The aim of the Naujawan Bharat Sabha is the attainment of complete independence of the country and establishment of a completely
independent socialist republic of peasants and workers by all possible means.
– First Provincial Conference of Naujawan Bharat Sabha
(13 April 1928, Amritsar)
After the withdrawal of the Non-Cooperation movement in 1922, the revolutionaries were disillusioned with the non-violent tactics of Gandhi and Congress leading to reorganising efforts. As students of world history, Bhagat Singh and his associates realised the importance of creating a mass platform to mobilise the youth, workers, and peasants in support of the revolutionary movement. After the Russian Revolution (1917), the idea of workers’ and peasants’ organisations reached Punjab through Ghadar Party leaders, and many young activists were trying to form organisations of workers and peasants. Comrade Ram Chandra (later became the president of Naujawan Bharat Sabha) worked with press employees, Urdu Katibs (Lithographers), and manual scavenger unions. He felt the need for more comrades for organisational work. When he discussed his difficulties with Bhagat Singh, Bhagat Singh observed that the work should start with organising young educated men who can then undertake the working class organising. In 1924, Bhagat Singh called a meeting of teachers and students of National College, Lahore to discuss the need to form a youth organisation. It was decided that the name of the organisation should be ‘Naujawan Bharat Sabha’ and ‘Young India Association’ (inspired by the Young Ireland, Young Turkey, and Young Italy movements). The object of the organisation was declared to be the achievement of complete independence using all possible means, as against the Congress’ aim of Dominion Status.
After the Kakori action (August 9, 1925), most of the top-ranking leaders of Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), except Chandrasekhar Azad, were arrested. Bhagat Singh and his comrades felt the need to rebuild the party from scratch and to propagate revolutionary ideals among the masses. Naujawan Bharat Sabha (NBS) was founded in Lahore in March 1926 by Bhagat Singh and his comrades, with the aim of involving the masses, particularly youth, in the freedom struggle. Kedarnath Sehgal was elected as its first president, Bhagat Singh as general secretary, and Bhagwati Charan Vohra as propaganda secretary-cum-treasurer of NBS. It played a critical role in radicalising the masses, spreading anti-imperialist ideas, and building a mass base for the anti-colonial revolutionary movement in India. Soon, the branches of NBS were formed in different cities of Punjab. NBS developed as a feeder organization for the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, the reorganised HRA.
In 1926, NBS activities started through magic lantern shows and lectures spreading socialist propaganda. They organised programs on the martyrdom days of the Kakori and Ghadar revolutionaries. Bhagat Singh and his comrades emphasized the need to build a scientific, rational outlook among the masses, countering superstition and religious bigotry. NBS published many important pamphlets in Urdu, Hindi, and Punjabi to propagate the revolutionary ideas. While the British fuelled communalism in India, the NBS strongly opposed it, uniting people across communities. To promote secularism, NBS organised community meals in which all communities, Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, and Christians, and all castes, from Brahmins to Dalits, would cook and eat together.
In 1928, NBS held the first Provincial Conference at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, on the 13th and 14th of April where important resolutions including one on separating religion from politics and treating religion as a personal matter, the boycott of the Simon Commission and of foreign goods, demand for a law against untouchability, etc., were passed. The conference hailed the Kakori prisoners. The Manifesto of the Naujawan Bharat Sabha, written by Bhagawati Charan Vohra in 1928 for the Provincial Conference, marked the failure of moderate legalist approaches of the Congress and the growing influence of radical revolutionary movements. The manifesto addressed India’s socio-political conditions, critiqued the British colonial government, and outlined the NBS’s ideology and goals. It sought to channel widespread discontent into an organised anti-colonial and socialist struggle.
In 1928, the Lahore Students Union was organised as an appendage to the NBS to work among students. Soon Punjab Students Union, Bal Students Union, Bal Bharat Sabha, and other organisations were formed to work among students. NBS served as a nucleus for involving other organisations of workers, farmers, students, and women. NBS also worked with the Kirti Kisan Party to organise peasants and workers. In August 1928, NBS celebrated ‘Friends of Russia Week’ and organised meetings on the Russian Revolution.
In 1929, the second provincial conference of NBS was held in Lahore from February 22-24. NBS held many protest meetings against the British government on the martyrdom of Jatin Das in 1929. During the hunger strike of the Lahore Conspiracy Case prisoners, NBS held protests in support of the strike. It was banned on June 23, 1930, along with many other leftist organisations like the Kirti Kisan Party. Even when NBS was declared unlawful, it continued its activities using different names. The Bhagat Singh Appeal Committee was formed in 1931 that observed Bhagat Singh Day on February 17 throughout Punjab. A procession of more than 15,000 people, largely students, was taken out in Lahore. The Bhagat Singh Appeal Committee collected over one lakh signatures opposing the death sentences for Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev. On March 21 and 23, it organised a huge procession in Lahore and a public meeting outside Mori Gate. The day after Bhagat Singh-Sukhdev-Rajguru’s hanging, three pyres were built with the remains of the three martyrs brought from the Sutlej bank near Ferozepur, and they were properly cremated on the bank of river Ravi. The Punjab Provincial Naujawan Bharat Sabha issued an appeal to build a memorial to three martyrs there. A committee of all eminent leaders of Punjab was formed for the purpose, but as Gandhi refused to associate with the memorial, Congress leaders dragged their feet, and the plans for the memorial were thwarted. In Karachi, NBS activists showed and handed over black roses to Gandhi. During the Congress conference, NBS had its own parallel session in Karachi, which was addressed by Subhas Chandra Bose. Between April and August 1931, more than 100 NBS activists were arrested. After a year of severe repression, NBS was revived again in May 1932. The Sabha held its conference on 16th July 1933 and demanded that political prisoners not be sent to Andamans and condemned repression on prisoners. Later, some activists of NBS formed the Punjab Socialist Party, and some others joined other socialist platforms like the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI).
The Naujawan Bharat Sabha was deeply rooted in socialist and anti-imperialist ideology, opposing not only British rule, but also class exploitation in all forms. They acted as a bridge between militant revolutionary groups and ordinary people, ensuring that the revolutionary struggle does not remain isolated from the masses. It laid the groundwork for the broader revolutionary movement by popularizing socialist ideals and emphasizing the need for class struggle alongside the fight for independence inspiring generations of revolutionary struggles continuing even today.
