RISE OF REVOLUTIONARY TERRORISM Explained

RISE OF REVOLUTIONARY TERRORISM

Revolutionary terrorism was an outcome of the growth of militant nationalism in India. When Swadeshi and Boycott movement failed to fulfil their aim, many activist organizations came to existence.
The mass, especially the younger generation, became impatient after decline of the Swadeshi and Boycott movements.
To channelize their energy, they looked for some leaders to guide them, but with the demise of Swadeshi movement there was a scarcity of leaders.
This paucity of new leaders led to divergence towards newer militant activities.

BENGAL

Anushilan Samiti, an organized revolutionary association, was established in Bengal by Promod Mitter.
There was a core group within anushilan comprising Barindra kumar ghosh and Bhupendra nath data etc who started a weekly ‘yugantar’ and took few abortive actions.
Revolutionary terrorism was advocated by media and was becoming popular. In 1908, Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose threw a bomb at a carriage which was supposed to be carrying a judge Kingsford in muzaffarnagar.
But two ladies got killed. Prafulla Chaki shot himself and Khudiram Bose was tried and hanged. The whole group was arrested including the Ghosh brothers — Aurobindo and Barindra.
There was a lack of mass base in support of terrorism in Bengal and therefore it failed to withstand the weight of state repression. RISE OF REVOLUTIONARY TERRORISM

MAHARASHTRA

One of the first revolutionary activity was led by Vasudev Balwant Phadke under Ramosi Peasant Force in 1879.
It aimed to get rid of the British by starting an armed revolt which would disrupt the communication lines. It used dacoities to raise funds for these activities.
However, the force was suppressed prematurely.
Later Tilak propagated the ideas of militant nationalism through Ganpati and Shivaji festival.
The Chapekar brothers — Damodar and Balkrishna — murdered the plague commissioner of Poona, Rand, and one Lt. Ayerst in 1897.
A secret society, Mitr Mela, was organised by Sarvarkar and others which merged later in 1904 with ‘Abhinav Bharat’. RISE OF REVOLUTIONARY TERRORISM
Nasik, Poona and Bombay emerged as centres of bomb manufacture. The DM of Nasik, Jackson was also the victim of revolutionary terrorism.

PUNJAB

Occurance of Famines, increase in Land revenue and oppressive irrigation tax along with the practice of Begar by the Zamindars led to rise of militant nationalism in Punjab.
The events in Bengal also played the role of instigating the rise of terrorist activities there.

Some of the activists were —

Lala Lajpat Rai — who brought out `Punjabi’ was one of the major extremist leaders. He contributed into mainstream national liberation struggle and inspired many young men to take up revolutionary activities.
Ajit Singh — The uncle of Bhagat Singh organized the extremist organization by name of — Anjuman-i-mohisban-i-watan in Lahore with its journal, Bharat Mata. Before getting involved in extremist activities he was urging nonpayment of revenue and water charges for Chenab and Bari Doab peasants.
Other leaders were — Agha Haider, Sayed Haider Raza, Bhai Parmanand, Lal Chand ‘Falak’ (the radical Urdu poet).

The government reacted with a ban on public meetings in 1908 and later on deported leaders like Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh. This led to the downfall in extremist activities in Punjab.

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