Revolutionary nationalism

Defining the Stream

Revolutionary nationalism — also called revolutionary terrorism in colonial records and the militant nationalist underground in nationalist historiography — denotes the strand of the freedom struggle that rejected constitutional petitioning and Gandhian mass non-violence in favour of armed action, assassination of officials, dacoities to fund operations (the 'swadeshi dacoity'), and the manufacture of bombs. It must be distinguished from the 'militant' Extremism of Tilak, Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal, who operated within the Congress and demanded swaraj through agitation, boycott and passive resistance.

The First Phase (1897-1917)

The earliest organised act was the assassination of Plague Commissioner W.C. Rand and Lt. Ayerst at Poona on 22 June 1897 by the Chapekar brothers, Damodar and Balkrishna, who were hanged. The movement crystallised after the Partition of Bengal (1905). The Anushilan Samiti, founded in Calcutta in 1902 (Pramatha Mitra, with Aurobindo Ghosh involved), and its Dhaka wing, plus Jugantar (Barindra Kumar Ghosh, Bhupendranath Datta), became the organisational core. The watershed was the Muzaffarpur incident of 30 April 1908, when Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki bombed a carriage intending to kill Magistrate Kingsford but killed Mrs and Miss Kennedy; Chaki shot himself, Khudiram Bose was hanged on 11 August 1908 aged 18. The subsequent Alipore Bomb Conspiracy Case (1908-09) prosecuted Aurobindo Ghosh (defended by C.R. Das) and Barindra Ghosh.

In Maharashtra, V.D. Savarkar founded the Abhinav Bharat (1904). His associate in London at India House (founded by Shyamji Krishna Varma, 1905), Madan Lal Dhingra, assassinated Sir William Curzon Wyllie in London on 1 July 1909. Rashbehari Bose and Sachin Sanyal organised the Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy, throwing a bomb at Viceroy Hardinge during his ceremonial entry into Delhi on 23 December 1912.

The Ghadar and Wartime Conspiracy

Abroad, the Ghadar Party was founded at San Francisco in November 1913 under Sohan Singh Bhakna (president) and Lala Har Dayal (the moving spirit), publishing the Ghadar paper from the 'Yugantar Ashram'. The First World War triggered the planned Ghadar Mutiny of 21 February 1915 across Punjab cantonments, betrayed by Kirpal Singh and crushed; the Lahore Conspiracy Case followed. The parallel Hindu-German Conspiracy sought German arms via the Berlin Committee. This first phase ebbed after the war, partly absorbed into the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22).

The Second Phase (1922-1934)

The suspension of Non-Cooperation after Chauri Chaura (February 1922) disillusioned militant youth and revived the underground. Sachin Sanyal, Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee and Ramprasad Bismil founded the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) at Kanpur in October 1924; its manifesto was The Revolutionary (1925). The Kakori train robbery of 9 August 1925, near Lucknow, looted government treasure to fund arms. The Kakori Conspiracy Case ended with Ramprasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Roshan Singh and Rajendra Lahiri hanged in December 1927.

At the historic meeting in the ruins of Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi, on 8-9 September 1928, the survivors — led by Chandrashekhar Azad and the ideologue Bhagat Singh — reconstituted the body as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), adding 'Socialist' to mark a decisive ideological shift from vague nationalism toward an anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist programme influenced by Marxism. Bhagat Singh and the Naujawan Bharat Sabha (Lahore, 1926) carried this consciousness to youth and workers.

Lala Lajpat Rai to the Assembly Bomb

To avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai (injured in the lathi-charge on the anti-Simon demonstration of 30 October 1928), Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Chandrashekhar Azad shot Assistant Superintendent J.P. Saunders at Lahore on 17 December 1928. On 8 April 1929, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw two low-intensity bombs into the Central Legislative Assembly — 'to make the deaf hear' — protesting the Public Safety Bill and Trade Disputes Bill, and deliberately courted arrest. The ensuing Lahore Conspiracy Case (Second) and Bhagat Singh's prison hunger strike (jatin Das died on the 63rd day, 13 September 1929) turned the courtroom into a propaganda platform. Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were hanged at Lahore on 23 March 1931. Chandrashekhar Azad died fighting at Alfred Park, Allahabad, on 27 February 1931.

Bengal and Women

In Bengal, Surya Sen (Masterda) led the Chittagong Armoury Raid of 18 April 1930, a quasi-republican uprising; Surya Sen was hanged on 12 January 1934. Women now entered the front line: Pritilata Waddedar led the Pahartali European Club attack (September 1932) and took cyanide; Kalpana Datta was tried alongside Surya Sen; and Bina Das fired at Governor Stanley Jackson at the Calcutta University Convocation (6 February 1932).

Why This Matters for the Exam

Revolutionary nationalism is a recurring UPSC favourite across both stages. In Prelims GS, the UPSC tests precise factual recall — pairing organisations with founders, newspapers with editors, and conspiracy cases with personalities. PYQs include questions matching periodicals to their publishers (e.g., Ghadar, Bande Mataram, Yugantar, Kirti) and statements on the HRA/HSRA, the Kakori case, and the Chittagong raid. Memorise the founding triad: Anushilan Samiti (1902) — Jugantar (1906) — Abhinav Bharat (1904) for the first phase; and HRA (1924, Kanpur) — HSRA (1928, Feroz Shah Kotla) for the second. Lock the dates of the four major hangings: Khudiram Bose (1908), the Kakori martyrs (1927), Bhagat Singh-Sukhdev-Rajguru (23 March 1931) and Surya Sen (1934).

The Mains Analytical Angle

In Mains GS-1 (Modern Indian history), the examiner rewards analysis over chronology. Three argument-lines recur:

1. The ideological evolution — from the religiously-tinged, Bankim-and-Gita-inspired heroism of the first phase to the secular, socialist, mass-oriented vision of Bhagat Singh, who in Why I Am an Atheist (1930) and his court statements articulated a critique of imperialism and capitalism. The renaming to 'Socialist' in 1928 is the high-yield turning point.

2. The reassessment of method — Bhagat Singh himself, in his 1931 essay 'To Young Political Workers', concluded that the bomb and pistol could not win freedom, that the revolution needed the masses, and repudiated the 'cult of the bomb'. This nuance — that the revolutionaries themselves transcended individual terrorism — distinguishes a first-class answer.

3. Comparison with Gandhian mass nationalism — examiners ask candidates to weigh efficacy. Note Gandhi's Young India articles condemning the methods even while acknowledging the bravery; note that the revolutionaries' real achievement was psychological — shattering the myth of British invincibility and inspiring a generation, rather than achieving operational success.

High-Yield Retention

Retain the role of women (Pritilata Waddedar, Kalpana Datta, Bina Das, Santi Ghosh and Suniti Choudhury who shot Magistrate Stevens in December 1931) as a frequent GS-1 and Essay angle. Retain the diaspora dimension (India House London, Ghadar in San Francisco, Berlin Committee) for questions linking the freedom struggle to global anti-colonialism. Always anchor claims to dated events and named cases — that specificity is what separates a top-decile script.