Revolutionary Activity in the 1920s

When the Non-Cooperation Movement was abruptly called off in 1922, many young nationalists turned again to revolution. They were disillusioned with both constitutional work and patient constructive work. This second wave of the 1920s differed from the first. Under leaders like Bhagat Singh, it moved from individual heroism towards socialism and mass politics. Revolution was redefined as the end of all exploitation. It produced enduring martyrs in north India and Bengal. This is a high-yield topic.

Nearly all the major revolutionaries had taken part in Non-Cooperation, and its sudden withdrawal pushed them to find new methods. Two strands emerged, one in Punjab-UP-Bihar, the other in Bengal.

In north India, the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) was founded in October 1924 at Kanpur by Ramprasad Bismil, Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee and Sachin Sanyal. It aimed to overthrow colonial rule by armed revolution and set up a Federal Republic of the United States of India based on adult franchise.

After the Kakori setback (below), the younger revolutionaries were inspired by socialist ideas. They met in the ruins of Ferozeshah Kotla, Delhi (September 1928). Under Chandrashekhar Azad, they reorganised the body as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), adopting socialism as its goal and collective leadership. Its members included Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Bhagwati Charan Vohra and others.

Bhagat Singh's ideological breakthrough. Even before his arrest, Bhagat Singh had moved from individual heroic action towards Marxism. He believed only a broad-based mass movement, revolution "by the masses, for the masses," could succeed. He helped found the Punjab Naujawan Bharat Sabha (1926) as an open wing for political work among youth, peasants and workers. He redefined revolution: not the "cult of bomb and pistol" or personal vendetta, but the overthrow of imperialism and the building of a socialist order ending the "exploitation of man by man." He was consciously secular. He insisted his Sabha keep clear of communal bodies and prized "criticism and independent thinking." (The revolutionary creed was set out in The Philosophy of the Bomb by Bhagwati Charan Vohra.)

A series of daring actions kept the movement in the headlines:

• Kakori robbery (August 1925): the HRA held up the 8-Down train at Kakori near Lucknow to fund its activities. The crackdown led to many arrests; Bismil, Ashfaqullah, Roshan Singh and Rajendra Lahiri were hanged, a serious setback.
• Murder of Saunders (Lahore, December 1928): Lala Lajpat Rai died from lathi blows received during an anti-Simon procession. In response, Bhagat Singh and Rajguru shot dead the police officer J.P. Saunders, mistaking him for Superintendent Scott, who had ordered the lathi-charge. Azad covered their escape.
• Bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly (April 1929): Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw two harmless bombs in the Assembly to protest the Public Safety Bill and Trade Disputes Bill. They deliberately courted arrest "to make the deaf hear" and to use the trial as a platform for their ideology, shouting "Inquilab Zindabad."
• The revolutionaries were tried in the Lahore Conspiracy Case; Jatin Das died on the 63rd day of a hunger strike for the rights of political prisoners. Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were hanged on 23 March 1931 (now observed as Shaheed Diwas).
• Chandrashekhar Azad died fighting the police at Alfred Park, Allahabad (February 1931), shooting himself rather than be captured alive.

In Bengal, revolutionary groups regrouped after government repression. The most famous of the new "Revolt Groups" was led by Surya Sen (Master Da), a teacher who had taken part in Non-Cooperation.

• The Chittagong Armoury Raid (April 1930): about 65 activists under the banner of the Indian Republican Army, Chittagong Branch seized the armouries and cut communication lines. Surya Sen hoisted the national flag and proclaimed a provisional revolutionary government. He was arrested in 1933 and hanged in January 1934, but the raid fired the imagination of the youth.
• A striking feature was the large-scale participation of women: Pritilata Waddedar (who died conducting a raid), Kalpana Dutt (tried with Surya Sen), the schoolgirls Santi Ghosh and Suniti Chaudhuri (who shot the Comilla district magistrate, 1931), and Bina Das (who fired at the governor at her convocation, 1932).
• The new phase emphasised group action against organs of the colonial state rather than individual acts. It also shed much of the earlier Hindu religiosity, which eased Muslim participation.