Twitterati salutes freedom fighter Ram Prasad Bismil

• Bismil earned prominence in the freedom struggle after the Mainpuri Conspiracy.
  
• He was the mastermind behind the Kakori Conspiracy.

The nation is paying homage to its brave freedom fighter from Uttar Pradesh (UP), Ram Prasad Bismil, on his birth centenary on June 11.

The poet-turned revolutionary was born in 1897, in the North-Western Provinces of the erstwhile British India. He was one of the many who sowed seeds for an independent India, which was then under British rule.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted a tribute saying, “Every Indian remembers their brave sacrifice.” Former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and businessman Naveen Jindal were amongst the many who Tweeted about Bismil.







The Mastermind

The firebrand activist and Arya Samaji Bismil was the mastermind behind the famous Kakori Conspiracy. He and his band looted the British government treasury from the Saharanpur-Lucknow Passenger Train on August 9, 1925. A detailed account of this event was published in Bismil’s autobiography, ‘Kakori ke Saheed’ (The Martyrs of Kakori), which was published by Ganesh Shanker Vidyarth in 1928.

Eventually, Bismil was convicted for involvement in the robbery, and hanged along with others on December 19, 1927 in Gorakhpur in UP.

This hero who attained a cult status, had planned many such Robin Hood-like expeditions. One such is the Mainpuri Conspiracy where he planned to raise funds for his revolutionary organisation Matrivedi, by robbing from various locations.

Bismil also had an artistic side as published a collection of his poems ‘Man ki Lehar’ (A Sally of mInd) and ‘Swadeshi Rang’ (Colours of Freedom).