Hindustan Socialist Republican Association - Criticism

Criticism

The association's methods were diametrically opposite to that of Gandhi's Nonviolent resistance movement. The revolutionaries and their methods were severely criticized by Gandhi. Responding to the attack on Lord Irwin's train, Gandhi wrote a harsh critique of the HSRA titled "The Cult of the Bomb" (Young India,2 January 1930). In it he declared that bomb throwing was nothing but froth coming to the surface in an agitated liquid. He condemned the HSRA and its actions as "cowards" and "dastardly". According to Gandhi, the HSRA's violent struggle had its hazards. Violence led to more reprisals and suffering. Also, it would turn inward as "it was an easy natural step" from "violence done to the foreign ruler" "to violence to our own people". The HSRA responded to this criticism with its own manifesto 'The Philosophy of the Bomb', in which they defended their violent methods as being complementary to Gandhi's non violent methods.