1897 – The assassination of Plague Commissioners Rand and Ayerst
The Chapekar Brothers, Damodar Hari Chapekar, Balkrishna Hari Chapekar, and Vasudeo Hari Chapekar were Indian revolutionaries involved in assassinating W. C. Rand, the British Plague Commissioner of Pune. Mahadev Vinayak Ranade was also an accomplice in the assassination.
When the bubonic plague hit India in 1896–97, the government had set up a Special Plague Committee for managing the pandemic, whose commissioner was Walter Charles Rand, an Indian Civil Services officer. Rand's efforts to control the plague in Pune were considered tyrannical and brutal by many, including Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The people of Pune complained about the oppressive measures, but Rand ignored their concerns.
The brothers shot Rand and Ayerst while they were returning from the Diamond Jubilee celebrations at Government House. Ayerst died immediately, and Rand died from his wounds on July 3, 1897. The Chapekar brothers and two accomplices were charged with the murders, and all three brothers were found guilty and hanged. One accomplice was also hanged, and another was sentenced to ten years in prison.
This event is considered the first manifestation of militant nationalism in India after the 1857 Revolt. The sacrifice of the Chapekar brothers inspired many, including Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
1908 – Attempt to murder Kingsford
On April 30, 1908, Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki tried to assassinate Chief Presidency Magistrate Douglas Kingsford of Muzaffarpur, India by throwing a bomb at his carriage.
The revolutionaries threw a bomb at Kingsford's carriage, but the vehicle was carrying the wife and daughter of a local congressman instead. Both women were killed in the blast and Kingsford escaped the attack. Khudiram Bose was arrested by Indian British police officer Nandalal Banerjee. Prafulla Chaki committed suicide when he was about to be arrested. Khudiram Bose was hanged on August 11, 1908. At the time of his hanging, Khudiram was 18 years, 8 months, and 8 days, 10 hours old making him the second youngest revolutionary in India.
However, denouncing the violence and lamenting the deaths of the two innocent women, Mahatma Gandhi stated "that the Indian people will not win their freedom through these methods."
Bal Gangadhar Tilak, in his newspaper Kesari, defended the two young men and called for immediate swaraj.
The Muzaffarpur Jail where Khudiram Bose was executed was later renamed the Khudiram Bose Memorial Central Jail.
1908 – Alipour Bomb Case
The case is often associated with Aurobindo Ghose, a prominent nationalist leader, and his brother Barindra Kumar Ghose. The Ghose brothers, along with other revolutionaries. The revolutionaries involved were members of a secret revolutionary organization called ‘Anushilan Samiti,’ a secret bomb factory opened by Hemchandra Kanungo at Maniktala near Kolkata.
The Alipore Bomb Case came to light after the revolutionaries attempted to assassinate a British magistrate, Kingsford of Muzaffarpur, by throwing a bomb. On April 30, 1908, two young revolutionaries, Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki, mistakenly targeted a carriage, killing two British women instead of Kingsford. Following this incident, a massive crackdown was initiated by the British authorities. Over 30 revolutionaries, including Aurobindo Ghose, Barindra Ghose, and other members of the Anushilan Samiti, were arrested and charged with sedition and conspiracy to wage war against the British Crown. The trial took place at Alipore Sessions Court, hence the name "Alipore Bomb Case."
Outcome of the case:
The trial lasted for a year, and many revolutionaries were sentenced to varying degrees of punishment.
Khudiram Bose was hanged for his involvement, becoming one of the youngest martyrs of the freedom struggle.
Prafulla Chaki committed suicide to avoid arrest.
Aurobindo Ghose, who was a key figure in the trial, was defended by the eminent lawyer Chittaranjan Das and was eventually acquitted due to lack of evidence.
Barindra Ghose and other revolutionaries were sentenced to life imprisonment or deported to the Andaman Cellular Jail.
1909 – Murder of District Magistrate Jackson
On December 21, 1909, Anant Laxman Kanhere shot and killed Arthur Mason Tippetts Jackson. The assassination was a direct challenge to British rule and is known as the "Nasik Conspiracy Case".
