RAM PRASAD BISMIL’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY FROM THE DEATH ROW NOW IN ENGLISH

SAKET SURYESH

The Revolutionary Ram Prasad Bismil

Saket Suryesh

INDI A

SINGAPORE

M A L AY S I A

Notion Press Old No. 38, New No. 6 McNichols Road, Chetpet Chennai - 600 031 First Published by Notion Press 2020 Copyright © Saket Suryesh 2020 All Rights Reserved. ISBN 978-1-64783-690-0 This book has been published with all efforts taken to make the material error-free after the consent of the author. However, the author and the publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause. While every effort has been made to avoid any mistake or omission, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that neither the author nor the publishers or printers would be liable in any manner to any person by reason of any mistake or omission in this publication or for any action taken or omitted to be taken or advice rendered or accepted on the basis of this work. For any defect in printing or binding the publishers will be liable only to replace the defective copy by another copy of this work then available.

Dedication This is to India and to the memories of the blessed son of Bharat, Ram Prasad ‘Bismil’

“I have read the autobiography of the great martyr Shri Ram Prasad Bismil with keen interest. The martyrdom of Shri Ram Prasad Bismil and his associates forms a cornerstone of the great struggle for Indian freedom which started with 1857 and continued till the Independence of India. While reading his autobiography it became evident that any movement succeeds only when it is able to leverage the support of public sentiment. This is one great difficulty that Shri Bismil faced. While the people was subtly supportive and respectfully sympathetic towards the revolutionary movement; there was obvious lack of vocal and open support to their efforts. Another thought-provoking fact which stands out in this autobiography of Bismil is the inconvenient truth that had it not been for the acts of treachery and betrayal of some of our own people who connived with the British; it would have been impossible for the British to hold India under the shackles of colonial rule. It is my sincere wish that this memoir of the great son of Mother India be read by as many people as possible, so that we are able to appreciate the value of freedom we enjoy today (and often take for granted) and do not repeat the mistakes of the past which had once placed us under the dark shadows of slavery and kept us under curse of a foreign rule for a long time.” - UmaShri Bharti, Senior Leader, ExCentral Minister, GoI “Ramprasad Bismil, in his being, represents the quintessential Indian. Grew up through adversity, still kept the flame of nationalism burning in his heart. Often let down, often betrayed, he never lost hope for the India that he believed was ripe not only for a revolution, rather also for a renaissance. The man, a staunch Sanatani, who would give us the first nationalist Muslim to attain martyrdom for the motherland after 1857, in his alter-ego and closest Comrade, Ashfadullah Khan, with his unwavering faith and his all-accommodating ideology, firm but never fanatic, syncretic but never subservient; always a faithful believer and always a proud patriot, Ram Prasad Bismil is an answer to many a questions we face today as a nation and as a society. I am sure this English translation of this great patriot will bring Bismil’s inspiring story to a wider audience and to the younger generation. I would urge every nationalist Indian to read this autobiography of a great son of India.” - Shivraj Singh Chauhan- Ex- Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh and Senior BJP leader

Contents Introduction Gratitude Time-Line 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

9 15 17

Self- Portrait Hunger and Hopelessness- The Early Days The Family Life My Adolescence My Mother My Mentor, My Guru The Life of a Young Bachelor Nationalism The Revolutionary Life Weapons and Arms Mainpuri Conspiracy The Treachery The Life of a Fugitive The Failed Mainpuri Revolt A Brief Stint of Freedom The Episode of Fake Revolutionaries The Curious Story of Counterfeit Currency The Fraud and Embezzlement The Final Plunge- The Wider Organization Revolutionaries in Rags The Uneasy Youth 7

19 21 24 27 34 36 42 46 48 49 53 55 57 59 62 64 66 69 71 73 75

Contents

22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27.

Kakori Train Robbery The Final Arrest The Life in Prison and the Trial The Charge Ashfaq Thoughts in the Death Cell

