imperialism were carried out in various
ways in India. In this chapter, we shall
get acquainted with it.
We have studied the uprisings before
1857 against the British and the freedom
movement of 1857. In the later period,
Ramsinh Kuka organised a rebellion
against the Goverment in Punjab.
Vasudev Balwant Phadke : In
Maharashtra, Vasudev
Balwant Phadke gave
an armed struggle
against the British. He
assumed that there
should be armed
struggle to fight
against the British. He
took the training of
arms from Vastad
Lahuji Salve. He
organised the Ramoshis and revolted
against the British. This rebellion became
unsuccessful. The British Government sent
him to Eden jail. There he died in 1883.
He built up an armed struggle for
independence.
Chafekar Brothers : In 1897, the
Plague Commissioner Rand had resorted
to tyranny and force while managing the
epidemic of plague in Pune. As a revenge
the Chafekar brothers, Damodar and
Balkrishna, shot him dead on 22 June
1897. Damodar, Balkrishna and Vasudev
these three brothers and their associate
Mahadev Ranade were hanged to death.
From the same house, three brothers
accepted martyrdom for the service of the
country. During the same period Munda
tribe in Bihar under the leadership of
Birsa Munda made great revolt against
the Government.
Abhinav Bharat : In 1900,
Swatantryaveer Vinayak Damodar
Savarkar founded ‘Mitramela’- a secret
organisation of
revolutionaries in
Nasik. The same
organisation was
renamed as ‘Abhinav
Bharat’ in 1904.
Savarkar went to
England for higher
education. From there
he began sending
revolutionary literature,
guns etc. to the members of Abhinav
Bharat in India. He wrote an inspiring
biography of Joseph Mazzini, the famous
Italian revolutionary. He wrote a book
entitled ‘The 1857 War of Independence’
wherein he stated that revolt of 1857 was
the first war of independence. The Government came to know about
the activities of Abhinav Bharat. Therefore
the Government arrested Babarao
Savarkar. He was sentenced to life
imprisonment. As a revenge to this
punishment, a youth named Anant Laxman
Kanhere killed Jackson, the Collector of
Nasik. The Government started arresting
all those people who were connected with
Abhinav Bharat organisation. The murder
of Jackson was linked with Swatantryaveer
Savarkar by the Government, he was
arrested and put under trial. The court
ordered him rigorous punishment for 50
years.
Revolutionary Movement in Bengal:
After the partition of Bengal, the outrage
against British became more severe. In
place of local rebellions comprehensive
revolutionary movements started rising at
national level. In various parts of the
country the youths inspired by revolutionary
thoughts started establishing their secret
organisations. To keep control over British
officers, to loosen the Government
machinery, to wipe out the fear in the
minds of Indians regarding the British
Government, overthrowing the British rule
were some of its main objectives.
In Bengal a revolutionary organisation
called ‘Anushilan Samiti’ was active. The
Anushilan Samiti had more than 500
branches. Barindrakumar Ghosh, brother
of Aurobindo Ghosh, was the chief of this
organisation. This organisation received
counsel and guidance from Aurobindo
Ghosh. The Anushilan Samiti had a bomb
manufacturing centre at Maniktala near
Kolkata. In 1908, Khudiram Bose and
Prafulla Chaki, members of Anushilan
Samiti planned to kill a judge named
Kingsford. But the vehicle on which they
threw the bomb was not the one carrying
Kingsford. Two English women were killed in this attack. Prafulla Chaki shot
himself with a bullet so that he will not
fall in the hands of British. Khudiram
Bose was caught by the police. During
the investigation the police got information
about the working of Anushilan Samiti.
They started arresting the members of this
organisation. Aurobindo Ghosh was also
arrested. But the Government was
unsuccessful in linking him to
manufacturing of bombs and hence the
court set him free. Other members were
sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.
Rash Behari Bose and Sachindra
Nath Sanyal spread the network of
revolutionary organisations outside Bengal.
The centres of revolutionary work were
set up at Punjab, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.
Rash Behari Bose and his associate made
a daring act of throwing bomb at the
Viceroy Lord Hardinge. But he got saved
from the attack.
The revolutionary work was carried
out in Madras Province as well. Vanchhi
Iyyer, a revolutionary, killed a British
officer named Ash. Later he shot himself
with a bullet and sacrificed his own life.
India House : The revolutionary
work in India received assistance from
Indian revolutionaries staying abroad.
India House, in London, was an important
centre which provided for such kind of
assistance. Pandit Shyamji Krishna
Varma, an Indian patriot, had established India House. Through this organisation
Indian youths were given scholarships for
higher education in England.
Swatantryaveer Savarkar received such
scholarship. Madam Cama raised the
issue of India’s independence at the
World Socialist Conference held at
Stuttgart in Germany. In the same
conference she unfurled the flag of India.
Another revolutionary associated with
India House was a youth named Madanlal
Dhingra. He killed Curzon Wylie, a
British Officer, due to which Dhingra was
hanged to death.
Gadar Movement : During the period
of First World War, the revolutionary
work against the British Government got
a momentum. The revolutionaries felt
that, transfer of power can be brought
into India with the help of enemies of the
British and in this attempt help of Indian
soldiers can also be taken . To take
advantage of this opportunity revolutionary
organisations were setup. 'Gadar' is one
such important organisation.
