Case, 1929

Case, Communist Activities The Meerut Conspiracy Case of , was, perhaps, the most famous of all the communist conspiracy cases instituted by the British Government. The late 1920s witnessed a number of labour upsurges and this period of unrest extended into the decade of the Great Depression ( – ). Trade unionism spread over to many urban centres and organised labour strikes. The communists played a prominent role in organising the working class throughout this period. The Kharagpur Railway workshop strikes in February and September , the Liluah Rail workshop strike between January and July , the Calcutta scavengers’ strike in , the several strikes in the jute mills in Bengal during July-August , the strike at the Golden Rock workshop of the South Indian Railway, Tiruchirappalli, in July , the textile workers’ strike in Bombay in April are some of the strikes that deserve mention. Government Repression Alarmed by this wave of strikes and the spread of communist activities, the British Government brought two draconian Acts - the Trade Disputes Act, and the Public Safety Bill, . These Acts armed the government with powers to curtail civil liberties in general and suppress the trade union activities in particular. The government was worried about the strong communist influence among the workers and peasants. K.F. Nariman M.C. Chagla Period of Radicalism in Anti-imperialist Struggles Bhagat Singh was born to Kishan Singh (father) and Vidyavati Kaur (mother) on September in Jaranwala, Lyallpur district, Punjab, now a part of Pakistan. His father was a liberal and his family was a family of freedom fighters. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre happened when Bhagat Singh was years. Early in his youth, he was associated with the Naujawan Bharat Sabha and the Hindustan Republican Association. The latter organisation was founded by Sachin Sanyal and Jogesh Chatterji. It was reorganised subsequently in September as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (H.S.R.A) by Bhagat Singh and his comrades. Socialist ideals and the October Revolution in Russia of were large influences on these revolutionaries.