‘Bismil’ is the penname of Ramaprasad. As ‘Bismil’ he is well known as a great revolutionary poet in Hindi. At the end of his autobiography, he has reproduced some selected poems. Every line of his poems throbs with patriotic fervour.

In one poem he prays: “Even if I have to face death a thousand times for the sake of my Motherland, I shall not be sorry. Oh Lord! Grant me a hundred births in Bharath. But grant me this, too, that each time I may give up my life in the service of the Mother land.”

In a poem written just before going to the gallows, he prays: “Oh Lord! Thy will be done. You are unique. Neither my tears nor I will endure. Grant me this boon, that to my last breath and the last drop of my blood, I may think of you and be immersed in your work.”

Ram prasad Bismil was a brave revolutionary who gave up his life smilingly for the sake of the Motherland. He was persecuted by an enraged foreign government, hunted by the police and betrayed by follow workers. And yet he lit the fire of revolution to burn down the slavery. He was the brave leader of the Kakori Rail Dacoity episode. His poetry is also a lamp lighted at the altar of the Mother land. Kakori is a village near Lucknow. It became famous, because the attack on the train took place near by..
.It was the evening of the 9th of August 1925; the number eight down train was passing near Kakori. Ram prasad and his nine revolutionary followers pulled the chain and stopped it. They looted the money belonging to the government, deposited in the Guard’s carriage. Excepting that one passenger was killed by an accidental shot, there was no bloodshed.

This extremely well planned dacoity jolted the government. After a month of detailed preliminary inquiries and elaborate preparations the government cast its net wide for the revolutionaries. Arrest warrants were issued not only against the ten participants but also against other leaders of the Hindusthan Republican Association. With the lone exception of Chandrashekhar Azad, all participants were caught.

The case went on for over a year and a half, Ram prasad, Ashfaqullah Roshan Singh and Rajendra Lahiri all four were sentenced to death, A strong campaign was organized throughout India to save the lives of these revolutionary heroes. All the leaders of public life appealed to the British Government to show mercy to the condemned men. But the Government was unyielding.

It was the 18th of December 1927. A middle-aged lady was waiting at the main gates of the Gorakhpur Central Jail. Her face was radiant but anxiety was writ large on it. She was eagerly waiting to be called into the prison.

By that time her husband also arrived there. He was surprised that his wife was there before him. He also sat down to wait for the call.

Another young man came there. He was not related to them. He knew that the couple would be permitted to enter the prison.But how could he manage to enter? This was his problem.

The officials of the prison called in the husband and the wife. The young man followed them. The guard stopped him and rudely asked, “Who are you?”

“Permit him also, brother. He is my sister’s son”, the lady said in an entreating voice. The guard relented.

All the three entered the prison to visit a freedom fighter that was to face his death on the morrow. The freedom fighter was brought there in chains. They were like ornaments on him. This was the last time that he could see his mother, the last time he could address her as ‘Mother’. At this thought grief welled up in him. He stood speechless and tears rolled down his cheeks.

In a firm voice the mother said, ‘What is this, my son? I had thought of my son as a great hero. I was thinking that the British Government would shiver at the very mention of his name. I never thought that my son would be afraid of death. If you can die only in this way, weeping, why did you take up such activities?”

The officials were astounded at the firmness of the mother. The freedom fighter replied, “Mother dear, these are not tears of fear – the fear of death. These are tears of joy – joy at beholding so brave as mother!”

The brave son of that brave mother was Ramaprasad Bismil. He was the leader of the famous Kakori Rail Dacoity case.

The last meeting ended.

Next morning Ramaprasad got up earlier than usual, bathed and said his morning prayers. He wrote his last letter to his mother. Then he sat down with a calm mind awaiting his death.

The officials came and removed his chains. They took him from the prison cell-towards his death.

He was completely untroubled and walked like a hero. The officials were amazed. As he moved to the gallows he joyfully chanted Vande Matharam’ and ‘Bharath Matha ki Jai’. At the top of his voice he shouted down with the British Empire.” Then he calmly recited prayers like ‘Vishwani deva savithaha dunithani…. And embraced death.

