Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna: Revolutionary

Propaganda in Colonial UP, 1907–27

Prabal Saran Agarwal

Researcher, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi
prabals.007@gmail.com

The revolutionary movement in United Provinces had its beginnings initially under the influence
of the anti-Partition movement in Bengal from 1905 onward. It, first, appeared in radical papers
established in 1909 in Urdu and Hindi. Initially, it supported Tilak’s National Party with a tinge
of Hindu revivalism, but radical socialist views also began to develop under the influence of the
Ghadr movement of 1914–15. Despite repression, the 1920s saw a great increase in propaganda
and revolutionary activity, especially under the influence of the Soviet Revolution. Bismil, the
revolutionary martyr, played a special role in both propaganda and armed activity. The article
argues that though the Kakori case ended in the execution of Bismil and his comrades, the pro-
paganda they had carried on had lasting effect on the ideology of the revolutionary movement
and the radicalisation of popular feeling in Uttar Pradesh (UP).

Keywords: Swaraj, Karmayogi, Bismil, Hindustan Republican Association, nationalism, United

Provinces

It is sometimes assumed by historians that revolutionary nationalists of colonial

India were mainly those engaged in organising violent attacks on personnel of
the British Raj, and that such actions formed the core of their politics.1 The revo-
lutionary movement before Bhagat Singh was called ‘emotional, religious and
romantic’, and it is claimed that before the influence of socialist ideas, it lacked any
theoretical framework.2 It is also claimed that the revolutionaries had no contact
with the masses, and their political programme did not include any plan for social
transformation.3 The following study goes beyond these notions by focusing on a
crucial aspect of revolutionary activity, hitherto largely overlooked by scholars,
namely propaganda.
Even while remaining underground, the revolutionary nationalists engaged in
extensive propaganda right from the beginning of their movement in the first decade
of the twentieth century. This was because their objective was to organise a national
armed uprising in which the participation of masses was deemed essential. Even

1
  Sekhar Bandopadhyay, From Plassey to Partition (Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, 2004), 259–62.
2
  S. Irfan Habib, To Make The Deaf Hear: Ideology and Programme of Bhagat Singh and His
Comrades (Gurgaon: Three Essays Collective, 2007).
3
  Sumit Sarkar, Swadeshi Movement in Bengal (Delhi: People’s Publishing House, 1973), 483–92.

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DOI: 10.1177/2348448921999038
 Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna: Revolutionary Propaganda in Colonial UP, 1907–27 / 121

their violent activities were undertaken with the aim of arousing the masses for
the cause of revolution. For this purpose, they published periodicals, pamphlets,
posters, booklets, tracts, photographs and organised magic-lantern shows, street
plays, cultural and musical performances, kathas, melas, public meetings, debates,
etc. They established secret printing presses, libraries, gymnasiums and ‘ashrams’,
volunteer bodies, students’ unions, and youth and mass organisations utilising even
the platforms of Indian National Congress. Kabita Ray and Shukla Sanyal have
studied the pamphlets and periodicals published by the Bengal revolutionaries dur-
ing the Swadeshi Movement (1905–1907), but they have not studied other centres of
revolutionary activity such as those in UP.4 Recently, Kama Maclean has analysed
revolutionary propaganda in North India, especially in Lahore, Kanpur and Delhi
but has focused on a short time span, that is, 1928–31.5 I propose to explore the
history of revolutionary propaganda in United Provinces from 1907 down to 1927,
when revolutionaries became a strong political force in the province.
We may begin with, the two periodicals, Swaraj and Karmayogi, that are
regarded as the first mouthpieces of the revolutionary movement in UP.6 The role
played by other nationalist periodicals in the province has already been described
by C.A. Bayly,7 Gyanendra Pandey8 and others in some detail. What is missing
in the existing literature is a study of how political forces other than the Congress
made use of periodicals in UP. Recently, scholars like Charu Gupta have looked at
their role in the spread of communal politics.9 But their links with the underground
revolutionaries have largely been overlooked despite the fact that many key figures
associated with the Hindi–Urdu controversy were at various levels also associ-
ated with the revolutionary movement.10 Due to this gap in the field of research, a
significant theme in the Hindi–Urdu public sphere of the time—the discourse on
‘revolution’—remains unexplored.
Karmayogi was a fortnightly Hindi periodical, which came out in 1909 from
Allahabad. Its editor Pandit Sunderlal, a lower middle-class Kayasth graduate,
recalls in his memoirs that revolutionary leaders from Bengal and Punjab, Bar-
indra Kumar Ghosh, Rash Bihari Bose, Sufi Amba Prasad and Lala Hardayal
visited Allahabad, one by one, in 1907, and organised clandestine meetings

4
  Kabita Ray, Revolutionary Propaganda in Bengal Extremist and Militant Press, 1905–1918
(Kolkata: Papyrus Publishing House, 2008); Shukla Sanyal, Revolutionary Pamphlets, Propaganda
and Political Culture in Colonial Bengal (Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
5
Kama Maclean, A Revolutionary History of Interwar India (London: Cambridge University Press,
2015).
6
  S.A.T. Rowlatt, Sedition Committee Report (Calcutta: Government Printing, 1918), 131.
7
  C.A. Bayly, The Local Roots of Indian Politics: Allahabad, 1880–1920 (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1975), 14–15.
8
  Gyan Pandey, The Ascendancy of Congress in Uttar Pradesh (Delhi: Oxford University Press,
1978), 78.
9
  Charu Gupta, Sexuality, Obscenity, Community (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2012).
10
  Francesca Orsini, The Hindi Public Sphere 1920–1940 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012).

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122 / Prabal Saran Agarwal

with students and other activists of the province in which a programme for the
underground resistance was set out.11 It was decided that a Hindi and an Urdu
periodical would be started from Allahabad. Shanti Narayan from Lahore came
to Allahabad and started Swaraj in Urdu from November 1907. On its first page
was an advertisement, which was published in every issue: ‘There is need for
an editor of Swaraj who is a scholar of English and Urdu, whose one foot is in
the Swaraj office and the other in jail. Salary is just two rotis of barley and one
glass of water; rest whatever is his fate’.12 Narayan was arrested and sentenced to
4 years’ imprisonment when he published two articles on Khudiram Bose. J.W.
Hose, Chief Secretary to the Government of UP, informed the Government of India
that he ‘had previously been warned that an article of his entitled “The famine
and its last remedy” was seditious’.13 Narayan had paid no heed to the warning.
Baburam Hari became the next editor of Swaraj, but he was soon deported to the
Andaman Islands. The third editor, Nand Gopal also met the same fate. Eventually,
four more editors were imprisoned on similar charges, and yet Amirchand Bambwal
took over as the eighth one. When Gopal was arrested in August 1909, Karmayogi, a
Hindi periodical, was also started by the same group of revolutionaries. Eventually,
the government used the Press Act of 1910 to outlaw both Swaraj and Karmayogi.
Sunderlal claims that by this time, the readership of Karmayogi had reached 10,000.14
In a carefully worded article in Swaraj, titled ‘Devotion to God’, Nand Gopal
wrote:

We neither want swaraj nor have any wish to drive the English out of India. We
only wish that every Indian had enough to eat, and be at least able to cover his
body....We only wish that iron caps be removed from our heads, so that we may
have the same opportunities of making intellectual progress as are enjoyed by
the people of free nations...15

In ‘The Real Needs of India’, he sharply attacked the Congress, stating bitterly
that it ‘...provides a source of amusement during the Christmas holidays by perfor-
mance like those of theatrical companies’.16 He also attacked the Muslim League
and Hindu Sabha for their dispute over representation in the legislatures, for these
would serve only the elite, not the nation:

What will then be the most vital question? .... the question is that of bread....
It is regrettable that the political, religious or non-political leaders do not at all

11
  Pandit Sunderlal, Kaddavar Ki Dastan (Delhi: Rajkamal, 2012), 21.
12
  Ibid., 30
13
  Letter from J.W. Hose, Chief Secretary, UP, to the Secretary, Government of India, Home
Department Proceedings, Nos. 81–95, August 1910, National Archives of India, New Delhi.
14
  Sunderlal, Kaddavar Ki Dastan, 34.
15
  Translated in the Letter from J.W. Hose, cited in footnote 13 above.
16
  Reported by Zu-ul-karneen, Badaun, February 1909.

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 Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna: Revolutionary Propaganda in Colonial UP, 1907–27 / 123

turn their attention to this question....they get enough to eat; it is the unfortunate
poor people who have to face this.17

Gopal blames the problem of bread on reduction in income, price rise and land
revenue policy of the government. He proposes that the land revenue should be
reduced, there should be permanent settlement of land with peasants, arts and
industries should be promoted by opening technical schools, there should be tariff
protections for Indian industries, pasture land should be set apart for communal
use and cow slaughter should be prohibited to promote agriculture and animal
husbandry.18 In ‘The Wave of Nationality’, Gopal wrote:

Liberty is present in every drop of blood and in the smallest atom in the body
of a human being. Nature has neither made anyone a ruler nor anyone ruled...
it appears that in trying to continuously stop it [the wave of nationality] they
[the British] may themselves be swept away by it.19

Karmayogi, like most revolutionary periodicals of the time, identified itself with
the radical politics of the Congress ‘extremists’ whom it calls the Rashtriya Paksha
or the National Party. In its first issue, Karmayogi laid out its objective.20 It aimed
at protecting the desh and the dharma. It would explain the Vedic principles to
intellectually empower its readers and would prepare the Hindu community (jati)
for the present struggle, which had become more and more intense every day. It
proclaimed two conditions for national progress: knowledge of ancient glory and
faith in the future. While upholding India’s spiritual past, in accordance with the
revivalist discourse of the time, it also argued that India declined because it com-
pletely ignored material progress. It criticised the Moderates and celebrated the
birth of the National Party, which aimed at Swadeshi, boycott of foreign goods,
national education and Swaraj. The last was interpreted as equivalent to praja
tantra, claiming it to be a Vedic notion.21
An article by ‘Verma’, focusing on the political atmosphere in UP, mentioned
successful lectures delivered by Bipin Chandra Pal and Bal Gangadhar Tilak in
Allahabad and Banaras, while it referred to the hooting that the moderate Madan
Mohan Malviya allegedly faced from audiences at public meetings.22 Karmayogi
borrowed articles from Tilak’s Kesari like those on ‘Egypt’s National Movement’
and ‘Tibetan Revolution’.23

17
  Letter from J.W. Hose, Chief Secretary, UP.
18
  Reported by Mukhbire Alam, Moradabad, February 1910.
19
  Letter from J.W. Hose.
20
  Karmayogi, 1st issue, August 1909, Bhopal: Madhav Sapre Sangrahalaya.
21
  Ibid.
22
  Ibid., 6th issue, November 1909.
23
  Ibid., 12th issue, February 1910.

