Emerged strongly in the wake of the Swadeshi Movement (1905) and the Partition of Bengal, drawing many young, educated Bengalis into secret societies.
Anushilan Samiti: Founded initially in Calcutta (1902) by Pramathanath Mitra, drawing inspiration partly from Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel Anandamath and Vivekananda's philosophy of active, disciplined nationalism; combined physical/martial training with revolutionary political goals. It later split into the Dhaka Anushilan Samiti (led by Pulin Behari Das) and the Jugantar group.
Jugantar Party: A breakaway/associated group, named after its newspaper Jugantar; associated with figures including Barindra Kumar Ghosh (younger brother of Aurobindo Ghosh) and Bhupendranath Datta.
Alipore Bomb Case (1908): Following a failed attempt (by Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki) to assassinate a British judge, Kingsford, in Muzaffarpur (which mistakenly killed two British women instead), a wider conspiracy case was brought against Bengal revolutionaries; Khudiram Bose was executed at age 18/19, becoming one of the youngest martyrs of the movement and an enduring symbol of youthful revolutionary sacrifice; Aurobindo Ghosh was among those tried (successfully defended by C.R. Das) but subsequently withdrew from active revolutionary politics to pursue spiritual philosophy at Pondicherry.
Rash Behari Bose: A key organiser behind the attempted assassination of Viceroy Lord Hardinge II at Delhi (1912, the "Delhi Conspiracy Case"), in which a bomb was thrown at his ceremonial procession; Bose later escaped to Japan, where he played a significant role in founding the original Indian Independence League and an early version of what became the Indian National Army, before eventually handing over leadership to Subhas Chandra Bose.