As he was being executed, there was a strong guard around the prison. When he was dead the officials brought out the dead body. Not only his parents but also hundreds of his countrymen were waiting in tears.The people of Gorakhpur deco rated the body of the brave son of Bharath as befitted a hero and carried it in a procession. Flowers were showered on the body, and the last rites were performed.

Ramaprasad Bismil joined the select band of martyrs who dreamt of a free India and made the supreme sacrifice, so that the dream might come true.

The Kakori Rail Dacoity……….

For Savarkar, the term Hindutva overcomes three of the main problems with the term Hinduism. First, Hindutva speaks of a sacred geography. “The first image that it rouses in the mind is unmistakably of our motherland and by an express appeal to its geographical and physical features it vivifies it into a living Being. Hindustan means the land of Hindus, the first essential of Hindutva must necessarily be this geographic one.”15 This sense of motherland is passionately described. Unless one “has come to look upon our land not only as the land of his love but even of his worship, he cannot be incorporated into the Hindu fold.”16 Second,

Hindutva binds all those of the motherland together by a common blood. Again Savarkar puts this emphatically:

The Hindus are not merely the citizens of the Indian state because they are unified not only by the bonds of love they bear to a common motherland but also by the bonds of a common blood. They are not only a Nation but also a race-jati. The word jati, derived from the root Jan to produce, means a brotherhood, a race determined by a common origin — possessing a common blood All Hindus claim to have in their veins the blood of the mighty race incorporated with and descended from the Vedic fathers, the Sindus.17

Third, Hindutva asserts that as a result of this biological community, all Hindus (must) share a common culture: “the brave and loving defense of the Hindu culture have been incorporated with and bound to us by the dearest of ties — the ties of common blood.”18 In a longer passage Savarkar expresses this third essential characteristic of Hindutva clearly:

[W]e Hindus are bound together not only by the ties of love we bear to a common fatherland and by the common blood that courses through our veins and keeps our hearts throbbing and our affections warm, but also by the ties of common homage we pay to our great civilization — our Hindu culture, which could not be better rendered than by the word Sanskriti suggestive as it is of that language Sanskrit, which has been the chosen means of expression and preservation of that culture. of all that was best and worth-preserving in the history of our race. We are one because we are a nation, a race and own a common Sanskriti (civilization).19

Interestingly, though quite predictably, the common culture which binds all Indians together is the one common Hindu culture with deep roots in Brahmanic religion. symbolized by its sacred language (Sanskrit). Accepting and working toward the reclamation of this religio-cultural commonality is crucial to the Hindutva agenda. As Savarkar puts it, “For the first two essentials of Hindutva — nation and jati [race] — are clearly denoted and connoted by the word pitrubhu [Fatherland] while the third element of Sanskriti [civilization] is pre-eminently implied by the word Punyabhu [Holyland]. as it is precisely Sanskriti including sanskaras i.e. rites and rituals, ceremonies and sacraments, that make a land a Holyland.”20 One geographic region is made to correspond with one race, which in turn is constructed to be religiously and culturally homogenous through the civilization engendered and developed by the Brahmins.

The interpretation of Dalit and Adivasi communities in this common nation, common race, and common civilization (religio-cultural heritage) is somewhat mixed. On the one hand, the ideology of Hindutva, as propounded by Savarkar, asserts that all communities, be they Brahmin or Dalit or Adivasi, share in a common blood. This testimony of a common flow of blood “is true not only in the case of those that are the outcome of the intermarriages between the chief four castes, or between the chief four castes and the cross-born but also in the case of those tribes or races who somewhere in the dimness of the hoary past were leading a separate and self-centred life.”21 This biological connectedness among all communities in India, which affirms the anthropological basis of Dalit and Adivasi existence, is a major step in espousing the universalization of human rights for all people. In another passage, primarily referring to specific Adivasi communities (Santals, Kolis, Bhils) and Dalits (Panchamas and Namashudras), Savarkar writes