IGNOU HISTORY Study Notes for IAS, UPSC Exams

 Modern India 1857-1964

REVOLUTIONARY AND TERRORIST MOVEMENT: BHAGAT SINGH AND CHITTAGONG ARMOURY RAID

Structure
24.0 Objectives
24.1 Introduction
24.2 Background
24.3 Revolutionaries in Northern India
24.4 The Hindustan Socialist Republican Association
24.5 Ideological Development of the North Indian Revolutionaries
24.5 1 The HRA
24.5.2 Bhagat Singh and the HSRA
24.6 Revolutionary Terrorists in Bengal
24.7 The Chittagong Armoury Raid
24.8 Decline of the Revolutionary Terrorist Movement
24.9 Let Us Sum Up
24.10 Key Words
24.11 Answers to Check Your ProgresslExercises

24.0 OBJECTIVES

In this unit we will discuss the nature of revolutionary terrorism which developed in India after 1922. After studying this unit you will be able to:
explain the origin and nature of revolutionary organisations in India

• describe the objectives and ideology of these revolutionary organisations
• analyse how the revolutionary organisations underwent ideological transformation
• discuss the causes of decline of revolutionary terrorism.

24.1 INTRODUCTION

In Unit 15 (Block 3) you have studied, how revolutionary trends emerged in the early years of 20th century. This unit attempts to explain the two broad strands of revolutionary terrorism which developed in India after 1922. The revolutionaries were mainly active in two regions - Punjab, U.P., Bihar, Madhya Pradesh (old central provinces) and Bengal. Dissatisfaction with Gandhi's leadership and his strategy of non-violent struggle after the suspension of Non-Cooperation Movement gave impetus to the revolutionary terrorist movement. In both the regions mentioned above the revolutionary movement underwent changes i.e. it moved away from individual heroic action to a mass based movement and from religions nationalism of earlier revolutionaries to secular patriotism. We will discuss how these changes affected the movement. The main activities of the revolutionary organisations in these regions will be traced. The ideal of freedom which inspired the revolutionary terrorists inculcated the spirit of building a new society free from passion and exploitation. Finally the factors responsible for the decline of the movement will be discussed.

24.2 BACKGROUND

It will not be possible for us to consider literature in all the major Indian languages. For purposes of convenience we shall confine ourselves mainly to three languages: Hindi, Gujarati and Bengali. We shall notice that similar sentiments and ideas found manifestation in the literature of all three languages. This is 8 striking similarity that is reflected in the literature of all the Indian languages. And this shows a broad identity of sentiments and ideas in relation to the freedom movement all over the country. It was mainly during the later half of the 19th century that political associations and national consciousness along modern lines emerged in different parts of the country. The foundation of the Indian National Congress in 1885 was, in a way, the culmination  of these earlier developments. T rature produced during this period, as also later, was not only influenced by natio nsciousness; in turn it also influenced the character and pattern of national consciousness

Frustration caused by the failure of the political struggle during early years of 20th century and government repression ultimately resulted in revolutionary terrorism. The revolutionary terrorists believed that passive resistance could not achieve nationalist aims and therefore th f the bomb. The revolutionary terrorists were subjected to severe re uring the First World War and their movement suffered a . Most 01 them were released from jails during late 1919 and early 1920, sinc nment wanted to create a receptive atmosphere for the Montagu reforms. The Non-Cooperation Movement was launched in 1920. Mahat nd C.R. Das met many of the revolutionary terrorist leaders and urged t e non-violent mass movement or at least to suspend their movement fo he revolutionaries recognized that a new political situation had aris aders attended the Nagpur session of the National Congress

The sudden suspensi operation Movement in early 192? after the Chauri-Chaura incid f disappointment and discontent among the young participants in Many of them were disenchanted with Gandhi's leadership and began very basic strategy of non-violent struggle. Once again they turned to overthrow of British rule. In this respect they also drew inspiratio ionary movements and uprisings in Russia, Ireland, Turkey, Egypt and hile the old revolutionary leaders revived their organisations, many new revolutions terrorist leaders emerged from the ranks of Chandra Chatterjee, Sukhdev, Bhagwati Charan Vohra - a the Non-Cooperation Movement.

Two broad strands of revolut errorisnrd~veloped after 1922: One in Punjab, U.P., Bihar and Madhya Pra d CentraPProvinces) and the other in Bengal. Both the strands came under ence of new social ideological forces.

• One such influence was th of socialist ideas and groups all over India.
• Second was the rise of a e union movement.
• And the third was the R lution of 1917 and the consequent rise of the Soviet Republic.

Nearly all the revolutionary gr anted to develop contacts with the leadership of the new socialist state and to ta help both in terms of ideas and organization and material assistance.

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Courtesy: eGyanKosh