HISTORY PROJECT 2022-2023

INDEX

SERIAL CONTENT PAGE

NUMBER NUMBER
1. Introduction 3
2. History of Revolutionary activities in India 4
3. Factors leading to Formation of revolutionary Nationalism 5-6
4. Formation of secret societies 1900-1918 and their activities 7

5. Alipore Bomb Case 8

6. Howrah Bomb Case 9
7. Revolutionary organizations in 1920’s 10-11
8. Kakori Conspiracy Case 12
9. Chittagong armory raid 13
10. Central assembly Bombing case 14
11. Activities of women revolutionaries 15
12. Activities of Indian revolutionaries abroad 16
13. Effect of these revolutionary activities on Indian Freedom Movement 17
14. Quotes by famous freedom fighters of India 18-19
 Introduction
 Revolutionary nationalism is a name that has been applied to the political philosophy of
many different types of nationalist political movements that wish to achieve their goals
through a revolution against the established order.

Swami Vivekananda Bhagat Singh Rani Laxmi Bai

 History of Revolutionary activities in India
Factors leading to formation of revolutionary nationalism :
 There were many factors that aroused opposition to British rule. Economic exploitation was the
most important among them. The Indians realized that the general aim of the British was to
promote their own interests at the cost of the welfare of Indians.
 The peasants were the main victims of British colonial policies. The government took away a
large part of their produce in form land taxes and other taxes. These exorbitant taxes led the
peasant in the clutches of moneylenders and landlords.
 The British economic interests were against the interest of Indian trade and industry. The
English east India company used its political power to destroy Indian handcrafts and industry.
Factors leading to Formation of revolutionary Nationalism
 The growth of modern industries led to the formation of a new social class in India called the
working class. They were exploited by the factory owners who were generally Englishmen.
 Even though they formed a small section of population ,they represented a new social outlook.
Their ideas and overlooks were broad and covered the whole India though their factories were
located in the cities. These factors made their political thinking more significant than their
numerical strength.
 Factors leading to Formation of revolutionary Nationalism
ROLE OF THE PRESS:
 Large number of newspapers were started in the later half of the 19 th century. The newspapers played a significant
role in developing a strong nation sentiment among the Indians. It did so in the following way:
 It was through the press that the message of patriotism and modern liberal ideals of liberty, freedom, equality
home rule and independence, spread among the people.
 It made Indians aware of what was happening in the world. This awareness helped them to understand the politics
and social development of the outside world and shape their own policies and programmes
 Some of the famous newspapers in the later half of the 19th century are: The Tribune, Amrit Bazar Patrika.
 Formation of secret societies 1900-1918 and their activities
Anushilan Samiti :
 Anushilan Samiti was an Indian fitness club, which was actually used as an
underground society for anti-British revolutionaries. In the first quarter of the 20th
century it supported revolutionary violence as the means for ending British rule in
India. From its foundation to its dissolution during the 1930s, the Samiti challenged
British rule in India by engaging in militant nationalism, including bombings,
assassinations, and politically motivated violence. It was founded by Satish Chandra
Basu.
Anubhav Bharat Society :
 Abhinav Bharat Society (Young India Society) was an Indian
Independence secret society founded by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and his
brother Ganesh Damodar Savarkar in 1904. Savarkar's revolutionary thoughts led to
the assassination of Lt. Col. William Curzon-Wyllie, the political aide-de-camp to the
Secretary of State for India, by Madanlal Dhingra on the evening of 1 July 1909, at a
meeting of Indian students in the Imperial Institute in London. Dhingra was arrested
and later tried and executed. A. M. T. Jackson, the district magistrate of Nasik, was
assassinated in India by Anant Laxman Kanhare in 1909 in the historic "Nasik
Conspiracy Case.
 Alipore Bomb Case
 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.
 The case saw the trial of a number of Indian nationalists of the Anushilan Samiti in Calcutta, under charges of "Waging war
against the Government" of the British Raj. The trial was held at Alipore Sessions Court, Calcutta, between May 1908 and May
1909.
 The trial followed in the wake of the attempt on the life of Presidency Magistrate Douglas Kingsford in Muzaffarpur by Bengali
nationalists Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki in April 1908, which was recognised by the Bengal police as linked to attacks
against the Raj in the preceding years, including attempts to derail the train carrying Lieutenant-Governor Sir Andrew Fraser in
December 1907. Among the famous accused were Aurobindo Ghosh, his brother Barin Ghosh as well as 38 other Bengali
nationalists of the Anushilan Samiti.
 They were held in the Presidency Jail in Alipore before the trial, where Narendranath Goswami, approver and crown-witness, was
shot dead by two fellow accused Kanailal Dutta and Satyendranath Bose within the jail premises.
 Howrah Bomb Case
 The Howrah-Sibpur Conspiracy case refers to the arrest and trials of 47 Bengali Indian nationalists of the Anushilan
Samiti that followed in the wake of the murder of Inspector Shamsul Alam on 24 January 1910 in Calcutta. 47 of the