Arthur Mason Tippetts Jackson, the District Magistrate of Nashik
Anant Laxman Kanhere, an Indian independence fighter and member of the Abhinav Bharat society
The assassination takes place at the Vijayanand Theater while Jackson is watching the play, Sangeet Sharada
Anant Laxman Kanhere was hanged in Thane Prison on April 19, 1910, at the age of 18
In addition to Kanhere, Krishnaji Gopal Karve and Vinayak Ramchandra Deshpande were also involved in the plot and were subsequently hanged.
1909 – Murder of Curzon Willie
William Hutt Curzon Wyllie was assassinated in London on the evening of 1 July 1909 by Madan Lal Dhingra at the Imperial Institute, South Kensington, where he and his wife were attending an event of the National Indian Association.
Dhingra was an Indian student at the University of London who was a member of India House and The Indian Sociologist. Dhingra fired at Curzon Wyllie with a revolver, killing him instantly.
Dr Cawas Lalcaca (a Parsi physician from Shanghai) was mortally wounded because he attempted to come to Wyllie's aid and stop Dhingra.
Dhingra was sentenced to death in July 1909 and hanged at Pentonville Prison on 17 August 1909.
1912 – Delhi bomb case / Hardinge bomb case
On December 23, 1912, a bomb was thrown at the elephant carriage of Lord Hardinge, who was leading a grand procession in Delhi to mark the transfer of the British Indian capital from Calcutta to Delhi. The procession was part of the ceremonial entry into Delhi, as Delhi was becoming the new seat of the British government in India.
The bomb, thrown by a revolutionary from a rooftop, severely injured Lord Hardinge, who was riding in the howdah of the elephant. His back was badly wounded, but he survived the assassination attempt. Unfortunately, his mahout (elephant driver) was killed in the blast, and several others were injured.
The assassination attempt was orchestrated by Rash Behari Bose, a prominent revolutionary leader associated with the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) and the Ghadar Movement.
Bose, along with his associates such as Basanta Kumar Biswas, Sachin Sanyal, and Amarendra Chatterjee, played a key role in planning the attack.
Aftermath of the incident, a massive manhunt was launched by the British authorities to capture the culprits behind the attack. Basanta Kumar Biswas was arrested, tried, and eventually hanged in 1915 for his role in the bombing. Rash Behari Bose, who masterminded the plot, managed to evade capture and fled to Japan, where he continued his revolutionary activities.
Rash Behari Bose became a key figure in the Indian revolutionary movement. He later played a major role in organizing the Indian National Army (INA) in collaboration with Japan during World War II, before handing over leadership to Subhas Chandra Bose.
Later The Delhi Government built the Shaheed Smarak Sathal to honor the martyrs at the site of the Old Delhi Jail's "Phansi Ghar"
1925 – Kakori train robbery case
It was a train robbery that took place at Kakori, a village near Lucknow, on 9 August 1925, organized by Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqullah Khan who were members of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) to loot the government treasury on the train to fund the activities of HRA and to make a political statement against British oppression.
One passenger Ahmad Ali was killed in an unintentional discharge by Manmathnath Gupta.
Following the incident, the British administration started an intense manhunt and arrested several of the revolutionaries who were members or part of the HRA. Their leader, Ram Prasad Bismil was arrested at Shahjahanpur on 26 October 1925 and Ashfaqullah Khan was arrested on 7 December 1926 at Delhi.
1928 – Murder of Sanders
In 1928, the British government set up the Simon Commission to propose constitutional reforms in India. However, the commission did not include any Indian members, which outraged Indian leaders and the public. Nationwide protests erupted under the slogan "Simon Go Back." Lala Lajpat Rai, a prominent nationalist leader, led a peaceful protest against the Simon Commission on October 30, 1928 in Lahore. The British police, under the supervision of James A. Scott, used heavy force to disperse the protesters. In the chaos, Scott ordered a brutal lathi charge on the crowd, and Lala Lajpat Rai was grievously injured. He succumbed to his injuries on November 17, 1928.
Bhagat Singh, along with fellow revolutionaries Sukhdev Thapar, Shivaram Rajguru, and Chandrashekhar Azad, decided to take revenge for Lala Lajpat Rai's death by assassinating James A. Scott. The goal was to send a strong message to the British that the revolutionaries would not tolerate oppression. On December 17, 1928, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev carried out the assassination plan in Lahore. However, due to mistaken identity, they shot and killed John P. Saunders, a British police officer, instead of James A. Scott.
