Manmath Nath Gupta
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Manmath Nath Gupta (1908-October 2000) was an Indian revolutionary and author of autobiographical, historical and fictional books in Hindi, English and Bengali. He joined the Indian independence movement at the age of 13, and was an active member of the Hindustan Republican Association. He participated in the famous Kakori train robbery in 1925 and was imprisoned till India's independence in 1947. He has written several books on the history of the Indian struggle for independence from a revolutionary's point of view, including They Lived Dangerously - Reminiscences of a Revolutionary. He was also the editor of the Hindi literary magazine Aajkal.
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[edit] First imprisonment
Manmath Nath Gupta joined the Indian nationalist movement as early as the age of 13 years. In 1921, he was distributing pamphlets in the Gadolia area of Benares calling for a boycott of the reception of the Prince of Wales by the Maharaja of Banares. When a police officer approached him, he stood his ground instead of running away. During the court proceedings, he told the judge, "I will not cooperate with you." He was jailed for three months.
[edit] Chauri Chaura
He joined the Congress as a volunteer worker and went from village to village spreading the message of the Congress. He was dissatisfied with the slowness of the work and its inability in producing any short term results. When Mahatma Gandhi called off the Non-Cooperation Movement after the incident at Chauri Chaura in 1922, Gupta was severely disappointed with the Congress and Gandhi.
[edit] Hindustan Republican Association
He joined the Hindustan Republican Association, a group of young revolutionaries whose aim was to end the British rule of India, by violent means if necessary. "We were called revolutionaries but we were just ordinary people ready to sacrifice our lives for our country," he once said. He also introduced Chandrasekhar Azad to the association. In They Lived Dangerously, he recalls an incident in which Azad nearly shot him:
"Chandrasekhar Azad was learning how to load and unload a Mauser pistol. He had learnt how to load and unload many other brands of revolvers and pistols, but this was a new make. He had liked it more than other brands. He went on with his work and I began to read something. Suddenly seized perhaps by the warmth of the machine, which he had come to adore during the last half an hour, he aimed the empty pistol--empty according to his knowledge--towards me and said, 'Be on your guard, I am going to shoot you.' Before I could say anything he had pulled the trigger and bang whizzed the bullet that had remained inside the barrel without his knowledge. Fortunately for us Azad was not yet the marksman that he was destined to be later on. Although he had fired from a close range, the bullet had missed my head by two inches and had buried itself in the wall. Imagine the consternation of Azad. He thought he had shot me through. I informed him that he had missed me. This however did not console him. He was almost in tears. With great difficulty I pacified him."
[edit] Kakori train robbery
The Kakori train robbery was the turning point in his life. On 9 August 1925, ten revolutionaries including Manmath Nath Gupta stopped a train near Kakori and looted the government treasury traveling in it. He was later arrested and tried for this incident, but being a teenager at that time, was not sentenced to death. He was instead imprisoned for life, and spent some time in the Cellular Jail in Andaman.
[edit] After Independence
He was released from imprisonment after India gained independence on August 15, 1947. He became a prolific writer, producing about 120 books in Hindi, English and Bengali. In They Lived Dangerously he narrates the life of revolutionaries and how they saw and reacted to the various events in Indian independence movement. This often presents an alternative point of view to the commonly accepted account. Speaking of the Chauri Chaura incident, he said, "India would have attained independence in 1922 but for Gandhi’s bungling, as many competent writers have said, but there is no doubt that on this occasion Gandhi had failed badly."
He joined the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and edited the Planning Commission's prestigious publications, including Yojna. He was also the editor of Bal Bharti, a children's magazine, and Aajkal, a Hindi literary magazine.
[edit] Selected Bibliography
- They Lived Dangerously - Reminiscences of a Revolutionary (1969)
- History of the Indian Revolutionary Movement (1972)
- Gandhi and His Times (1982)
- Bhagat Singh and His Times
- Adhi raat ke atithi (Guests at Midnight)
- Congress ke Sau Varsh (Hundred Years of the Congress)
- Din Dahare (In Broad Daylight)
- Sar Par Kafan Bandh Kar (With My Funeral Shroud as My Turban)
- Toram Phoram
- Shahadatnama (Declaration of Martyrdom)
