History
National Movement: 1885 to 1919
Revolutionary Movements (1897–1918)
First phase of revolutionary nationalism for CGPSC: Chapekars, Anushilan, Jugantar, Alipore, India House, Hardinge bomb, Ghadar, Komagata Maru, Kabul 1915.
Prerequisites
- Partition of Bengal and the Swadeshi Movement — the decline of swadeshi pushed many young people towards revolutionary methods
- Moderates and Extremists — the Surat split and the repression of 1907–08
The Hook: Two Kinds of Rebellion in 1910
Connect
In 1910, two very different rebellions were under way. In Bastar, adivasis led by Gunda Dhur rose in the Bhumkal (भूमकाल) against forest restrictions and oppressive officials. In Calcutta, London and Nasik, educated young men were on trial for bombs and pistols, and the Alipore and Nasik conspiracy cases had become famous.
Both were armed resistance to British rule, yet they came from different worlds. Who were these middle-class revolutionaries (क्रांतिकारी), what did they believe, and why did their first phase end by about 1918?
Why it matters: Prelims asks you to match revolutionaries with organisations, places, targets and years, and to place overseas bodies (India House, Ghadar, Berlin Committee, Kabul government). Mains asks for an assessment of the revolutionaries’ contribution.
Why Revolutionary Nationalism Arose
- Failure of the Swadeshi movement to achieve its aims, and the Surat split (1907) that left youth without leadership.
- Severe repression of open politics (press laws, deportations, bans on meetings) closed peaceful outlets.
- Impatience with the Moderates and with the slow pace of mass mobilisation.
- Inspiration from Irish nationalists, Russian nihilists and Italian revolutionaries such as Mazzini.
- A cult of heroism, sacrifice and physical training, often drawing on religious symbolism (the Gita, Kali, Shivaji).
Methods: assassination of unpopular officials, informers and approvers; political dacoities to raise money; bomb-making; conspiracies for military uprising, especially with foreign help during the First World War.
In India
Maharashtra
| Year | Event | Who |
|---|---|---|
| 1897 | W.C. Rand (Poona plague commissioner) and Lt. Ayerst shot in Poona (22 June) | Chapekar brothers, Damodar and Balkrishna; a reaction to harsh plague measures |
| 1899 → 1904 | Mitra Mela became Abhinav Bharat (अभिनव भारत), a secret society | V.D. Savarkar and his brother Ganesh Savarkar |
| 1909 | A.M.T. Jackson, Collector of Nasik, shot (21 December) | Anant Laxman Kanhere; led to the Nasik Conspiracy Case. Ganesh and later V.D. Savarkar were transported to the Andamans |
Bengal
| Year | Event | Who |
|---|---|---|
| 1902 | Anushilan Samiti (अनुशीलन समिति) founded in Calcutta | Pramathanath Mitra, with Aurobindo’s associates |
| 1906 | Dacca Anushilan Samiti | Pulin Behari Das |
| 1906 | Jugantar (युगांतर) weekly started | Barindra Kumar Ghosh (Aurobindo’s brother), Bhupendranath Dutta |
| 1907 | Attempt on the train of the Lt-Governor of Bengal, Andrew Fraser | Jugantar group |
| 30 April 1908 | Muzaffarpur bomb: a bomb thrown at a carriage thought to carry Kingsford (former Chief Presidency Magistrate of Calcutta, then District Judge at Muzaffarpur). Two British women were killed instead | Khudiram Bose (hanged 11 August 1908, aged 18) and Prafulla Chaki (shot himself to avoid arrest) |
| 1908–09 | Alipore (Manicktolla) Bomb Conspiracy Case | Aurobindo, Barindra Kumar Ghosh and others tried. Aurobindo acquitted (May 1909), defended by C.R. Das. The approver Narendra Gosain was killed inside jail by Kanailal Dutta and Satyendranath Bose |
| 1915 | Gun battle at Buribalang (Balasore, Orissa), 9 September; died next day | Jatindranath Mukherjee (“Bagha Jatin”), Jugantar leader, while waiting for German arms |
Punjab and Delhi
| Year | Event | Who |
|---|---|---|
| 1907 | Agitation in the canal colonies; Pagri Sambhal Jatta song | Ajit Singh (uncle of Bhagat Singh) and Lajpat Rai deported to Mandalay |
| 23 December 1912 | Bomb thrown at Viceroy Lord Hardinge during the state entry into Delhi (Chandni Chowk), marking the new capital | Planned by Rash Behari Bose (रासबिहारी बोस); thrown by Basant Kumar Biswas. Delhi Conspiracy Case followed |
Abroad
India House, London
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Founder | Shyamji Krishna Varma, 1905 (Highgate, London); also the Indian Home Rule Society and the journal The Indian Sociologist |
| Members | V.D. Savarkar, Madan Lal Dhingra, Lala Har Dayal for a time |
| 1 July 1909 | Madan Lal Dhingra shot Sir William Curzon Wyllie, political aide-de-camp to the Secretary of State, in London; Dhingra was hanged |
| Aftermath | Savarkar arrested (1910), escaped briefly at Marseilles, sentenced to transportation and sent to the Cellular Jail, Andaman |
Madame Bhikaji Cama
At the International Socialist Congress at Stuttgart (Germany), August 1907, Madame Bhikaji Cama unfurled a flag of Indian independence, one of the earliest such flags raised abroad. She worked from Paris.
