Bhagwati Charan Vohra (15 November 1903 – 28 May 1930) was an Indian revolutionary, associated with
Hindustan Socialist Republican Association
Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), previously known as the Hindustan Republican Army and Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), was an Indian revolutionary organisation founded by Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Sachindra ...
. He was an ideologue, organiser, orator and a campaigner.
Early life
Bhagwati was born in 1903 in the family of a senior railway officer named Shiv Charan Vohra who was conferred with title of 'Rai Bahadur' by
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
in 1919 for his services and loyalty. He married
Durgawati Devi
Durgavati Devi (7 October 1907 – 15 October 1999), popularly known as ''Durga Bhabhi'', was an Indian revolutionary and freedom fighter. She was one of the few women revolutionaries who actively participated in armed revolution against the ru ...
D/O Shri Banka Bihari from
Allahabad
Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...
. Vohra and Devi were blessed with their first child in December 1925, a boy whom they named Sachindra. Vohra passed intermediate
science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
from F. C. college in 1921 and again took admission after the call-off of the
non-cooperation movement
The Non-cooperation movement was a political campaign launched on 4 September 1920, by Mahatma Gandhi to have Indians revoke their cooperation from the British government, with the aim of persuading them to grant self-governance. in National College,
Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...
, which was opened by
Lala Lajpat Rai
Lala Lajpat Rai (28 January 1865 - 17 November 1928) was an Indian author, freedom fighter, and politician. He played a vital role in the Indian Independence movement. He was popularly known as Punjab Kesari. He was one of the three members of ...
for Indian students who are not able to go in Government Colleges.
Revolutionary life
Vohra left college to join the
non-cooperation movement
The Non-cooperation movement was a political campaign launched on 4 September 1920, by Mahatma Gandhi to have Indians revoke their cooperation from the British government, with the aim of persuading them to grant self-governance. in 1921, and after the movement was called off, joined National College, Lahore where he got a BA degree. It was there that he was initiated into the revolutionary movement. He along with
Bhagat Singh
Bhagat Singh (27 September 1907 – 23 March 1931) was a charismatic Indian revolutionary*
* who participated in the mistaken murder of a junior British police officer
*
* in what was to be retaliation for the death of an Indian nationa ...
and
Sukhdev
Sukhdev Thapar (15 May 1907 – 23 March 1931) was an Indian revolutionary who worked to make India independent from the British Raj along with his best friends and partners Bhagat Singh and Shivaram Rajguru. A senior member of the Hindustan S ...
started a study circle on the model of the
Russian Socialist Revolution.
Vohra was an avid reader. He played a key role in infusing intellectual ideology in the functioning roots of the organizations he worked with. He was not influenced by caste prejudices and worked for Hindu-Muslim unity as well as the upliftment of the poor by use of socialist principles.
In 1926, when the
Naujawan Bharat Sabha
Naujawan Bharat Sabha (NBS, sometimes spelled Nau Jawan Bharat Sabha, with the acronym NJBS) ( Youth Society of India) was a left-wing Indian association that sought to foment revolution against the British Raj by gathering together worker and pe ...
revolutionary organization was formed by his friend, he was appointed the propaganda secretary of the organization. On 6 April 1928, Vohra and Bhagat Singh prepared the manifesto of Naujwan Bharat Sabha and urged the young Indians to have the triple motto "service, suffering, sacrifice", as their sole guide to achieve the goal of independence.
In September 1928, many young revolutionaries met at Ferozshah Kotla ground in
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
and reorganized the Hindustan Republican Association into the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) under the leadership
Chandrashekhar Azad
Chandra Shekhar Tiwari ( (23 July 1906 – 27 February 1931), popularly known as Chandra Shekhar Azad, was an Indian revolutionary who reorganised the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) under its new name of Hindustan Socialist Republican ...
. Vohra was appointed Propaganda Secretary and prepared the HSRA manifesto that was widely distributed at the time of the Lahore Session of the Congress. He was also party to murder of J. P. Saunders and the throwing of bombs in Central Assembly Hall by Singh and
Batukeshwar Dutt
Batukeshwar Dutt (18 November 1910 – 20 July 1965) was an Indian socialist revolutionary and independence fighter in the early 1900s. He is best known for having exploded two bombs, along with Bhagat Singh, in the Central Legislative Assemb ...
.
Philosophy of bomb
In 1929 he rented room No. 69, Kashmir Building,
Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...
and used it as a bomb factory. He planned and executed the 23 December 1929 bomb blast under the train of Viceroy
Lord Irwin
Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, (16 April 1881 – 23 December 1959), known as The Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and The Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was a senior Conservative Party (UK), British Conservat ...
on the Delhi-Agra railway line. The viceroy escaped unhurt and
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
thanked God for the narrow escape, condemning the revolutionary act through his article ''The Cult of Bomb''.
In response to
Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
's article, Vohra, in consultation with Azad, wrote an article entitled ''The Philosophy of Bomb''. It appealed to youths to come forward and join them.
The concluding paragraph of the article reads
Death
Vohra died in
Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...
on 28 May 1930 while testing a bomb on the banks of the Ravi. The device was required for the proposed rescue of Singh and others under trial in the
Lahore Conspiracy Case but it exploded during the test and he was severely wounded.
He was survived by his wife
Durgawati Devi
Durgavati Devi (7 October 1907 – 15 October 1999), popularly known as ''Durga Bhabhi'', was an Indian revolutionary and freedom fighter. She was one of the few women revolutionaries who actively participated in armed revolution against the ru ...
(popularly known as Durga Bhabhi to the revolutionaries) and a son, Sachindra Vohra.
See also
*
Ram Prasad Bismil
Ram Prasad Bismil ( Hindi: राम प्रसाद "बिस्मिल") (11 June 1897 — 19 December 1927) was an Indian poet, writer, revolutionary and an Indian freedom fighter who participated in the Mainpuri Conspiracy of 1918, a ...
*
Kakori Train Robbery
The Kakori Train robbery (''prapt'' of Kakori Conspiracy) was a train robbery that took place at Kakori, a village near Lucknow, on 9 August 1925, during the Indian Independence Movement against the British Raj. It was organised by Hindustan R ...
*
Revolutionary movement for Indian independence
The Revolutionary movement for Indian Independence was the part of the Indian independence movement comprising the actions of violent underground revolutionary factions. Groups believing in armed revolution against the ruling British fall into t ...
*
Manmath Nath Gupta
Manmath Nath Gupta (7 February 1908 – 26 October 2000) was an Indian Marxist revolutionary writer and author of autobiographical, historical and fictional books in Hindi, English and Bengali. He joined the Indian independence movement at the ...
*
Delhi Conspiracy Commission
The Delhi Conspiracy Commission was created dated 9 April 1930 by an order of the Chief Commissioner of Delhi, exercising his special powers under section 3(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The commission was directed that certain persons ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vohra, Bhagwati Charan
1903 births
1930 deaths
People from Agra
Gujarati people
Indian revolutionaries
Deaths by explosive device
Hindustan Socialist Republican Association