Kakori Conspiracy – Events, Impact Of Kakori Train Action

What Is Kakori Conspiracy Case?

The Kakori conspiracy case is a very famous revolutionary activity carried out by Indians during the British Raj. The train’s final destination Lucknow was approximately 16 km to the northwest of Kakori, where the incident occurred. Money that was to be deposited in Lucknow was on board the train and had been gathered from several Railway stops along the way.

• Ram Prasad Bismil led a group of 10 revolutionary militants, and in a well-planned attack, they halted the train, disarmed the guards and passengers within, smashed open the guard’s quarters safe, and made off with the money inside.
• The riders belonged to the recently formed Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, which was a revolutionary group committed to bringing about revolutions in India, including military uprisings. The Hindustan Republican Association conducted raids, including train heists, to pay for its operations.

Objectives of Kakori Train Robbery

The newly formed HRA, later known as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, was a revolutionary group whose goal was to free India from British rule through a revolution that included armed rebellion. The raiders in the Kakori conspiracy were known to be members of the HSRA group. Primarily, there were two objectives of the Kakori train robbery:

1. To extort money from the British administration for funding the activities of the HSRA.
2. To attack high-profile British government targets while causing the least amount of collateral harm to promote the HRA among Indians

Events of Kakori Conspiracy Case

The 8-number down train was travelling to Lucknow from Saharanpur on August 9, 1925. Rajendra Lahari. One of the revolutionaries pulled the emergency chain to stop the train as it passed Kakori and then the other revolutionaries overcame the guard present. Only bags that were kept in the guard’s cabin were robbed by the revolutionaries and they contained roughly 8000 rupees. Check here the events of the Kakori train robbery.

• Ahmed Ali who was a passenger on the train was murdered in the crossfire among revolutionaries and guards despite the fact that no passengers were specifically targeted by the revolutionaries. Hence, the Kakori conspiracy case was classified as manslaughter.
• The theft was orchestrated by Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaq Ullah Khan, Chandrashekhar Azad, Rajendra Lahari, Sachindra Bakshi, Keshav Chakravarti, Mukundi Lal, Banvari Lal, Kundan Lal, Pravesh Mukharji, Swarn Singh, etc.
• The HRA was to be funded with the money taken from the British government according to the robbery’s stated objectives. Another objective of HRA was to promote a positive perception of itself among Indians in order to attract public attention.
• After the incident, the British government began a large manhunt and detained many revolutionaries who were members of HRA or allies.
• On 26 October 1925, the commander Ram Prasad Bismil was taken into custody in Shahjahanpur, and on December 7, 1926, Ashfaqullah Khan was taken into custody in Delhi.

Impact of Kakori Conspiracy

Although the intended strike might have seemed fragmentary, it really had a much bigger effect on the British Empire.

• After the Kakori conspiracy, the British administration became the target of multiple coordinated attacks.
• The revolutionaries’ executions provoked protracted demonstrations all around the nation.
• The empire’s hold over India soon deteriorated as a consequence of these small-scale organized demonstrations and disruptions, and it became very challenging for them to maintain control over incensed India.

Sequence of Events In Kakori Train Robbery

Ashfaqullah Khan and Ram Prasad Bismil plotted the robbery on the train. It was a group of many revolutionaries, including Murari Lal, Rajendra Lahari, Mukundi Lal Gupta, Sachindra Bakshi, and Manmathnath Gupta. The target of revolutionaries was to overpower the guards of the cabin that had cash gathered from different train stops for deposit in Lucknow. The events that happened in the sequence of the Kakori train robbery are as follows-

• On August 8, 1925, the HRA decided to plunder the government’s coffers in order to purchase weapons.
• On August 9, 1925, revolutionaries derailed the 8-number down train which was travelling from Saharanpur to Lucknow at Kakori, attacked the table of guards, and ransacked 8000 rs.
• The British government started a quest to find and punish the revolutionaries.
• Ram Prasad Bismil was detained by officials on September 26, 1925.
• On May 21, 1926, the Kakori train incident trial continued at the Hamilton Session Court.
• After the trial was over, Ashfaqullah Khan and Shachindra Bakshi were taken into custody in the middle of 1926.

Kakori Conspiracy Trial

After the Kakori incident, all the revolutionaries were caught, and a trial was initiated against them in which the leaders of HRA were sentenced to death, whereas many of the revolutionaries were sentenced to a term of imprisonment.

• The Kakori conspiracy trial started on May 21, 1926, on 28 members of HRA. There were many lawyers who were defending the revolutionaries like Ajit Prasad Jain, Govind Vallabh Pant, R.M. Bahadur Ji, Gopinath Shrivastava, Chandrabhanu Gupta, B.K. Chaudhary, Kripa Shankar Hajela, and Mohanlal Saxena. Ram Prasad Bismil famously defended his own case.
• In July 1927, the Kakori Kand’s final decision was delivered by the British government. Due to a lack of evidence, the court released about 15 persons. Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaq Ullah Khan, Thakur Roshan Singh, and Rajendra Lahari received death sentences. Sachindra Bakshi and Sachindranath Sanyal were sentenced to be deported to the Andaman and Nicobar cellular jail in Port Blair.
• The other defendants of the Kakori train robbery received jail terms of varying lengths – Manmathnath Gupta received a 14-year jail term, Yogesh Chandra Chatterjee, Ramkrishna Khatri, Mukundi Lal, Govind Charankar, and Rajkumar Singh were each given a 10-year jail term. Both Vishnu Sharan Dublish and Suresh Charan Bhattacharya received 7 years imprisonment. Keshav Chakraborty received a 4-year prison term.
• Following the verdict, the revolutionaries who had been imprisoned in various facilities went on hunger strikes to protest the circumstances there and to call for their recognition as political prisoners.

Kakori Conspiracy Conclusion

The Kakori conspiracy brought changes in the system. Under the direction of Chandrashekhar Azad, many young revolutionaries like Sukhdev, Shiv Verma, and Jaidev Kapoor set out to recognize HRA. Finally, on September 9 and 10, 1928, the majority of the leading young revolutionaries from northern India gathered in Delhi at the Feroz Shah Kotla Ground to form a new collective leadership, declare socialism as their primary objective, and rename the Hindustan Republican Association as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association.

The Kakori ‘conspiracy’ has been renamed the Kakori Train Incident by the Uttar Pradesh Government.

Kakori Conspiracy Case For UPSC

The Kakori conspiracy case is a part of modern Indian history. Aspirants should read more about the numerous revolutionary activities that took place in India during the liberation movement. From the perspective of the UPSC syllabus, the beliefs that revolutionaries advocated are significant.

Especially if they choose history as an optional subject, candidates may be questioned about these incidents during the interview. In fact, along with the UPSC exam, the Kakori train robbery case can also be part of many other exams, like all the state exams of UPPSC. Therefore this topic is important from many perspectives.

Kakori Conspiracy Case UPSC Questions

Following are two sample questions as references for preparation.

Q1. Put the following events in chronological manner:

1. Kakori Conspiracy
2. Armoured Raid in Chittagong
3. Lahore-Delhi Conspiracy

Choose the correct code from the options given below

1. 1, 3, 2
2. 1, 2, 3,
3. 3, 2, 1
4. 3, 1, 2

Answer- Option C

Q2. In the Kakori conspiracy, who was the government’s attorney?

1. Ashfaqullah Khan
2. Ram Prasad Bismil
3. Krishna Bahadur
4. Prabhat Chandra

Answer- Option C