Hindustan Socialist Republican Association
Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), previously known as the Hindustan Republican Army and Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), was a radical left-wing Indian revolutionary organisation were founded by Sachindranath Sanyal - Shanyal Babu and later on it other joined. After changes of Shaheed E Aazam Bhagat Singh 's new society 's ideology and effect of Scientific socialism of Soviet Russian revolution in Monarch Russia , They Held meeting in Feroz Shah Kotla Maidan and add socialist word in HRA . so Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Sachindra Nath Bakshi, Sachindranath Sanyal and Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee. HRA's manifesto titled The Revolutionary and written constitution were produced as evidence in the Kakori conspiracy case of 1925.
Hindustan Socialist Republican Association
Hindustan Republican Association
Hindustan Republican Army
October 1924–1936
Origins[edit]
Background[edit]
The Non-cooperation movement of 1919 led to large-scale mobilization of the Indian population against the British Raj. Though intended as a Nonviolent resistance movement, it soon turned violent. After the Chauri Chaura incident, Mahatma Gandhi suspended the movement to prevent the escalation of violence. This disillusioned a section of nationalists who felt the suspension was premature and unwarranted. The political vacuum created by the suspension led to the formation of revolutionary movements by the more radical amongst those who sought to overthrow British Raj.[4]
Opposition of Gandhi in Gaya Congress[edit]
In February 1922, some agitating farmers were killed in Chauri Chaura by the police. Consequently, the police station of Chauri Chaura was attacked by the people and 22 policemen were burnt alive.
Without ascertaining the facts behind this incident, Mahatma Gandhi, declared an immediate stop to the Non-cooperation movement (he himself had given a call for it) without consulting any executive committee member of the Congress. Ram Prasad Bismil and his group of youth strongly opposed Gandhi in the Gaya Congress of 1922. When Gandhi refused to rescind his decision, the Indian National Congress was divided into two groups – one liberal and the other for rebellion. In January 1923, the liberal group formed a new Swaraj Party under the joint leadership of Moti Lal Nehru and Chittaranjan Das, and the youth group formed a revolutionary party under the leadership of Bismil.
Yellow Paper constitution[edit]
With the consent of Lala Har Dayal, Bismil went to Allahabad where he drafted the constitution of the party in 1923 with the help of Sachindra Nath Sanyal and another revolutionary of Bengal, Dr. Jadugopal Mukherjee.[5] The basic name and aims of the organisation were typed on a Yellow Paper and later on a subsequent Constitutional Committee Meeting was conducted on 3 October 1924 at Cawnpore in the United Provinces under Sanyal's chairmanship.
Sharing responsibility[edit]
This meeting decided the name of the party would be the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA). Bismil was declared the District Organiser for Shahjahanpur and chief of arms division, as well as provincial organiser of United Provinces. Sachindra Nath Sanyal became National Organiser and another senior member, Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee, was Coordinator of the Anushilan Samiti. After attending the meeting in Cawnpore, both Sanyal and Chatterjee left the United Province and proceeded to Bengal for further extension of the organisation.
The HRA established branches in Agra, Allahabad, Benares, Cawnpore, Lucknow, Saharanpur and Shahjahanpur. They also manufactured bombs in Calcutta – at Dakshineswar and Shovabazar and at Deoghar in Jharkhand (then Bihar province). The Calcutta workshops were discovered by the police in 1925 and those in Deoghar were found in 1927.[4]
Publication of Revolutionary[edit]
Sanyal wrote a manifesto for the HRA entitled Revolutionary. This was distributed around large cities of North India on 1 January 1925.[6] It proposed the overthrow of British colonial rule and its replacement with what it termed a Federal Republic of the United States of India. In addition, it sought universal suffrage and the socialist-oriented aim of the abolition of "all systems which make any kind of exploitation of man by man possible"[4]
The policies of Gandhi were criticised and youths were called to join the organisation. The police were astonished to see the language used and sought its leader in Bengal. Sanyal had gone to despatch this pamphlet in bulk and was arrested in Bankura, West Bengal. Before Sanyal's arrest, Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee had also been caught by police at Howrah railway station of Calcutta, Bengal Presidency.
