Revolutionary Nationalism and the INA – NDA History Notes

Every independence movement produces two kinds of fighters: those who believe that justice can be achieved through peaceful persuasion, and those who believe that power responds only to power. In India, both traditions ran side by side for the entire length of the freedom struggle. Gandhi’s Satyagraha, studied in Chapters N7 and N8, was one answer to the question of how to fight an empire. Chapter N9 is about the other answer.

The revolutionary nationalist tradition in India stretches from the secret societies of Bengal after the Partition of 1905 CE, the Anushilan Samiti and the Jugantar, through the Ghadar Movement of Punjabi diaspora in North America, through the Kakori Conspiracy and the Chittagong Armoury Raid, through Bhagat Singh and the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, to Subhas Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army that fought its way from Singapore to the gates of India in 1944 CE. These were men and women who believed that colonial power could not be charmed or persuaded into leaving. It had to be fought.

None of them achieved their immediate military goals. The Chittagong revolutionaries were defeated. Bhagat Singh was hanged. The INA was defeated at Imphal-Kohima. Bose died in a plane crash before he could see the result of his sacrifices. And yet independence came, in part because of what these revolutionary nationalists did, and in part because of what they made possible. The Indian National Army’s Red Fort Trials in 1945–46 CE produced a political crisis that accelerated the British decision to leave far more effectively than the INA’s battlefield performance. The memory of Bhagat Singh gave the independence movement an emotional depth, a tradition of total sacrifice, that constitutional arguments alone could never provide.

NDA has tested this chapter on seven facts: the Jai Hind slogan and Subhas Chandra Bose, the Kandh revolt and Chakra Bisoi, the Progressive Writers’ Association and its three named writers, the Philosophy of the Bomb and Bhagwati Charan Vohra’s HSRA connection, the Treaty of Yandabo and the four territories it ceded, the Bhoodan Movement’s origin at Pochampalli, and Lachit Borphukan at Saraighat.

Master Timeline

1902 CE       →  Anushilan Samiti founded — Bengal — secret revolutionary society
1906 CE       →  Jugantar — Bengal revolutionary newspaper and organisation
1908 CE       →  Alipore Bomb Case — Aurobindo Ghosh associated
1913 CE       →  Ghadar Party founded — Punjabi diaspora in North America
1924 CE       →  Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) formed
9 Aug 1925    →  Kakori Conspiracy — HRA — Ram Prasad Bismil — Ashfaqullah Khan
1928 CE       →  HSRA formed — Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Sukhdev, Rajguru
Dec 1928      →  J.P. Saunders killed — Lahore — HSRA
Apr 1929      →  Central Assembly bombing — Bhagat Singh + Batukeshwar Dutt
27 Feb 1931   →  Chandrashekhar Azad dies at Alfred Park, Allahabad
18 Apr 1930   →  Chittagong Armoury Raid — Surya Sen (Masterda)
23 Mar 1931   →  Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru executed — Lahore Central Jail
Jan 1934      →  Surya Sen executed
1938 CE       →  Bose elected Congress President at Haripura
1939 CE       →  Bose re-elected at Tripuri. Resigned. Founded Forward Bloc.
Jan 1941      →  Bose escaped house arrest — disguised as Pathan insurance agent
Feb 1942      →  Fall of Singapore — INA formed by Mohan Singh from POWs
1943 CE       →  Bose arrives Southeast Asia. Takes command of INA.
21 Oct 1943   →  Azad Hind Government established in Singapore
1944 CE       →  Imphal-Kohima campaign — INA defeated
18 Aug 1945   →  Bose dies in plane crash in Taiwan (Formosa)
1945–46 CE    →  Red Fort Trials — Shah Nawaz Khan, Dhillon, Sahgal

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1. The Two Traditions of the Freedom Struggle

The freedom struggle India remembers most vividly is Gandhi’s — the Salt March, the Satyagrahas, the fasts, the non-violent mass campaigns. But alongside this mainstream nationalist movement, there ran a very different current, one that rejected the idea that the British would leave India through moral persuasion alone.