After the murder, the revolutionaries escaped and on April 8, 1929, they threw two bombs at Delhi's central legislative assembly and were arrested. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev were sentenced to death and hanged in Lahore prison on March 23, 1931. This day is now commemorated annually as Shaheed Diwas (Martyrs' Day).
1929 – Assembly bomb case
The Central Legislative Assembly bombing incident occurred on April 8, 1929, when Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi to protest against the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Dispute Act. The two men threw bombs from the visitor's gallery while shouting slogans like "Inquilab Zindabad" and "Workers of the World Unite". They then voluntarily surrendered to the police. The trial began in May 1929, and both men were sentenced to life imprisonment in June.
1930 – Chittagong Armoury Raid
The Chittagong Armoury Raid, also known as the Chittagong Uprising, was meticulously planned by Surya Sen. The plan aimed to seize control of the British armory in Chittagong, a strategic point in Bengal, to disrupt British control and ignite a nationwide uprising.
On the night of April 18, 1930, Surya Sen and his group of about 65 revolutionaries launched a coordinated attack on the two main armories in Chittagong, which housed arms and ammunition for the British Indian police and military. They successfully captured the police armory, but the revolutionaries were unable to locate any firearms or ammunition in the second armory because the stock of weapons had been moved. Nevertheless, they managed to cut off the city's telegraph and telephone communications and destroyed some railway lines. After the raid, the revolutionaries hoisted the Indian national flag and declared the establishment of a provisional revolutionary government in Chittagong.
Following the raid, the revolutionaries retreated to the Jalalabad hills on the outskirts of Chittagong. The British soon responded with a heavy crackdown, sending a large contingent of troops to pursue them. A fierce battle ensued on April 22, 1930, between the revolutionaries and the British forces in Jalalabad, around 12 revolutionaries were killed, and several others were arrested.
Surya Sen and some of his comrades managed to escape and went underground, continuing their revolutionary activities.
After evading capture for nearly three years, Surya Sen was betrayed by a confidant and arrested by the British in February 1933. He was brutally tortured in custody and eventually hanged on January 12, 1934. His close associate, Tarekeshwar Dastidar, was also hanged alongside him.
Apart from Surya Sen, the Chittagong uprising involved many notable revolutionaries, including Kalpana Datta, Pritilata Waddedar, Ananta Singh, Lokenath Bal, and Ganesh Ghosh.
Pritilata Waddedar later became a martyr when she led an attack on a European club in Chittagong in 1932 and consumed cyanide to avoid capture.
1940 – Murder of Michael O’Dwyer
The murder of Michael O'Dwyer in 1940 was one of the most prominent acts of revolutionary revenge in India's struggle for independence. It was carried out by Udham Singh, an Indian revolutionary who sought justice for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.
Background – Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (1919): On April 13, 1919, British troops, under the command of General Reginald Dyer, fired on a peaceful gathering of unarmed Indian civilians at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab. This brutal event resulted in the deaths of hundreds (official British records list about 379 dead, though Indian estimates place the figure much higher, possibly over 1,000). The massacre was ordered by General Dyer but was strongly defended by Michael O'Dwyer, the then Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, who had approved Dyer's actions. O'Dwyer viewed the massacre as a necessary measure to suppress anti-colonial agitation in Punjab, which further inflamed Indian nationalist sentiment.
Udham Singh, who was present in Punjab during the massacre, witnessed the aftermath and vowed revenge. The horrific event had a profound impact on him, and he made it his life's mission to seek justice for the victims. After years of planning, Udham Singh decided to target Michael O'Dwyer, as he considered him one of the principal figures responsible for the massacre.
On March 13, 1940, Udham Singh carried out his plan in London, nearly 21 years after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
O'Dwyer was attending a meeting at Caxton Hall in Westminster, London, where prominent British figures were speaking on the subject of British foreign policy. As the meeting ended, Udham Singh, who had concealed a revolver in a book, approached O'Dwyer and fired two shots at close range, killing him on the spot. Two other British officials were injured in the attack, but Singh’s target was solely O'Dwyer.
After the assassination: Udham Singh was sentenced to death for the murder of O'Dwyer. He was hanged on July 31, 1940, at Pentonville Prison in London. Before his execution, Singh famously proclaimed, "I am not afraid to die. I am dying for my country." His fearless stance and determination made him a martyr and a national hero in India.
Legacy: In 1962, the Indian government honored him posthumously by renaming a district in Punjab as Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar.