The Meerut Conspiracy Case was a controversial

court case Legal proceeding is an activity that seeks to invoke the power of a tribunal in order to enforce a law. Although the term may be defined more broadly or more narrowly as circumstances require, it has been noted that " e term ''legal proceedings'' ...

that was initiated in

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

in March 1929 and decided in 1933. Several

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

ists, including three

Englishmen The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common ancestry, history, and culture. The English identity began with the Anglo-Saxons, when they we ...

, were arrested for organizing an Indian railway strike. The

British government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

convicted 27

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

trade union leaders under a lawsuit. The trial immediately caught attention in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, where it inspired the 1932 play ''

Meerut Meerut (, ISO 15919, ISO: ''Mēraṭh'') is a city in the western region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Located in the Meerut district, it is northeast of the national capital, New Delhi, and is ...

'' by a

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

street theatre Street theatre is a form of theatrical performance and presentation in outdoor public spaces without a specific paying audience. These spaces can be anywhere, including shopping centres, car parks, recreational reserves, college or universi ...

group, the Red Megaphones, highlighting the detrimental effects of

colonisation 475px, Map of the year each country achieved List of sovereign states by date of formation, independence. Colonization (British English: colonisation) is a process of establishing occupation of or control over foreign territories or peoples f ...

and

industrialisation Industrialisation ( UK) or industrialization ( US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive reorganisation of an economy for th ...

Background

The British government was clearly worried about the growing influence of the

Communist International The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internationa ...

. It was also thoroughly convinced that all infiltration of communist and socialist ideas was propagated to the workers by the

Communist Party of India The Communist Party of India (CPI) is a political party in India. The CPI considers the Foundation of the Communist Party of India, December 26, 1925 Cawnpore (Kanpur) conference as its foundation date. Between 1946 and 1951, the CPI led m ...

(CPI). Its ultimate objective, the government perceived, was to achieve "complete paralysis and overthrow of existing Governments in every country (including India) by means of a general strike and armed uprising". The government's immediate response was to foist yet another conspiracy case, the Meerut Conspiracy Case. In more than one way, the trial helped the Communist Party of India to consolidate its position among workers. Dange, along with 32 other persons, was arrested on or about 20 March 1929 and put on trial under Section 121A of the

Indian Penal Code The Indian Penal Code (IPC) was the official criminal code of the Republic of India, inherited from British India after independence. It remained in force until it was repealed and replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) in December 2023 ...

Whoever within or without
British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...
conspires to commit any of the offences punishable by Section 121 or to deprive the King of the sovereignty of British India or any part thereof, or conspires to overawe, by means of criminal force or the show of criminal force, the Government of India or any local Government, shall be punished with transportation for life, or any shorter term, or with imprisonment of either description which may extend to ten years.

Charges

The main charges were that in 1921, S. A. Dange, Shaukat Usmani, and Muzaffar Ahmad joined a conspiracy to establish a branch of the Communist International in India and were helped by various persons, including the accused Philip Spratt and Benjamin Francis Bradley, who were sent to India later by the Communist International. The aim of the accused persons, according to the charges raised against them, was under section 121-A of the

(Act 45 of 1860):

... to deprive the King Emperor of the sovereignty of British India, and for such purpose to use the methods and carry out the programme and plan of campaign outlined and ordained by the Communist International.

The Sessions Court in Meerut awarded stringent sentences to the accused in January 1933. Of the accused, 27 persons were convicted with various durations of "transportation". Muzaffar Ahmed was transported for life, and Dange, Spratt, Ghate, Joglekar, and Nimbkar were awarded transportation for a period of 12 years. On appeal, in August 1933, the sentences of Ahmed, Dange, and Usmani were reduced to three years by Sir

Shah Muhammad Sulaiman Sir Shah Muhammad Sulaiman (3 February 1886 – 12 March 1941) (popularly known as Sir Shah Sulaiman or Sir Sulaiman) was the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court from 16 March 1932 to 30 September 1937 and was the first Indian and one of ...

Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, on the grounds that the accused had already spent a considerable part of their sentence while they waited for the trial to be decided and because:

... in the case of political offences, arising out of the beliefs of the accused, severe sentences defeat their object. In practice such sentences confirm the offenders in their beliefs and create other offenders, thus increasing the evil and the danger to the public.

The sentences of the others convicted were also reduced. The convictions of Desai, Hutchinson, Mitra, Jhabwala, Sehgal, Kasle, Gauri Shankar, Kadara, and Alve were also overturned on appeal.

Impact

All the accused were

communists Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...

. The charges framed against them portrayed the British government's fear of the growth of communist ideas in India. In the trial, all of the accused were labelled as

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

. For four-and-a-half years, the defendants turned the courtroom into a public platform to espouse their cause. As a result, the trial saw strengthening of the communist movement in the country.

Harkishan Singh Surjeet Harkishan Singh Surjeet (23 March 1916 – 1 August 2008) was an Indian Communist politician from Punjab, who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from 1992 to 2005 and was a member of the party's Polit Bu ...

, a former General Secretary of the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a Communism in India, communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electora ...

, wrote about the aftermath of the Meerut Conspiracy Case:

... a Party with a centralised apparatus, came into being only after the release of the Meerut prisoners, in 1933. The Meerut Conspiracy Case, though launched to suppress the communist movement, provided the opportunity for communists to propagate their ideas. It came out with its own manifesto and was affiliated to the Communist International in 1934.Surjeet, Harkishan Singh ''75th Anniversary of the Formation of the Communist Party of India''
an article in ''The Marxist'', New Delhi, Volume: 2, No. 1 Issue: January- March 1984

References

External links

The Meerut Conspiracy Trial: Background, charges and sentences

* ttps://1drv.ms/f/s!Ao4INuFk6h37iQcs8v_x7MHbONjs Meerut Conspiracy Case - Newspaper cuttings 1929 (link updated 12/2019) {{Authority control 1933 in case law 1933 in India Communist Party of India History of Uttar Pradesh Political repression in British India History of Meerut Indian case law

Background

Charges

Impact

See also

Further reading

References

External links