When Ramprasad Bismil attended the Congress Session he happened to come across some youth who had a revolutionary bend of mind. All of them had unanimous opinion that British were responsible for the miserable state of the country and there was no hope for Indians unless the aliens were driven away. Ramprasad agreed fully with them.
He learnt that some secret outfits were working in the direction of teaching lesson to the British. A known outfit called ‘Secret Committee’ had an agenda of fanning revolutionary movement and through militant acts scare the British away from India.
After learning about the organisation Ramprasad Bismil was seized with a desire to become its member. It appeared so romantic. Through a friend Bismil succeeded in becoming a member of the outfit.
Very soon he was in the decision making circle. He did perform some remarkable feats and became the members of the working committee of the outfit ‘Secret Committee’.
For its militant acts the outfit needed arms. And funds were needed to buy the arms. The organisation had little money. The ways to raise the funds were discussed. Several suggestions were made but nothing worked.
Then, suddenly an idea flashed into the mind of Ramprasad to create some money. The idea was to make money through publication of books. The venture could reap profits and at the same time propagate revolutionary agenda. The idea was to print patriotic books for the sale of which a fertile market was there due to the freedom movements. But there still was a problem here. Even publishing a book needed funds.
Where was the money?
After a lot of thinking over the matter Ramprasad worked out a solution. He decided to borrow the money from his mother on some pretext.
He said to her, “Ma, I want to start some small business. It will make money, I assure you. For that I need some money if can spare…”
His mother did not disappoint him. She gave him a sum of 200 rupees. Ramprasad had written a book already titled ‘How did America Win Freedom?’ With the money provided by his mother he arranged the publication of the book. But some more money was required. Ramprasad borrowed two hundred rupees more.
The book was published and sold. He paid back the money to his mother and made a profit of Rs. 200. There still were stacks of unsold copies which could earn more profits upon further sales.
Thus, Ramprasad had raised some money for the purchase of the arms. It proved helpful to some extent. But the organisation needed steady supply of money to carry on its operations.
Many proposals were considered.
Mainpuri conspiracy
The real name of the organisation was ‘Matrivedi’. ‘Secret Committee’ was its another name mainly for the purpose of confusing the police spies. It was founded by Pandit Gaindalal Dixit. He was born on 20th November, 1888 in a village called Batesar. After passing the Entrance examination he started working as a teacher in the D.A.V. school of Oreya. He too was a believer in Arya Samaj values.
After some time he began to lose patience and started thinking on the lines of militancy. The miserable condition of the country was a matter of concern for him which cried for some immediate action. He decided to do something about it.
He recruited some youngmen in his private army called ‘Shivaji Brigade’. He wanted his army to fight the British through guerilla warfare as was adopted by Shivaji.
It was around this time that Ramprasad Bismil joined his group. Dixit wanted the educated youth to join his efforts. But he was pained to find that the educated youth were bereft of patriotic feelings and were not interested in battling for the freedom of the country. It dismayed him.
Then, he established contact with dacoits in a desperate move. He thought that the dacoits by nature were brave daredevils. They were basically good people who became outlaws because of situations not in their control, so he reasoned. He believed that right guidance could make them good people.
And he recruited dacoits in his group to fight the British. Dixit also instigated those who were in prisons to rise against the foreign rulers. He had plans to storm the prisons to free them to enable them to join the freedom battle.
Several other youngmen also worked for Dixit besides Ramprasad Bismil. This motley group used to commit robberies at the houses of the rich people to create funds for the organsation. The initial set of arms was purchased with the money made by Ramprasad Bismil through the sale of his book.
The group justified its acts of dacoties by calling it forcible contribution towards freedom struggle. The aims and objectives of those revolutionaries were noble but the means were messy. So, they never succeeded in winning the support and confidence of the public.
In 1917, the group planned to commit a dacoity in Mainpuri under the command of Pt. Gaindalal Dixit. The place was far off from where the group was. It was a day’s journey away. They had to break journey midway to take rest and camp for the night. Eighty members of the group were taking part in the operation.
Unfortunately the group had been infiltrated by the secret police. The worst part of its was that the spy was among those 80 strong raiding party. He knew the entire plan.
He slipped away and informed the police about the plan and the location where they were camping. The police moved fast and surrounded the area and started firing. The group fired back. In the shoot out 35 members of the group got killed. And an equal number surrendered to the police. A few of them managed to escape.
The group members did shoot dead the police spy when they identified the betrayer. He turned out to be a young member named Somdev. The commander of the group Pandit Gaindalal Dixit fell into the hands of the police. Ramprasad Bismil successfully gave a slip to the police.
Later, the police interrogated the arrested members and ferreted the information about the other members. One by one the free members of the group were also nabbed by the police.
But Bismil and a couple of others stayed free.
The case was called ‘Manipuri Conspiracy’. Gaindalal was brought from Gwalior to Mainpuri for trial in the court. As the trial progressed it became clear that he would either get the life sentence or the death penalty.
To get out of the mess Gaindalal put on an act of offering to become approver against the (his own) organisation. He promised to the police that he could lead to several prominent revolutionaries of Bengal and elsewhere.
The police authorities fell for the trick. They relaxed watch on Gaindalal. Taking advantage of it one day Gaindalal escaped from the police custody with another associate name Ramnarain.
After the Mainpuri Conspiracy Ramprasad Bismil was evading police and continuing on with revolutionary activities. He had become a confidant of Gaindalal. The organsation now was in his hand. He was an disciplined revolutionary who would never compromise with his principles. Only to serve the cause of the country he had refused to marry. And he recruited only bachelors in the group for the total commitment.
Ramprasad Bismil used to sleep on a plank upon which he would spread tiger skin. It made him feel tigerish. Bismil was a firm believer in God. Over the years Bismil had learnt Hindi, English, Bangla and Urdu. He had a good command over Urdu, the language of his poems.
The Mainpuri Conspiracy had made Ramprasad a revolutionary of some fame. It was the first watershed event of his life.