The revolutionary nationalists believed that colonial power was built on force, and that force was the only language it truly respected. They believed in organised armed resistance: sabotage, assassination, armed uprising, and eventually military confrontation.

What both traditions shared was the goal: India’s complete independence from British rule. What they disagreed about was the method. And both contributions mattered. Gandhi’s non-violent mass movement created the political conditions for independence, while the revolutionary tradition created the emotional and moral pressure that made British rule increasingly untenable.

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2. Early Revolutionary Organisations — Bengal and Punjab

Organisation	Period	Region	Key Figures	Key Events
Anushilan Samiti	1902 CE onward	Bengal	Aurobindo Ghosh, Barindra Kumar Ghosh	Secret society. Political assassinations. Alipore Bomb Case (1908 CE).
Jugantar	1906 CE onward	Bengal	Barindra Kumar Ghosh	Revolutionary newspaper and organisation. Arms smuggling.
Ghadar Party	1913 CE	Punjab / North America	Sohan Singh Bhakna, Lala Hardayal	Published Ghadar newspaper. Attempted uprising 1915.
HRA	1924 CE	North India	Ram Prasad Bismil, Sachindra Nath Sanyal	Kakori Conspiracy (1925 CE). Manifesto for armed revolution.
HSRA	1928 CE	North India	Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Sukhdev, Rajguru	Shooting of J.P. Saunders (1928). Central Assembly bombing (1929). Philosophy of the Bomb.

Bengal

The Partition of Bengal in 1905 CE radicalised a generation of young Bengalis. The Anushilan Samiti trained young men in physical culture and martial arts, smuggled weapons, and carried out targeted political violence. The Alipore Bomb Case of 1908 CE — when a bomb was thrown at a British carriage — brought the Samiti’s activities to national attention. Aurobindo Ghosh — later famous as a philosopher and mystic — was one of its intellectual leaders.

Punjab and the Ghadar Movement

In 1913 CE, Punjabi workers and intellectuals in Canada and the United States founded the Ghadar Party — named after the Ghadar (Mutiny/Rebellion) newspaper they published. The Ghadar Party believed that World War I provided an opportunity for armed revolution in India. The 1915 attempt at a coordinated uprising failed, but the Ghadar Movement established the tradition of connecting the Indian diaspora to the independence struggle.

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3. The Kakori Conspiracy — 1925 CE

On 9 August 1925 CE, a group of young revolutionaries belonging to the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) stopped a train at Kakori near Lucknow and looted the government treasury being transported on it. The leader was Ram Prasad Bismil — a poet, writer, and revolutionary. Ashfaqullah Khan, a Muslim revolutionary and close friend of Bismil, was another key figure.

The British response was swift and severe. Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan, Roshan Singh, and Rajendra Nath Lahiri were executed. Others received long prison sentences. The friendship between Bismil and Ashfaqullah, a Hindu and a Muslim fighting together and dying together, became one of the most celebrated symbols of Hindu-Muslim unity in the revolutionary tradition.

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4. Chandrashekhar Azad — The Man Who Never Surrendered

Chandrashekhar Azad (born 1906 CE) first attracted attention when he was arrested during the Non-Cooperation Movement at age 15. When the magistrate asked his name, he said “Azad” (Free). Asked his father’s name, he said “Swatantrata” (Independence). Asked his address, he said “Jail.” He took 15 lashes without flinching and made a vow that the British would never capture him alive.

After the Kakori Conspiracy, Azad became a central figure in reorganising the HRA into the HSRA — working alongside Bhagat Singh as organiser, weapons trainer, and operational planner.

On 27 February 1931 CE, just weeks before Bhagat Singh’s execution, Azad was cornered by British police in Alfred Park (now renamed Chandrashekhar Azad Park) in Allahabad. He fought alone against many officers. When his last bullet remained, he used it on himself, dying in Alfred Park rather than allowing himself to be captured. He kept his vow to the end. He was 24 years old.

