Autobiography of Ram Prasad Bismil

FROM THE EDITOR

This writing of Martyr Ram Prasad Bismil was penned by him while he was in jail during his trial (26-9-1925 to 19-12-1927) and was completed on 16th Dec, three days before his execution. It was safely smuggled out of the jail in instalments.

The last chapter of the book begins with the following words: “Today on 16th of Dec. 1927 I am penning down these lines while it has been decided to hang this body on Monday, the 19th Dec, 1927 at 6 a.m” Famous revolutionary Shri Bhagwan Das Mahores writes in his preface to its first available Hindi edition published by Atma Ram & Sons in 1957 that it was printed and circulated under the care and control of Shiv Ganesh Shankar ‘Vidyarthi’ soon after, which bears testimony to the fact that the morale of the revolutionaries went up after going through it, and not the other way about.

The H.R.A. of Kakori Martyrs was reborn as H.S.R.A on the initiative of Bhagat Singh, Azad, Shiv Verma, the younger members of H.R.A. who were its successor. This writing was published under the title “Kakori Ke Shaheed.”

As was expected this publication was instantly proscribed and its further publication banned. According to Sh. Banarsi Das Chaturvedi, himself a veteran revolutionary who took the initiative to edit it and publish in 1957 noted with regret that ‘whereas a similar writing by a Czech Communist, executed by German occupation army in 1943 titled ‘Notes from the Gallows’ had been translated into a number of Indian (and foreign) languages, and widely circulated, this precious heritage of India’s glorious chapter of freedom struggle is being published after full thirty years!’

Shri Chaturvedi also expressed the hope that it shall be translated and published into Indian languages besides also in English. Of the Indian languages it is available in Punjabi only, translated by the present editor, which was published first in September 1998 later reprinted in 2005.

The present publication owes its origin to Mr. Sita Ram Bansal who approached Dr. Rajinder Singh ji with a request to translate it from Hindi to English. Dr. Rajinder Singh did it with zeal and dedication for no other consideration than his love for the Martyrs, and that too in the shortest possible time, while maintaining, in my humble view, quite a high standard of the translation, not an easy job for a manuscript containing such a sublime matter as it does.

For lapses, if any, however, the entire responsibility lies on the editor.

Before I record my heartfelt gratitude to our publisher Sh. Harish Jain, I shall be failing in my duty if I fail to mention that the Hindi edition of the original writing is being published and circulated by Swami Agnivesh ji, and the present translation is based on this volume.

Malwinder Jit Singh Waraich
Formerly Prof. a Guru Nanak Engineering College
Ludhiana
Now advocate, High Court, Chandigarh.