Conclusion The Last Words

77 80 82 89 95 98 101 113

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Introduction This translation comes from the Autobiography written by the legendary Revolutionary and the foremost freedom fighter Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil during the last days of his life, while awaiting his execution. Most of the notable revolutionaries like Ashfaqullah Khan, Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh who find reverential mentions in our national memory, were members of the organization, Hindustan Republican Army founded by Ram Prasad Bismil together with Shachindra Nath Sanyal. Bismil headed the armed action wing of the organization, having veered away from the Congress after Chauri-Chaura let down with the withdrawal of non-cooperation movement, like many other youth of his time. Born in a poor family, in the then, United Province, Ram Prasad ‘Bismil’ grew up to become a fierce nationalist. More than anything, what stands out in his autobiography is the objectivity with which he wrote this autobiography while awaiting his death sentence in Gorakhpur prison, under severe and inhuman conditions. It is not very often that one comes across such honest and objective evaluation of the self and the world around. When Bismil take stock of his short life in the end, he seldom allows his writings to become personality focused. A challenging journey of hard struggle and betrayals would leave anyone in a state of sad bitterness, but not Bismil. Bismil throughout his writing remains focused on the nationalistic objectives and even skips naming those who let him down, whether it be the senior leader who he charges with leading a regional faction in the Prison or the Public Prosecutor Jagat Narain Mulla of Congress who represented the Government in the Kakori Case. Despite the disdain Congress leaders had shown towards the revolutionary movement, towards the end Bismil urges the revolutionaries to move for grass-root changes under the leadership of Congress to maintain a unity of purpose and direction. It is people like Bismil who provided an intellectual heft to the violent movement meant to dislodge the British and this reflects in his autobiography. We have come to an unfortunate situation where the nation is split between “your” freedom-fighter versus “our” freedom-fighter. This has mostly happened

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because by the time British left, Congress was in the most prominent position and played the most prominent role in the power transfer on the behalf of entire nation. Even if the tallest leaders themselves might not have wanted it to be such, the later day second-rung and second-generation leadership probably hopeful of becoming the first-rung themselves someday, decided to wipe off from the collective memory of the country anything which might challenge the congress hegemony over the history of nationalism and freedom struggle. They ended up creating a narrative which had no space for any non-Congress nationalist movement whether it be the revolutionaries of Anusheelan Samiti or HRA, the sailors of Sailors mutiny, Sanyasis of the Sanyasi movement or the Arya Samaj. At the time when the Congress under the influence of its affluent leadership of London-educated lawyers-lobby was attempting to work out an accommodative solution which did not require complete independence from colonial rule; the revolutionaries, most of them from lower and middle-class, had already committed themselves to the idea of an independent India (Almost two years after Bismil attained martyrdom, in 1929 Congress went back to the demand of a Dominion State under British Monarchy for India). The revolutionary movement took over the freedom movement almost immediately from where the failed mutiny of 1857 left it, once the population could get over the shock of the brutal suppression of the Sepoy mutiny which quickly became India’s first war of Independence. It was mass-leaders like Tilak and Revolutionaries like Acharya Som Dev, Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan and later, Chandrashekhar Azaad and Bhagat Singh who kept the flame of freedom burning, while the Congress, at large, continued to toy with a non-confrontationist position vis-à-vis the British government. It is not that the revolutionaries harbored any ill will towards Congress. In fact, most, including Bismil, appreciated the unifying effect of Congress. The Congress leadership of the later days, drawn from the elite and empowered Rai-Bahadur class of Indians, felt uneasy not only with the revolutionaries like Bismil and Azad who came from impoverished backgrounds but held a great intellect in spite of their poor background. The later-day Congressmen were discomforted by the massive following of even their own leaders like Lokmanya Tilak who held a clearer and unambiguous position regarding the freedom of India (Tilak proclaimed Independence as the birth right in 1898, while Congress was still far from the declaration of complete Independence which happened in the December convention of 1929) and came from a different economic background. This autobiography also covers one very interesting episode of the Lucknow Convention of the Congress where local organizers went crazy lengths to try to modulate the popularity of Tilak among the youth. It is pertinent to note that by the time Congress came around to the Idea of seeking Complete Self-Rule in

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1930, Bismil and his revolutionary friends had already run their race. It is really saddening that for their own political purposes, the post-independence Congress which ruled India for decades totally erased the memories of those worthy sons of the motherland who went to the gallows, believingShaheedon ki Mazaaron par, Lagenge har baras mele; Vatan pe marne waalon kaa, yehi Baaki Nishaan Hogaa. (Our beloved nation will come around celebrating our martyrdom, year after year/And this alone shall be the lasting memory we leave behind as we walk into the oblivion with a solemn tear) One’s heart bleeds to think that even those memories were wiped off, not so much by the British government, rather by our own successive governments which ruled over India post-independence. While the youth of India go around adulating revolutionaries like Che Guevara, a strange case of communists promoted by the capitalist market forces; it is a crying shame that we know so little about our own heroes. The men made famous, or rather infamous as some sort of brainless muscle of Indian freedom struggle were, in reality, people of such refined intellect that one is almost surprised reading them now and shocked at not having read them earlier. With a white-washed history, I must confess, I did not have much idea about the intellectual moorings and brilliant writings of men of Hindustan Republican Army (HRA) before the generation of Chandra Shekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh when the organization became Hindustan Socialist Republic Army (HSRA). The writings of Bismil is of such great quality that it feels like reading a work of literature, where his eloquent and powerful pen supports the honesty of his thoughts and mirrors the clarity of his mind in a perfect harmony. He so skillfully expresses his own thoughts, views and confesses even those moments of self-doubt when he faced worst betrayals by his own comrades. In his writings, the picture of India of the early Twentieth century is painted in such a vivid vision that it could easily be considered as a reference material to understand those times. It is hardly surprising therefore that Bismil was able to raise funds for the revolutionary activities by the sale of his books on sheer literary brilliance. I wish his writings were part of our schools and colleges, as they have so potent a message of patriotism for our youth. These writings are a rare combination of a revolutionary spirit with a very nationalistic conscience. Bismil looks at his time with the wistful eyes of a man who has observed the sand-storms of the faminestricken ravines of rural India without a blink. He was not a man contemplating the truth of India from the manicured lawns of Anand Bhawan or from the Palaces