Chandrashekhar Azad was never captured by the British. He died by his own hand at Alfred Park, Allahabad on 27 February 1931 CE — keeping his vow to the end.

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5. Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru — The HSRA

Bhagat Singh (1907–1931 CE) is the most celebrated revolutionary nationalist in Indian history, a young man of extraordinary intelligence and commitment who was hanged at 23 for fighting for his country’s independence.

The Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), formed in 1928 CE, added “Socialist” to its name deliberately. Bhagat Singh and his comrades were not simply nationalists fighting for independence. They were revolutionary socialists fighting for a transformation of the entire economic and social order.

Key events of the HSRA:

When Lala Lajpat Rai died from injuries sustained when police baton-charged an anti-Simon Commission protest in Lahore, Bhagat Singh, Azad, Sukhdev, and Rajguru decided to take revenge. They shot and killed J.P. Saunders, a British police officer in Lahore, in December 1928 CE and then escaped.

In April 1929 CE, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw smoke bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi, deliberately allowing themselves to be arrested. They threw pamphlets declaring “It takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear.” Their goal was a public trial, a platform for their revolutionary ideas.

Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru were hanged on 23 March 1931 CE in Lahore Central Jail. They were 23, 23, and 22 years old respectively. Their execution created an outpouring of grief and anger across India that deepened the nationalist movement’s resolve.

[Image Suggestion: A photograph of Bhagat Singh — one of the most iconic images in Indian history — showing the young revolutionary nationalist whose courage and sacrifice gave the independence movement an emotional depth beyond constitutional arguments]

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6. The Philosophy of the Bomb

The book ‘Philosophy of the Bomb’ was authored by Bhagwati Charan Vohra — associated with the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA). [NDA 2017-II] The document articulated the ideological justification for armed revolutionary resistance against colonial rule, arguing that violence against colonial power was morally justified when peaceful means had failed and the coloniser refused to respond to moral pressure.

The Philosophy of the Bomb was NOT written by Bhagat Singh. It was written by Bhagwati Charan Vohra — associated with the HSRA. [NDA 2017-II] This is the most common mistake in this chapter — students naturally assume the book must be by the most famous HSRA figure, but the author is Bhagwati Charan Vohra.

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7. The Chittagong Armoury Raid — 1930 CE

On 18 April 1930 CE, the same year as Gandhi’s Salt March, a very different challenge to British authority was launched in Chittagong (present-day Bangladesh).

Surya Sen — known as Masterda (Master Teacher) because of his former profession, led a group of approximately 65 revolutionaries in a coordinated raid on the police armoury and auxiliary force armoury in Chittagong. They captured weapons, cut telegraph lines, and briefly raised the flag of free India over the armoury. Their plan was to trigger a general uprising.

The British counter-attack came quickly. The revolutionaries dispersed into the surrounding hills and countryside, conducting guerrilla resistance for several years. Surya Sen was eventually betrayed, captured, and executed in January 1934 CE.

The Chittagong Armoury Raid stands as one of the most audacious acts of the entire revolutionary movement, a genuine armed insurrection, however brief, on the same day that Gandhi was leading his non-violent march to the sea.

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8. The Kandh Revolt and Chakra Bisoi

Not all resistance to British rule came from organised urban nationalist movements. Across India, tribal and peasant communities resisted the British through their own forms of armed uprising.

The Kandh (Kondh) revolt against the British in Odisha was led by Chakra Bisoi. [NDA 2013-II] The Kandh people of the hill regions of Odisha rose against British encroachment on their land and traditional practices. Chakra Bisoi became the symbolic leader of the resistance.

