Delhi conspiracy case

Last updated

An illustration of the assassination attempt on Lord Charles Hardinge An assassination attempt on Lord Charles Hardinge.jpg
An illustration of the assassination attempt on Lord Charles Hardinge

The Delhi Conspiracy case, also known as the Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy, refers to an attempt made in 1912 to assassinate the then Viceroy of India, Lord Hardinge by throwing a local self-made bomb of Anushilan Samiti by Basanta Kumar Biswas, on the occasion of transferring the capital of British India from Calcutta to New Delhi. [1] Hatched by the Indian revolutionaries underground in Bengal and Punjab and headed by Rash Behari Bose, the conspiracy culminated in the attempted assassination on 23 December 1912, when a homemade bomb was thrown into the Viceroy's howdah as the ceremonial procession was moving through the Chandni Chowk suburb of Delhi.

Contents

Bomb thrown

The Viceroy and vicerine were sitting on an elephant and entering the city. [2] Basanta Kumar Biswas, a revolutionary from Nadia village, threw a homemade bomb at the Viceroy who was seated on an elephant. Although injured in the attack, the Viceroy escaped with flesh wounds, but the servant behind him holding his parasol was killed. Lady Hardinge was unscathed; as was the elephant and its mahout (handler). Lord Hardinge himself was injured all over the back, legs, and head by fragments of the bomb, the flesh on his shoulders being torn in strips. [3] Viceroy and Vicerine were making their ceremonial entry to new capital of India, Delhi. [4] The howdah in which they were travelling was blown into pieces and there was some difficulty to remove the Viceroy from the back of elephant on which they were travelling. The servant behind him was dead as observed by the Vicerine. [4] The man killed was an umbrella bearer and he acted in that capacity to previous viceroy Lord Curzon also. [4]

Injuries to Viceroy

Viceroy Hardinge suffered several injuries due to piercing of screws filled in the bomb and they penetrated back and shoulders of Viceroy. [4]

In the aftermath of the event, efforts were made to destroy the Bengali and Punjabi revolutionary underground, which came under intense pressure for some time. Rash Behari Bose, identified as the person who threw the bomb, successfully evaded capture for nearly three years, becoming involved in the Ghadar Conspiracy before it was uncovered, then fleeing to Japan in 1915. [5]

Aftermath

A reward of Rs.10,000 (approximately $3,300) was announced for the arrest of bomb thrower, since the identity of the assassin was not immediately known to Government agencies. [4] The investigations in the aftermath of the assassination attempt led to the Delhi Conspiracy trial. The case was filed against Lala Hanumant Sahai, Basanta Kumar Biswas, Bhai Balmukund, Amir Chand and Awadh Behari. On 5 October 1914 Lala Hanumant Sahai was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Andaman Islands, and the other four were sentenced to death for their roles in the conspiracy. Basanta Kumar Biswas was hanged on 11 May 1915 at Ambala Central Jail in Punjab aged twenty and became one of the youngest people to be executed during the Indian revolutionary struggles during the 20th century. [6] [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian independence movement</span> Independence movement to end British rule over India

The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India also known as British Raj. It lasted until 1947.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rash Behari Bose</span> Indian independence leader

Rash Behari Bose was an Indian revolutionary leader who fought against the British Empire. He was one of the key organisers of the Ghadar Mutiny and founded the Indian Independence League. Bose also led the Indian National Army (INA) which was formed in 1942 under Mohan Singh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bagha Jatin</span> Indian revolutionary and independence activist (1879–1915)

Bagha Jatin or Baghajatin, born Jatindranath Mukherjee ; 7 December 1879 – 10 September 1915) was an Indian independence activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basanta Kumar Biswas</span> Indian pro-independence activist (1895–1915)

Basanta Kumar Biswas was an Indian pro-independence activist involved in the Jugantar group who, in December 1912, played a role in the bombing of the Viceroy's parade in what came to be known as the Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anushilan Samiti</span> Fitness club and anti-British underground revolutionary organization

Anushilan Samiti was an Indian fitness club, which was actually used as an underground society for anti-British revolutionaries. In the first quarter of the 20th century it supported revolutionary violence as the means for ending British rule in India. The organisation arose from a conglomeration of local youth groups and gyms (akhara) in Bengal in 1902. It had two prominent, somewhat independent, arms in East and West Bengal, Dhaka Anushilan Samiti, and the Jugantar group.

