Trials of the Freedom Struggle

1897

Tilak's First Sedition Trial

What is "disaffection"?

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was tried for sedition over articles in his newspaper Kesari. Justice Arthur Strachey directed the jury that "disaffection" meant the absence of affection, so that exciting any bad feeling towards the government was sedition. Tilak was sentenced to eighteen months' rigorous imprisonment. The broad reading influenced sedition law for decades.

• Eighteen months' imprisonment.
• Justice Strachey: disaffection means absence of affection.

1908

Tilak's Second Sedition Trial

"There are higher powers"

Tried again for sedition over Kesari articles after a bomb attack at Muzaffarpur, Tilak defended himself before Justice Dinshaw Davar in the Bombay High Court. He was convicted by a jury and sentenced to six years' transportation, served in Mandalay, Burma. His words after the verdict — that there are higher powers that rule the destiny of men and nations, and that the cause he represented may prosper more by his suffering than by his remaining free — are inscribed on a plaque in the courtroom.

• Judge: Dinshaw Davar.
• Six years in Mandalay.
• His words are inscribed at the Bombay High Court.

1916

Tilak's Third Trial: Jinnah for the Defence

An acquittal

In 1916 Tilak was again prosecuted, this time under the preventive sections of the Criminal Procedure Code, for speeches about Home Rule. Muhammad Ali Jinnah represented him, and the Bombay High Court set aside the order against him.

• Defended by M.A. Jinnah.

1908–1909

The Alipore Bomb Case

Aurobindo Ghose and C.R. Das

After the Muzaffarpur bombing of 1908, Aurobindo Ghose, his brother Barindra and others were tried for conspiracy in the Alipore court. Chittaranjan Das defended Aurobindo in a celebrated argument, and he was acquitted in May 1909. The judge, C.P. Beachcroft, had been Aurobindo's contemporary in the ICS examination. Barindra's death sentence was commuted to transportation for life.

• Aurobindo acquitted, May 1909.
• Defended by C.R. Das.

1908

Khudiram Bose

Hanged at eighteen

Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki threw a bomb at a carriage in Muzaffarpur in April 1908, intending to kill the magistrate Douglas Kingsford, but killed two British women instead. Chaki shot himself before arrest; Khudiram was tried, sentenced to death and hanged on 11 August 1908, aged eighteen, becoming one of the youngest revolutionaries executed by the British.

• Hanged 11 August 1908.

1917

Gandhi at Motihari

Civil disobedience in court

In April 1917, when Gandhi went to Champaran to inquire into the grievances of indigo cultivators, the district magistrate ordered him to leave. Gandhi told the court at Motihari that he would disobey the order and accept the penalty. The case against him was withdrawn — the first successful use of civil disobedience in India.

18 March 1922

Gandhi's "Great Trial"

Pleading guilty to sedition

Gandhi and the publisher Shankarlal Banker were tried in Ahmedabad for sedition under Section 124A IPC over three articles in Young India. Gandhi pleaded guilty and asked for the heaviest penalty, calling Section 124A "the prince among the political sections of the Indian Penal Code designed to suppress the liberty of the citizen". Judge C.N. Broomfield, who bowed to Gandhi on entering, sentenced him to six years, the same as Tilak's, and said he would be glad if the government later reduced it.

• Judge: C.N. Broomfield.
• Six years' imprisonment.
• Articles in Young India.

1922–1923

The Chauri Chaura Trial

Malaviya at the bar

After a crowd set fire to the police station at Chauri Chaura in February 1922, killing 22 policemen, the sessions court at Gorakhpur sentenced 172 people to death. On appeal, with Madan Mohan Malaviya among the defence lawyers, the Allahabad High Court confirmed 19 death sentences and reduced or set aside the rest.

• 172 sentenced to death at trial; 19 confirmed.
• Madan Mohan Malaviya argued for the accused.

1925–1927

The Kakori Conspiracy Case

A train robbery for the revolution

Members of the Hindustan Republican Association robbed a train carrying government money near Kakori, Lucknow, in August 1925. Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Rajendra Lahiri and Roshan Singh were sentenced to death and hanged in December 1927; others, including Sachindra Nath Sanyal, were sent to the Andamans.

• Four hanged in December 1927.

1929–1933

The Meerut Conspiracy Case

Communists on trial

In 1929 the government arrested 31 trade union and communist leaders, including three Englishmen (Philip Spratt, Ben Bradley and Lester Hutchinson), for conspiring to deprive the King of the sovereignty of British India. The trial at Meerut lasted almost four years, and the defence committee included Jawaharlal Nehru and M.A. Ansari. The heavy sentences were largely reduced on appeal.

• Included British communists Spratt, Bradley and Hutchinson.

1929

The Assembly Bomb Case

Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt

On 8 April 1929 Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw non-lethal bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi, raised the slogan "Inquilab Zindabad" and courted arrest, to "make the deaf hear". Defended by Asaf Ali, they were sentenced to transportation for life.

• 8 April 1929.
• Defence counsel: Asaf Ali.

1929–1931

The Lahore Conspiracy Case

The hanging of Bhagat Singh

Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were tried for the killing of police officer John Saunders in Lahore in 1928. The Viceroy issued an ordinance creating a special tribunal whose verdict could not be appealed except to the Privy Council; the accused boycotted the proceedings. They were sentenced to death and hanged in Lahore jail on 23 March 1931, a day earlier than scheduled; the day is observed as Shaheed Diwas.

