Rajendra Nath Lahiri

On 9 August 1925, a train stopped in the dark near Lucknow. A young history student had pulled the emergency chain.

He was Rajendra Nath Lahiri. He was hanged two years later, at the age of 26.

1Who was Rajendra Nath Lahiri?

He was a scholar from a rich landowning family.

• He was born on 23 June 1901 in the village of Lahiri Mohanpur.
• The village lay in Pabna district, in the Bengal Presidency.
• Today that area is in Bangladesh.
• His family was Bengali Brahmin.
• His father was Kshitish Mohan Lahiri.
• His father owned a large estate there.
• He later studied at Banaras Hindu University.
• He was an M.A. student of history there.
• Revolutionary work was then growing in the United Provinces.
• He joined the Hindustan Republican Association with some Bengali friends.

2What was the Dakshineswar case?

It was his first brush with the law.

• He took part in the Dakshineswar bombing incident near Calcutta.
• He then absconded to Benares.
• He carried on his studies there.
• He was later arrested in Bengal.
• He was tried in the Dakshineswar bomb case.
• He was sentenced to ten years of rigorous imprisonment.
• Rigorous imprisonment means jail with hard labour.
• He was still in Bengal when the Kakori case began in Lucknow.
• The police added him to the Kakori case from there.

3What happened at Kakori?

The HRA robbed a train that carried government money.

• Kakori is a village near Lucknow.
• The robbery took place on 9 August 1925.
• The train was the Number 8 Down, running from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow.
• The HRA needed money to buy weapons.
• It was meant to win public respect for the HRA as well.
• The raid also aimed to protest heavy taxes on Indians.
• Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan conceived the plan.
• Lahiri is named among those who carried it out.
• Bismil, Khan, Chandrashekhar Azad and others also took part.
• He pulled the emergency chain to stop the train.
• The others then overpowered the guard.
• They took the money bags from the guard’s cabin.
• The bags held about ₹8,000 in tax money.
• One passenger, a lawyer named Ahmad Ali, was killed by a stray bullet.
• That turned a robbery into a murder case.
• The bullet was fired by Manmath Nath Gupta.
• The police began a nationwide hunt.

4How did the trial go?

The state came down hard on the whole group.

• Forty people were arrested from all over India.
• Lahiri was arrested on 10 January 1926.
• Ram Prasad Bismil was arrested on 26 October 1925.
• Ashfaqulla Khan was caught on 7 December 1926 in Delhi.
• Charges against many accused were withdrawn.
• These were at Bamrauli, Bichpuri and Dwarikapur.
• Banwari Lal also told the court about earlier HRA robberies.
• The main trial began in May 1926 in a Special Sessions Court.
• The court gave its judgment on 6 April 1927.
• Bismil, Roshan Singh and Lahiri were sentenced to death.
• Sachindranath Sanyal got life imprisonment.
• Many others got terms from seven to fourteen years.
• Ashfaqulla Khan was tried later, in a supplementary case.
• Fourteen accused were freed for lack of evidence.
• Banarsi Lal and Indubhushan Mitra turned approvers for lighter sentences.
• Banwari Lal’s statement was the main evidence for the state.
• The judge was Archibald Hamilton of the Special Sessions Court.

5Why was he hanged early?

The British moved his hanging forward and never said why.

• He was hanged at Gonda district jail.
• The date was 17 December 1927.
• It was two days before the date that had been fixed.
• The British gave no clear public reason.
• His three co-accused were hanged on 19 December 1927.
• They were Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan and Roshan Singh.
• He was 26, the youngest of the four.
• He was the first of the four to be executed.
• Some historians think the British wanted to avoid one large show of mourning.
• That is a theory, and it is not proved.
• In 1928 Azad reorganised the HRA and ran it until 27 February 1931.
• Chandrashekhar Azad was never arrested.

6What are the exam traps?

Exams love the Kakori names and dates.

• Learn all four together: Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Lahiri and Roshan Singh.
• Kakori was in 1925, and the Chittagong Armoury Raid was in 1930.
• Surya Sen led Chittagong, not Kakori.
• The HRA later became the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association.
• Lahiri was hanged on 17 December, not 19 December.
• The stolen money was government tax money, not a private bank’s cash.
• Azad was not caught in the Kakori case, so do not list him among the hanged.
• Read about Ram Prasad Bismil.
• Read about Ashfaqulla Khan.
• Read about Thakur Roshan Singh.