The Kandh revolt was in Odisha — not Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, or any other state. It was led by Chakra Bisoi — not any other figure. [NDA 2013-II]

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9. The Progressive Writers’ Association

The revolutionary tradition extended beyond armed resistance into the realm of culture. The Progressive Writers’ Association — active in the 1930s and 1940s CE — used literature as a vehicle for nationalist and socialist ideas. [NDA 2014-I]

The Association was committed to social realism — writing that reflected the actual conditions of ordinary people, the poor, the exploited, and the oppressed — rather than romantic or abstract literary forms. [NDA 2014-I]

Three writers most associated with the Progressive Writers’ Association were Munshi Premchand, Sajjad Zaheer, and Mulk Raj Anand. [NDA 2014-I]

★ IMPORTANT Three tested elements for the Progressive Writers’ Association — all together. [NDA 2014-I] Three named writers — Munshi Premchand, Sajjad Zaheer, Mulk Raj Anand. One commitment — social realism. NOT romantic nationalism. NOT patriotic symbolism. Social realism is the specifically tested phrase. All three writers must be named — not two.

The Progressive Writers’ Association was NOT committed to romantic or patriotic literary themes. It was committed to social realism. [NDA 2014-I]

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10. Subhas Chandra Bose — Before the INA

Subhas Chandra Bose (1897–1945 CE) was born in Cuttack, Orissa in 1897 CE — the son of an advocate. He was elected Congress President at Haripura in 1938 CE and at Tripuri in 1939 CE, defeating Gandhi’s preferred candidate. His re-election at Tripuri was a direct challenge to Gandhi’s authority, and Gandhi’s supporters made Bose’s position as President untenable. Bose resigned from the Congress Presidency and formed a new organisation, the Forward Bloc — in 1939 CE.

The British placed Bose under house arrest. On the night of 16–17 January 1941 CE, Bose escaped from his house in Calcutta, disguised as a Pathan insurance agent. He made his way through Afghanistan to the Soviet Union, then to Germany. When Germany could not provide effective support for an Indian operation, Bose made a remarkable journey by submarine, eventually reaching Southeast Asia in 1943 CE.

The Slogan ‘Jai Hind’

The slogan ‘Jai Hind’ — meaning Long Live India — is attributed to Subhas Chandra Bose. [NDA 2009-I] It became the rallying cry of the INA and the Azad Hind Government. It is still used as a patriotic salutation in India today, spoken at the end of every presidential and prime ministerial address.

‘Jai Hind’ was NOT attributed to Gandhi or Nehru or any other Congress leader. It is attributed to Subhas Chandra Bose. [NDA 2009-I]

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11. The Indian National Army — Five Stages

Stage 1 — Formation (1942 CE)

After the fall of Singapore in February 1942 CE, approximately 45,000 Indian soldiers became prisoners of war of the Japanese. Mohan Singh, an Indian officer among the prisoners, organised the Indian National Army (INA) — also called the Azad Hind Fauj (Army of Free India) — from the Indian POWs in 1942 CE.

The INA was first formed by Mohan Singh in 1942 CE — NOT by Bose. Bose arrived in Southeast Asia only in 1943 CE.

Stage 2 — Bose Takes Command (1943 CE)

When Bose arrived in Southeast Asia in 1943 CE, he transformed the INA. He expanded its size, rebuilt its morale, and gave it a nationalist vision that was genuinely independent of Japanese control.

Stage 3 — The Azad Hind Government (October 1943 CE)

On 21 October 1943 CE, Bose established the Azad Hind Government — the Provisional Government of Free India — in Singapore. This was a government-in-exile with Bose as Head of State, Prime Minister, and Commander-in-Chief, recognised by the Axis powers and several others.

The Azad Hind Government was established in Singapore in October 1943 CE — NOT Tokyo, NOT Berlin, NOT Rangoon.

The Rani of Jhansi Regiment

One of the most remarkable features of the INA under Bose was the Rani of Jhansi Regiment — an all-women’s combat unit led by Captain Lakshmi Sehgal (Dr Lakshmi Sahgal). Named after Rani Lakshmibai, the hero of the 1857 revolt, the regiment connected the INA to the entire tradition of Indian armed resistance. It was one of the earliest all-women combat units in modern Asian military history.

