Editor: I. Mallikarjuna Sharma Volume 11: 15-31 March 2015 No. 5-6

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTYR RAMPRASAD ‘BISMIL’ ♣
PART 1:
In Tomargarh on the banks of
Chambal River are situated two
villages, which are quite famous [or
notorious] in the entire [native]
state of Gwalior, since the people
inhabiting the villages are quite
rough and tough, and bother the
least about the power of the state. The tenor of
the landlords and landowners there is such that
they would pay the land revenue only when they
feel like and refuse to pay whenever they don’t
like. If at all the Tahsildar or any other
responsible officer of the Government visits [in
order to extract the revenues due] these
landowners just retire into the rugged hinterlands
[beehad – the ravines of Chambal] and stay there
incognito for months together, taking along with
them their cattle and food articles, etc.! And they
don’t leave any valuable article in their houses
which could be attached and sold in auction in
lieu of the revenues due. And there is a story
running rife about a particular landlord that only his
stubborn refusal to pay the revenue ultimately resulted
in waiving any payment of land tax by him and a free
grant of land was made! That person was running
away from law for several years but was
ultimately caught due to betrayal and locked up.
The revenue officials of the Tahsil tortured him a
lot and they tied him up and let him languish with
no food or water for several days and finally even
threatened to burn him alive. Actually hay was
spread over his legs and it was even set on fire.
But his stubborn reply always was a blatant
refusal and that the treasury of the Maharaja of
Gwalior would not dry up just because of non-
♣ Perhaps this is the first ever autobiography of an Indian
condemned prisoner – smuggled out and published soon
after his hanging on 19-12-1927 in Gorakhpur Jail, of Sri
Ramprasad Bismil, the Kakori Conspiracy Case
revolutionary; it is remarkable that this was written and
published some 15 years before the famous ‘Notes from
Gallows’ of Julius Fuchik, a Czech communist, executed
by the Nazis, had been written; translated from Hindi,
and duly edited, by me; emphases in bold ours - IMS.
payment of revenue by him alone. Oh how many
know that there are certain persons in this world
who pull on their lives by mere stubbornness?
Fed up, the revenue officials finally sent their
report to the royal office and the outcome was
that all that land for which revenue payment was
due over years was given as a grant to that
stubborn landowner!
Similarly once the people of these two villages
hit upon a novel idea. They stole away about 60
camels from the Maharaja’s caravan and hid
those in the ravines. The matter was promptly
reported to the Government and pat came the
command in reply that those two villages were to
be decimated by cannon fire. And all the cannons
arrived and were even poised to hit and destroy
the villages. However, earnest mediatory efforts
were made and the stubborn villagers were at last
persuaded to return those camels and the officials
in command were also persuaded to see that it
would not be appropriate for the State to destroy
the abodes of such brave and reckless fighters as
those in these two villages and finally they agreed
to take away the cannon and leave. And the
villages were saved.
These villagers do not harass the other people
in their own state now but conduct occasional
raids on the neighbouring British Indian
territories and create a lot of commotion. They
raid the houses of the rich there and retreat to the
ravines in the dark of the night. Once they are
safely hidden in the ravines neither the police nor
even the army can do anything worthwhile in
tracing or attacking them.
These two villagers are on the bank of the
River Chambal, at about a distance of 15 miles
from the British Indian territories. It is in one of
these villages that my paternal grandfather Sri
Narayanlalji was born in a famous clan.
However, due to domestic quarrels, and
especially the intolerable bad treatment meted out
to him by his sister-in-law, that gentleman was
constrained to leave his place of birth and wander
here and there for a number of years. Finally he
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Law Animated World, 15-31 March 2015