Revolutionary Terrorism & Nationalism (Phase I & II)

The first phase of revolutionary activities emerged as a direct fallout of the Swadeshi Movement (1905) and the failure of Moderates to extract genuine concessions from the British. Their method: assassinate unpopular British officials to strike terror in the minds of the rulers and awaken the masses.

Bengal:

• Anushilan Samiti (1902): Founded by Pramathanath Mitra (P. Mitra) and Barindra Kumar Ghosh (Aurobindo’s brother). It operated primarily as a fitness club to train youths but secretly planned armed rebellion.
• Yugantar (Jugantar): A weekly started in 1906 by Barindra Kumar Ghosh and Bhupendranath Dutta which openly preached armed rebellion. "If the British rule by force, they must be opposed by force."
• Alipore Bomb Case (1908): Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki threw a bomb at a carriage in Muzaffarpur, mistakenly killing two British women instead of the intended target, the unpopular judge Kingsford. Prafulla shot himself; Khudiram (18 years old) was hanged. Aurobindo Ghosh was arrested in the subsequent crackdown but defended by C.R. Das and acquitted.

Maharashtra:

• Ramosi Peasant Force (1879): Vasudev Balwant Phadke tried to build a secret army, marking the earliest armed revolt against the British in western India.
• Mitra Mela (1899) & Abhinav Bharat (1904): A secret society organized by Vinayak Damodar (V.D.) Savarkar and his brother Ganesh. Inspired by Mazzini’s "Young Italy".
• Assassination of Rand (1897): By the Chapekar Brothers (Damodar and Balkrishna) in Pune—avenging the oppressive plague measures.
• Assassination of Curzon Wyllie (1909): In London, by Madan Lal Dhingra, an associate of Savarkar’s India House.

Ghadar Party (1913, North America):

• Founded in San Francisco by Lala Hardayal, Sohan Singh Bhakna, and Taraknath Das.
• Weekly paper: The Ghadar (meaning Rebellion), with the masthead: "Angrezi Raj Ka Dushman" (Enemy of British Rule).
• Made up largely of Punjabi Sikh immigrants who experienced deep racial discrimination in Canada/USA.
• Komagata Maru Incident (1914): A Japanese ship carrying 376 Indians was turned back from Vancouver, Canada. Upon returning to Budge Budge (Calcutta), British police fired on them, killing 22. This electrified the Ghadarites who planned a mutiny in India (February 1915). The British pre-empted it, executing over 40 Ghadar leaders and crushing the movement via the Defense of India Act (1915).

The sudden withdrawal of the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1922 left a vacuum. Young militants, dissatisfied with Gandhi's non-violence and the "No-Changers'" parliamentary work, revived revolutionary action. However, unlike Phase I, these revolutionaries were deeply influenced by Marxism and the Russian Revolution.

Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) - 1924:

• Founded in Kanpur by Sachindra Nath Sanyal, Ram Prasad Bismil, and Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee.
• Objective: Organize an armed rebellion to establish a "Federal Republic of United States of India" based on adult franchise.
• Kakori Train Robbery (August 1925): To fund their activities, HRA members looted a government treasury train at Kakori (near Lucknow). In the massive crackdown that followed, Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Roshan Singh, and Rajendra Lahiri were hanged.

Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) - 1928:

• Under the leadership of Chandrashekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh, the HRA met at Ferozshah Kotla ruins (Delhi) and was renamed HSRA. The addition of "Socialist" reflected their new goal: not just political freedom, but economic freedom from landlords and capitalists.
• Assassination of Saunders (December 1928): Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru shot Deputy Superintendent J.P. Saunders in Lahore to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai ("Lal Lajpat ki lathion se gayi").
• Central Legislative Assembly Bombing (April 8, 1929): Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw harmless smoke bombs in the Assembly to protest against the draconian Public Safety Bill and Trade Disputes Bill. Their objective: "To make the deaf hear." They did not run away but courted arrest, dropping leaflets and shouting "Inquilab Zindabad" (Long Live the Revolution).

The Aftermath & Martyrs:

• Jatin Das: Died after a legendary 63-day hunger strike in Lahore jail demanding better conditions for political prisoners.
• Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru were tried in the Lahore Conspiracy Case and controversially hanged on March 23, 1931 (Martyrs' Day / Shaheed Diwas) at the ages of 23-24, just before the Karachi congress session.
• Chandrashekhar Azad: Died fighting the police in a gun battle at Alfred Park (Azad Park), Allahabad, in February 1931. He shot himself with his last bullet, fulfilling his vow never to be captured alive.

While Northern revolutionaries focused on socialism and individual acts, Bengali revolutionaries planned large-scale, coordinated military action against the British State.

Chittagong Armoury Raid (April 1930):

• Led by Surya Sen (affectionately called "Masterda"), a Congress leader and school teacher.
• Surya Sen organized the Indian Republican Army (Chittagong Branch).
• Under his leadership, 65 young men and women coordinated simultaneous, devastating attacks on the police armoury and auxiliary forces armoury in Chittagong, severing telegraph and railway lines.
• They hoisted the National Flag, formed a Provisional Revolutionary Government, and fought a pitched battle on Jalalabad Hills against British troops, losing 12 men but killing a large number of soldiers.
• Surya Sen managed to evade capture for three years. He was finally betrayed, tortured, and hanged in 1934.

Prominent Role of Women: In Phase II in Bengal, women moved from providing shelter to taking up arms directly.

• Pritilata Waddedar: Led an attack on the Pahartali European Club (which had a sign "Dogs and Indians not allowed"). She consumed cyanide to avoid capture.
• Kalpana Dutta: Fought alongside Surya Sen and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
• Bina Das: Fired point-blank at the Bengal Governor Stanley Jackson during the Calcutta University convocation (1932).
• Santi and Suniti: Two schoolgirls who shot dead the brutal District Magistrate of Tippera (C.G.B. Stevens) in 1931.

Ideological Shift: By the mid-1930s, the era of "revolutionary terrorism" ended. Realizing that individual acts of terror could not mobilize the masses, most surviving revolutionaries (in prisons like the Cellular Jail, Andaman) studied Marxism and emerged as leaders of the Communist Party and Kisan Sabhas.