The Ghadar Party (ग़दर पार्टी)
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1913 in the USA as the Hindustan Ghadar Party (Pacific Coast Hindustan Association); founding meetings at Astoria (Oregon), headquarters Yugantar Ashram, San Francisco. Exact founding date is given variously (mid-1913 is common) |
| Leaders | Lala Har Dayal (moving spirit), Sohan Singh Bhakna (president), Ramchandra, Barkatullah, Kartar Singh Sarabha |
| Paper | Ghadar weekly, first issue 1 November 1913 (Urdu, then Gurmukhi and other languages) |
| Base | Mostly Punjabi Sikh immigrants, ex-soldiers and peasants on the Pacific coast of the USA and Canada |
| 1915 plan | Armed uprising in Punjab with returning Ghadarites and Indian soldiers, fixed for 21 February 1915; betrayed by an informer, crushed. Lahore Conspiracy Cases followed; Kartar Singh Sarabha was hanged (1915) |
| Singapore | Mutiny of the 5th Light Infantry at Singapore (February 1915), linked to Ghadar propaganda, suppressed |
Komagata Maru (कोमागाटा मारू), 1914
- A Japanese ship chartered by Baba Gurdit Singh carried about 376 passengers, mostly Punjabis, to Vancouver (May 1914) to challenge Canada’s “continuous journey” rule.
- Most passengers were refused entry and the ship was forced back.
- At Budge Budge near Calcutta (29 September 1914), police firing on the returning passengers killed many. The incident inflamed Ghadarites and Punjabi opinion.
During the First World War: Berlin and Kabul
- Berlin Committee (Indian Independence Committee), 1915: Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, Bhupendranath Dutta and others, with German support, tried to send arms and men to India.
- Provisional Government of India, Kabul, 1 December 1915: Raja Mahendra Pratap (president) and Maulana Barkatullah of Bhopal (prime minister); Ubaidullah Sindhi among the ministers. It sought Afghan and German support but achieved little.
- The Defence of India Act (1915) gave the government sweeping powers to crush these conspiracies.
Evaluation
Mains evaluation
Contribution:
- Showed extraordinary courage and sacrifice; martyrs like Khudiram Bose became national heroes, especially to the young.
- Kept the idea of complete independence alive when open politics was suppressed.
- Built an international dimension (India House, Ghadar, Berlin, Kabul) and made the British fear disaffection in the Indian army.
- Ghadar gave nationalism a secular, egalitarian and anti-imperialist flavour among Punjabi peasants and soldiers.
Limitations:
- Individual heroism could not replace mass participation. The people were admirers, not participants.
- Narrow base: mostly upper and middle-class Hindu youth in Bengal and Maharashtra (Ghadar was an exception).
- Religious imagery in some groups limited appeal to Muslims.
- Easily penetrated by informers and crushed by the state (Defence of India Act, conspiracy cases).
Legacy: The first phase ended by about 1918. The Rowlatt (Sedition) Committee (1917–18) reviewed these activities, and its recommendations led to the Rowlatt Act (1919), the trigger for Gandhi’s first all-India satyagraha. A second, more ideological phase (HSRA, Bhagat Singh, Chittagong) followed in the 1920s.
Chhattisgarh Angle
Bhumkal (1910) is not part of this revolutionary stream
The Bhumkal of 1910 in Bastar, led by Gunda Dhur, was a tribal uprising against forest reservation, forced labour and the excesses of officials of the Bastar state. It was contemporary with the Bengal and Maharashtra revolutionaries, but it came from a different social base (adivasi villagers, not English-educated youth), used different methods (mass rising, traditional signals), and had local aims. In a Mains answer you can contrast the two to show the many streams of resistance in 1905–1915. See Tribal Revolts of Chhattisgarh (including Bhumkal 1910).
Memory Tricks
Bengal sequence: A-J-M-A
Anushilan (1902) → Jugantar (1906) → Muzaffarpur (1908) → Alipore (1908–09).
Abroad: L-S-G-B-K
London India House (1905) → Stuttgart flag (1907) → Ghadar (1913) → Berlin Committee (1915) → Kabul government (Dec 1915). “Little Students Go By Kabul.”
