred Park, Allahabad, in 1931
- Udham Singh shot Michael O'Dwyer in London in 1940