Standing near the noose, he recited a couplet in which he said he wished nothing but to sacrifice his life for the motherland.
Utkarsh Mishra remembers Ram Prasad Bismil on the revolutionary leader's 128th birth anniversary.
In his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Mahatma Gandhi, writing at the age of 55, recounts the formative events of his life from childhood up to 1921. Rather than offering post-facto justifications, Gandhi presents these episodes with a tone of candid introspection, marked by honest confessions and self-criticism.
Another autobiography, which -- though not as widely known as Gandhi's -- shares a similar tone of self-reflection and introspection, is that of Ramprasad Bismil.
Written under vastly different circumstances, Bismil composed his memoir in a condemned cell in Gorakhpur jail while awaiting execution.
In about 120 pages, he reflected on his life with remarkable clarity and detachment. These pencil-written manuscripts were smuggled out of prison in batches, the last one just a day before he was hanged.
On his 128th birth anniversary, here is a life sketch of Bismil in his own words.
Born in a conservative family
His grandfather left their ancestral home in then Gwalior state and settled in Shahjahanpur, United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), which was hit by a famine at the time. The initial days were tough, and two square meals were hard to come by.
However, the condition improved gradually, and by the time Ramprasad was born, the family was able to send their sons to school.
Born on June 11, 1897, Ramprasad was the second child of his parents. However, a son born before him had not survived. Bismil was followed by five sisters and three brothers, four of whom also succumbed during infancy.
Bismil recounts that his grandmother wanted the girls to be killed, following the tradition of their clan. However, his mother saved her daughters, and they were the first girls in his clan to be educated and married off.
He also recalls that when, as a teenager, he joined the Arya Samaj movement, his father was very angry. He even threatened to kill young Ramprasad if he didn't renounce the Arya Samaj. Scared, the boy left home. However, his father later repented his outburst, brought his son back, and seldom questioned his life choices after that.
Bismil was closest to his mother and writes about her very fondly. He credits her with whatever he could learn in life and also says that she supported his revolutionary activities too -- just as Giuseppe Mazzini's mother supported him.
Confessions
Bismil remembers that when he was 14 years old, he acquired a few bad habits.
One was stealing money from his father's chest to buy trashy literature. Another was smoking. He was also addicted to bhaang. He recalls smoking 50 to 60 cigarettes daily.
Once, in a state of intoxication, he was caught stealing money. An embarrassed Ramprasad decided never to steal again. However, smoking was hard to quit.
It was during this time that he came under the influence of Swami Somdev of the Arya Samaj. Bismil accepted the seer as his guru and started living the life of an ascetic -- waking up before dawn, eating simple food, exercising, and meditating to build a strong body and mind.
He also took a vow of abstinence.
In 1915, in the aftermath of the failed Ghadar Revolution, trials of the revolutionaries involved were held as part of the First Lahore Conspiracy Case. Bismil followed the trial with great interest.
He had great respect for Ghadar Party leader Bhai Paramanand. When he read the news about him being sentenced to death in the case, he realised that there could be no justice for Indians under the British Raj.
Bismil then decided to invest all he had to fight the Crown and drive the British out of his motherland.
Early revolutionary activities
Bismil attended the Lucknow Congress in 1916, where he took part in welcoming Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, much to the chagrin of the moderate faction within the party that didn't want him welcomed in such a grandiose way.
There, he learnt about secret revolutionary groups and joined their activities. He later got associated with revolutionary leader Genda Lal Dixit.
He borrowed money from his mother on the pretext of doing business and used it to publish a book on the American War of Independence. A few copies of the book were distributed before it was seized by the provincial government.
Money was always a problem for the revolutionaries. Far from being able to buy weapons or publish revolutionary literature, they could not get enough money even for food and other basic expenses. On a few occasions, the men looted government coffers to fill this gap, but it wasn't enough.
A couple of times, Ramprasad lied to his mother and borrowed money to buy arms. But with no experience, he paid much more to buy guns from scrap dealers that were far from effective in combat.
It was much later, when the group established contacts with arms suppliers from Bengal, that they realised how badly they had been fleeced.
They also published a pamphlet called Deshvasiyon Ke Naam Sandesh (A Message to the People of India). It was also seized by the government. Dixit was arrested, and a trial was initiated in the name of the Mainpuri Conspiracy Case in 1918.
Arrest loomed large over Bismil too, and the family went into exile. During his time in hiding, Bismil lived with peasants and learnt farming.
