The Revolutionary movement for Indian Independence was the part of the Indian independence movement comprising the actions of violent underground revolutionary factions.
Reasons for the emergence of revolutionary
- Socio religious movement started by leaders like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ram Krishnan Paramhansa , and Vivekananda etc. led in development of self confidence among masses
- Leadership’s failure to tap revolutionary energies of the youth
- Policies of Britishers like the vernacular press Act of 1878, the drama performance act of 1878, and the arms of Act 1878 gagged the Indians
Failure of Moderate and extremist congress
Revolutionary activities in Maharashtra
1.Chaphekar Brothers
- The Chaphekar brothers Damodar, Balkrishna and Vasudev were born at Chinchwad in Pune
- They founded the Hindu dharma Sanrakshini Sabha in 1894 and carried out various activities in and around Pune area
- They formed Chaphekar club in 1896
- Poona and neighboring area came under the dreaded disease known as plague in 1897, which killed several thousand people.
- The British Government established committee known as Plague Relief Committee under the charge of W. C. Rand, a headstrong British officer, who troubled people and violated their secrecy of life instead of providing them relief
- Chaphekar Brothers shot W. C. Rand and Lieutenant C. E. Ayerst when they were returning back house from attending the sixtieth anniversary of the coronation of Queen Victoria on 22 June 1897
2.Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
- Vinayak Damodar Savarkar popularly known as Swatantryavir Savarkar was born in 1883 in the Nasik district
- Ganesh Savarkar and Vinayak Savarkar were the real spirit and inspiration behind the militants' revolutionaries and their activities against the intolerable foreign rule of Britishers in India. They were responsible to spread the revolutionary and secret societies in different parts of Maharashtra in the early twentieth century
- In 1899, V.D. Savarkar and his colleagues set up an organization known as 'Mitra Mela'. The Mela organized Ganpati festival and Shivaji festivals
- He was greatly influenced by Joseph Mazzini, the Italian nationalist hero. He was not impressed by the struggle led by the congress. He was of firm view that only armed resistance could solve the problem of Indian independence
- He provided leadership to Hindu Mahasabha and championed the cause of Hindus
Abhinav Bharat-
- ' Abhinav Bharat' founded in 1904 by Ganesh Savarkar and Vinayak Savarkar, was the most active revolutionary organization in Maharashtra
- Abhinav Bharat' owes its birth to a secret society called 'Rashtra Bhakta Samuha'
- It was started with the objective of winning complete independence
- Vinayak Sarvarkar left for London in 1906, the organisation, Abhinav Bharat society flourished in India and undertook several militant activities throughout Maharashtra and other parts of the country
3.Vasudev Balwant Phadke :
- The first organized revolt of the people in Maharashtra against the British held on 22 February 1879 under the leadership of Vasudev Balwant Phadke
- He launched the armed struggle against the British supremacy with the help of the other sections of the society such as Ramoshis, Bhills and other tribes
- His feelings were deeply stirred by the devastation caused in western India by the terrible famine of 1876-77
- He made up his mind to launch an armed revolt against the British. He convinced the Ramoshis and others that the existence of the British rule was the main cause of their present problems
- In May 1879, he issued his famous proclamation denouncing the British policy of economic exploitation of India and demanding economic relief for the peasants. The British took serious note of it and announced a reward of 3,000 for the arrest of Phadke. At last he was captured by the British authority in a temple in a village in the Kaladgi district of Hyderabad on 21 July 1879
4.Madanlal Dhingra
- Madanlal Dhingra was inspired by the revolutionary activities of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. District Magistrate of Nasik arrested Ganesh D. Savarkar on the instigation of Curzon Wyllie
- Madanlal Dhingra had planned to kill Lord Curzon. However he did not get opportunity.
- When Wyllie attended a gathering at the Imperial Institute in London, Madanlal shot him with a Pistol. He was brought to trial, sentenced to death and hanged
5.Anant Laxman Kanhere
- In 1907 the militant activities and revolutionary movements reached to its height in Maharashtra.
- As the result of it, Anant Laxman Kanhere killed Mr. Arthur Jackson, District Magistrate of Nasik in the theatre of Nasik.
- The British Government arrested Anant Laxman Kanhere, Karve and Deshpande for the same crime.
- It was known as Nasik conspiracy case of which most of the prominent members of Abhinav Bharat were arrested
6.Vishnu Ganesh Pingale
- Vishnu Pingale was born in 1888 in Pune
- In 1911, he went to USA. There he came under influence of Gadar movement. Lala Hardayal greatly influenced him. Vishnu Pingale became active revolutionary
7.Shivram Hari Rajguru
- Rajguru was born at Khed in Pune in 1908
- Due to the examples of Chandra Shekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev he turned himself for armed revolution
- Rajguru and Bhagat Singh killed British officer Saunders to take revenge, who was responsible for the death of Lala Lajpatrai.
- In 1931, he was tried along with Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt. He was given death sentence and hanged for his revolutionary activities
8.Senapati Bapat
- Pandurang Bapat popularly known as Senapati Bapat was instrumental in spreading the art of making bombs.
- He supplied bomb manual to revolutionaries of Maharashtra
- In his later part of life, he was influenced by the philosophy and techniques of Mahatma Gandhi and accepted the path of Satyagraha and non-violence
9.Hutatma Bhai Kotwal
- Hutatma Bhai Kotwal advocated fight for the farmers against the moneylenders' exploitation
- He along with Gomaji Patil and Bhagat Master established the 'Azad Dasta' to help the poor.