Major activities[edit]
In 1928, the British government set up the Commission, headed by Sir John Simon, to report on the political situation in India. Some Indian activist groups protested the commission, because it did not include a single Indian in its membership, although by no means all did so. The effect was to unite various activist factions in opposition.[7]
Responding to the rise in anti-colonial sentiment in 1928,[7] the HRA became the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, with the change of name probably being largely due to the influence of Bhagat Singh.[8] Around the time of the Kakori robbery and the subsequent trial, various revolutionary groups had emerged in places such as Bengal, Bihar, and Punjab. These groups and the HRA met at Feroz Shah Kotla, in Delhi, on 8–9 September 1928, and from this emerged the HSRA.[a] The socialist leanings voiced in the earlier HRA manifesto had gradually moved more towards Marxism and the HSRA spoke of a revolution involving a struggle by the masses to establish "the dictatorship of the proletariat" and the banishment of "parasites from the seat of political power". It saw itself as being at the forefront of this revolution, spreading the word and acting as the armed section of the masses. Its ideals were apparent in other movements elsewhere at that time, including incidents of communist-inspired industrial action by workers and the rural kisan movement.[4] At the request of Bhagat Singh, the newly named HSRA resolved to bomb members of the Simon Commission and also to cease robbing rich people, the latter being a realisation that the Kakori conspirators had suffered most from the evidence given by such people.[7] At that time the HRA was being transformed into the HSRA and it was decided that the new organization would work in cooperation with the Communist International.
The HSRA's manifesto titled Philosophy of the Bomb was written by Bhagwati Charan Vohra.[9]
Later activities[edit]
In December 1929, the HSRA bombed the special train of Lord Irwin. The Viceroy escaped unhurt. Later, the Lahore faction of HSRA broke away and formed the Atishi Chakar (The Ring of Fire) party under the leadership of Hans Raj Vohra. They carried out a series of bombings across Punjab in June 1929. On 21 January 1929, Bhagat Singh and his fellow comrades were accused in the Lahore Conspiracy Case, appeared in the court wearing red scarves. As soon as the magistrate took his chair, they raised slogans "Long Live Socialist Revolution", "Long Live Communist International", "Long Live People" "Lenin's Name Will Never Die", and "Down with Imperialism".[15][16] On 1 September 1929, the Rawalpindi faction made a failed attempt to burgle the Office of the Controller of Military Accounts. During this period the leading members of the HSRA were Chandra Shekhar Azad, Yashpal, Bhagwati Charan Vohra and Kailash Pati. In July 1929, the HSRA robbed the Gadodia stores in New Delhi and carried away 14,000 rupees. This money was later used to fund a bomb factory. In December 1929, an attempt was made to assassinate the Governor of Punjab, which wounded him in his arm.[17]
Decline[edit]
By 1930, most of the HSRA's main leaders were either dead or in prison. Kailash Pati was arrested in October 1929 and turned an approver (witness for the prosecution). On 27 February 1931, Chandra Shekhar Azad shot himself in the head during a gunfight with the Allahabad Police in a famous incident of Alfred Park. Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar, and Shivaram Rajguru were hanged on 23 March 1931. After Azad's death, there was no central leader to unite the revolutionaries and regional differences increased. The organisation split into various regional groups and they carried out bombings and attacks on British officials in India without any central coordination. In December 1930, another attempt was made to revive the HSRA at a meeting in Meerut. However, this attempt failed with the arrests of Yashpal and Daryao Singh in 1931.[18] This effectively ended the HSRA as a united organisation though the various regional factions kept up their armed struggle until 1935.
Criticism[edit]
The association's methods were diametrically opposite to that of Gandhi's nonviolent resistance movement. The revolutionaries and their methods were severely criticized by Gandhi. Responding to the attack on Lord Irwin's train, Gandhi wrote a harsh critique of the HSRA titled "The Cult of the Bomb" (Young India, 2 January 1929). In it, he declared that bomb-throwing was nothing but "froth coming to the surface in an agitated liquid". He condemned the HSRA and its actions as "cowards" and "dastardly". According to Gandhi, the HSRA's violent struggle had its hazards. The violence led to more reprisals and suffering. Also, it would turn inward as "it was an easy natural step" from "violence done to the foreign ruler" to "violence to our own people".[19] The HSRA responded to this criticism with its own manifesto "The Philosophy of the Bomb",[9] in which they defended their violent methods as being complementary to Gandhi's non-violent methods.[20]
Final time and Dissolution[edit]
After the death of Bhagat Singh and Chandra Shekhar Azad, another associate Udham Singh operated the HSRA from London. HSRA was dissolved in 1940 when Udham was hanged.
Legacy[edit]
A bomb factory and hideout located in Turi Bazaar, Firozpur, has been declared as a national monument by the Government of Punjab.[28]