The Indians living in America and
Canada established the Gadar organisation.
Lala Hardayal, Bhai Parmanand, Dr.
Pandurang Sadashiv Khankhoje etc. these
revolutionaries were the important leaders
of the organisation. The word 'Gadar'
means 'revolt'. 'Gadar' was the journal of
this organisation that acted as its
mouthpiece. Through this journal, effects
of British rule in India were pointed out.
It gave information about the daring
deeds of the revolutionaries. In this way,
love for the nation and armed rebellion
was the message given through the
journal, Gadar, to the Indians.
The leaders of the Gadar organisation
decided to take advantage of this war
like situation. They drew out a plan of
revolt in Punjab against the British. They
persuaded the Indian soldiers in British
army to join in their revolt. It was decided
that Rash Behari Bose and Vishnu Ganesh
Pingle should lead the revolt. But due to
treachery, the British traced out the plan.
Pingle fell into the hands of the police.
He was hanged to death. But Rash Behari
Bose escaped successfuly. He went to
Japan and continued his revolutionary
work.
The revolutionary movement was
active in other countries during the period
of war. In Berlin, Veerendra Nath
Chattopadhyay, Bhupen Dutta and
Hardayal prepared anti British plans in
cooperation with the German Foreign
ministry. In 1915, Mahendra Pratap,
Barkatullah and Obaidullah Sindhi
established Provisional Government of
free India in Kabul.
Kakori Conspiracy : The suppressive
measures of government could not put an
end to the revolutionary movement. After
the suspension of Civil Disobedience
Movement by Mahatma
Gandhi, many
youngsters got diverted
to revolutionary ways.
Chandrashekhar Azad,
Ram Prasad Bismil,
Yogesh Chatterjee,
Sachindra Nath Sanyal
and such other
revolutionaries came
together. On 9 August
1925, they looted the Government treasury
that was carried in a train near Kakori
railway station in Uttar Pradesh. This is
known as the ‘Kakori conspiracy’. By
taking immediate action the government
arrested the revolutionaries and put them
into prison. They were put under trial.
Ashfaqulla Khan, Ram Prasad Bismil,
Roshan Singh, Rajendra Lahiri were hanged. But Chandrashekhar Azad
managed to escape.
Hindustan Socialist Republican
Association : The young men influenced
by socialist ideas decided to set up a
nation wide revolutionary organisation.
Prominent among them
were Chandrashekhar
Azad, Bhagat Singh,
Rajguru, Sukhdev etc.
All these
revolutionaries were
secular in their
thoughts. In 1928 in
the meeting held at
Feroz Shah Kotla ground
in Delhi, these young men established the
organisation called ‘Hindustan Socialist
Republican Association’.
The objective behind the establishment
of this organisation was to free India
from British exploitation. It also wanted
to overthrow the unjust socio-economic
system which exploited the farmers and
workers. Bhagat Singh gave importance
to creation of a society based on social
justice and equality.
The work of gathering arms and
execution of programmes was entrusted to
a seperate wing of the organisation. This
wing was called ‘Hindustan Socialist
Republican Army’ and Chandrashekar
Azad was the chief of this wing. Members of this organisation carried
out many revolutionary activities. Bhagat
Singh and Rajguru fired bullets and killed
an officer named Saunders in order to
avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai.
The Government had introduced two
bills in the Central Legislative Assembly,
curtailing civil rights. To protest it, Bhagat
Singh and Batukeshwar Dutta threw
bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly.
The British Government immediately
raided the centres of ‘Hindustan Socialist
Republican Army’. Through it the police
also obtained clues related to the killing
of Saunders. The government started
arresting the revolutionaries. They were
tried under the charge of sedition. On 23
March 1931, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and
Sukhdev were hanged in the Lahore jail.
But till the end Chandrashekhar Azad did
not fall into the hands of the police. Later
he died in an encounter with police at
Alfred Park in Allahabad.
Attack on
Chittagong Armoury
: Surya Sen was the
chief of the
revolutionary group
at Chittagong in
Bengal. He had
gathered around him
revolutionaries like
Anant Singh, Ganesh
Ghosh, Kalpana Dutta, Pritilata Waddedar.
With their assistance, Surya Sen drew up
a plan to attack the armoury at Chittagong.
As per the plan, on 18 April 1930 the
revolutionaries seized the arms from the
two armouries in Chittagong. The
telephone and telegraph lines were broken
and they succeeded in paralysing the
communication system. After that they
gave a thrilling fight to the British army.
On 16 February 1933, Surya Sen and some of his associates were captured by
the police. Surya Sen and his 12 associates
were given death punishment. Kalpana
Dutta was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Pritilata Waddedar killed herself without
falling into the hands of the police.
Due to the Uprising in Chittagong the revolutionary movement gained pace.
Shanti Ghosh and Suniti Choudhary, these
two school girls killed the District Judge,
where as a young girl Bina Das shot
dead the Governor during the convocation
ceremony of Kolkata University.
Sardar Udham Singh killed Dyer, the
officer responsible for Jallianwala Bagh
massacre, in London in 1940. In the
freedom struggle of India revolutionary
movement made an important contribution.
These revolutionaries displayed daring
and determination while fighting against
the British rule. The love for the nation
and attitude of sacrifice was just
incomparable. Their sacrifice proved to
be an inspiration to the Indians.
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