• Special tribunal created by ordinance.
• Hanged 23 March 1931.

1945–1946

The INA Red Fort Trials

The nation rallies to three officers

Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Kumar Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon — a Muslim, a Hindu and a Sikh — officers of Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army, were court-martialled at the Red Fort for waging war against the King. The defence was led by Bhulabhai Desai, with Tej Bahadur Sapru, Asaf Ali, Kailash Nath Katju and Jawaharlal Nehru, who put on a barrister's gown for the first time in decades. They were sentenced to transportation for life, but the Commander-in-Chief, Claude Auchinleck, remitted the sentences amid nationwide protests.

• Defence led by Bhulabhai Desai.
• Nehru appeared in a lawyer's robes again.
• Sentences remitted by General Auchinleck.

1909

Madan Lal Dhingra

Tried in London

Madan Lal Dhingra, a student in London, shot Sir William Curzon Wyllie, an aide to the Secretary of State for India, in July 1909. At his trial at the Old Bailey he refused to recognise the court's authority, and he was hanged at Pentonville Prison in August 1909.

• Hanged at Pentonville, August 1909.

1911

The Savarkar Case (France v. Great Britain)

An international arbitration

In 1910 V.D. Savarkar, being taken by ship to India for trial, escaped through a porthole at Marseilles, swam ashore and was recaptured by French police, who handed him back to the British. France claimed he should be returned. The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague held in 1911 that Britain was not obliged to return him. He was sentenced to transportation and held in the Cellular Jail.

• Decided by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, 1911.
• The escape was at Marseilles.

1940

The Trial of Udham Singh

Avenging Jallianwala Bagh

On 13 March 1940 Udham Singh shot dead Sir Michael O'Dwyer, who had been Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab at the time of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, at Caxton Hall, London. Tried at the Old Bailey, he gave his name as "Ram Mohammad Singh Azad" and was hanged at Pentonville Prison on 31 July 1940.

• Killed Michael O'Dwyer, 13 March 1940.
• Hanged 31 July 1940.

1948–1949

The Gandhi Assassination Trial

The Red Fort, again

Nathuram Godse and his associates were tried by a special court at the Red Fort presided over by Judge Atma Charan. Godse and Narayan Apte were sentenced to death, and the East Punjab High Court at Shimla upheld the sentences; they were hanged at Ambala Central Jail on 15 November 1949. V.D. Savarkar was acquitted for lack of corroborating evidence.

• Special court judge: Atma Charan.
• Godse and Apte hanged 15 November 1949 at Ambala.
• Savarkar acquitted.

1858

The Trial of Bahadur Shah Zafar

The last Mughal emperor tried by a military commission

Tried in the Red Fort for his role in the 1857 uprising, he was exiled to Rangoon, where he died in 1862.

1864–1865

The Wahabi Trials

Conspiracy trials at Ambala and Patna

Members of the Wahabi movement were tried for waging war against the Queen; several were transported to the Andamans.

1879

The Trial of Vasudev Balwant Phadke

The "father of armed rebellion" transported to Aden

Phadke led an armed revolt in Maharashtra, was convicted of waging war and died in prison in Aden in 1883.

1897

The Chapekar Brothers

Tried for killing the plague commissioner W.C. Rand in Pune

Damodar, Balkrishna and Vasudeo Chapekar were hanged for the assassination, carried out in protest against harsh plague measures.

1900

Birsa Munda

The tribal leader who died in custody

Arrested after the Ulgulan rebellion, Birsa Munda died in Ranchi jail in 1900 while awaiting trial; his birth anniversary is Janjatiya Gaurav Divas.

1910

The Nasik Conspiracy Case

Trial for the assassination of Collector A.M.T. Jackson

Anant Kanhere and two others were hanged; V.D. Savarkar was convicted in the connected case and transported to the Cellular Jail.

1912–1915

The Delhi Conspiracy Case

The bomb thrown at Viceroy Hardinge in Delhi

Rash Behari Bose escaped, but Master Amir Chand, Avadh Behari, Bal Mukund and Basant Kumar Biswas were hanged.

1915

The First Lahore Conspiracy Case (Ghadar)

The Ghadar revolutionaries tried by a special tribunal

Kartar Singh Sarabha, just 19, was among those hanged for plotting an uprising against British rule.

1921

The Karachi Trial

The Ali brothers tried for urging soldiers to leave the army

Maulana Mohammad Ali and Maulana Shaukat Ali were sentenced to two years for resolutions at the Khilafat conference.

1922

Maulana Azad's Qaul-e-Faisal

A celebrated statement from the dock

Tried in Calcutta for sedition, Abul Kalam Azad delivered a defiant written statement, published as Qaul-e-Faisal (The Final Word).

1932

Rani Gaidinliu

The Naga spiritual leader sentenced to life at 16

Arrested in 1932, she was released only after independence; Nehru gave her the title "Rani".

1932–1934

The Chittagong Armoury Raid Trial

Surya Sen and the Chittagong revolutionaries

After the 1930 raid on the armouries, "Masterda" Surya Sen was captured, tried and hanged in 1934.