The Kakori case was a major setback to the revolutionaries of northern India, but it was not a fatal blow. Younger men such as Bejoy Kumar Sinha, Shiv Varma and Jaidev Kapur in U.P., Bhagat Singh, Bhagwati Charan Vohra and Sukhdev in Punjab set out to reorganize the HRA under the overall leadership of Chandrashekhar Azad.
Finally nearly all the major young revolutionaries of northern India met a Ferozeshah Kotla Ground at Delhi on 9 and 10 September 1928, created a new collective leadership adopted socialism as their official goal and changed the name of the party to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (Army).
Azad elected commander-in-chief. The revolutionaries adopted socialism as their ultimate goal. The HSRA’s manifesto titled ‘Philosophy of the Bomb’ was written by Bhagwati Charan Vohra.
The socialist leanings voiced in the earlier HRA manifesto had gradually moved more towards Marxism and the HSRA spoke of a revolution involving a struggle by the masses.
Even though the HSRA and its leadership was rapidly moving from individual heroic actions towards mass politics, Lala Lajpat Rai’s death at Lahore on 30 October 1928, led them once again to take to individual assassination.
The HSRA leadership now decided to let the people know about their changed objectives and the need for a revolution by the masses.
Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt were asked to throw a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly on 8 April 1929.
The objective was to get arrested and to use trial court as a forum for propaganda so that people would become familiar with their movement and ideology. Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt were tried in the Assembly Bomb Case.
Their fearless and defiant attitude in the courts – every day they entered the court-room shouting slogans ‘Inquilab Zindabad,’ ‘Down, Down with Imperialism,’ and singing songs such as ‘Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hain’ and ‘Mera rang de basanti chola’ won them the support and sympathy of people all over the country including those who had complete faith in non-violence.
Bhagat Singh became a household name all over India.
314. HRA to HSRA | Rise of Bhagat Singh