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124 / Prabal Saran Agarwal

Sunderlal has referred to the direct influence of Aurobindo Ghosh on Karmayogi.

Indeed, its second issue carried an article from the latter’s Bengali periodical,
Karmayogin, apart from publishing a series of articles by him on his prison life.24
The translated article from Karmayogin was ‘Dharma Aur Rajniti’, which the
government found highly seditious.25 Aurobindo’s ‘commandment to Indians’
(Bharatvasiyon Ko Adesh) was also published some days later (December 1909).26
Hindu revivalism was an important part of Karmayogi’s political orientation
due to the impact of Lala Lajpat Rai and Arya Samaj on its editor Sunderlal. In
contrast to Swaraj’s criticism of the Hindu Sabha, several of Karmayogi’s issues
carried reports on Punjab Hindu Conference, which raised the issue of conversions
to Islam.27 The first issue of the periodical had a poem by Madhav Shukla on its
cover called ‘Shri Krishna Janma’, which prayed to the Lord to save Indians from
this hell in which they were forced to live.28

Revolution and Socialism

However, this revivalist fervour did not come in the way of debating on ideas from
the West. An article, ‘Bhaavi Viplav’ (Future Revolution), by Swami Satyadev,
who was in the USA at the time (1909), speaks about socialism.29 He argued that
revolution of the poor could be peaceful or violent but concluded that, right now,
there is lack of awareness among the poor masses in India, so that conditions for
the struggle for socialism are lacking. This was in tune with Swaraj’s concern for
the poor and its emphasis on their right to basic necessities of life. Another piece
‘Parivartan’ (Change) was more concerned with the question of violence and non-
violence.30 It criticised violent revolutions and called for prashant viplav (peaceful
revolution). The writer of ‘Jagat Gati’ (World Affairs) engaged with the form of
democracy India would eventually have:31

Europe’s democracy is satisfied with outward symbols of democracy....[Its]

biggest God is money. That’s why the rise of democracy in Europe has resulted
in increase in greed and selfishness of European nations. In contrast, India’s
democracy depends upon the high ideals of love and brotherhood. Our aim is not
national aggression; rather it is international equality, independence and peace.

24
  Ibid., 4th issue, October 1909.
25
  Letter from J.W. Hose.
26
  Karmayogi 8th issue, December 1909.
27
  Ibid., 5th issue, October 1909.
28
  Ibid., 1st issue, August 1909.
29
  Ibid., 9th issue, December 1909.
30
  Ibid., 10th issue, January 1910.
31
  Ibid., 15th issue, March 1910.

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 Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna: Revolutionary Propaganda in Colonial UP, 1907–27 / 125

While these lines could simply be read as nationalistic, this critique of Western
democracy might have been inspired by socialist ideas that started reaching the
Indian intelligentsia at this time through people like Satyadev and Hardayal.32
Sunderlal informs us that the works by William Digby, R.C. Dutt and Dadabhai
Naoroji were referred to in the pieces on economic matters published in Kar-
mayogi.33 There was also a piece on Mazzini and a series of articles on Russian
revolutionary movement.34 The latter narrates the heroism of a prominent Socialist-
Revolutionary Maria Spiridonova who assassinated Luzhenovsky, a Tsarist official,
in 1906. The importance of women’s participation in the national struggle is stressed
in another essay by Savitri Devi, daughter of the Hindi writer Balkrishna Bhatt.35
It is noteworthy that in the series on Spiridonova, the ‘revolutionary committee’
is translated as Pratyavartak Sabha or Society for Change, which is a counter to
the pejorative way in which the British authorities used the term ‘revolutionary’,
equating it with anti-social elements.36
Indian revolutionaries were referred to by British authorities as only arajak or
anarchists.37 In Karmayogi, they are covered in great detail. From reporting about
the publication of Bande Mataram from Switzerland; the erection of Kanhailal’s
statue in Bengal; reproducing Madan Lal Dhingra’s last letter; news of the arrest
of Swaraj’s editor Nand Gopal; to the proceedings of Alipore Bomb Case; sedition
case on Lala Lal Chand Falak and Sardar Swaran Singh; the activities of Ajit Singh,
Sufi Amba Prasad and Maulana Hasrat Mohani (who was linked to the revolution-
ary movement at this time); and arrest of revolutionary Purna Chandra Pakre by
Madras Police for establishing an anti-British society in Pondicherry, Karmayogi
tried to keep its readers well informed of the revolutionary activities in India and
abroad. It went to such details as openly questioning the official translation of
‘seditious’ writings during the trial of Falak and Singh. When reporting about the
judgement in the Nasik Murder Case, it underlined the fact that the convicts were
very happy and one of them, Anant Kanhare, said that he was extremely pleased
to lay down his life for the country.38
On its part, Karmayogi advocated legal methods to achieve its goals and, like
Swaraj, criticised violence in its very first issue. Sunderlal refers to the viewpoint
of one of the contributors to the periodical, the would-be historian, Tara Chand,
who was in agreement with the larger goal of revolution but disagreed with the use