accused were arrested by 29 Jan 1910.
 The trial of the accused commenced on 4 March 1910 with a second hearing in the Calcutta High Court in July
1910. However, the de-centralised structure of the Samiti meant the prosecution's attempts to demonstrate the
crimes as linked and the Samiti as a unifying organisation failed.
 33 of the accused were subsequently acquitted. Of the accused, Jatin Mukherjee and Narendranath
Bhattacharjee were among those convicted and sentenced to one-years imprisonment.
 The case is important in having brought Jatindranath Mukherjee's work and Samiti network under the scrutiny of the
Raj Jatindranath Mukherjee's policy of a loose decentralized organization generated scores of regional units.
 Revolutionary organizations in 1920’s
 Ramprasad Bismil, Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee, and Sachin Sanyal founded the Hindustan Socialist Republican
Association or HSRA, in Kanpur in October 1924. Its goal was to organise an armed revolution to destabilise the colonial
government. And in its place, establish a Federal Republic of the United States of India, the basic principle of which would
be adult franchise. Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, or HSRA, was later renamed.
 The Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) was a revolutionary party founded to fight British colonial rule in
India and, if necessary, achieve independence for the country through an armed rebellion.
 The main impetus for the formation of the party was Mahatma Gandhi's decision to call off the non-cooperation movement in
1922 as a result of the Chauri Chaura incident.
 Kakori Conspiracy Case
 The Kakori Train Robbery  was a train robbery that took place at Kakori, a village near Lucknow, on 9 August
1925 during the Indian Independence Movement against the British Raj. It was organised by Hindustan Republican
Association (HRA).
 The robbery was conceived by Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqullah Khan who belonged to the HRA, which later
became the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. This organisation was established to carry out
revolutionary activities against the British Empire with the objective of achieving independence. Since the
organisation needed money for the purchase of weaponry, Bismil and his party made a plan to rob a train on the
Saharanpur Railway lines.
 On 9 August 1925, the Number 8 Down Train was travelling from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow.[4] When it
passed Kakori, one of the revolutionary, Rajendra Lahiri pulled the emergency chain to stop the train and
subsequently, the other revolutionaries overpowered the guard. It is believed that they looted that specific train
because it was carrying the money bags(taxes) which belonged to the Indians and was being transferred to the
British government treasury. They looted only those bags which were present in the guards' cabin and contained
about ₹ 4600 and escaped to Lucknow.  The objectives of this robbery were to :
• Fund the HRA with the money stolen from the British administration.
• Garner public attention by creating a positive image of the HRA among Indians.
 Chittagong armory raid
 Chittagong armory raid, also known as the Chittagong uprising, was an attempt on 18 April 1930 to raid the armory of police
and auxiliary forces from the Chittagong armory in the Bengal Presidency of British India (now in Bangladesh) by armed Indian
independence fighters led by Surya Sen.
 The raiders were members of revolutionary Indian Republican Army, who favoured armed uprisings as a means to achieve India's
independence from British colonial rule. They were inspired by the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland and led by Surya Sen. However,
they were ideologically influenced more by the Communists in Soviet Union. Many of these raiders later became Communists.
The group included Ganesh Ghosh, Lokenath Bal, Ambika Chakrobarty, Harigopal Bal (Tegra), Ananta Singh, and many more.
 The plan was put into action at 10 p.m. on 18 April 1930. The police armory(in Police Line in Dampara) was captured by a group
of revolutionaries led by Ganesh Ghosh, while another group of ten men led by Lokenath Bal took the Auxiliary Forces
armory(now the old Circuit House). Some 65 people took part in the raid, undertaken in the name of Indian Republican Army,
Chittagong Branch. They failed to locate ammunition but did succeed in cutting telephone and telegraph wires and disrupting train
movements.
 Central assembly Bombing case
 On 8 April, 1929, revolutionaries Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw bombs at the Central Legislative Assembly at Delhi.
The incident is known as the Central Assembly Bombing Case.
• At about 12:30 PM on 8th April, 1929, as the President of the Central Assembly Vithalbhai Patel began to give his ruling on the
Trade Disputes Bill at the Assembly, an explosion occurred and the hall began to be filled with smoke. There were slogans raised
by young men from the Visitors’ Gallery, stating ‘Inquilab Zindabad’, ‘Workers of the world unite’, and ‘Down with imperialism’. The
voices belonged to two young revolutionary freedom fighters Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt (also called B K Dutt). They also
threw pamphlets into the hall.
• Both the men did not flee the scene or try to evade arrest after the act. They willingly courted arrest.Both of them were members
of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. Their motive, as stated by them, was not to kill or injure people, but to ‘make
the deaf hear’.