Who shot whom
Chapekar → Rand (Poona 1897) · Dhingra → Curzon Wyllie (London 1909) · Kanhere → Jackson (Nasik 1909) · Khudiram → Kingsford (missed; Muzaffarpur 1908) · Rash Behari → Hardinge (Delhi 1912, injured).
Don’t Confuse
| This | vs | That |
|---|---|---|
| Rash Behari Bose — Hardinge bomb (1912); later in Japan | vs | Rash Behari Ghosh — Moderate, Surat president (1907) |
| Jugantar — Bengal revolutionary weekly (1906) | vs | Yugantar Ashram — Ghadar headquarters, San Francisco |
| Curzon Wyllie — shot by Dhingra, 1909 | vs | Lord Curzon — Viceroy, partitioned Bengal (1905) |
| Bhupendranath Dutta (Jugantar, Berlin Committee) | vs | Batukeshwar Dutt (Central Assembly bomb with Bhagat Singh, 1929) |
| Kabul Provisional Government (1915) — Mahendra Pratap | vs | Azad Hind Provisional Government (1943) — Subhas Chandra Bose, Singapore |
| Bhumkal 1910 — tribal, Bastar | vs | Alipore 1908 — urban revolutionary conspiracy |
Common Mistakes
MCQ traps
- “Khudiram Bose killed Kingsford.” Kingsford escaped. Two British women were killed.
- “Aurobindo was convicted in the Alipore case.” He was acquitted (1909). Barindra Kumar Ghosh was convicted.
- “Ghadar was founded in Canada.” It was founded in the USA (Astoria; HQ San Francisco), though many members came from Canada.
- “Barkatullah was president of the Kabul government.” He was prime minister. Mahendra Pratap was president.
- “Madame Cama hoisted the flag in London.” It was at Stuttgart, Germany (1907).
Practice
All questions below are original practice questions written in CGPSC style. They are not previous-year questions.
Level 1: Foundation
- Who founded India House in London, and which journal did he publish?
- Who defended Aurobindo Ghosh in the Alipore Bomb Case?
- On what date was the bomb thrown at Lord Hardinge in Delhi?
Answers
- Shyamji Krishna Varma; The Indian Sociologist.
- C.R. (Chittaranjan) Das.
- 23 December 1912.
Level 2: Prelims MCQs
Q1. Consider the following statements about the Ghadar movement:
- The Ghadar Party was founded in the USA in 1913.
- Sohan Singh Bhakna was its president.
- The planned uprising of February 1915 succeeded in liberating parts of Punjab for several weeks.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1 and 2 only
Answer and explanation
(d) 1 and 2 only. The party was founded in the USA in 1913 with Sohan Singh Bhakna as president and Har Dayal as its moving spirit. The uprising fixed for 21 February 1915 was betrayed by an informer and crushed before it began. The Lahore Conspiracy Cases followed.
Q2. Match List I (Revolutionary) with List II (Event):
| List I | List II |
|---|---|
| A. Madan Lal Dhingra | 1. Killing of Rand, Poona |
| B. Chapekar brothers | 2. Killing of Curzon Wyllie, London |
| C. Anant Laxman Kanhere | 3. Muzaffarpur bomb |
| D. Khudiram Bose | 4. Killing of Jackson, Nasik |
- (a) A-2, B-1, C-3, D-4
- (b) A-1, B-2, C-4, D-3
- (c) A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3
- (d) A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3
Answer and explanation
(c) A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3. Dhingra shot Curzon Wyllie in London (1909). The Chapekars shot Rand in Poona (1897). Kanhere shot A.M.T. Jackson in Nasik (1909). Khudiram Bose threw the Muzaffarpur bomb (1908).
Q3. The Provisional Government of India set up at Kabul in December 1915 had as its president:
- (a) Maulana Barkatullah
- (b) Raja Mahendra Pratap
- (c) Ubaidullah Sindhi
- (d) Lala Har Dayal
Answer and explanation
(b) Raja Mahendra Pratap. Maulana Barkatullah of Bhopal was the prime minister, and Ubaidullah Sindhi was among the ministers. Har Dayal was the moving spirit of the Ghadar Party.
Q4. Arrange the following in chronological order:
- Komagata Maru incident at Budge Budge
- Bomb at Lord Hardinge in Delhi
- Alipore Bomb Case judgment acquitting Aurobindo
- Founding of the Anushilan Samiti in Calcutta
- (a) 4, 2, 3, 1
- (b) 4, 3, 2, 1
- (c) 3, 4, 2, 1
- (d) 4, 3, 1, 2
Answer and explanation
(b) 4, 3, 2, 1. Anushilan Samiti (1902) → Alipore judgment (May 1909) → Hardinge bomb (December 1912) → Budge Budge (September 1914).
