Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA)

What it is: The Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) was an armed revolutionary party against British rule. It took this name at a secret meeting at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi, on 8 and 9 September 1928, when the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) added "Socialist" to its name and programme. The Wire says Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev proposed the change and Shiv Verma, Bejoy Kumar Sinha and Surendra Pandey seconded it. The Tribune's 2011 account says the same meeting of revolutionaries was called under the banner of the "Kirti Kissan Party", with Bhagat Singh as secretary.

How it began and who led it: ThePrint says the party was founded in 1924 by Sachindranath Sanyal, Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee and Ram Prasad Bismil, using its later name for the earlier body. Chandrashekhar Azad took part in the Kakori train robbery of 1925 (The Wire), and four of those involved were hanged on 19 December 1927 (ThePrint). At the 1928 meeting Azad was chosen commander-in-chief and head of the military department in his absence, and Sukhdev became organisational secretary for Punjab (The Wire). Bhagat Singh, an organiser of the Naujawan Bharat Sabha formed in March 1926 (Encyclopaedia of Sikhism), became its best known face.

Key moments

• 30 October 1928: police lathi-charged a Lahore procession against the Simon Commission led by Lala Lajpat Rai, who died on 17 November (The Tribune).
• 17 December 1928: J. P. Saunders, an assistant superintendent of police, was shot in front of the senior superintendent's office at Lahore. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says Bhagat Singh and Rajguru fired, and that the target was Superintendent Scott, with Saunders killed through mistaken identity. Wikipedia adds that Head Constable Chanan Singh was also killed.
• 8 April 1929: Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw low-intensity bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly at Delhi, dropped leaflets reading "It takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear", and surrendered. Both were sentenced to transportation for life (ThePrint). The Wire says the bombing led to the arrest of most of the party's leaders.
• From April 1929: the Lahore Conspiracy Case, titled "Crown versus Sukhdev and others". The judgment called Sukhdev the "brains of the Conspiracy" and Bhagat Singh its "right arm" (The Wire).
• 7 October 1930: a Special Tribunal sentenced Bhagat Singh to death.
• 27 February 1931: Azad died at Alfred Park, Allahabad, after a gunfight with police. The Wire disputes the popular belief that he killed himself.
• 23 March 1931: Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were hanged in Lahore Central Jail, a day before the date fixed, and secretly cremated at Hussainiwala on the Sutlej (The Tribune; Encyclopaedia of Sikhism).

Where it stands: Wikipedia says that after Azad's death the party had no central leader and split into regional factions, and it gives conflicting end dates of about 1935, 1936 and 1940. It does not exist today.