The Revolutionary movement for Indian Independence was part of the Indian independence movement comprising the actions of violent underground revolutionary factions. Groups believing in armed revolution against the ruling British fall into this category, as opposed to the generally peaceful civil disobedience movement spearheaded by Mahatma Gandhi.

Jugantar or Yugantar was one of the two main secret revolutionary trends operating in Bengal for Indian independence. This association, like Anushilan Samiti, started in the guise of suburban fitness club. Several Jugantar members were arrested, hanged, or deported for life to the Cellular Jail in Andaman and many of them joined the Communist Consolidation in the Cellular Jail.

Kunwar Pratap Singh Barhath, also known as ‘Kunwar Ji’, was an Indian anti-British activist known for his role in the revolutionary plot to assassinate the Viceroy of India, Charles Hardinge, in 1912. He was a prominent member of the Revolutionary Party led by Rash Behari Bose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kakori conspiracy</span> 1925 train robbery in Kakori (now in Uttar Pradesh, India)

The Kakori Train robbery was a train robbery that took place at Kakori, a village near Lucknow, on 9 August 1925, during the Indian independence movement against the British rule in India. It was organized by the Indian revolutionaries of Hindustan Republican Association (HRA).

The Indian Independence League was a political organisation operated from the 1920s to the 1940s to organise those living outside British India into seeking the removal of British colonial rule over the region. Founded by Indian nationalists, its activities were conducted in various parts of Southeast Asia. It included Indian expatriates, and later, Indian nationalists in-exile under Japanese occupation following Japan's successful Malayan Campaign during the first part of the Second World War. During the Japanese Occupation of Malaya, the Japanese encouraged Indians in Malaya to join the League.

The Hindu–German Conspiracy(Note on the name) was a series of attempts between 1914 and 1917 by Indian nationalist groups to create a Pan-Indian rebellion against the British Empire during World War I. This rebellion was formulated between the Indian revolutionary underground and exiled or self-exiled nationalists in the United States. It also involved the Ghadar Party, and in Germany the Indian independence committee in the decade preceding the Great War. The conspiracy began at the start of the war, with extensive support from the German Foreign Office, the German consulate in San Francisco, and some support from Ottoman Turkey and the Irish republican movement. The most prominent plan attempted to foment unrest and trigger a Pan-Indian mutiny in the British Indian Army from Punjab to Singapore. It was to be executed in February 1915, and overthrow British rule in the Indian subcontinent. The February mutiny was ultimately thwarted when British intelligence infiltrated the Ghadarite movement and arrested key figures. Mutinies in smaller units and garrisons within India were also crushed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sachindra Nath Sanyal</span> Indian revolutionary (1890–1942)

Sachindra Nath Sanyal was an Indian revolutionary and co-founder of the Hindustan Republican Association that was created to carry out armed resistance against the British Empire in India. He was a mentor for revolutionaries like Chandra Shekhar Azad, Jatindra Nath Das, and Bhagat Singh.

The Ghadar Mutiny, also known as the Ghadar Conspiracy, was a plan to initiate a pan-India mutiny in the British Indian Army in February 1915 to end the British Raj in India. The plot originated at the onset of World War I, between the Ghadar Party in the United States, the Berlin Committee in Germany, the Indian revolutionary underground in British India and the German Foreign Office through the consulate in San Francisco. The incident derives its name from the North American Ghadar Party, whose members of the Punjabi community in Canada and the United States were among the most prominent participants in the plan. It was the most prominent amongst a number of plans of the much larger Hindu–German Mutiny, formulated between 1914 and 1917 to initiate a Pan-Indian rebellion against the British Raj during World War I. The mutiny was planned to start in the key state of Punjab, followed by mutinies in Bengal and rest of India. Indian units as far as Singapore were planned to participate in the rebellion. The plans were thwarted through a coordinated intelligence and police response. British intelligence infiltrated the Ghadarite movement in Canada and in India, and last-minute intelligence from a spy helped crush the planned uprising in Punjab before it started. Key figures were arrested, and mutinies in smaller units and garrisons within India were also crushed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vishnu Ganesh Pingle</span> Indian revolutionary

Vishnu Ganesh Pingle was an Indian revolutionary and a member of the Ghadar Party who was one of those executed in 1915 following the Lahore conspiracy trial for his role in the Ghadar conspiracy.

