Revolutionary nationalism took two parallel tracks — Indians organising abroad through the Ghadar Party, and armed secret societies at home like the Anushilan Samiti.
Founded in 1913 in San Francisco by Indian immigrants — mainly Punjabi Sikh labourers and students — under leaders like Lala Har Dayal and Sohan Singh Bhakna, the Ghadar ("Mutiny") Party aimed to overthrow British rule through armed revolt, publishing the newspaper Ghadar to spread its message across the diaspora. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Ghadar activists returned to India expecting to trigger a mass uprising and incite mutiny among Indian soldiers, but the plan — betrayed by informers and poorly coordinated — collapsed before it could gain momentum, leading to mass arrests.
Emerging in Bengal in the early 1900s from earlier physical-culture and "anushilan" (self-discipline) societies, the Anushilan Samiti became the main vehicle for armed revolutionary nationalism in eastern India, later splitting into Dhaka and Calcutta branches. It trained members in physical fitness, weapons handling and secret cell organisation, and was linked to political assassinations and conspiracy cases targeting British officials, most famously the Alipore Bomb Case (1908) involving Khudiram Bose and Barindra Ghosh.
APPSC tests the geography of revolutionary nationalism — Ghadar as a diaspora-driven, North America-based movement timed to WWI, versus Anushilan Samiti as a home-grown Bengal secret society rooted in the Swadeshi-era backlash. Both predate the HSRA of the 1920s, which continues this revolutionary tradition into the Gandhian era.
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