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of Aga Khan, he was a man living a life of deprivation in the place where the heavy jackboots of colonial rule landed the hardest. I had some hesitation with the some strong references to Socialism in Bismil’s writing, but then his writings were reflective of his times. His socialist leanings have nothing to do with the later-day Communist movement, which was non-existent then (Bose refers to Samyavaad as totally Indian concept coming from Buddhist philosophy of equity and equality). He, like other revolutionaries of his time, drew inspiration from the revolution in Russia, which created a system of governance run by the poor and the downtrodden. The iron curtain had not yet fallen and Communism had not yet failed. Socialism represented at that time, not a web of empowered committees of entitled individuals. It was instead, an idea advocating equitable share in the national resources for the poor and disenfranchised. In fact, I find in Ashfaqulla Khan more acute political observer than Bismil in this respect, as Ashfaq plainly points out the inadequacy of Communism as a foreign concept unable to serve the needs of India when he urges Indian communists to get over their infatuation with foreign concepts and try to first understand the soul of India. Ashfaq was also so right and was possibly the first leader of his time to understand the implications of Pan-Islam as a concept which ran counter to the concept of loyalty towards the motherland, and opposed it bitterly. Bismil, with the keen, delicate balance of a revolutionary general glances over these ideological points. For Bismil, there is there is one and only one ideology necessary- the idea of Nationalism and complete surrender of the self towards the cause of the Motherland. Under the shadow of this big tree, all small plants may live in harmony. In fact, Bismil does not even attempts to connect the Congress leader who turned first approver in the Kakori Case with the brief altercation he had had with Bismil during the Lucknow convention as a Sixteen year old. Bismil, in his autography, comes out as a man too grand for petty complains. Even the uneasy episode of regional factionalism in the prison among the revolutionaries is reported without naming any names. I have just translated it as it is, without bothering to add a justification to Bismil’s concerns. An intellectual giant such as Bismil does not need any defending by an ordinary mortal like me. If anything, the parochial politics needs to be acknowledged instead of being brushed under the carpet. We must understand the discomfiture of a man who was certain of his own death approaching him in the line of service of nation when he deliberates and writes about such petty politics. There is a tendency now of the Congressmen of the current days leading luxurious Lutyen’s life to be judgmental about the mercy petitions given by the then revolutionaries (though the object of their attack mostly is Savarkar) to the British authorities. We cannot even begin to understand the British justice system

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which was nothing but facile, fake and a fraud, at least for the natives. That system would send people accused of crimes of sedition to gallows after a facetious and false one year of trial, while pretending to the upholder of the principles of Supreme justice. Most revolutionaries wrote mercy petitions less with a view to get exonerated, and more with a view to expose the falsehood which the British perpetrated on the colonial people in the name of British Justice system. We must also keep in mind that unlike high-profile Congress Rai Bahadurs coming from similar social strata as the British aristocracy and having had the privilege of an upbringing identical to that of a British gentleman in London and Europe; people like Bismil came from an extremely impoverished, rural background and never had those advantages of leveraging the system to obtain a life of privileged political prisoner with relatively lenient authorities where they could meditate, do yoga, read and write books while serving sentences, which their Congress counterparts had. Bismil’s description of his life in Gorakhpur Jail towards the end is enough to keep any sensitive soul awake for nights. If one compares it with the letter Nehru wrote to Indira while in Prison mentioning how he tried electric razor sent in by Indira to shave, and loved it, one can appreciate the difference between the Prison terms of the two different class of freedom fighters. The calm objectivity in such a state of hopelessness and hardships, facing a certain death reflects a soul way above the common and an intellect way beyond the ordinary. These memoirs were written by Bismil in those last excruciating days while waiting for an impending death. Those were turbulent times and we cannot measure the revolutionaries of those times on the scales of modern world. They had just seen the brutal and inhuman crushing of the mutiny of 1857 with a cruelty unforeseen in the modern history. Most of the revolutionaries had come from extremely impoverished background from poor villages routinely plagued with famines in summers and floods during Monsoon. Forget education, even survival was not easy. It was exceptional that a boy from the small village in Shahjahanpur in the United Province ( Now, Uttar Pradesh) could almost self-school himself, not only in Urdu and Hindi, but also in English, so much so that he could write in all of these languages and even translate one from the other to help others read. Apart from the patriotic reasons, as a purely human story, the story of Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil is an inspirational story of the victory of an undefeatable spirit, rising from a revolting state of poverty, surviving a string of betrayals and failures. A life-long struggle ending in an early death caught the fancy of entire nation, purely on the strength of character and a boundless love for the motherland. While the politicians of Congress today are running a cunning campaign to claim the ownership of Freedom struggle all for themselves denouncing anyone

