9th August 1945 – Nagasaki was bombed by America.

9th August 1942 – Quit India movement was launched.

9th August 1925 – This is an important date in the independence fight of India against the British.

Members of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) looted the government treasury from the mail train near Kakori, 22km away from Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh).

The members of this association were keen on not only throwing but uprooting the British rule from India, through an armed struggle.

The idea of this robbery was the brainchild of Ramprasad Bismil. It was not for money that they planned this lot but to make the government at that time aware of the problems of the Indian people and their cry for self-rule. Agreed that the path taken by revolutionaries was not approved by many Indians, and so they did not support HSRA in any way. So, our history teaches us that they did this robbery out of a need for money. But people who have decided to die for the independence of India would loot the train for money is something which does not appeal to my mind and conscience.

People involved in this plan were Ramprasad Bismil, Chandrashekhar Azad, Ashfaqullah Khan, Keshab Chakravarty, Sachindra Bakshi, Murari Sharma, Mukundi Lal, Manmathnath Gupta and Banwari Lal.

On 9 August 1925, the Number 8 Down Train traveling from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow was approaching the town of Kakori (now in Uttar Pradesh), when one of the revolutionaries pulled the emergency chain to stop the train and subsequently overpowered the guard. It is believed that they looted that specific train because it was carrying the money bags which belonged to the Indians and was being transferred to the British government treasury. They looted only these bags (which were present in the guards’ cabin and contained more than 100,000 rupees) and escaped to Lucknow. 

More than 40 people were arrested from all over India and sent to trial.

Ram Prasad Bismil and some others were charged with various offenses, including robbery and murder. Fifteen people had been released due to lack of evidence and a further five had escaped, two of them — Ashfaqullah Khan and Sachindra Bakshi—were captured after the trial. 

Chandrasekhar Azad, reorganised the HRA in 1928 and operated it till 27 February 1931, the day he died in a heroic act in Allahabad. On the day, he was surrounded by police and after a long shootout, holding true to his pledge to never be captured alive, he shot himself dead with his last bullet on 27 February 1931 at Chandrasekhar Azad Park, Allahabad.

Charges pressed against another four men were dropped. Damodar Swarup Seth was discharged due to illness, while Veer Bhadra Tiwari, Jyoti Shankar Dixit and Shiv Charan Lal have been suspected of providing information to the authorities. Two other individuals – Banwari Lal and Indu Bhushan Mitra came to be approvers in return for a lenient sentence.

The punishments given were as follows:

Death sentence: Ram Prasad Bismil, Thakur Roshan Singh, Rajendra Nath Lahiri and Ashfaqullah Khan

Deportation to Kala Paani (Port Blair Cellular Jail, Andaman and Nicobar Islands): Sachindranath Sanyal and Sachindranath Bakshi

14 years imprisonment: Manmathnath Gupta

10 years imprisonment: Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee, Mukundi Lal, Govid Charan Kar, Raj Kumar Singh and Ram Krishna Khatri

7 years imprisonment: Vishnu Charan Dublish, Suresh Charan Bhattacharya

5 years imprisonment: Bhupendranath Sanyal, Prem Krishna Khanna, Banwari Lal and Pranawesh Mukherjee

4 years imprisonment: Keshab Chakravarthy

I have purposely highlighted the people who were sentenced and their sentences as the kids today do not know about all this. NO books of history teach us all this. We do remember different occasions today but do not recall such events which also are proud moments in our fight for independence.

On this day, when we pay our respects to the people who died in the “Fat Boy” explosion at Nagasaki, or the people who gave their everything for Quit India,

Let us also remember all those who lead and fought an armed struggle for the Independence of our Motherland.

Image source: Current Adda 247