The first Christmas Day plot was a conspiracy made by the Indian revolutionary movement in 1909: during the year-ending holidays, the Governor of Bengal organised at his residence a ball in the presence of the Viceroy, the Commander-in-Chief and all the high-ranking officers and officials of the Capital (Calcutta). The 10th Jat Regiment was in charge of the security. Indoctrinated by Jatindranath Mukherjee, its soldiers decided to blow up the ballroom and take advantage of destroying the colonial Government. In keeping with his predecessor Otto von Klemm, a friend of Lokmanya Tilak, on 6 February 1910, M. Arsenyev, the Russian Consul-General, wrote to St Petersburg that it had been intended to "arouse in the country a general perturbation of minds and, thereby, afford the revolutionaries an opportunity to take the power in their hands." According to R. C. Majumdar, "The police had suspected nothing and it is hard to say what the outcome would have been had the soldiers not been betrayed by one of their comrades who informed the authorities about the impending coup".

Bhai Balmukund was an Indian revolutionary freedom fighter. He was sentenced to death and hanged by the British Raj for his role in Delhi conspiracy case. He was a cousin of another revolutionary Bhai Parmanand, who was a founder member of Ghadar Party.

The history of the Anushilan Samiti stretches from its beginning in 1902 to 1930. The Samiti began in the first decade of the 20th century in Calcutta as conglomeration of local youth groups and gyms(Akhra). However, its focus was both physical education and proposed moral development of its members. From its inception it sought to promote what it perceived as Indian values and to focus on Indian sports e.g. Lathi and Sword play. It also encouraged its members to study Indian history as well as those of European liberalism including the French Revolution, Russian Nihilism and Italian unification. Soon after its inception it became a radical organisation that sought to end British Raj in India through revolutionary violence. After World War I, it declined steadily as its members identified closely with leftist ideologies and with the Indian National Congress. It briefly rose to prominence in the late second and third decade, being involved in some notable incidents in Calcutta, Chittagong and in the United Provinces. The samiti dissolved into the Revolutionary Socialist Party in 1930.

The Rodda company arms heist took place on 26 August 1914 in Calcutta, British India. Members of the Jugantar faction of the Bengali revolutionary organisation Anushilan Samiti intercepted a shipment of Mauser Pistols and ammunition belonging to Messrs Rodda & co., a Calcutta gun dealer, while these were en route from the Customs house to the company's godown, and were able to make away with a portion the arms. The heist was a sensational incident, being described by The Statesman as the "Greatest daylight robbery". In the following years, the pistols and ammunitions were linked to almost all the incidences of nationalist struggles in Bengal. By 1922, the police had recovered most of the stolen arms.

Manindra Nath Nayak was a Bengali revolutionary and Indian independence activist.

Thakur Zorawar Singh Barhath was an Indian revolutionary and independence activist. He is known for the assassination attempt on the Viceroy of India, Lord Hardinge, by throwing a bomb at him during a procession in New Delhi.

References

  1. Heehs, Peter (1993). The Bomb in Bengal: The Rise of Revolutionary Terrorism in India, 1900-1910. Oxford University Press. pp. 246–47. ISBN   978-0-19-563350-4.
  2. Jozuka, Emiko (10 May 2020). "he Indian revolutionary who fought to overthrow British rule while living in Japan". CNN. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  3. "India Truly Loyal, Says Hardinge" (PDF). New York Times. 20 May 1916.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Viceroy of India is injured by Bomb Attendant killed". UCR Centre for Bibliographical studies and research. UCR. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  5. Hoda, Noorul (1 February 2008). The Alipore Bomb Case. Niyogi Books. ISBN   978-81-89738-31-0.
  6. Sengupta, Nitish K. (2011). Land of Two Rivers: A History of Bengal from the Mahabharata to Mujib. Penguin Books India. p. 329. ISBN   978-0-14-341678-4.
  7. NANDI, SOUMITRA (20 October 2017). "Story of Basanta Biswas, penned by Ujjal Biswas, to be portrayed on celluloid". www.millenniumpost.in. Retrieved 15 March 2022.

Bibliography