Revolutionary Activities
The militant Nationalists no doubt
adopted the path of blood shed but
their goal was noble. Their ideal was
to set up the rule of the farmers and
workers and to remove all social and
economic disparities.
 Due to mainfold ever increasing
number of young men turned to
revolutionary activities to attain
political independence, their
methods were entirely different
from those of the Extremists and
the Moderates.
 They were inspired by the intense
love of the Motherland and were
spurred by enthusiasm to wrest
freedom quickly from the clutches
of the British by violent means.
 The methods they adopted
include: (1) To organise secret
societies, (2) Engagement in the
murders of officials to terrorise the
British authorities, (3) Indigenous
manufacture of arms and bombs
and to import them from Foreign
countries whenever possible and
(4) To engage themselves in the
activities such as dacoities to
collect money for fulfilling their
aims.
Revolutionary Organisations in India
Organisation Year Founder Place
MitraMela 1899 Savarkar Brothers Poona
AnushilanSamiti (I) 1902 Gyanendranath Bose Midnapur
Abhinav Bharat 1906 VD Savarkar Poona
Swadesh BandhavSamiti 1905 Ashwin Kumar Dutt Barisal
AnushilanSamiti (II) 1907 Birendra Kumar Ghosh and
BhupendraDutt
Dhaka
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Bharat Mata Society 1907 Ajit Singh and Amba Prasad Punjab
Hindustan Republican
Association
1924 Jogesh Chandra
ChatterjiSachindranathSany
al
Kanpur
Naujawan Sabha 1926 Bhagat Singh Lahore
Hindustan Socialist
Republican Association
1928 Chandrashekhar Azad Delhi
Revolutionary Organisations Formed Outside India
Organisation Year Founder Place
India House 1905 Shyamji Krishna Verma London
Abhinav Bharat 1906 VD Savarkar London
Indian Independence
League
1907 TarakNath Das USA
Ghadar Party 1913 LalaHardayal, TarakNath-Das
and Sohan Singh Bhakna
San
Francisco
Indian Independence 1914 LalaHardayal and Birendra Berlin
League and Government
Indian Independence
League
1942 Ras Bihari Bose Tokyo
Indian National Army 1942 Ras Bihari Bose Tokyo
The reasons responsible for the
revolutionaries, failing to achieve their
objective Viz.,
1. The Government passed several
laws to crush the revolutionary
movements and many times
succeeded in detecting the
activities and punishing them
severely.
2. The role of revolutionaries in
Indian politics became negligible
because the Satyagraha and the
Non-cooperation movements led
by Gandhi attracted more public
attention.
3. Most of their movements in India
failed because of its, ill
organisation and its failure to
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Objective of HSRA (Hindustan
Socialist Republican
Association)
1. To arose the consciousness of the
people of India to futility of the
Gandhian methods of nonviolence.
2. To demonstrate the need and
desirability of Direct Action and
Revolution in order to achieve
complete independence.
3. Decided not to plunder private
individuals but to make
government treasuries alone as
the target of dacoities.
gain mass support among the
Indians.
Concludingly, there is no doubt
that the superb spirit of sacrifice
of the revolutionaries and
martyrdom of many among them
made a notable contribution
towards Indian Nationalism. The
blood of the Indian martyrs did
not go in waste.
12.1 FIRST PHASE
 By 1902, four revolutionary
groups were set-up in Calcutta
and Midnapur.
– Midnapur Society by
SarlaGhosal
– AnushilanSamiti
– Atmonnoti Group
– Yugantar group by
Barindra Kumar Ghosh,
Raja Subodh Malik and
HemchandraQanungo.
 First political robbery was
conducted in 1906, known as
Rangpur Dacoiti.
 A bomb manufacturing unit was
set-up at Maniktala (Calcutta).
 Kingsford attempt to Murder
Case (1908) Yugantar group
planned to kill Kingsford, the
magistrate of Muzaffar, but
failed. Aurobindo Ghosh was
arrested and Khudiram Bose was
arrested and executed in Hijni
jail, Hazaribagh.
 There was an assassination
attempt on the life of Governor
General, Lord Hardinge
(December, 1912) by Master Amir
Chandra, Awadh Bihari and
Basantkumar Biswas.
 In Madras, revolutionary
activities were carried by Bharat
Mata Association under
VanchiIyer and supported by VO
Chindambaram Pillai.
 Indian revolutionary activities
outside India were based on the
principle of absolute political
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freedom. Prominent groups
were
– India House by Shyamji
Krishna Verma set up in
London. He also started the
newspaper The Indian
Sociologist. VD Savarkar was
its member, who later started
the secret societies Abhinav
Bharat and MitraMela.
– Other
MembersLalaHardayal, VN
Chatterjee, MPT Acharya,
PM Bapat, VSS Iyer and
Madan Lal Dhingra
(assassinated British Officer
Curzon While in 1909).
 Paris Indian Society: It was
founded by Madam BhikajiCama.
She started two newspapers,
VandeMataram and
MadansTalwar.
 India Independence
Committee was set-up by
VigrendranathChattopadha Gaya
in Berlin.
