Armed Revolutionaries in India
The Indian movement against the British imperialism took many forms. One of the movements was of armed revolution. The main objective of the armed revolutionaries was to weaken government administration, to dispel the fear of the government in people’s mind and thus to uproot the British rule from India. Ram Singh Kuka had planned a revolt in Punjab against the British government. In Maharashtra, Vasudev Balwant Phadke, was the one to do the same. Commisioner Rand’s methods of treating people during
the plague epidemic in Pune were atrocious. Enraged by it, Damodar and Balkrishna Chapekar, the two brothers killed Rand. In 1899, with the initiative of Ganesh Damodar Savarkar and his brother Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, ‘Mitra Mela’ a secret organisation was established at Nasik. The same organisation was renamed in 1904 as ‘Abhinav Bharat’. The same year Vinayak Damodar Savarkar went to England for higher education. From there he began to send revolutionary literature, pistols, etc. to the members of Abhinav Bharat. He wrote a biography of Joseph Mazini, an Italian revolutionary. He also wrote the book, ‘1857 - The First War of Independence’.
The British government came to know of the activities of ‘Abhinav Bharat’. Ganesh Damodar Savarkar was arrested by the British Government. Jackson, the British collector punished him with life sentence. Anant Lakshman Kanhere a young Indian revolutionary killed Jackson to avenge the punishment given to Ganesh Damodar Savarkar. The government held Vinayak Damodar Savarkar for Jackson’s murder. He was arrested and had to face a trial in the court. He was declared guilty and sentenced to rigorous inprisonment for 50 years at Andaman.
A revolutionary organisation named as ‘Anusheelan Samiti’ was active in Bengal. Aurobindo Ghosh and his brother Barindra Kumar Ghosh were at the head of this orgnisation. The organisation had a centre of bomb making at Maniktala near Kolkata. In 1908, Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki of Anusheelan Samiti, made a plan of Kingsford's assasination who was an evil British magistrate. However, the horse cart which was bombed by them did not
carry Kingsford but two British women instead. They both died. Prafulla Chaki shot himself and Khudiram Bose was arrested and hanged. Shyamji Krishna Verma had founded ‘India House’ in London. This organisation used to give scholarships to Indian students in England taking higher education. Madam Cama belonged to the group formed by Shyamji Krishna Verma. She was a socialist and a revolutionary. In the ‘World Socialist Conference’ at Stutgart in Germany she raised the issue of India’s independence. She unfurled a flag representing India. Madanlal Dhingra shot Curzon Wyllie to death and was arrested and hanged for it. Indians in America and Canada had established a revolutionary orgnisation, which was named as ‘Gadar’.
Lala Hardayal, Bhai Paramanand, Dr. Pandurang Sadashiv Khankhoje were among the main leaders of this organisation. Gadar means uprising. ‘Gadar’ was the name of the newspaper as well, published by this organisation. This newspaper gave the message of patriotism and revolution to Indians. Hutatma Vishnu Ganesh Pingale contributed in a great way in this work. Ramprasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla, Roshan Singh, Rajendra Lahiri of ‘Hindustan Republic Association’ had masterminded a plan for raising money for revolutionary work, which came to be known as ‘Kakori conspiracy’. They sacked a train which was carrying the government treasury, when it had stopped at Kakori station in Uttar
Pradesh. The government was prompt in action. All of them were captured immediately and hanged. This was the time when some young people in India established the ‘Communist Party’ following the revolutionary thoughts of Karl Marx. Their aim was to uproot the colonial British rule and to establish the rule of working class people (proletariat). Members of the Communist Party were tried under the charge of attempting armed revolution. The Merath case and Kanpur case in this context received a lot of publicity. Comrade Shripad Amrut Dange, Muzaffar Ahmed, Keshav Neelkanth Jogalekar were among the accused in these cases. The young revolutionaries Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev had a secular way of thinking.
In 1928, they established ‘Hindustan Socialist Republican Association’ in Delhi. Their goal was to free India from the British exploitation. They wanted to rip off the British system that exploited the farmers and labourers. Their organisation had an independent department called ‘Hindustan Socialist Republican Army’ for collecting arms and to execute their plans. Chandrashekhar Azad was the chief of that department.
The members of this organisation had completed several adventurous tasks. Bhagatsingh and Rajguru avenged the death of Lala Lajapat Ray. Saunders was killed to teach a lesson British officers. The British Government had submitted two bills in the Central Legislative Assembly, which were absolutely damaging to civil rights. Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Datta, exploded a bomb in the Legislative Assembly and surrendered to police. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev were hanged at Lahore in 1931 under the charge of treason. Chandrashekhar Azad became a martyr, fighting the British forces in the Alfred Park in Allahabad.
Surya Sen was the leader of the revolutionary group working with Hindustan Socialist Republican Army, in Chittagong, in Bengal. He prepared a plan to attack on the British armouries. They carried out the plan. While they were nearing success, unfortunately, Surya Sen and some of his colleagues were captured by the police. Along with Surya Sen and his colleagues sacrificed their lives for the cause of nation. Kalpana Dutt, one of this group, got a life sentence.
