Chittagong armory raid was one of the courageous acts by Indian revolutionaries in British India. On 18 April 1930, The raid was carried out by a group of 63 youngsters of the Chittagong(Now in Bangladesh) branch of the Indian Republican Army (IRA). This revolutionary act was carried out under the supervision of Surya sen. They were inspired by the Easter Rising in Ireland in 1916.
After the Non-Cooperation Movement, the IRA(Indian Republican Army) was created in response to the passivity of two Bengal-based revolutionary groups, the Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar. In the early 1920s, both of these organisations backed separate Indian National Congress factions. The Non-Cooperation Movement sparked a new wave of revolutionary enthusiasm among Bengal’s youth.
EXECUTION OF PLAN
- The plan was to seize the two main armories in Chittagong. It was to be followed by the assassination of Europeans.
- They disrupted telephone and telegraph communications, as well as train movement.
- Ganesh Ghosh captured the police armory that night. Lokenath Bal took over the Auxiliary Force armory.
- Surya Sen took a military salute, hoisted the National Flag, and declared a Provisional Revolutionary Government. They then fled to the Jalalabad hills.
- While the raid was on, two pamphlets were distributed all over the town, one of which read that they were “breaking the laws of treason” in line with Gandhi’s call for the Civil Disobedience Movement and declared the independence of Chittagong. The other pamphlet called upon the youth to join the uprising.
- The British troops attacked the Indian revolutionaries near Jalalabad Hills. An intense battle ensued between the Indian revolutionaries and the British troops armed with heavy weapons and machine guns. Twelve revolutionaries and eighty-two British troops died in the conflict.
The revolutionaries decided to engage in guerrilla warfare that lasted four years.