- They started many schools and granaries to stock the food grains for people
- In the struggle of 1942, Bhai Kotwal's associates formed Prati Sarkar (parallel government) in Karjat
Revolutionary activities in Punjab
1.Bhagat Singh
- Born in 1907 in Lyallpur district (now in Pakistan)
- He studied European revolutionary movements as a teenager and was attracted to anarchist and Marxist ideologies
- He worked with several revolutionary organizations and became prominent in the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), which changed its name to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in1928
- Inspired by the Young Italy movement of Giuseppe Mazzini he founded the Indian nationalist youth organization Naujawan Bharat Sabha in March 1926.
- He also joined the Hindustan Republican Association, which had prominent leaders, such as Chandrashekhar Azad, Ram Prasad Bismil and Shahid Ashfaqallah Khan
Kirti Kisan Party
- In April 1926, Bhagat Singh established contact with Sohan Singh Josh and through him the 'Kirti Kisan Party' which brought out the monthly magazine Kirti in Punjabi.He wrote for Kirti, the journal of the Kirti Kisan Party ("Workers and Peasants Party") and briefly for the Veer Arjun newspaper, published in Delhi
Singh's plan was to explode a bomb inside the Central Legislative Assembly. The nominal intention was to protest against the Public Safety Bill, and the Trade Dispute Act, which had been rejected by the Assembly but were being enacted by the Viceroy using his special powers
Central Assembly Bomb Case (1929)
Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt threw a bomb on 8 April, 1929 in the Central Legislative Assembly, in protest against the passing of two repressive bills, the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Dispute Bill.
- A.The aim, as their leaflet explained, was not to kill but to make the deaf hear, and to remind the foreign government of its callous exploitation.
- B.Both Bhagat Singh and B.K.Dutt surrendered thereafter and faced trial so they could further promote their cause. They were awarded life imprisonment for this incident.
Revenge of Lala Lajpat Rai
- In 1927, he was first arrested on charges of association with the Kakori Case accused for an article written under the pseudonym Vidrohi (Rebel).
- To take revenge for the death of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bhagat Singh and his associates plotted the assassination of James A. Scott, the Superintendent of Police. However, the revolutionaries mistakenly killed J.P. Saunders. The incident is famously known as Lahore Conspiracy case (1929)
- Bhagat Singh was re-arrested for the murder of J.P. Saunders and bomb manufacturing in the Lahore Conspiracy case. He was found guilty in this case and was hanged on 23rd March, 1931 in Lahore along with Sukhdev and Rajguru.
Revolutionary activities in Bengal
The revolutionary activity in Bengal was the outcome of the failure of constitutional agitation to prevent the partition of Bengal in 1905.
1.Anushilan samiti
- The first revolutionary organization in Bengal was the Anushilan samiti. It attracted a large number of recruits. However, a small band of young men under the leadership of Barindrakumar Ghosh, were in the forefront of the revolutionary movement of the Anushilan samiti
- They published a periodical named Jugantar, which openly preached armed reballion in order to create the necessary revolutionary mentality among the people Both Sandhya & Jugantar openly preached the cult of violence & The Jugantar was suppressed in 1908
Assasination of kingsford
- Two revolutionary youths, Kudiram Bose & prafulla Chaki were entrusted with the task of assassinating Kingsford. On 30th April 1908,they threw a bomb at the carriage in which they believed Kingsford to be travelling. But unfortunately, two British ladies who were in the carriage were inadvertently killed. Kudiram was arrested and hanged on 11th August 1908.
2.The Alipore Conspiracy
- Emperor vs Aurobindo Ghosh and others, colloquially referred to as the Alipore Bomb Case, the Muraripukur conspiracy, or the Manicktolla bomb conspiracy, was a criminal case held in India in 1908.It was “the first state trial of any magnitude in India”.
- In 1908, a revolutionary plan was made to assassinate the Chief Presidency Magistrate D.H. Kingford of Muzaffarpur. The task was given to Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki. They threw the bombs on a vehicle coming out of the magistrate’s home on April 30, 1908. The magistrate could not be killed as he was not in the vehicle, but two British ladies were killed in the attack. Prafulla Chaki committed suicide after cornered by the Police and Khudi Ram Bose was arrested.
- Sri Aurobindo, Barindra kumar Ghose, and a host of young revolutionaries were imprisoned by the British government
- Barindra Ghose, as the head of the Secret Society of Revolutionaries, and Ullaskar Dutt, as a bomb maker, were sentenced to death
3.Surya Sen
- In the later part of 1920's, the most active & famous of the Bengal revolutionary groups was the Chittagong group led by Surya Sen
- He had actively participated in the non-cooperation movement
- Surya Sen was arrested & imprisoned for two years from 1926 to 1928 for revolutionary activity
- A group led by Surya Sen captured the government armory on 18th April 1930, and for a while took control of the town. Chittagong.
- All the revolutionary groups gathered outside the police armory where Surya Sen took a military salute, hoisted the national flag among shouts of Bande Mataram and Inquilab Zindabad, and proclaimed a provisional revolutionary government.
- They were driven by Surya Sen. Others included were Ganesh Ghosh, Lokenath Bal, Pritilata Waddedar, Kalpana Dutta, Ambika Chakraborty, Subodh Roy, and so forth
- However, it was not possible for this small group of revolutionaries to put up resistance against the army.
- They escaped to the Chittagong hills and continued to wage guerilla warfare for another three years