Revolutionary Movement in India

The First Phase of the Revolutionary Movement in India (1907-17)

With the decline of the mass phase of the Swadeshi movement and the lack of political activity, a new kind of political action emerged in the national movement. In this aspect, the highly motivated youth adopted the following methods:

• They adopted revolutionary activities as the means to achieve their goal.
• They adopted the methods followed by the Russian Nihilist and Irish Nationalists, which involved individual heroic actions and the assassination of unpopular officers.

Reasons for the Revolutionary Trends

Various reasons play a role in the growth of revolutionary trends:

• The realization of the futility of the constitutional methods: The extremist’s critique of the moderates had convinced the revolutionaries of the futility of the attempt to convince the Britishers by prayers and petitions.
• Disappointment with the Extremist leadership: The revolutionaries were disappointed and impatient with the inability of the extremists to organize full-scale mass mobilization and not secure the reversal of the partition of Bengal.
• The brutal repression of the Swadeshi movement further helped the growth of revolutionary trends. Surat split had enhanced the ability of the government to repress since it had reduced the risk of alienating moderates in the event of the repression of the extremists.
• The policy of Carrot and Stick: Luring the moderates with the promise of constitutional reforms, the government launched an all-out repression of the extremists. Tilak was exiled to Burma for six years, and Aurobindo Ghosh was arrested in a conspiracy case.

Earlier Activities

Though the revolutionary trends in a real sense started only around 1907-08, there had been earlier instances as well as follows:

• In 1897, the Chapekar brothers of Poona, Damodar, and Balkrishna murdered the Plague Commissioner of Poona, Rand.
• In Maharashtra again, VD Savarkar and his brother had organised a secret society named Mitra Mela in 1899, which later merged with Abhinav Bharat (after Mazzini’s Young Italy) in 1904.

Major Activities in Bengal

Bengal became the main centre of revolutionary activities, and many secret societies emerged during this period. The organisation of revolutionary activities was led by the Anushilan and Jugantar societies:

• Anushilan Group:
• In 1902, the first revolutionary groups were formed in Midnapore (By Jnenendranath Basu), and the Anushilan Samiti in Calcutta, founded by Promotha Mitter and the other members were Jatindranath Banarjee, Barindra Kumar Ghosh, etc. But these societies remained dormant till 1907-08.
• In 1906, a group of Anushilan members led by Barindra Kumar Ghosh and Bhupendranath Dutta started a weekly called Yugantar to advocate revolutionary activities.
• Rashbehari Bose and Sachin Sanyal organised a secret society that expanded its operations in Punjab, Delhi, and the United Provinces.
• The first big event of the revolutionary trend was in April 1908, when Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram threw a bomb on a carriage where Kingsford, the unpopular district judge of Muzaffarpur, was supposed to be travelling. But unfortunately, the carriage was carrying two British ladies who were thus inadvertently killed. Prafulla Chaki shot himself dead rather than be arrested, but Khudiram Bose was arrested and later hanged.
• Alipore Conspiracy Case: The Government used the opportunity to crackdown on the Anushilan group, and all of its members were arrested, including Aurobindo Ghosh and his brother Barindra in the Alipore conspiracy case in which Aurobindo himself was acquitted, but his brother and many others were sentenced to deportation and harsh prison terms.
• In 1908, Barrah dacoity was organised by Dacca Anushilan Samiti, under Pulin Das, to raise funds for revolutionary activities.
• Delhi Conspiracy Case: In 1912, a bomb attack was attempted on Viceroy Lord Hardinge when he was entering the new capital of Delhi in a ceremonial procession through Chandni Chowk. However, the Viceroy and Lady Hardinge escaped with injuries. While most of the accused were tried and executed in the Delhi conspiracy case, Rasbehari Bose managed to escape.
• Jugantar Group:
• The western Anushilan Samiti, under the leadership of Jatindranath Mukherjee or Bagha Jatin, emerged as Yugantar (Jugantar).
• During the First World War, the Yugantar party was involved in an Indo-German conspiracy, or the Zimmerman Plan, to overthrow the British rule in India. However, the plan failed due to betrayal, and Bhagha Jatin was shot dead in Balasore, Orissa, in 1915.