Analyse how the revolutionaries taught people self-confidence and widened the social base of the freedom movement.

Answer:

Revolutionary nationalists played an important role in challenging the fear of British power. Though their methods differed from Gandhian mass politics, they inspired courage, sacrifice and patriotism among youth and wider society.

Teaching Self-Confidence

Challenge to colonial superiority:

• Revolutionaries showed that British officials could be resisted and punished.
• Actions by groups like Anushilan Samiti, Jugantar and later HSRA broke the myth of British invincibility.
• Their courage inspired young Indians to reject fear.

Cult of sacrifice:

• Figures like Khudiram Bose, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and Ashfaqulla Khan became symbols of martyrdom.
• Their trials and executions created emotional awakening.
• Bhagat Singh used the court as a platform for political education.

Widening the Social Base

Mobilisation of youth and students:

• Revolutionary ideas spread through schools, colleges, secret societies and literature.
• They attracted students, lower middle classes and politically restless youth.

Secular and socialist expansion:

• The HSRA moved beyond individual terrorism towards socialist republicanism.
• Bhagat Singh linked freedom with workers, peasants and social justice.
• This broadened the meaning of nationalism.

Overseas networks:

• The Ghadar movement mobilised Indian workers and migrants abroad.
• It connected Indian freedom with global anti-imperialism.

Therefore, revolutionaries widened nationalism by adding courage, youth participation, secular sacrifice and social radicalism. Even where their armed efforts failed, they strengthened the psychological and ideological base of the freedom movement.