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with slight shade of saffron in freedom struggle; in those days, Staunch Hindu Arya Samaaji Bismil would work with Ashfaqullah Khan. This book holds the answers to the questions of today’s venomous politics of India. It is our collective loss as a generation that a book like this is not a part of our educational system and general readings in schools and colleges. These were the thoughts which prompted me to translate this great autobiography by a man who was greater than his writings. I have tried to keep everything intact in this as far as the translation is concerned. Very few parts I have left out. I have not included the deliberation of Manman Nath Gupta on the regional factionalism among the revolutionaries mentioned by Bismil in autobiography, because in my view it is not a part of autobiography, rather the explanation or reaction of a contemporary of Bismil on one part of original writing. I have also left out some of the poems which Bismil included in his autobiography which were not his as he himself mentioned but which he liked. This book is my humble tribute to the men who laid down their lives to give us an India which makes us immensely proud. It also makes me wonder with a quiet admiration about the unwavering faith these worthy sons held in the motherland - Their motherland, which was then impoverished, faminestruck, undeveloped, under slavery. And when we look around at the people who question even the meaning of celebrating an Independence Day, at the time when we are one of the fastest growing nation, one of the largest economy, one of the most democratic nation; I am convinced that we need to know men like Bismil more and more. If we had only a fraction of the love, affection and respect for our nation today which these great men had, we would easily become one of the greatest nation in the world. What stands out in Bismil’s thought is an unshakeable faith in the future of an India which actually was not able to offer much to his present. In today’s world, when we have people claiming that they would love the motherland if it was lovely enough; Bismil, a poor child, who grew in the middle of abject poverty to grow up and lay down his life for a nation which had so little to offer him, would appear an oddity. This brilliant writing of the great revolutionary not only helps us understand the man and his time, it also helps us understand the India of those times, on which the India of today stands. More often than not, the answers to the questions of future are hidden in the past. Since many in our current generation read in English, I hope, through this translation, they will be able to discover our long-lost hero and inspiration. All the brilliance in this book belongs to Bismil and all faults of writing are mine. Saket Suryesh

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Gratitude I thank all those who stood by me while doing this translation as they knew what Bismil meant to India and those who urged me to write this because they did not know much about Ram Prasad Bismil. Thanking my family for bearing with me for more than one year of eccentricity, as I kept thinking about Bismil, Ashfaqullah and those times of all-encompassing Bharatiyata. Special mention to Nisheeth Sharan ji for helping me connect with important people who took time to read the book and share their enthusiasm and encouragement about the book.

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THE REVOLUTIONARY It was a cold morning, the Nineteenth day of December, in the year 1927, when a well-built young man, barely Thirty, walked to the gallows, with the chants of Vande Mataram on his lips in Gorakhpur prison. This death will be mourned by the patriots who would follow him in the struggle for Independence. This death will be forgotten by many in the years after independence. As the youth of today follows false heroes from the foreign lands, why do we know so little about our own revolutionaries and heroes like Ram Prasad Bismil? It is mostly because their truth, their story was pushed away from the public view to the dark corners. His memoirs and writings suffered the same fate as his memories. This book is an attempt to revive his memories because they hold answers to many questions of the future. “It is my sincere wish that this memoir of the great son of Mother India be read by as many people as possible, so that we are able to appreciate the value of freedom we enjoy today (and often take for granted) and do not repeat the mistakes of the past which had once placed us under the dark shadows of slavery and kept us under curse of a foreign rule for a long time.” – Umashri Bharti, Ex-Minister, Government of India. “Ramprasad Bismil, in his being, represents the quintessential Indian. Grew up through adversity, still kept the flame of nationalism burning in his heart. Often let down, often betrayed, he never lost hope for the India that he believed was ripe not only for a revolution, rather also for a renaissance. I would urge every nationalist Indian to read this autobiography.” – Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Ex-Chief Minister and Senior BJP leader.

Saket Suryesh lives in Delhi with his wife and only daughter. Saket writes in both English and Hindi, something which came handy in translating this autobiography of Ram Prasad Bismil, Meri Aatmkathaa from Hindi to English. Saket writes on politics, current affairs and political satire. Saket’s earlier collection of satirical essays in Hindi, Ganjhon ki Goshthi was well received by readers. He contributes regularly to columns in Swarajya, OpIndia and Jagaran. Price 145

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