Preetilata Waddedar escaped the police, but sacrificed her own life. Shanti Ghosh and Suniti Chaudhury, the two school going girls shot Charles Buckland, the British magistrate. They were caught and sentenced to imprisonment for life.
Beena Das, a member of Indian National Congress, attempted to kill Stanley Jackson, the Governor of Bengal, by shooting at him during the convocation ceremony of the University of Calcutta (Kolkata). She was caught and sentenced to nine year’s rigorous imprisonment. The revolutionaries have contributed significantly to the Independence Movement in India. They were courage and determination personified. Their loyalty to nation and readiness to sacrifice their lives are unmatched. Their sacrifice has been a source of inspiration to all.
Mahatma Gandhi: Non-Violent Resistance Movement
The mantle of Lokmanya Tilak, after his death in 1920, was passed on to Mahatma Gandhi. He became the leader of India’s Independence Movement. Under his leadership the independence movement expanded considerably. Gandhiji’s work began in South Africa. The British regime in South Africa had reduced the natives and the Indians there to a very insignificant status. Several discriminatory laws and regulations were imposed on them. Gandhiji stood up against those laws and regulations. He was successful in it with non-violent means. In 1915 Gandhiji returned to India. In 1917, he took up the issues of the farmers in Chaparanya in Bihar.
The British plant owners there were pressing local farmers to cultivate only indigo. Not only that, they used to buy indigo from them at very low rates. Gandhiji decided to protest against this exploitation and to relieve the farmers from their misery by doing Satyagraha. Gandhiji was successful in his efforts and the British government banned compulsion of cultivating indigo.
The farmers were relieved from the harassment of the British plant owners. The British government formed a committee to suppress the national movement that was spreading rapidly. Sir Sydney Rowlatt, the British officer was the president of the committee. An Act was passed in 1919 by this committee which came to be known as the Rowlatt Act. This act authorised the British government to imprison any Indian without warrant and to put under trial without inquiry. Mahatma Gandhi decided to protest against this act through satyagraha. He appealed on 6th April 1919 to all people to go for a mass
protest (hartal) by closing down all daily transactions. There were mass protests in Punjab. 13th April 1919 was the day of ‘Baisakhi’ festival. Thousands of people had gathered for the meeting held at Jalianwala Bagh in Amritsar for celebrating the festival. Many of them were not aware of the ban put by the government on public gatherings. General Dyer opened fire on these people without any prior warning. About four hundred innocent people were killed and thousands of them were injured in this incident. It is known as ‘Jalianwala Bagh Massacre’. It created a wave of rage all through India. Ravindranath Tagore criticised this act in very severe terms and gave up his title (Sir).
In 1920, in the session of Indian National Congress held at Nagpur, a resolution was passed to start the ‘Non Cooperation Movement’ all over India.
Mahatma Gandhi was asked to lead the movement. It was decided to boycott all schools, colleges, legislative bodies, courts, government offices and imported goods. Indian people responded to the Non Co-operation movement and boycott in a commendable way. Students participated in it on a large scale. Several highly acknowledged Indian lawyers stopped their practice and participated in the movement. Among them were Chittaranjan Das, Motilal Nehru, M.R. Jaikar, Saifuddin Kichalu, Vallabhbhai Patel and Rajgopalachari. At many places imported clothes were publicly burnt. The farmers gave tremendous response to Mahatma Gandhi’s appeal of non co-operation. The working class also participated in the movement on very large scale.
A nationwide series of public strikes was started. There were 396 instances of public strikes during the year 1921 alone. The leaders of Indian National Congress had organised these strikes at several places. ‘Charkha’ (the Indian spinning wheel) became the symbol of ‘Swarajya’ and ‘Swadeshi’ became a household term in India. The British government had levied heavy tax on salt, an essential commodity in daily life. Mahatma Gandhi declared satyagraha to protest against this tax. On the day of 12th March 1930, he began a march from his Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi on Gujarat seacoast, against this unjust tax. On 6th April on the seacoast at Dandi, he broke the British law of salt with a token act of collecting a handful of salt from there.
Azad Hind Sena
In the year 1939, Hitler pushed Europe in World War II. The British government without the consent of its Indian subjects decided to involve India as one of the participant countries in the war. Mahatma
Gandhi and the Indian National Congress were against this decision of the British Government. In this war Japan decided to fight as Germany’s allied nation. Japan conquered the regions under British rule in Southeast Asia. Many Indian soldiers in the British army were taken captive by the Japanese army. Rasbihari Bose built ‘Azad Hind Sena’ by recruiting these Indian soldiers and later it was reorganised under the leadership of Subhash Chandra Bose. In 1943, Subhash Chadra Bose established ‘Azad Hind Sarkar’ in Singapore.
At the end of 1943 he had already conquered Andaman and Nicobar. “Tum Muze Khoon Do! Main Tumhe Azadi Dunga!” (“Give me your blood! I shall give you independendce!”) This speech by him turned into a key slogan among Indians. In 1944, he had conquered the Arakan province and the British outposts on the east border of Assam. The soldiers of Azad Hind Sena kept fighting in very adverse conditions. They could not reach and capture Imphal.
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