100 Years of the Kakori Train Action

History

9 August 2025 marks 100 years since the Kakori Train Action.

What Happened: On 9 August 1925, Indian revolutionaries looted British treasury money from the Number 8 Down train (Shahjahanpur to Lucknow) near Kakori, to fund the freedom movement.
Background: After Jallianwala Bagh (1919) and the Non-Cooperation withdrawal (1922), young nationalists formed the HRA (1924) to fund revolution through British treasury loot.
Main Revolutionaries: Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan, Rajendra Lahiri, Keshav Chakraborty, Mukundi Lal, Banwari Lal, Chandrashekhar Azad.
British Response: 17 jailed, 4 transported for life, 4 hanged (Bismil, Ashfaqullah, Rajendra Lahiri, Roshan Singh). Chandrashekhar Azad escaped arrest.

HRA was founded in October 1924 in Kanpur by Ramprasad Bismil, Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee, and Sachin Sanyal.
Renamed HSRA (Hindustan Socialist Republican Association) in 1928 under Chandrashekhar Azad; key members included Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Bhagwati Charan Vohra, Bejoy Kumar Sinha, Shiv Verma, and Jaidev Kapur.
Major actions: Simon Commission protest (1927), JP Saunders assassination (1928), Viceroy Irwin train bombing (1929).
By early 1930s, British repression led to its fragmentation.