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Revolutionary Movement something very dramatic. On 8 April, 1929,
Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt threw two bombs in
After the Non-cooperation Movement, lull
prevailed excepting minor political activity. At the well of the Central Legislative Council. The
this, revolutionaries were disappointed because bombs were thrown at a place where no one
could be injured or killed. It was done to protest
they were hopeful that Gandhiji’s movement
would bring freedom to the country. The against the Public Safety Bill and the arrest of
revolutionaries had participated in the violent thirty-one labour leaders.
movement before, but had become silent during Shouting the slogans ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ (Long
the movement. In this lull, they once again started Live the Revolution!) the two leaders courted
their activities, but this time in a more organised arrest. They also showered leaflets which stated
manner. their purpose—to make the deaf hear. The leaflets
said, “It is easy to kill individuals but you cannot
The centres of revolutionary activities were
Punjab, Bengal and Maharashtra as before, in kill the ideas. Great empires crumbled while the
ideas survived.” Later, many other revolutionaries
addition to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
too were arrested. Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt
In 1924, the Hindustan Republican Association were sentenced to life imprisonment.
was formed by Ram Prasad Bismil, Jogesh
Chatterjee and Sachin Sanyal, with an aim to However, shortly after the arrest and trial, the
British came to know of Bhagat Singh’s
overthrow the British government by force. Its first
major revolutionary activity was the Kakori Case , involvement in the murder of J. P. Saunders.
Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were charged
in which a train carrying government treasury was
with the murder and sentenced to death penalty.
looted at Kakori, a village in Lucknow, Uttar
Pradesh. Consequently, Ram Prasad Bismil, They were hanged to death on 23 March, 1931.
Ashfaqullah Khan, Roshan Singh and Rajendra
Lahiri were caught and sentenced to death. Many
other revolutionaries too were sentenced to long
terms of imprisonment.
In 1928, the revolutionaries murdered J.P.
Saunders, a police officer instead of James A. Scott Bhagat Singh Rajguru Sukhdev
who was believed to be behind the death of Lala
The police was in search of Chandra Shekhar
Lajpat Rai.
Azad. On 27 February, 1931, he was in the Alfred
Park, Allahabad where the police surrounded him.
He fought with the police with his small pistol,
and when he was left with only one bullet, he
fired it at his own temple and made the supreme
sacrifice.
Ram Prasad Bismil Ashfaqullah Khan Roshan Singh In addition to these, a large number of other
revolutionary activities took place. Suryasen
Another revolutionary organisation, the Hindustan
seized the armoury and the city of Chittagong
Socialist Republican Army (HSRA) , was formed in
1928. Two of its leaders included Bhagat Singh (now in Bangladesh) and ruled it for some time.
and Chandra Shekhar Azad. These leaders did not The women also took part in the revolutionary
believe in violence, but used arms to make the activities. They helped the revolutionaries with
blind government hear them. They were not afraid food and information. Two of the important
of self-sacrifice. woman revolutionaries were Pritilata Waddedar
and Kalpana Datta, both of whom were sentenced
In order to make themselves heard, they planned
to life imprisonment.
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