| Popis: |
"This conspiracy is the legitimate descendant of a series of conspiracies which have taken place from time to time (in North India) and which were originally organised by Hardayal in 1907 and 1908" This assertion, the opening statement in the police prosecutor's summing up of his evidence in the second Lahore Conspiracy Case on September 2nd 1930, could equally well serve to introduce this study. The picture it conjures up of a revolutionary movement showing considerable continuity over a thirty year period is essentially an accurate one, though the writer would dispute the claim that Hardayal was its sole progenitor. It is this movement that forms the subject matter of the present thesis. The scale of the movement was modest enough within the overall context of nationalist politics in North India. In between 1905 and 1935 approximately five hundred persons were prosecuted for revolutionary activities in ten major political conspiracy trials. Those actually brought to trial represented, of course, only the tip of the iceberg as far as the total number of people involved in-revolutionary politics was concerned. Many more escaped detection or else were considered by the police to be too insignificant to warrant prosecution. Probably the real figure was somewhere near five thousand, though it is impossible to give a truly precise estimate owing to difficulties with regard to the sources, which will be discussed in due course. |