32
   Emily Brown, Har Dayal: A Hindu Revolutionary and Rationalist (Delhi: Manohar Book Service,
1975), xiv.
33
  Sunderlal, Kaddavar, 34.
34
  Ibid., 2nd issue. September 1909.
35
  Ibid., 3rd issue. September 1909.
36
  Rowlatt, Sedition Committee Report, 26.
37
  Ibid., 16th issue, March 1910.
38
  Ibid.

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126 / Prabal Saran Agarwal

of violence.39 However, for most people associated with Karmayogi, disowning

violent means was just a precautionary step as is evident from their other activities.
The Allahabad circle of revolutionaries planned an attack on the Governor of UP,
and one of them, Nityanand Chatterji, carried it forward by throwing a bomb at
the local European club. which, however, missed its target.
The periodical came to an end in April 1910 when its publication was prohibited,
and its press was confiscated under the Indian Press Act, 1910, which was passed
ostensibly following the rapid spread of such publications in various parts of India.
After the ban on their newspapers, the UP revolutionaries shifted to pamphlets as
we will presently see. Despite their very brief lifespan, Karmayogi and Swaraj were
landmarks in the annals of revolutionary press. Their press also provided a meeting
point for various revolutionaries of Punjab, UP and Bengal. It was the first attempt
by revolutionaries to have a mouthpiece in Hindi and Urdu, although the Sedition
Committee Report downplays the reach of these periodicals.40 It is now known that
their publication played an important role in politicisation of many students and
young people of the province, some of whom later got involved in the revolution-
ary conspiracies of the Ghadar Party, while others went on to become prominent
leaders in the Congress when it came under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.41
C.A. Bayly recognises that although moderates continued to dominate Allahabad
politics, and a large proportion of Swaraj personnel was actually sent to Punjab,
the revolutionary propaganda of these periodicals, apart from other factors, was
able to introduce more radical ideas in the nationalist public sphere, which even
the moderates were forced to acknowledge.42

Matrivedi’s Propaganda for Armed Revolution

In Banaras, the Bengali revolutionist Sachindra Nath Sanyal established a health

club called Young Men’s Association as a means to recruit members for the under-
ground revolutionary movement of Bengal. But his cover was blown open in 1915
when he, along with his comrades, was arrested for inciting local Indian troops
against the British as a part of the larger Ghadar Party conspiracy. It was at this time
that Gendalal Dixit established the first independent secret societies in UP, which
had very little to do with the Bengal revolutionaries, viz. the Shivaji Samiti and the
Matrivedi (Altar of Mother), mobilising notorious dacoits (baghi) along with school
and college-going students of the Chambal region! Soon, these societies spread to

39
  Sunderlal, Kaddavar, 46.
40
  Rowlatt, Sedition Committee Report, 132.
41
  Shiv Kumar Mishra, Nishkam Karmyogi Pandit Sunder Lal (Delhi: Hindi Book Centre, 2012),
p. 43. Mishra, a close associate of Sunderlal, informs us that Acharya Narendra Dev, Ganesh Shankar
Vidyarthi, Shiv Prasad Gupta and Pandit Parmanand, all young men at this time, were frequent visitors
Karmayogi office.
42
  Bayly, The Local Roots of Indian Politics, 17.

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 Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna: Revolutionary Propaganda in Colonial UP, 1907–27 / 127

many districts of the province. Matrivedi published and distributed revolutionary

books and pamphlets, established libraries, which included proscribed literature,
and circulated texts within the select circle of society’s secret members and sym-
pathisers in various schools and colleges of the province. In 1916, its Shahjahanpur
in-charge Ram Prasad Bismil published a book America Ki Swatantrata Ka Itihas
and, two years later, wrote a very influential pamphlet called Deshwasiyon Ke Naam
Sandesh. The pamphlet was distributed and pasted extensively in many districts
of UP (forty-eight according to Bismil’s sister Shastri Devi)43 and was destined to
inspire an entire generation of future revolutionaries who were in their teens at this
time.44 Both the book and the pamphlet were proscribed by the UP government.
Bismil tried to distribute the book outside the province too and set up a stall at the
1918 Delhi session of the Congress. The Delhi administration also proscribed it.45
A number of Matrivedians were arrested by the police, eventually, and were
put on trial in the Mainpuri conspiracy case. Bismil was declared an absconder in
the case, and he came out of hiding only when a general amnesty was announced
by the government for all political offenders after the First World War. About the
book on America, the sessions judge in the Mainpuri case wrote:

