Revolutionaries CaseEssay Preview: Revolutionaries CaseReport this essayThis article chronicles the activities of Revolutionaries through the first three decades of the twentieth century. The merit of the article lies in the fact that author attempts to string together several instances of revolutionaries and leaves to the reader to cull out the common ideological themes that pervade the revolutionary activates that spread the North and Eastern parts of the country. It is intriguing to learn that a common ideology can exist independent of a mass movement having a common object.
However, such a common ideology could not be found when the revolutionalist Movement was in its incipient stages. The first phase of Revolutionalism from 1897-1910 witnessed the membership to the movement being based on existing social identities and was confined only the educated middle class Hindus. Emphasis was laid on ritualism and other quintessential Hindu traits. The inability to create a new identity of their own effectively excluded non Hindus from becoming an integral part of the Movement.
The Second Phase of the Revolutionalist movement coincided with the onslaught of the First World War and inspiration the Indian Revolutionaries received from counterparts from different parts of the World. However, the problem of want for internal identity of Revolutionaries still persisted. It was only in the third phase of the Revolution prompted by the failure of the Non Cooperation Movement. Around this time the people of India were now faced with common problems that cut across religious, cultural and regional differences. The Revolutionaries too, saw merit in working on the premise of an Egalitarian Society and became an important component of their Ideology. It was only then that Revolutionary Movements such as Indian Republican Army, Hindustan Republican Association and Hindustan Socialistic Republican Army could be effectively organised at a national level.
The Political Party of Indian Independence was established with the help of the National Republican Army, but the party itself was still under formlessness. The Party had been initiated in 1909, a few years before the Independence and the Party was only able to form up in 1918 and was the political body in the country from 1921-26. During this time the party had also developed into a movement which was influenced by those currents of Marxism which were to become the dominant ideology to be spread across the country. The party took direct action, but did not use violence, only the action of many political activists and supporters. The Party sought to work for the people’s interests, but it was not the only ones. In addition, the Party did not have any official organization and all members were subject to discipline in some cases. After the war the Party’s role was finally taken over by the Indian Central Government and it had become a part of all those sections of society. It was not a ‘party of the people’, in the manner of the Party, but a party of a National People’s Party. It has the honour and the confidence to remain within the established parties and thus must not be divided by any faction. It was the work of one or two sections in a single party that led revolutionary people.
Even among Communist Party members like Chautaullah and Jaitley it was understood that the Indian National Socialist movement did not stand for revolutionary class struggle but remained a movement based on socialist principles. For most, however, to maintain a positive attitude towards the Soviet bloc and its economic policies was not possible as even such Marxist principles do not guarantee the revolutionary class. Only one or two sections and the party was able to develop as a party of the people to bring about revolution; but it did not create a solid group of ‘workers’ committees. We all know that ‘revolution’ (i.e. political revolutionary action of a class) was defined as giving a general idea to the working class and to the masses, without being a party of the masses. The Party’s organisational structures based on the principles of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism were such that the Indian National Socialist party was able to be brought about through its own organization, and the Party acted as a self governmenting organ, with the participation of people’s organisations including the Indian National Socialist Organisation (IMO). The Party was always united and we can now say that our organisation was made up of many different sections with different levels of leadership and organisation for the workers movement in the country.
Revolutionary Movements had in reality only one objective. The first objective was to build a National Economic and Political Organization. It was a political movement composed of thousands of Indian people, whose main interests were:
– Labor, Social Welfare. [Under] the rule of the Indian National Development Mechanism, workers came under the control of the government by the National Committee for Labour Relations.
– Work. The Indian People’s Party was formed to collect all the necessary technical work in industrial fields and to organise it. A National Industrial Council was created (from the present state land in New Delhi). The Indian Government, with the participation of a Central Committee (the Government from Bengal etc.), carried out the works on farms under the direction of the Central Committee for Labour Relations. All the work (such as the construction of shops and shops and the administration of government schemes) carried the State Party’s responsibility. The National Committee of the workers, whose main job was to organise and carry out production for the country, was established by the Congress in
The Revolutionaries possessed the capability of transforming and channelling the hatred evoked by an individual belonging to the system against the system itself and work against a broader back drop. It was the ability to use a public platform to connect with people on a personal level that enabled them to incite the kind of emotions that they did. This was exemplified through the monumental trials of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru as well as the Meerut and Post Office conspiracies. Further, it was the sentimental attachment to these heroes that allowed anger to spew and serve as another reason for people to unite against the British. The development of Revolutionary activities over time demonstrates their ability to operate on both, individualistic and nationwide levels. Rudimentary forms of Revolutionary activities such as small scale secret societies were succeeded by organisations with a formal structure that endorsed ideologies such as socialism that had to be propagated at the Pan Indian level.