They returned to Shahjahanpur after a general amnesty was granted to political prisoners.
Resumption of movement and action in Kakori
Back in Shahjahanpur, Bismil saw that people avoided his company, fearing police action. After much effort, he got a job as a manager in a local factory, which helped him alleviate the financial trouble that had befallen his family due to exile.
During this time, he wrote the Hindi version of the biography of Catherine Breshkovsky, the mother of the Russian revolution. He was greatly influenced by her life. After some time, he left his job and took up publishing full-time. He also wrote articles for several magazines and newspapers.
He was approached by several revolutionaries with a request to reorganise their groups. He got in touch with Sachindra Nath Sanyal, a prominent leader who had served time in the Cellular Jail in the Andamans.
Together with Sanyal and other prominent revolutionaries of Bengal and the United Provinces, Bismil formed the Hindustan Republican Association in 1924. The party was later renamed by Bhagat Singh as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association in 1928.
However, the problem of funding remained unresolved, and the revolutionaries had to struggle for every single penny to carry out their activities. Wearing rags and eating only one meal a day became routine.
Bismil recounts that he once saw government money being transported in trunks on a train and decided to rob one such train to raise funds for their activities.
As per the plan, on August 9, 1925, a group of 10 revolutionaries -- Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Rajendra Lahiri, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Sachindra Bakshi, Keshab Chakravarty, Manmath Nath Gupta, Mukundi Lal, Murari Lal Khanna, and Banwari Lal -- stopped the train from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow at Kakori and looted trunks of money that were being transferred to the British government treasury.
However, within a year, all those involved in the action -- except Azad and Chakravarty -- were arrested, along with many others. A trial was conducted against 40 people, of whom Bismil, Khan, Lahiri, and Roshan Singh were sentenced to death.
Tales of betrayal
Bismil recounts several incidents where he was betrayed by those he considered friends or comrades.
During his formative years as a revolutionary, he recalls an incident where three members of his group conspired to kill him.
He was a tough disciplinarian and always motivated his comrades to live like ascetics. He also didn't allow the use of funds for private purposes and made several enemies in this pursuit.
However, the betrayal that cost him his life was by his comrade Banwari Lal, who turned a government approver after being arrested in the Kakori case and revealed all the organisation's secrets.
(Although Banwari Lal later retracted his statements, his leads helped the police build a strong case against the group. He committed suicide after being released from jail.)
Bismil was also disgusted by the differences among members of the group that came to the fore during their trial and prison terms. In particular, regional sectarianism among members affected him deeply, as he believed revolutionaries should be above such differences.
He writes that sometimes the feeling of despair was so intense that he also thought of giving up and becoming an approver in the case. But he controlled himself.
In the last few pages of his autobiography, written just days before his martyrdom, Bismil discusses why they could not achieve what they intended to and lays down conditions for the success of revolution in India.
He says that illiteracy and poverty among the masses are the biggest reasons why they fail to sympathise with revolutionary movements.
He advises young revolutionaries to take up the task of making the masses aware -- especially peasants and women -- of the injustice the colonial government is inflicting on them.
He is critical of youngsters who are fascinated by guns and romanticise revolutionary life, saying that India's freedom cannot be achieved merely by killing British officials.
He advocates for Hindu-Muslim unity and urges both communities to abandon communal interests for the sake of the country. He also advises all religious groups and political parties to accept the Congress as their representative on the national stage.
Bismil advises young revolutionaries to read and emulate the example of Mazzini in Italy, the Bolsheviks in Russia, and Mustafa Kemal Pasha in Turkey -- and to refrain from engaging in secret activities until these conditions are met.
He uses honorifics like Mahatma and Mahamana for Mazzini and Vladimir Lenin.
At the gallows
Bismil kissed the rope on December 19, 1927.
A month later, Bhagat Singh wrote about him in the January 1928 issue of Kirti, a Punjabi magazine.
About Bismil's supreme sacrifice, Bhagat Singh wrote: 'As he was taken to the gallows, he proclaimed Bande Mataram, Bharat Mata ki Jai, and walked calmly...'
Standing near the noose, he recited a couplet he had written, in which he said that now, he wished nothing but to sacrifice his life for the motherland.
Although, there was one last wish that Bismil expressed before this recital.
Waiting for the rope to be tied around his neck, he loudly proclaimed: 'I wish the downfall of the British Empire.'
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