• Bhagat Singh, who masterminded the attack, was inspired by the French anarchist Auguste Vaillant who had bombed the French
Chamber of Deputies in the year 1893. Vaillant was executed for the act.
• Both Singh and Dutt courted arrest even though both the bombs were thrown by Singh alone. The trial started in May 1929. Lawyer
Asaf Ali represented Dutt while Singh defended himself during the trial. In June, the verdict was pronounced and both Singh and
Dutt were sentenced to ‘transportation for life’.
 Activities of women revolutionaries
 The women were not merely passive workers following in the footsteps of celebrated men;
they were active revolutionaries, taking up arms, launching underground organisations,
publishing anti-British literature, being subjected for years to torture and imprisonment.
 Rani Lakshmibai : The Rani of Jhansi, was an Indian queen, the Maharani consort of the
Maratha princely state of Jhansi from 1843 to 1853 as the wife of Maharaja Gangadhar Rao.
She was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and became a symbol of
resistance to the British Raj for Indian nationalists.
 Bina Das : Das was a member of Chhatri Sangha, a semi-revolutionary organisation for
women in Kolkata. On 6 February 1932, she attempted to assassinate the Bengal
Governor Stanley Jackson, in the Convocation Hall of the University of Calcutta. The revolver
was supplied by another freedom fighter Kamala Das Gupta. She fired five shots but failed Her
confession, which ran to five pages long and was written in English, was censored by the
British colonial administration.
 Kalpana Datta : Kalpana Datta, also Kalpana Joshi, was an Indian independence movement
activist and a member of the armed independence movement led by Surya Sen, which carried
out the Chittagong armoury raid in 1930. The Chittagong armory raid was carried out on 18
April 1930. Kalpana joined the "Indian Republican Army, Chattagram branch," the armed
resistance group led by Surya Sen, in May 1931. In September 1931 Surya Sen entrusted her
along with Pritilata Waddedar to attack the European Club in Chittagong. A week before the
attack, she was arrested while carrying out reconnaissance of the area. She went into hiding
after her release on bail. On 16 February 1933 the police encircled their hiding place in Gairala
village. During this raid Surya Sen was arrested but Kalpana managed to escape
 Activities of Indian revolutionaries abroad
 Indian Home Rule Society (1905) : The Indian Home Rule Society was an informal Indian
Nationalist movement that started in London. It was founded by Shyamji Krishna Varma. After the
assassination of William Hutt Curzon Wyllie by an India House member named Madan Lal
Dhingra, the India House ceased to be a powerful organization. This event marked the start of the
London Police's crackdown on the house's activities, and a number of its activists and patrons,
including Shyamji Krishna Varma and Bhikaji Cama, fled to Europe to continue their work in support of
Indian nationalism. Har Dayal was one of the Indian students who moved to the United States. During
World War I, the House's network was critical to the nationalist revolutionary conspiracy in India.
• Ghadar Party (1913) : The Ghadar Party was a political revolutionary organization founded in
the United States of America by migrated Indians.The formation of the Ghadar Party was primarily
the work of Sikhs.Sohan Singh, Kartar Singh, Abdul Mohamed Barakatullah, and Rashbehari
Bose were among the prominent leaders who laid the groundwork for the establishment of an Indian
political organization in the United States and Canada.Due to India's poor economic situation in the
nineteenth century, hundreds of Indians migrated to western countries.They moved to economically
strong countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia in search of
better economic opportunities.Thousands of Sikhs immigrated to the United States and Canada in the
nineteenth century and settled there permanently. There were numerous reasons for Indians to
migrate to western countries.One of the major reasons for emigration was the British Indian
Government's exploitative policy, which worsened the economic conditions of the poor and middle
classes.
Effect of these revolutionary activities on Indian Freedom Movement

 Revolutionary activities had its impact on the Congress strategy to involve the youths in
the short term programme of rural reconstruction. Their sacrifices aroused the
emotions of the Indian people and thus helped the building up of the national
consciousness which certainly contributed to gaining independence.
 The Revolutionary activities ignited the national cause and carried the message of
nationalism in the country and outside the country. It inspired the people to throw the
British rule and be prepared to make any kind of sacrifice for the cause of freedom.
 The following quote means that a person with a strong set
of beliefs or ideologies, will follow these ideas and practise
them well into their old age, until they die.

Mahatma Gandhi wanted to deliver that freedom is the

most essential thing in life and there is no cost for it
that can be paid. For freedom, a person can do
anything to achieve his freedom
 Rani Laxmi Bai issued a proclamation saying:
"We fight for independence. In the words of
Lord Krishna, we will, if we are victorious, enjoy
the fruits of victory. If defeated and killed on
the field of battle, we will surely earn eternal
glory and salvation”.

Swaraj according to Tilak meant 'self-rule',

meaning establishing an Indian rule. The first word itself
was anti-establishment as was Tilak's contention of
having a right to it.