Keshab Chakravarthy was a prominent Indian revolutionary belonging to Hindustan Republican Association (HRA, which after 1928 became the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association or HSRA) that was created to carry out revolutionary activities against the British Empire in India. He was no other but Keshav Hedgewar who had gone to Calcutta in 1910 to pursue his medical studies. There he lived with Shyam Sundar Chakravarthy[1] and learned the techniques of fighting from the secret revolutionary organisations like the Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar in Bengal[2]. He came in contact of Ram Prasad Bismil to whom he knew since 1916 [3]. On the instigation of Bismil he took active part in the Historical Kakori conspiracy with the fake name of Keshab Chakravarthy and went underground.
Since he was involved in the action with a fake name hence he could not be arrested. Moreover the police had already arrested Thakur Roshan Singh, a member similar to the age of Chakravarthy on the ground of sound witnesses, they did not bother for the arrest of Chakravarthy. Thakur Roshan Singh was not involved in Kakori train robbery but he had taken active part in other actions for the collection of funds through looting of rich people of society. Thakur was hanged on 19 December 1927 along with Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan. Keshab knew the consequences of train robbery, so he formed a new organisation in the name of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh just after a month of the arrest of HRA activists at Nagpur with the help of some school going children. Later he was popularly known as Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar who died on 21 June 1940[4] at Resham Bagh, Nagpur.