Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) 1924

Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) was a revolutionary organization of India established in 1924 at village Bholachang in East Bengal by Sachindra Nath Sanyal, Narendra Mohan Sen and Pratul Ganguly as an offshoot of Anushilan Samiti. Its objective was to establish a “Federated Republic of the United States of India” through an organized and armed revolution.

Background

Mahatma Gandhi had created a wave of dissatisfaction among the revolutionaries by a sudden suspension of the Non-Cooperation Movement. So these decisions disillusioned many young men who were full of energy to fight the Government. These young men did not like the theory of nonviolence. They had confidence that the British can be thrown out of the country by using of force and violence. At the same time, there were uprisings in other parts of world and one could witness a number of bloody revolutions and coupe de etat around the word. The result was that the old Yugantar and Anushilan samiti got awaken and a new breed of terroristic kind of revolutionaries emerged from the unenthusiastic and unsatisfied Non-cooperators.

In the village of Bholachang in East Bengal, there was meeting between some of these young men viz. Sachindra Nath Sanyal, Narendra Mohan Sen, Pratul Ganguly. Here, they established an offshoot to the Anushilan samiti. The name was chosen as Hindustan Republican Association on the lines of Irish Republican Army. The manifesto of this revolutionary organization was “The Revolutionary“.

Objective and Tactics

• The Objective of the HRA was to establish “Federated Republic of the United States of India” through an organized armed revolution”
• The tactics of HRA were killing the officials; organize political dacoties to raise funds, terrorism among the British and British loyalists and strikes against the raj.
• Despite being a revolutionary terrorist organization {the term terrorist was not derogatory in those days as compared to today}, the perspective of the HRA was socialistic and it wanted to establish a United States of India by deposing the British.

The idea attracted the young champions; some immediately joined the organization were Bhagat Singh, ChandraShekhar Azad, Sukhdev, Ram Prasad Bismil, Roshan Singh, Ashfaqulla Khan, Rajendra Lahiri and many others. The first organized robbery of this group was the Kakori Train Conspiracy.