This book openly incites Indians to follow the example of the Americans....
Foreign rule is said to be responsible for famine and all the other miseries of
India and the lesson is taught that it is no sin to take up the sword to attain
freedom. The approvers in the Benares conspiracy case are denounced as trai-
tors. European nations are vilified. It is said that it is their usual practice never
to shrink from committing any sort of sin, that to commit the foulest treachery
and deceive others is ordinary work for them and by such means the British
established their power in India. A rascal of the first water resident in England
considers himself supreme master of all Indians and the latter to be his slaves.
There is no middle path. Constitutional agitation is useless. When England did
not give liberty to her own kith and kin without struggles and bloodshed, how
can the black Indians having no connection with the English in blood hope to
get freedom from her? The book concludes with a poem containing such lines
as “we shall teach the destroyer of the garden to taste bitterly for the destruction
of the garden…. O murder, daily torment is not good, let me know when the
matter will be decided finally between you and me”.46

The book is dedicated to Bal Gangadhar Tilak. On the cover page is an image of
Bharat Mata holding a sword on which ‘Shakti’ is inscribed, and, in the other hand,

43
  Shastri Devi, ‘Mere Bhai Bismil’ in Ram Prasad Bismil, Atmakatha (Delhi: Atmaram & Sons,
1966).
44
  Jaidev Kapoor, and Shiv Verma, ‘Oral History Transcripts’ (Delhi Nehru Memorial Museum and
Library [NMML]).
45
  Shastri Devi, ‘Mere Bhai Bismil’, 55.
46
  Mainpuri Conspiracy Case Papers, Vol. 11, The Judgment. Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh State Archives.

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128 / Prabal Saran Agarwal

she is holding a book on which ‘Vidya’ is written. There are also portraits of Tilak
and Lala Lajpat Rai. However, it is the introduction that stands out. It declares,
at the outset, that freedom is natural to man, civilised or barbarian, and its seed is
planted in his soul. Slavery not only leads to permanent moral weakness in a nation,
but it also results in a sense of inferiority. John Stuart Mill is invoked to advocate
the natural law that one nation cannot rule over another. The imperialist nations
are criticised as people who claim to be civilised but are actually intoxicated by
the brute force of their armies. The author ridicules the ‘civilising mission’ of the
West by arguing that imperialists have no interest in civilising the subject peoples,
and it is their own economic and political interests, which determine their course
of conduct. It is declared that freedom requires willingness to be free, presence
of civic and national spirit, and self-reliance, which includes military strength to
fight freedom’s battle. It is the few determined souls, who can, first, win over the
masses, who, in turn, can emancipate the nation. Armed strength plays a decisive
role in the final battle.47
The rest of the book narrates the history of the American War of Independence.
Analogies are drawn with Indian history throughout the narrative. The writer argues
that where the masses are courageous and freedom-loving and the educated class
is politically aware, state repression fails to demoralise people and rather makes
them stand up. The spirit of freedom is celebrated and using the example of George
Washington, it is claimed that freedom is only achieved through broadening one’s
mindset. ‘Patriotism makes even the soul perfect’.48
As far as Deshvasiyon Ke Naam Sandesh is concerned, only excerpts from
the original pamphlet have survived,49 though its complete English translation is
available. A slogan ‘Kill the English and be Free’ was rubber-stamped on it, and
it was issued by ‘All India Revolutionary Committee’. The pamphlet begins with
these lines:

Brave men, go forward and capture Fort William,

How many Englishman are there? Quickly pick them up.

It is argued that ‘Muslims’ also oppressed India, but the British are worse. Due
to rampant poverty, people are forced to convert to Christianity. Armed struggle
is proclaimed as the only remedy. It is declared that the committee’s ‘goal is not
Swaraj but one of absolute independence’ from ‘yavana oppression’, which has
‘changed us from men to women’. Despite this misogynist language, the pamphlet
also called upon young women to participate in the struggle. It raised the slogan
of ‘India for the Indians’ to be achieved ‘not by constitutional means but by force
of arms’. It concluded with the call:
47
  Harivansh Sahai, America Ki Swatantrata Ka Itihas, Kanpur, 1916, MCC Papers, Sambandhit
Abhilekh.
48
  Ibid.
49
  Brahmachari Indra et al. eds. Kranti Ke Mandir Mein (Proscribed Publications, NAI).

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 Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna: Revolutionary Propaganda in Colonial UP, 1907–27 / 129

Let all Indians now declare with one voice,

Henceforth Hindustan shall be a real Hindustan.50

A tract published by Swadeshi Tract Society of Allahabad, in 1907, Bharatvarsh Ki

Dasha Aur Hamara Kartavya was also distributed by the Matrivedians. The tract
spoke of the ‘glorious Hindu history’ and decried the ‘Muslim invasion’. It under-
lined the plight of the peasantry under the British in some detail and used data from
Ganesh Sakharam Deuskar’s Desher Katha. The book powerfully explained the
economic destruction of India by the British, basing itself on the writings of Dutt,
Naoroji and Digby. This, translated in Hindi as Desh Ki Baat, became the bible of
UP revolutionaries.51
Another work circulated by Matrivedi, Coolie Pratha, is a Hindi play written
by ‘Laxman’, husband of the renowned poet Subhadra Kumari Chauhan. It was
proscribed by the government. It is based on the indentured labour system in Fiji.
Written from a nationalist perspective, it exposes the nexus among the colonial
government, European planters and Indian collaborators. The play lays emphasis
on the economic, social and cultural miseries of the ‘coolies’ and the fraudulent
methods of their recruitment. It criticises the mendicant policies of prayer and
appeal and unhesitatingly comes out in support of violence. However, the writer
also appreciates Gandhi and advocates formation of societies and organising the
masses for abolishing the system altogether.52
Indentured labour was an important issue in the nationalist public sphere of
the time and Bismil and his comrades took up the cause of its abolition. A poem
composed by Shiv Krishna, leader of the Matrivedi in Mainpuri district, translated
as The Determination of the Sons of the Soil, declared, ‘I shall arm myself with a
sword to stop indentured labour’.53
Mazzini’s Duties of Man was also popular among Matrivedians, and the Hindi
translation, which they circulated, was called Manushya Ke Kartavya Ka Parichay.
It insisted that the primary duties of man are to discover God, to have love and
sympathy for all humanity, to love one’s country and serve one’s family. The text
proclaimed that mere freedom and political rights do not bring prosperity to the
toiling masses. Rights are of little use when wealth is concentrated in few hands,
and profit is cornered by a few. Elites make fool out of people, by using them in
the revolution for their own vested interests, using the discourse of rights. What if
one’s rights contradict those of others? How will there be equality if there is right
to property? How can one be asked to sacrifice his life for humanity if the right to
life is sacrosanct?54

50
  MCC Papers, Judgement.
51
  Manmathnath Gupta, Bhartiya Krantikari Andolan Ka Itihas (Delhi: Atmaram & Sons, 2009).
52
  Laxman, Coolie Pratha (Kanpur, 1916) Mainpuri Conspiracy Case Exhibits (Lucknow: Uttar
Pradesh State Archives).
53
  MCC Papers, Judgement.
54
  Mazzini, Manushya Ke Kartavya Ka Parichay (Kanpur, 1914) Mainpuri Conspiracy Case Exhibits
(Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh State Archives).

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130 / Prabal Saran Agarwal

The members of the revolutionary society used to sing nationalist songs in public,
especially among students in hostels and classrooms. One of them, Kali Charan,
composed a piece in English:

Sleep no more my country dear,

Begin the work the time is near.
Get up and rise, do not forget,
Come play the man, fight with the fate.
Delay no more my friend, for shame,
Join the revolutionist in the country’s name.55

One poem recited by the revolutionaries was addressed to ‘Hindus, Mohammedans

and Buddhists’, asking them to make a ‘vow to purchase swadeshi articles only’,
while another poem exhorted them to make war on the British.56
In 1919, Bismil privately initiated the publication of a series of books to be
translated from Bengali into Hindi that he called Sushil Mala, which was a popular
trend at this time and also commercially beneficial. He translated a book on Russian
revolutionary movement called Nihilisto-Rahasya and published it as Bolshevikon
Ki Kartoot. It is significant that Indian revolutionaries held their Russian counter-
parts in such high regard, even though their struggle was not about resistance to a
foreign power but was, instead, a fight against ‘internal’ exploiters—Tsar and the
nobility. At this stage, however, they made no distinction between Narodniks and
Bolsheviks. At the same time, Bismil published a compilation of poems called
Man Ki Lahar, which had compositions on a variety of themes by different Urdu
and Hindi poets, but a majority of them were anti-colonial, including the famous
Sarfarsohi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai.57 He also wrote a brief life sketch
of Matrivedi’s founder Gendalal Dixit, in 1924 in Prabha, a monthly periodical
published from Kanpur using the pseudonym ‘Agyat’.58

Peasant Agitations and Popular Nationalism

During 1919–1920, the Rowlatt Satyagraha and beginning of Non-cooperation

Movement led to the spread of nationalist activities among the poorer classes and
to large-scale mass mobilisations. At the same time, there emerged a peasants’
movement in UP, partly due to abnormal price rise and food shortage immediately
after the war. Student and youth participation in the nationalist campaigns in the
province was unprecedented in its scale, and many future revolutionaries became

55
  MCC Papers, Judgement.
56
  Ibid.
57
  Ramprasad Bismil, Man Ki Lahar (Proscribed Publications, NAI).
58
  See the article in Dinesh Sharma, and Asha Joshi, eds. Ramprasad ‘Bismil’ Rachnavali (Delhi:
Vani Prakashan, 1997).

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 Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna: Revolutionary Propaganda in Colonial UP, 1907–27 / 131

Congress workers at this time. Some like Shiv Varma also participated in the mili-
tant peasant movements.59 Workers’ organisations also emerged and became very
important in industrial cities. Many new volunteer bodies were formed, and old
sewa samitis got a new life. Bismil and his friend Ashfaqullah Khan (who played a
great role in winning him over from Hindu revivalism to secularism) participated in
the Non-cooperation Movement and campaigned and delivered speeches at Hardoi,
Shahjahanpur, Bareilly and Pilibhit.60
In the same context, Bismil’s writings—Catherine and Swadeshi Rang—were
published in 1922. The former was an adaptation of the book The Little Grandmother
of the Russian Revolution in Hindi. It was a biography of Catherine Breshkovsky,
also known as Babushka, another Russian Socialist-Revolutionary. Bismil nar-
rates the courage and selflessness of Catherine very passionately and also gives
a detailed description of the poor conditions of the peasantry in tsarist Russia.61
Swadeshi Rang was a collection of Hindi and Urdu poems by Bismil and other
contemporary poets that mainly stressed the cause of indigenous manufacture and
boycott of foreign goods.62

Spreading the ‘New’ Revolutionary Message

The popular mass movements of the period had a transformative impact on

the intelligentsia of the province, but some of them soon began to believe that
the Congress leadership was not really sincere about the issues of peasants
and workers, and the withdrawal of non-cooperation was a signal that, even
to challenge the British, some other path had to be followed. From 1923, there
were efforts to organise a new revolutionary party in UP from two directions.
Manmathnath Gupta, a comrade of Bismil, explains that Banaras-based Sanyal,
who was released from jail, formulated a new programme for the revolutionary
movement based on recent developments and, at the same time, activists were
being sent by Bengal’s Anushilan Samiti to organise a group in UP.63 Both the
factions came together, calling themselves Hindustan Republican Association
(HRA), and Bismil also accepted the invitation to join the new party. By October
1924, the number of members of the secret party in UP was around 100.64 Bismil
became the top leader of the party after the arrest of Sanyal and Jogesh Chatterjee,
the representative of Anushilan.

59
  Kapoor and Verma, Oral History Transcripts.
60
  Indra, et al., Kranti Ke Mandir Mein.
61
  Ramprasad Bismil, ‘Catherine Ya Swadhinta Ki Devi’, in Ramprasad ‘Bismil’ Rachnavali, Sharma
et al., eds.
62
  Shastri Devi, ‘Mere Bhai Bismil’, 68.
63
  Manmathnath Gupta, Oral History Transcripts (Nehru Memorial Museum and Library [NMML]).
64
  ‘Programme with J.C. Chattarji:’ Kakori Conspiracy Case Papers, English B, Vol. 30, Lucknow:
UPSA.

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132 / Prabal Saran Agarwal

A change came in the revolutionary programme, following the mass awakening

in the Non-cooperation Movement and the success of the Russian Revolution. The
need for mass-based politics was recognised. Detailed discussion on propaganda is
found in the HRA programme, which provided for both public and secret activities.65
The public element consisted of establishing associations, clubs, libraries, sewa
samitis, peasant and labour organisations, issuing a weekly paper in every province,
publishing booklets and pamphlets about currents of thought outside India, and
utilising and influencing the Congress. Secret activities consisted of establishing a
secret press, circulating literature, establishing branches of HRA in every district,
collecting funds, sending men to foreign lands to get military or scientific training in
preparation of open rebellion, importing arms and ammunition and manufacturing
them in the country, cooperating with Indian revolutionaries outside India, enlisting
members from the army, getting sympathy of the public by occasional retaliatory
measures and creating sympathisers. In a meeting in October 1924, the following
immediate steps in the way of propaganda were decided upon:
1. to set up a campaign against official CID (Civil Intelligence Department)
activities;
2. to set up a campaign against repressive laws and measures;
3. to criticise Congress activities that hinder the work of the association;
4. to preach social revolutionary ideas and communistic principles; and
5. to collect stories, episodes and other materials for publication.66
Gupta thus explains the overall policy of HRA:

Of course, the ordinary masses could not come directly into a secret movement,
because they were not wanted there, but no revolutionary movement can thrive
without their sympathies.... we always wanted publicity, because without public,
without appeal to the masses, without the coming of the masses to our aid, we
could not succeed in anything.... In Bengal, revolutionary movement emerged
out of mass movement.... [It was only due to repression that societies’ open life
came to an end. But the revolutionary movement never stopped] whereas in
those places where it was planted or had taken roots only among the youth, it
always suffered a setback whenever there was a government attack.67

The sessions judge in the Kakori Conspiracy Case, in which many HRA leaders were
subsequently put under trial, referred to a letter by Bismil to a comrade asking for
books ‘mostly of communist ideas’. He claims that some books circulated by the
revolutionaries were most ‘seditious’ and proscribed, some were ‘harmless’, but all
dealt with ‘independence’ or ‘tyranny’.68 Sanyal’s autobiography Bandi Jivan and

65
  ‘Constitution and Programme of HRA’, Ibid.
66
  KCC, Sessions Judgement.
67
  Gupta, ‘Oral History Transcripts’.
68
  KCC, Sessions Judgement.

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 Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna: Revolutionary Propaganda in Colonial UP, 1907–27 / 133

Sarat Chandra’s novel on revolutionary movement, Pather Dabi, were serialised in

a Bengali magazine from Calcutta, and both went on to become textbooks for the
revolutionaries. Bandi Jivan was also translated into Hindi and the notice issued by
Sanyal’s younger brother informing the people of its publication openly celebrated
the revolutionary movement.69 When Ashfaqullah was arrested, The Manifesto of
the Communist Party was found with him, and HRA Jhansi in-charge, S.N. Bakshi,
was captured with the Communist leader M.N. Roy’s Appeal to the Nationalists.70
The sessions judge in the Kakori trial also mentioned the existence of a secret
press, which was evident from HRA’s yellow and white leaflets (its manifesto and
constitution) and a catalogue of books, many copies of which were found with
Sanyal, but none of which bore the name of a press.71 Sanyal was arrested for the
publication of the party’s manifesto, The Revolutionary, which was distributed in
many districts of North India on a single day in January 1925. Most historians have
argued that the document shows a half-baked understanding of socialism.72 Some
have even argued that the Russian Revolution had an influence only because it was
thought that the new anti-imperialist regime would provide Indian revolutionaries
with arms and ammunition.73 While this might have been true for some groups, it
is clear that the Revolution led to real debates among the Indian revolutionaries.
While some wanted to continue with the nationalist ideology and Irish technique
of individual violence, others came out in favour of fomenting mass upsurge and
propagating a socialist ideology.74 The Revolutionary laid emphasis on universal
adult franchise, right to recall elected representatives, federalism, nationalisation
of railways, mines and heavy industry, and international character of the revolu-
tionary movement. It laid out the party’s objectives as putting an end to exploita-
tion of man by man.75 Sanyal argues that he did not use the word socialism as it
would have alienated the propertied class.76 Two of HRA pamphlets, Formation
of Young India and How to Rise were recovered from Calcutta on 10 November
1925. They were concerned with the issue of organisation-building to achieve the
goal of independence.77
During this period, Bismil also wrote another book called Krantikari Jivan
(Revolutionary Lives) but was unable to get it published. Parts of the book appeared

69
  Gupta, ‘Oral History Transcripts’.
70
  Supplementary Kakori Case Special Sessions Judgement, UPSA.
71
  KCC, Sessions Judgement.
72
  Habib, To Make the Deaf Hear.
73
  David Laushey, Bengal Terrorism and the Marxist Left: Aspects of Regional Nationalism in India
(Kolkata: Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 1975).
74
  S.N. Mazumdar, In Search of a Revolutionary Ideology and a Revolutionary Programme (Delhi:
People’s Pub. House, 1979), 100–237.
75
  ‘Manifesto of the HRA’, KCC Papers, Judgement, UPSA.
76
   S.N. Sanyal, Bandi Jeevan (Delhi: Atmaram and Sons, 1963).
77
  GOI Home Poll File No. 387/1925, NAI, Delhi.

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134 / Prabal Saran Agarwal

as articles in various periodicals between 1922 and 1926. Bismil stated during the
Kakori trial:

I had many articles printed in the Aaj and Vartman [important nationalist dailies
published from Banaras & Kanpur respectively]78 about Sheo Charan Lal and
Srijut Chandardhar Jauhari who had been convicted in the Mainpuri Case and
then pardoned. They had been rearrested in Non-Cooperation days and made to
serve their sentence without any reason being given. I declared this action illegal
and due to vengeance by the CID .… [I] printed articles about the innocence
of youth implicated by the police .… Then I wrote in the Parbha [Prabha] a
monthly magazine a life of Genda Lal accused in the Mainpuri conspiracy case
in which I criticized the doings of the CID in the Mainpuri Conspiracy Case .…
I wrote very severe words against the CID, UP in that article.79

Bismil used the pseudonyms of ‘Ram’ and ‘Agyat’ and wrote articles in periodicals,
which included life sketches of nationalists like Motilal Ghosh, Sufi Amba Prasad,
Nalini Kant Bagchi, review of some books and a piece on guerrilla warfare.80
After Bismil’s execution in 1927, two more of his writings were published. His
autobiography was smuggled out of the jail and was published as Kakori Ke Shaheed
by the Pratap Press. It was proscribed by the provincial government. Nevertheless,
many versions of the book appeared from time to time and were widely distributed.
The other book by Bismil was Kranti Geetanjali, which was published by Laxman
‘Pathik’ of Delhi in 1931. It contained a compilation of Hindi and Urdu revolution-
ary poems, many of which were written by Bismil himself.
Despite the influence of the Russian Revolution, HRA relied on members of
the middle class for the revolution and regarded workers and peasants as foot
soldiers. However, a drastic shift came within two years when Bismil changed his
views in his autobiography, being now highly disillusioned with educated youth.
Ultimately, Bhagat Singh and his comrades recognised workers and peasants as
the true revolutionary forces. Also, the revolutionary propaganda no longer talked
about Hindu revivalism but rather focused on communal unity. HRA revolutionaries
had played a critical role in this transition. The propaganda efforts of Bismil and
others like him paved the way for a powerful revolutionary nationalist and socialist
movement in the United Provinces for years to come.81

78
  Pandey, The Ascendancy of Congress in Uttar Pradesh, 78.
79
  Statement of Bismil, Kakori Case, English A, Vol. 14, UPSA.
80
  Sharma and Joshi, Ramprasad ‘Bismil’ Rachnavali.
81
  Bipan Chandra, India’s Struggle for Independence (Delhi: Penguin Books, 1989), 259.

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