Q5. Which one of the following correctly distinguishes the Bhumkal of 1910 in Bastar from the Bengal revolutionary movement of the same period?
- (a) Bhumkal was organised by the Anushilan Samiti
- (b) Bhumkal was a mass tribal uprising on local grievances such as forest restrictions, not a secret society of educated youth
- (c) Bhumkal sought German help during the First World War
- (d) Bhumkal was led by V.D. Savarkar
Answer and explanation
(b). The Bhumkal, led by Gunda Dhur, was a mass adivasi rising against forest reservation, forced labour and official excesses in the Bastar state. It had no link with the Anushilan Samiti, Savarkar or wartime German plans (the First World War began only in 1914).
Level 3: Mains Answer Writing
Q1. (150–200 words) Assess the contribution of the revolutionary nationalists to the Indian freedom struggle in the period 1897–1918.
Model answer outline
- Intro: Revolutionary nationalism arose from the failure of swadeshi, the Surat split and severe repression; it sought freedom through armed action.
- In India: Chapekars (1897); Abhinav Bharat (Savarkar); Anushilan and Jugantar in Bengal; Muzaffarpur and Alipore (1908); Hardinge bomb (1912); Bagha Jatin (1915).
- Abroad: India House and Dhingra (1909); Madame Cama (1907); Ghadar (1913) and the failed 1915 rising; Komagata Maru (1914); Berlin Committee and the Kabul government (1915).
- Contribution: courage and martyrdom inspired youth; kept complete independence on the agenda; international dimension; Ghadar’s secular, egalitarian outlook.
- Limitations: no mass base; easy to infiltrate; religious symbolism in some groups; crushed by the Defence of India Act and conspiracy cases.
- Comparative note: Tribal resistance such as the Bhumkal in Bastar (1910) shows that armed resistance had other, mass-based forms in the same years.
- Conclusion: The revolutionaries could not win freedom alone, but they enriched the movement and prepared the ground for the more ideological second phase of the 1920s.
Q2. (60 words) What was the significance of the Komagata Maru incident?
Model answer outline
- 1914: the ship, chartered by Gurdit Singh, carried Punjabi migrants to Vancouver to challenge Canada’s discriminatory “continuous journey” rule; entry was refused.
- Police firing at Budge Budge (29 September 1914) killed many returning passengers.
- It exposed imperial racism, enraged Punjabi opinion and fuelled the Ghadar plans of 1915.
Quick Revision Table
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Chapekar brothers | Rand and Ayerst, Poona, 22 June 1897 |
| Abhinav Bharat | Savarkar brothers, 1904 (from Mitra Mela, 1899) |
| Anushilan Samiti | Calcutta 1902; Dacca branch, Pulin Behari Das (1906) |
| Jugantar | 1906, Barindra Kumar Ghosh, Bhupendranath Dutta |
| Muzaffarpur bomb | 30 April 1908; Khudiram Bose (hanged 11 Aug 1908), Prafulla Chaki |
| Alipore case | 1908–09; Aurobindo acquitted, defended by C.R. Das |
| India House | Shyamji Krishna Varma, London, 1905; The Indian Sociologist |
| Curzon Wyllie | Shot by Madan Lal Dhingra, London, 1 July 1909 |
| Jackson | Shot by Anant Kanhere, Nasik, Dec 1909 |
| Madame Cama | Flag at Stuttgart, 1907 |
| Hardinge bomb | 23 Dec 1912, Delhi; Rash Behari Bose |
| Ghadar | USA 1913; Har Dayal, Sohan Singh Bhakna; Ghadar 1 Nov 1913 |
| Komagata Maru | 1914; Gurdit Singh; Budge Budge firing 29 Sept 1914 |
| Bagha Jatin | Buribalang, Balasore, Sept 1915 |
| Kabul government | 1 Dec 1915; Mahendra Pratap (President), Barkatullah (PM) |
Key Takeaways
Key Takeaways
- Revolutionary nationalism grew from the failures of swadeshi, the Surat split and repression.
- Maharashtra (Chapekars, Abhinav Bharat, Nasik) and Bengal (Anushilan, Jugantar, Muzaffarpur, Alipore) were the early centres.
- Abroad, India House, Madame Cama, the Ghadar Party and the Berlin–Kabul efforts gave the struggle an international face.
- Courage and sacrifice could not replace a mass base; by 1918 the first phase had been crushed.
- The Bhumkal (1910) in Bastar was a separate, tribal stream of resistance in the same years.
What’s Next
- Home Rule League and the Lucknow Pact — the open, constitutional campaign of the war years
- Tribal Revolts of Chhattisgarh (including Bhumkal 1910)
- The Gandhian Era — the Rowlatt Act and the second phase of revolutionaries
- National Movement 1885–1919 — Quick Revision
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