NAUJAVAN BHARAT SABHA

NAUJAVAN BHARAT SABHA, association of the Indian youth, was established at a convention held on 1113 April 1928 at Jallianvala Bagh in Amritsar at the instance of the management of the radical journal Kirti, including men like Sohan Singh Josh and Bhag Singh Canadian. Like the Kirti Kisan Sabha it aimed at creating a youth wing of peasants and workers with a view to ushering in revolution in the country and overthrowing British imperial rule. Another organization with the same name already existed in Lahore involving mainly the collegians of the city. The Sabha had been active between March 1926 and April 1927, but this was a secret network not known to many outside of Punjab capital.

The first conference of the Naujavan Bharat Sabha took place in Amritsar in 1928 coinciding with the political conference of the Punjab Congress Committee. It was presided over by Kedarnath Sehgal. The conference set up a subcommittee, consisting of Sohan Singh Josh (Chairman), Ram Chander, M.A. Majid, Ehsan Ilahi, Professor Chhablldas, Copal Singh Qaumi and Hari Singh. The second conference of the Sabha was held on 2224 February 1929 in Lahore under the presidentship of Sohan Singh Josh.

The resolutions adopted censured, in the severest terms, the government for making indiscriminate arrests of the youth following the murder of J.P. Saunders, Deputy Superintendent of Police on 17 December 1928, sought the repeal of the Arms Act and applauded the Ghadr heroes. On the last day of the conference, a portrait of one of the Ghadr leaders, Kartar Singh Sarabha, was formally unveiled and his supreme sacrifice in the cause of the nation`s freedom eulogized. After a period of suppression by government, the GandhiIr win pact (1931) which was to lead to the abandonment by the Indian National Congress of the civil disobedience movement without securing the release of the youth involved was concluded.

The hanging of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev on 23 March 1931 on charges of murdering J.P. Saunders earned the Sabha another short lease. The Naujavan Bharat Sabha and the Kirti Kisan Sabha held a joint session on 29 March in Karachi and led out a procession castigating especially Mahatma Gandhi for what they described as his betrayal of the youth. The Sabha was declared unlawful by government on 10 September 1934 under section 16(1) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1908, after which it practically ceased to exist.

References :

1. Kirti. May 1928
2. Tara Chand, History of the Freedom Movement in India.
3. Arjan Singh, Shahid de Bol. Delhi, 1962
4. Jagjit Singh, Ghadr Parti Lahir. Delhi, 1979