The Revolutionary movement for Indian independence is often a less-highlighted aspect of the Indian independence movement. These revolutionary groups believed in armed revolt against the British. They were the true heroes of Indian Independence struggle and most of them threw away life’s for their motherland. Apart from a few incidents, the revolutionary struggle against the British rulers was not organized before the beginning of the 20th century. The revolutionary philosophies and movement made its presence much stronger during the 1905 Partition of Bengal. Below mentioned are the major revolutionary groups aimed for the independence of India through armed rebellion.
Anushilan Samiti - Bengal
Anushilan Samiti was an armed anti-British organisation in Bengal and the principal secret revolutionary organisation operated in 21st century. It was founded by Satish Chandra Basu in 1902. The members were committed towards the path of armed revolution for independence of India from British rule. Kolkata and Dhaka were the two major strongholds of the association. Its activities included robbery, making of bombs, arms training and assassination of British officials and Indians who they viewed as "traitors". By 1906, the works of Aurobindo and his brother Barindra Ghosh allowed Anushilan Samity to spread through Bengal. The Anushilan Samiti was later evolved into the Revolutionary Socialist Party.
Jugantar - Bengal
Like Anushilan Samiti, this association was also originated from the suburban fitness club. This extremist outfit was established by leaders like Aurobindo Ghosh, his brother Barin Ghosh, Bhupendranath Datta, Raja Subodh Mallik in 1906. Some senior members of the group were sent abroad for political and military training. One of the major activities was the Alipore bomb conspiracy case in which several activists were deported for life to the Cellular Jail in Andaman. During the World War I the Jugantar Party, under Jatindra Nath Mukherjee's (Bagha Jatin) leadership, arranged importation of German arms and ammunitions via Virendranath Chattopadhyay alias Chatto and other revolutionaries residing in Germany.
To raise fund, the Jugantar party organized a series of dacoities which came to be known as Taxicab dacoities and Boat dacoities.
They planned for an All-Indian Insurrection with the collaboration of native soldiers in different cantonments. History refers to it as the German Plot. But unfortunately the whole plot leaked out locally owing to a native traitor and most of its leaders killed after a gun-fight with British. In 1920, leaders of the Jugantar Party suspended all violent action, having accepted to follow the Non-Cooperation movement proposed by Gandhi, compatible with their revolutionary hope to organise a mass movement. The Jugantar officially merged with the Congress in 1938.
Indian Republican Army - Bengal
This group originated from Jugantar and was led by Surya Sen. They attempted to raid the armoury of police and auxiliary forces from the Chittagong (in present-day Bangladesh) armoury in Bengal province of British India in 1930. The Chittagong revolutionary group suffered a fatal blow when Surya Sen was arrested in 1933. He was hanged in 1934.
Bengal Volunteers - Bengal
Bengal Volunteers was an underground revolutionary group formed in 1928 by Subhas Chandra Bose. He organised this group during the 1928 Kolkata session of Indian National Congress. They decided to launch 'Operation Freedom' in the early 1930s, primarily to protest against the police repression in different jails in Bengal. Benoy Basu, Dinesh Gupta and Badal Gupta were the leaders of this protest. They killed a few British police officers. Benoy Basu and Badal Gupta were shot dead at the Writers' Building in the Dalhousie square in Kolkata. Dinesh was hanged for anti-government activities and murder.
Hindustan Socialist Republican Association - Kanpur
Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) was established in 1924 in Kanpur. Revolutionaries like Ramprasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Thakur Roshan Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Rajguru, Sukhdev, BhagatSingh etc. were members of this group. The aim of the party was to organize armed revolution to end the colonial rule and establish in a Federal Republic of the United States of India. The Kakori train robbery was a notable act of mutiny by this group. Ramprasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan and Thakur Roshan Singh were hanged for Kakori train robbery case. In 1928, Bhagat Singh, Azad and Rajguru assassinated Saunders, a police official involved in deadly lathi-charge on Lala Lajpat Rai. Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw a bomb inside the Central Legislative Assembly. Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were hanged in 1931.
South India
In 1911, the Collector of Tirunelveli, Robert Ashe was killed by R. Vanchi Aiyer, who subsequently committed suicide. This was the only instance of a political assassination by a revolutionary in South India.
India House (Indian Home Rule Society)
India House was an informal Indian nationalist organisation based in London between 1905 and 1910. Initially it was known as the Indian Home Rule Society (IHRS). This was founded by Shyamji Krishna Varma along with other notable expatriate Indians such as Madam Bhikaji Cama, S.R. Rana and Lala Lajpat Rai. Krishna Varma used his considerable financial resources to offer scholarships to Indian students in memory of leaders of the 1857 uprising on the condition that the recipients would not accept any paid post or honorary office from The Raj upon their return to India. It was one among the most prominent centres for revolutionary Indian nationalism outside India. A number of prominent Indian revolutionaries and nationalists were associated with India House, most famously Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, V.N. Chatterjee (Chatto), Lala Har Dayal, M.P.T. Acharya and Senapati Bapat. They are known to be as the founding fathers of Indian communism and Hindu nationalism. They published an anti-colonialist newspaper, The Indian Sociologist, which the British Raj banned as "seditious". In 1909, a member of India House Madan Lal Dhingra assassinated Sir W.H. Curzon Wyllie.
Under the light of subsequent investigations by Scotland Yard and the Indian Political Intelligence Office, the organisation fell into decline and many of its members, including Shyamji Krishna Varma and Bhikaji Cama, left Britain for Continental Europe, where they continued their activities. Some students, including Har Dayal, moved to the United States. The network created by India House played a key part in the Hindu-German Conspiracy for nationalist revolution in India during World War I.
Paris Indian Society
The Paris Indian Society, a branch of the IHRS, was also launched in 1905 under the patronage of Madam Cama, Sardar Singh Rana and B.H. Godrej.A number of India House members who later rose to prominence—including V.N. Chatterjee, Har Dayal and Acharya and others—first encountered the IHRS through the Paris Indian Society. Following the liquidation of the India House in the wake of Curson Wyllie's assassination in 1909 by Madanlal Dhingra, the PIS became the refuge and hub of Indian revolutionaries who fled England. The Paris Indian Society produced the Bande Mataram from 1909, and Madam Cama later established the Talvar to be produced in Berlin.
Ghadar Party
The Ghadar Party was formed in 1913 in the United States under the leadership of Har Dayal, with Sohan Singh Bhakna as its president. The members of the party were Indian immigrants, largely from Punjab. Lala Hardayal was a prominent leader of the party and premotor of the Gadar newspaper. The Komagata Maru incident in 1914 inspired several thousand Indians residing in the USA to sell their businesses and rush home in order to participate in the anti-British activities in India. The party was built around the weekly paper The Ghadar, which carried the caption "Angrezi Raj Ka Dushman" (an enemy of the British rule).
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