 Ghadar Party Movement
(1913) Indian nationalists
including students like
TarakNath Das who published
Free Hindustan Newspaper in
North America helped in rising
awareness about nationalism.
– Similarly, Hind Association
of Pacific coast was set-up
in 1913 by Sohan Singh
Bhakna and also started a
newspaper, Hindustani
Ghadar, edited by
LalaHardayal.
– Soon activities of the
association came to be
known as Ghadar party
Movement which was first
secular, democratic,
revolutionary movement.
– Its headquarter was known
as Yugantar Ashram in San
Francisco (USA). They
published the newspaper
Hindustani Ghadar.
– In Punjab, Bharat Mata
Society under Kartar Singh
carried the Ghadar
Movement. Similary in
Hong Kong a Sikh priest,
Bhagwan Singh, carried the
movement.
– The movement ended with
the arrest of Lal Hardayal,
beginning of world war and
KomagataMaru incident
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(charteredship of Gurudith
Singh carrying Muslim and
Sikh immigrats from
Vancouver, but the British
Government did not allow
anyone to leave the ship at
Calcutta and violent
protests broke out).
12.2 SECOND PHASE
 Bhagat Singh founded the
Naujawan Bharat Sabha.
 Kakori Train Dacoity Case 1925-
Ram Prasad Bismill and
Ashafaqulla were accused.
 Murder of Sauders (ASP of
Lahore), 1929-Bhagat Singh was
accused.
 Assembly Bomb Case (Delhi),
1929-Bhagat Singh, Batukeshwar
Dutta and Rajguru.
 Surya Sen was accused in
Chittagong ArmkouryDacoity,
1930.
 Udham Singh murdered General
Dyer in London in 1940.
Revolutionary Events/Cases
Name of the Event/Case Place Year Accused
Murder of Rand and Amherst
(Plague commissioners)
Pune 1897 Chapekar Brothers,
Damodar and Balkrishna
Attempt to murder kingsford
(a vindictive judge)
Muzaffarpu
r
1908 Khudiram Bose and
PrafullaChaki
Manikatalla (Calcutta) and
Alipur Bomb conspiracy case
Manikatall
a (Calcutta)
Alipur
1908 Aurbindo Ghosh
Murder of Jackson (District
Magistrate)
Nasik 1909 AnantKarkare
Murder of Curzon Wyllie London 1909 Madan Lal Dhingra
Attempt to murder Hardinge
(Viceroy) (Delhi Bomb Case)
Delhi 1912 Ras Bihari Bose and Basant
Kumar
Kakori Train Dacoity Case
(Kakori-a station in Lucknow
Saharanpur division)
Kakori 1925 Ram Prasad Bismil and
Ashafaqulla
Murder of Saunders (A.S.P of
Lahore)
Lahore 1928 Bhaghat Singh
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Assembly Bomb case Delhi 1929 Bhaghat Singh and
Batukeshwardutta
Chittagong Armoury Dacoity Chittagong 1930 Surya sen
Murder of Michael O’ Dwyer London 1940 Udhamsingh
Important Cases against Revolutionaries
CASE REASON AND YEAR RESULT
Nasik conspiracy
case
The unjustified punishment
meted out to Ganesh Savarkar
(1990-10)
37 youths were caught, 3
hanged and rest were
sentenced to various
punishments.
Alipur conspiracy
case
The police raided a bomb
factory in Calcutta and
recovered live bombs (1908)
37 people were trailed
including Barindra Ghosh,
HemchandraKanungo,
UllaskarDutt, UpendraNath
Banerjee.
Howrah conspiracy
case
(1910) Jatindra Mukherjee was
trailed.
Dacca conspiracy
case
The member of AnusilanSamiti
(1910)
Pulin Behari Das gets
rigorous imprisonment for 7
years.
Delhi conspiracy
case
Inicident of bomb explosion
aimed at killing Lord Hardinge
(1915)
Master Amirchand, Avadh
Behari, Bhai Bal Mukund
were sentenced to death.
Lahore conspiracy
case
Murder of Saunders (1929-30) Sardar Bhagat Singh,
Rajguru and Sukhdev were
hanged to death.
Benaras conspiracy
case
Revolutionary Activity (1915-
16)
Sachindra Chandra Sanyal
was deported to Andaman.
Victoria conspiracy
case
Arose Public sentiments
against the government due to
KomagataMaru incident
Gurutta Singh and
Dalipsingh were sentenced
to 4 and 2 years
imprisonment.
Kakori Case Looted the government cash
carried in a train (1925)
Ram Prasad Bismil, Roshan
Singh, AshfaqUllah and
RajendraLahri were
awarded death punishment.
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Punjab case Attempt on the life of the
Governor of Punjab
Hari Krishan was trailed
and hanged till death.
Repressive legislation to Curb revolutionary Activities
The Prevention of Seditious Meeings Act 1907
The Explosive Substances Act 1908
The Indian Criminal Law Amendment Act 1908
The Newspaper Act 1908
The press Act 1910
Multi fanged Defence of Indian Rules 1915
Rowaltt Act 1919
The first woman Governor of a State in free – Sarojini Naidu.