Naujawan Bharat Sabha (NBS, sometimes spelled Nau Jawan Bharat Sabha , with the acronym NJBS) (transl. Youth Society of India) was a left-wing Indian association that sought to foment revolution against the British Raj by gathering together worker and peasant youths by disseminating Marxist ideas. It was founded by Bhagat Singh in March 1926 [1] [2] and was a more public face of the Hindustan Republican Association. [3] The organization merged with All India Youth Federation (AIYF) of Communist Party of India. [4]
The NBS comprised members from the Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communities and organized lectures, public meetings and protests. It did not gain widespread support because of its radical ideas relating to religion and to agrarian reform. Attendance at its public meetings became particularly popular after the killing of John P. Saunders in December 1928. This killing, by Singh and others, followed from a protest against the Simon Commission in Lahore of which the NBS had been one of the organizing parties. Contemporary opinion was that non-cooperation was preferable to violence as a means of achieving change. [5]
The association was banned in July 1929 during a period when the government had imposed Section 144 to control gatherings as public support burgeoned for the imprisoned Singh and his fellow hunger-strikers. NBS members were involved in the campaign. [5]
At least one NBS activist, Sohan Singh Josh, was imprisoned for his role in the Meerut Conspiracy Case; he was released in November 1933. He was one of many people who were leaders simultaneously of the NBS and the Kirti Kisan Party, although the two organizations remained separate. NBS was active again by that time: earlier in the year, Karam Singh Mann, who had been converted to communism while training as a barrister in London, had organized a meeting to arrange dissemination of left-wing propaganda in rural areas. NBS was now one of the three significant left-wing groups in Punjab, the others being the outlawed Communist Party of India and the Kirti Kisan Party. These three attempted an alliance and sought also to gather together various smaller, disparate leftist groups of the region. With varying but never great success, various working parties were dispatched to co-ordinate local groups as well as document grievances, economic and political conditions in the regional districts. All associations considered to be left-wing were declared illegal under the Criminal Law Amendment Act (1908) in September 1934. [6]
Harkishan Singh Surjeet was an Indian Communist politician from Punjab, who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from 1992 to 2005 and was a member of the party's Polit Bureau from 1964 to 2008.
Bhagat Singh was an Indian anti-colonial revolutionary, who participated in the mistaken murder of a junior British police officer in December 1928 in what was to be retaliation for the death of an Indian nationalist. He later took part in a largely symbolic bombing of the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi and a hunger strike in jail, which—on the back of sympathetic coverage in Indian-owned newspapers—turned him into a household name in the Punjab region, and after his execution at age 23 into a martyr and folk hero in Northern India. Borrowing ideas from Bolshevism and anarchism, the charismatic Bhagat Singh electrified a growing militancy in India in the 1930s, and prompted urgent introspection within the Indian National Congress's nonviolent but eventually successful campaign for India's independence.
Chandra Shekhar Sitaram Tiwari - 23 July 1906 – 27 February 1931), popularly known as Chandra Shekhar Azad, was an Indian revolutionary who reorganised the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) under its new name of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) after the death of its founder, Ram Prasad Bismil, and three other prominent party leaders, Roshan Singh, Rajendra Nath Lahiri and Ashfaqulla Khan. He hailed from Bardarka village in Unnao district of United Provinces and his parents were Sitaram Tiwari and Jagrani Devi. He often used the pseudonym "Balraj" while signing pamphlets issued as the commander-in-chief of the HSRA.
Sukhdev Thapar was an Indian freedom fighter who fought against the British government for the freedom of India. He was a member of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA). He was executed along with Shivaram Rajguru and Bhagat Singh on 23 March 1931.
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.
Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), previously known as the Hindustan Republican Army and Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), was a radical left-wing Indian revolutionary organization, founded by Sachindranath Sanyal. After changes in Bhagat Singh's ideology and the influence of the Russian Revolution, they held meetings in Feroz Shah Kotla Maidan and added the word socialist to their name. Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Sachindra Nath Bakshi, Sachindranath Sanyal and Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee were the leaders of the group at the time. HSRA's manifesto titled The Revolutionary and written constitution were produced as evidence in the Kakori conspiracy case of 1925.
Shaheed Ashfaqulla Khan was a freedom fighter in the Indian independence movement against British rule and the co-founder of the Hindustan Republican Association, later to become the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association.
Yogendra Shukla was an Indian nationalist and freedom fighter, notable for his contributions in the state of Bihar. He was incarcerated in the Cellular Jail, also known as Kala Pani, and was a founding member of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA). Shukla, in collaboration with Basawon Singh (Sinha), was also instrumental in establishing the Congress Socialist Party in Bihar.
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 Workers and Peasants Party (WPP) (also known as the Kirti Kisan Party) was a political party in India, which worked inside the Indian National Congress in 1925–1929. It became an important front organisation for the Communist Party of India and an influential force in the Bombay labour movement. The party was able to muster some success in making alliances with other left elements inside the Congress Party, amongst them Jawaharlal Nehru. However, as the Communist International entered its 'Third Period' phase, the communists deserted the WPP project. The WPP was wound up, as its leadership was arrested by the British authorities in March 1929.
The Delhi Conspiracy Commission was created dated 9 April 1930 by an order of the Chief Commissioner of Delhi, exercising his special powers under section 3(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The commission was directed that certain persons shall be tried by it for the offence of conspiring to wage a war against the British King. The number of accused to be tried by the commission was 24 in all. Out of these 24 persons, 14 were arrested and produced before the commission, while nine were declared absconding and one had died. Though only 24 persons were accused of the offence, during the trial it transpired that there were a large number of persons who had participated in the venture. It was an Indian revolutionary movement directed against the British to win India's freedom by violent revolutionary means.
Pandit Kishori Lal was a communist Indian revolutionary from Punjab who worked with Sukhdev Thapar and the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA).
Kirti was a Punjabi monthly started by the veteran Ghadarite Santokh Singh in February 1926. It was purely a communist production, subsidized by the Ghadar Party in the United States. Within a few months, Sohan Singh Josh took over as the editor. In 1928, the Communist Party of India tied-Kirti group was formed, Kirti became its mouthpiece. Its purpose was to outline the basic ideas of revolution and Marxist ideals.
Durgavati Devi, popularly known as Durga Bhabhi, was an Indian revolutionary and freedom fighter. She was one of the few women revolutionaries who actively participated in armed revolution against the ruling British Raj. She is best known for having accompanied Bhagat Singh on the train journey in which he made his escape in disguise after the killing of John P. Saunders. Since she was the wife of another Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) member Bhagwati Charan Vohra, other members of HSRA referred to her as Bhabhi and became popular as "Durga Bhabhi" in Indian revolutionary circles.
Bhagwati Charan Vohra was an Indian revolutionary, associated with Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. He was an ideologue, organiser, orator and campaigner.
Sohan Singh Josh (1898–1982) was an Indian communist activist and freedom fighter.
Mukundi Lal was an Indian revolutionary and an active member of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA).
Baldev Mann was a left-wing activist of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) New Democracy. He was a state level leader of Kirti Kisan Union and the editor of Hirawal Dasta, a revolutionary journal of the Naxalites.
Hans Raj Vohra was an approver for British in HSRA, providing testimony for the British that identified his associates in return for his own freedom. In May 1930, his statement against Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru, in the Lahore Conspiracy Case trial, became "crucial" in leading to passing of their death sentence.
Communists were actively involved in Indian independence movement through multiple series of protests, strikes and other activities. It was a part of revolutionary movement for Indian independence. Their main thrust was on organising peasants and working classes across India against the British and Indian capitalists and landlords.
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