Peshawar Conspiracy Cases

The Peshawar Conspiracy Cases were a series of five legal proceedings held between 1922 and 1927 in British India.^[1] The defendants, known as the "muhajirs," were a group of Indian Muslims who had travelled to the Soviet Union after the Khilafat Movement to receive political and military training inspired by the ideals of the Russian Revolution.^[2] On their return to India in 1921, some of them sought to promote revolutionary and socialist ideas aimed at overthrowing British colonial rule.^[3]

The British colonial government, fearing a spread of communist and nationalist agitation, arrested several individuals in Peshawar under charges of sedition and conspiracy against the Crown. The trials were conducted in secrecy, with the accused often denied legal representation and subjected to harsh conditions.^[4] These prosecutions marked some of the earliest attempts by the British to suppress communist influence in India and were followed by similar trials such as the Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case (1924) and the Meerut Conspiracy Case (1929).^[5]

Background

Following the Khilafat Movement and the failure of early anti-colonial uprisings, a number of Indian Muslims known as the "muhajirs" migrated to Afghanistan and later to the Soviet Union in 1920, seeking refuge and revolutionary education.^[6] Many were influenced by the success of the Russian Revolution and the international appeal of Marxism–Leninism, which they believed could serve as a model for ending British colonial rule in India.^[7] With support from Soviet officials in Tashkent, a group of Indian revolutionaries formed the early Communist movement in India and began planning to return home to organize workers and peasants.^[8]

When British intelligence discovered these plans through surveillance and intercepted communications, colonial authorities launched a crackdown on suspected revolutionaries entering India from the northwest frontier. This led to the first arrests and trials that became known as the Peshawar Conspiracy Cases.^[9]

Aftermath

The Peshawar trials set the tone for future British policy against leftist movements in India. Many of the individuals implicated were imprisoned or kept under surveillance for years, while others went underground and continued their political activities in secret.^[10] The trials drew public attention to communist and nationalist cooperation and inspired later generations of Indian revolutionaries. They also directly influenced subsequent political prosecutions, including the Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case (1924) and the Meerut Conspiracy Case (1929), which further shaped the early history of the Communist Party of India.^[11]