Red Revolt

Map of the Red Revolt. Red indicates territory affected by revolters at their height in 1927 and blue indicates territory held before the death of Lala Lajpat Rai in 1928

### Performers

British Raj, Gwalior, Hyderabad, Mysore, Travancore, Baroda and other princely states.

### Location

British Raj

The **Red Revolt** was the protracted guerrilla movement composed of Indian agrarians under the leadership of Lala Lajpat Rai (Lal) to establish the Union of Bharat. Started after Lal’s escape from Yerawada Central Jail in Pune, at its height, the Revolt affected large swathes of the Indian countryside and was covertly supported by small-scale farmers with excess rice. After the passage of the Indian Princes Defence Scheme, the Red Revolts was pushed back and was effectively over after the
death of Lal due to a counter-raid by an early form of Special Operative military units. The Red Revolt shook the existing governance of India and led to the streamlining of government as well as the rise of native princely powers.

## The Causes of the Revolt

During the Swaraj Riots of 1919, British police arrest Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal, known associates of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the de facto head of the Riots. Furthermore, Indian farmers suffered poor harvests in 1925, creating an atmosphere of disgruntlement. As well as that, another contributor of the Red Revolts was the lengthy demobilization of Indian forces after the Great War. The last divisions from that conflict were retired in 1924, merely two years before the Red Revolt.

In January 1926 Bipin Chandra Pal dies in prison, due to poor conditions and numerous beatings. News of Pal’s death ignites the disgruntled farmers who storm the Yerawada Central Jail in Pune. Among those liberated is Lala Lajpat Rai (shortened to Lal for ease), the last member of the famed Lal-Bal-Pal triumvirate, who was arrested alongside Pal after the Swaraj riots.

Image of Lala Lajpat Rai (left), Bal Gangadhar Tilak (centre) and Bipin Chandra Pal (right). Colloquially known as the Lal-Bal-Pal triumvirate, the three were the forerunners of Indian independence and the deaths of Bal and Pal directly led to the Red Revolt

## The Start of the Revolt

Lal, the head of this cabal, is one of the most feared men in India. He is a firebrand and a skilled former lawyer. He is a combination of charismatic and venerable, having served the cause of Indian self-rule, and eventual independence, since before the current Kaiser-i-Hind’s reign. With the deaths of Pal and Bal, Lal is one of the last of the ‘old guard’ of Indian revolutionaries. After the storming of Yerawada, Lal organises the farmers who freed him into an effective militia. After brutal street fighting, the military police have been ousted from weapons caches and supply depots, creating a scene of anarchy. Lal proclaims the People’s Union of Bharat in Pune and urges farmers to turn their ploughshares into swords and open their homes to revolutionaries.

Unrest spreads like wildfire, particularly among the rural villages that make up the large portion of the Raj. While the major cities are held under tight supervision, villages cannot be constantly patrolled by either the police or the military. After sacking Pune of arms and supplies, Lal hides underground as his rebellion spreads.

With the sack of Pune, more and more farmers take up arms and refuse to pay taxes to either Raj officials or Princely taxmen. Indeed, the princes suffer worse than the British, particularly Gwalior, Hyderabad and Mysore. With their own territories suffering through raids and kidnappings, and the princes yowling for assistance, the Raj has to deploy the military, merely two years after the last demobilization following the Great War.

## The Indian Princes Defence Scheme Act (IPDSA)

Months pass after this, but the army has failed to achieve much headway, due to its inflexibility, small numbers and the lightning guerrilla warfare conducted by Lal, who has a bounty of 4,000 rupees either dead or alive on his head. The army’s lethargic performance enrages the princes, who claim that the British must do something or allow the Princes to operate in British territory and expand their armed forces. Furthermore, hordes of small farmers have supplied Lal with rice from their personal stores, keeping the guerrillas well-fed and motivated. Things deteriorated to the point where Delhi itself rumbles with discontent. A rebellion very nearly breaks out when a descendant of the Mughal Emperor makes a fiery speech decrying the rebels and begs for calm, claiming the Raj has protected the people of Delhi in the ablest manner. The crowd quietens and the young man’s efforts are rewarded with a knighthood and the official recognition of Mirza Muhammad Khair-ud-din as the titular heir of the Princely purse of Delhi, and indirectly the Mughal Empire.

Events become so bad that London is forced to make a drastic decision. With the BEF and the greater portion of the Empire’s troops in hotspots such as the Middle East, Malaya, the Netherlands and Africa following the global instability after the German Revolution of 1919 and the subsequent rise of Red Germany, which partially was to blame for the success of the Red Revolt. After a marathon 12-hour session in Westminster on the 22nd of January 1927, the British Parliament passes the Indian Princes Defence Scheme Act (IPDSA), which is ratified by the Indian Legislative Council 2 weeks later.

