When the method of prayer and petition of the western educated Indian intelligentsia stopped working, a certain section of the Indian freedom fighters decided to take up arms in order to fight against the foreign rule. The young bloods of India who undertook this method of struggle were popularly known as the Extremists unlike the Moderates who belonged to the older generation. The revolutionary groups were concentrated in Maharastra, Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and the then Madras Presidency. The revolutionary philosophies and movement made its presence felt during the 1905 Partition of Bengal.

This method was characterized by a more radical approach towards political independence. Militant nationalism emerged in the first decade of the twentieth century and prominent among the revolutionaries was the trio Lal Bal Pal (Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal) who undertook many revolutionary activities. Khudiram Bose was one of the youngest revolutionary and a freedom fighter. Another young revolutionary was Bhagat Singh, who along with Shivaram Rajguru, Jai Gopal, Sukhdev Thapar were famous for their radical activities. Three of them undertook the murder of J.P.Saunders and throwing of bombs on the corridors of the Assembly and raising the slogan Inquilab Zindabad(Long love Revolution). Other revolutionaries were Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Aurobindo Ghosh, and his brother Barin Ghosh, Bhupendranath Datta and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. The revolutionaries formed many societies in order to organize their activities. Prominent societies were Anushilan Samiti, Yugantar that was created as an inner circle of Anushilani Samiti. In 1924 revolutionaries like Ramprasad Bismil, Jogesh Chatterjee, Chandrashekhar Azad and Sachindranath Sanyal established Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) in Kanpur. Indian revolutionaries will be remembered in the annals of India`s national struggle for their brave acts.