Stage 4 — The Imphal-Kohima Campaign (1944 CE)

In 1944 CE, the INA fought alongside Japanese forces in the Imphal-Kohima campaign — an attempt to invade northeastern India through Manipur and Nagaland. The Battles of Imphal and Kohima were among the bloodiest of the entire war in Asia. British and Indian forces eventually defeated the Japanese-INA advance. The defeat of the Imphal-Kohima campaign ended the INA’s hope of liberating India by military force.

Stage 5 — The Red Fort Trials (1945–46 CE)

After Japan’s surrender in August 1945 CE, INA officers were brought to trial for treason at the Red Fort in Delhi. The three most prominent accused were Shah Nawaz Khan (Muslim), Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon (Sikh), and Prem Kumar Sahgal (Hindu) — a carefully chosen combination representing India’s religious diversity.

The Congress provided legal defence led by Bhulabhai Desai, with Jawaharlal Nehru also appearing for the defence.

The trials backfired spectacularly. Indians saw the INA officers as patriots who had risked everything for India’s freedom. Massive demonstrations erupted outside the Red Fort. Congress politicians who had opposed the INA’s methods found themselves defending INA soldiers as heroes. The Red Fort Trials contributed directly to the British government’s conclusion that they could not govern India without Indian consent.

Bose’s Death

Subhas Chandra Bose died in a plane crash in Taiwan (then Formosa) on 18 August 1945 CE — shortly after Japan’s surrender. He was attempting to reach the Soviet Union. He died from burns sustained in the crash. He was 48 years old.

[Image Suggestion: A photograph of Subhas Chandra Bose in his Indian National Army uniform — representing the INA commander who built the Azad Hind Government in Singapore and came closest to challenging British rule through military means]

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12. The Treaty of Yandabo and Cross-Chapter References

Treaty of Yandabo — 1826 CE

The Treaty of Yandabo was signed in 1826 CE after the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826 CE). [NDA 2019-II] Under the treaty, Burma ceded four territories to the British: Assam, Manipur, Arakan, and Tenasserim. [NDA 2019-II]

The Treaty of Yandabo followed the First Anglo-Burmese War — NOT the Second or Third. [NDA 2019-II] All four territories must be named — not three.

Bhoodan Movement — Cross-Reference

The Bhoodan Movement was initiated by Vinoba Bhave in 1951 CE, starting with the first land donation at Pochampalli in Telangana. [NDA 2022-II] Under this movement, landowners voluntarily donated portions of their land to the landless. Full coverage in Chapter N11.

Lachit Borphukan — Cross-Reference

Lachit Borphukan was the Ahom general who defeated the Mughal forces at the Battle of Saraighat (1671 CE). [NDA 2023-I] Full coverage in Chapters M5 and N6. Cross-reference only here.

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13. Why Revolutionary Nationalism Mattered

The revolutionary nationalist tradition suffered one military defeat after another. And yet it made real contributions to the achievement of independence.

Moral pressure on the British — the willingness of Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Surya Sen, and thousands of INA soldiers to risk and lose their lives for Indian independence imposed a moral cost on British rule that could not be ignored.

Widening the nationalist coalition: the revolutionary tradition reached communities and classes that the Congress’s constitutional methods did not always reach, young workers, students, soldiers.

The INA Trials’ political impact: the failure of the INA on the battlefield was overshadowed by the political impact of the Red Fort Trials. The trials united Indians across class, caste, religion, and region in support of the accused. The Royal Indian Navy Mutiny that followed was directly inspired by the INA’s example. The trials, more than the battles, helped end British rule.

The emotional fuel of independence: the memory of Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, and Bose gave the nationalist movement a tradition of total sacrifice that constitutional arguments alone could never provide. The slogan ‘Jai Hind’ — Bose’s gift to Indian nationalism — is still spoken at the end of every public address by India’s President, Prime Minister, and ministers.

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