The Act is watershed in the rights of native princes, as it completely alters the balance between the Raj and the Princes. The Princes now have full responsibility of defending the subcontinent from ‘internal and revolutionary enemies’ with the Indian Army to serve as a professionalised force to complement Princely armies until mass mobilization occurs during an international war. Furthermore, the princes held a greater degree of economic freedom, able to free their captive markets and deal with countries close to London such as Japan and the United States. Furthermore, the role of British Residents in the Princely states was reduced, and the native rulers gain the right to maintain indefinite terms for their Diwans (Prime Ministers). Furthermore, some princes are promised more territory for their contributions in the war.

## The Princely Counteroffensive

Under the IPDSA, the princes began a vicious offensive, spearheaded by Gwalior. Under Savarkar, promising Indian military leaders are placed under Gwalior’s purview, with Kodandera Mariappa and Purushottam Oak emerging as elite generals. Savarkar’s influence with these military leaders placed him in the perfect position to further his political capital, and his ward Jivajirao II Scindia ascended to the throne of Gwalior, with Savarkar holding the young monarch’s confidence.

Hyderabad and Mysore also engaged in successful actions, however, Travancore struggled to engage the rebels, and many offensives failed there. This struggle alerted a group of promising Tamil officers, who cut a deal with the Regents of Bala Rama Varma III. They would modernise and rejuvenate the flagging Travancore army in return for the Regency adding a political member of the military cabal. Erode Ramasamy is appointed as part of the court and Travancore achieves some success against the rebels.

## The death of Lal

With the Princes taking the brunt of the efforts against the rebels, casualties mount, and by 1928, the rebels threaten less than half the territory they did in 1926. Furthermore, British military police, land armed forces and secret services trialled special military units to eliminate high-value targets, creating the precursor to modern commandos. These trials finally bore fruit on the 10th of February 1928, when a ‘special operative’ unit targeted and neutralized Lala Lajpat Rai outside his base in Central India. However, Lal did not die quietly, surprisingly dual wielding pistols at the age of 63, resulting in two members of the 15-man task force falling in battle. Lal, in his typical firebrand style, recorded his last words in his journal and later published to mass crowds. Lal wrote, “The shots that hit me are last nails to the coffin of British rule in India.”

Lal’s words proved prophetic, as his death created an outpouring of grief and rage. Princely forces finally secured their respective borders, and many rebels saw the light on the wall and began to flee to Afghanistan, and from there to the Soviet Union. However, these young men had one last gift for their colonial officers. Bhagat Singh and Chandrasekhar Azad formed a group of promising youths who served under Lal and planned to assassinate James Scott, the police Superintendent who was vital in the ‘special operatives’ programme. The plot was conducted on the 12th of March, where the ‘Lahore 6’ of Singh, Azad, Ashfaqalla Khan, Ram Prasad Bismil, Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar shot Scott and Assistant Superintendent John Saunders, as they drove to Lahore Police Station. Six weeks later, the Lahore 6 threw a bomb in the Legislative Assembly in Delhi and fled to the Soviet Union. Also escaping from India, older revolutionaries Manabendera Nath Roy and Shirpad Amrit Dange snuck on a passenger ship to Venice, where they then fled to Munich and then Berlin.

## The end of the Revolt and immediate after effects

The Red Revolt ended officially when the Lahore 6 revealed themselves in Moscow on the 17th of July 1928. Weeks of negotiations ensued and all the gun salute states who served the Raj gained territory and were allowed to trade with Portugal as well as the Allied nations through Goa. The Raj set up a Board of Agriculture in response to the enthusiastic support the rebels received from small farmers during the revolt. The Board had many powers, but most importantly the right to requisition rice in the event of ‘elements threatening the safety and security of His Majesty’s subjects and governance of India becoming prevalent’.

Hyderabad State before the Red Revolt. Red indicates the territory added to the Nizam's land after the Red Revolt. Hyderabad was just one territory that received land after the Revolt.

The Indian Board of Agriculture creates immediate change in the farming practices by prioritising cash crops such as cotton, chillies and tea, to sell to Britain. This has the dual effect of reducing the amount of excess rice farmers have access to and pushing the profit margins of the agricultural industry within the Raj higher. Farmers who oppose these measures are at the very least, beaten by police and at the worst, imprisoned through the harvest season, effectively starving them. In 1928, the British Parliament amends the Indian Government Act, streamlining the organisation of the Raj, with Viceroys and Governors holding concurrent terms for 7 years, with the appointment for the first batch under the new law occurring for 6 years, and causing the first Governors and Viceroy to hold six-year terms.

Among the princes, things begin to become very rosy, as they begin large scale trade with the Japanese and Portuguese, things like turmeric, saffron and chilli peppers become more prevalent in Portuguese and Japanese cooking, and in return the Princes can provide their troops with experience to Japanese arms and Portuguese artillery, which was sold in limited quantities by Britain. Furthermore, Osman spearheads a growing trend, opening the Nizam’s Own Aeronautics factory in Osmanabad. Factories pop up in Princely territories at a stunning rate, as industrialization races to catch up after two centuries of deindustrialization.

Politically, the Crown extends the powers of debate the princes have, able to negotiate autonomy in some respects that match full-blown dominions. This matched the terms offered to the princes when they joined the revolt, changing the landscape of Princely India.