They lived a life of danger and intense love for their motherland

Let us get straight to the point. What is the story about revolutionaries who fought the British during the freedom struggle doing on a health blog. Let us dive straight in.

On 9th Aug 1925 a train robbery took place at a small village near Lucknow, called Kakori. The revolutionaries in a way of protest decided to loot a money train with the specific amount which was taxes collected from Indians. They also intended to make the general public aware of their organisation which was Hindustan Republican Association.

Unfortunately a civilian was killed due to accidental firing of one of the guns the revolutionaries were carrying to execute the robbery. The British govt meanwhile saw this as an attempt to challenge their authority. They made the case of manslaughter and went on a massive manhunt to trace down each and every person associated with HRA and the train robbery. Within a span of four months, the police arrested 40 people all across India.

The government official tried all sorts of tricks including offering bribe money for people to turn approvers. The trail was over within a month and judgement pronounced in which number of people were send to various terms of imprisonment including dispatching to Cellular Jail at Port Blair which as called as Kala Pani those days. Four revolutionaries were pronounced the death sentence, Ram Prasad Bismil, Roshan Singh, Rajendra Nath Lahiri and Ashfaqullah Khan.

The revolutionaries refused to wear the prison uniform because they considered themselves to be political prisoners. All the prisoners at various locations went on a hunger strike at the same time. Two of them deserve a special mention who began the hunger strike on 7 April 1927 and ended it on 22 May 1927, a fast of 45 days!!!

Life and times of Manmath Nath Gupta

Born in Varanasi in 1908, Manmath was die hard nationalist from the word go. At the age of 13 he was calling for a boycott of the meeting between Prince Edward and the Maharaja of Benares. When he was caught by the police while distributing pamphlets, instead of running he stood his ground and got arrested. He was jailed for three months during which he was even tortured.

I really don’t understand the British. While now they are portraying themselves as champions of all sorts of rights these days, even worried about the welfare of famous economic offenders who are hiding in that country actually did innumerable human right violations while ruling India. It is sad that we have decided to forget all these atrocities and large heartedly accepted the British as masters of the universe.

Manmath’s involvement in the train robbery landed him a 14 years rigorous imprisonment. He was 17 at that time. When released from prison he again started writing against the British rulers. This time he was arrested and again imprisoned for life. He was released one year prior to Independence in 1946. After independence he began writing again. He wrote 120 books in English, Hindi and Bengali.

In a final interview to Doordarshan titled Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna in 1997, he brought out the episode of the train robbery now known as Kakori Train Kand. He admitted that he always regretted firing that accidental shot which killed one of the passengers. That action of his costed the life of four of his dearest friends. He wished that it was he who should have been hanged instead.

Manmath Nath Gupta died on 26 Oct 2000 at the age of 92!

It was he along with Vishnu Sharan Dublish who undertook the 45 day fast at Naini, Allahabad.