Answer: The revolutionaries had faced severe repression during the First World War. But in early 1920, many of them were released to allow a harmonious environment for the Montford Reforms to work. Gandhi soon launched the Non-Cooperation Movement (NCM). Persuaded by Gandhiji and C.R. Das, many revolutionary groups either agreed to join the non-cooperation programme or suspend their activities to give the non-violent Non-Cooperation Movement a chance. However, there was a rise in revolutionary activities post the NCM due to the following reasons:

• The sudden withdrawal of the Non-Cooperation Movement left many of the revolutionaries disillusioned leading to questioning the basic strategy of the nationalist leadership and began to look for alternatives.
• The younger nationalists were not convinced by the parliamentary work of the Swarajists or to the patient, undramatic, constructive work of the No-Changers. They were drawn to the idea that violent methods alone would free India and started reviving revolutionary activities.
• The upsurge of working-class trade unionism after the War influenced the revolutionaries who wanted to harness the revolutionary potential of the new emergent class for nationalist revolution.
• The influence of Russian Revolution (1917) and the success of the young Soviet state in consolidating itself led to newly sprouting communist groups with their emphasis on Marxism, socialism, and the proletariat. This furthered the rise of revolutionary activities.
• Literature publishing memoirs and articles extolling the self-sacrifice of revolutionaries started growing in popularity. Journals such as Atmasakti, Sarathi, and Bijoli and books such as Bandi Jiwan by Sachin Sanyal and Pather Dabi by Sharat Chandra Chatterjee fuelled the revolutionary activities too.
• There was an emphasis on group action aimed at organs of the colonial State, instead of individual action. The objective was to set an example before the youth and to demoralize the bureaucracy especially one operating in Bengal.
• Facing the classical dilemma and operational difficulties like mobilizing and recruiting people, the young intellectuals later decided to opt for propaganda by deed, i.e., through individual heroic action and by using courts as a forum for revolutionary propaganda. For example, Chandrasekhar Azad, Sukhdev, Bhagat Singh, Surya Sen, Pritilata Waddedar, Kalpana Dutt etc.

Two separate strands of revolutionary groups emerged during this period-one operating in Punjab-UP-Bihar and the other in Bengal. Owing to government repression and factionalism among the revolutionaries, revolutionary activity suffered a setback, but soon many of revolutionaries started regrouping new smaller groups and continued work underground like the new ‘Revolt Groups’, under Surya Sen (Chittagong Group).