After getting general amnesty from the government and no more under the police harassment Bismil paid attention to his own needs. He was getting on well with the job he had and was now financially stabilising. He life was reasonable good.
During this period some people contacted him and revealed that they were carrying on revolutionary activities. They claimed to have set up an secret organisation. Those imposter revolutionaries ex-plained the rules, regulations and future plans of their outfit.
Bismil could smell a rat in their plans. Selfishness and greed was written all over their plot. According to them a central fund was to be instituted, out of which every member of the organisation was to get a fixed sum. The fund was to be raised through committing robberies. Half the loot was to go to the fund and the rest was to be distributed equally among the members of the robbery group. The fake revolutionaries wanted him to join the organisation.
Ramprasad Bismil was amused. Such imposters were giving a bad name to the genuine revolutionary groups. The people were getting very suspicious of the militants. The police was painting the revolutionaries as petty criminals. Ramprasad Bismil hated and avoided such tricksters. He also had been remember of the secret revolutionary organisation. He or any other member was never paid any money. All the funds raised went into financing the programmes of the party.
When the fakes saw that Ramprasad Bismil was not impressed with their presentation they fell silent. He was surprised to see that those who put such faith in him, who wanted him to reorganise the outfit, who had made so many promises including that of doing any task asked of them the same people were expecting him to accept the rules and conditions that were fit for a criminal gang. It was amazing.
Did they think that Bismil was a moron?
When Bismil was in the revolutionary group that got entangled in Mainpuri Conspiracy case, there no member spent any money of the outfit on personal expenses. It was just a sin and an act of treason for the dedicated members.
Infact, Bismil often borrowed money from his parents to spend on the party work. How could such a person agree to those greedy proposals?
If such organisation came into the business it was very much possible that if someday there was a big enough loot the members of the gang would become too greedy and shoot out to grab it could result. In such a set up jealousy and envy would become too strong for anyone to handle and a free for all battle would break out. The outlook was scary.
Bismil shuddered at the horrible prospects.
The fakes hatched another plot. They came to Bismil with a proposal that he set the rules and the regulations. All the members would blindly agree. Bismil knew that the mob wanted to win his confidence to make him reveal his hidden guns and the ammunitions. Then, they would seize the weapons. If Bismil protested he would be challenged and if possible eliminated. The guns could earn them a good price in the market or they could be used for committing robberies.
The above plot was hatched by three characters he knew. One of the characters had a change of heart and he revealed the plot to Bismil. It came as a shock to Ramprasad Bismil. The gentlemen in question were revered by him as his respected elders equivalent to his father. Their sinking to such low depths was shocking.
It taught the lesson to Bismil that in our society no one could be trusted with life. The amazing fact was that the person who revealed the plot to Bismil was not himself honest. His greatest wish was to own a pistol. He had become a confidant of Bismil merely to borrow his pistol for good. If Bismil had given him his pistol then that would have been the last he would ever see that man.
With some difficulty Ramprasad Bismil got rid of those tricksters. The fake revolutionaries made him so sick that he got disenchanted with the entire militancy business. He concentrated on his job and saved enough money to get his youngest sister married into a zamindar family.
Hindustan Republican Association
After the release of political prisoners and the revolutionaries from jails in 1920 under the peace move of the government the militancy had slowed down. But it did not die out totally. Sparks were still there and the discontent was quietly smouldering under the surface. The revolutionaries were regrouping themselves to revive the militancy to challenge the colonial rulers.
Gradually the heat built up. On the one hand Gandhiji’s non-violent movements were gathering storm and on the other hand militants had become very active. In February, 1922 Gandhiji launched Civil Disobedience Movement.
Within two days it snowballed into a mighty tide against the British. The agitators began to lose control over themselves. In one such incident some angry agitators burnt down a police post at Chauri-Chaura near Gorakhpur along with 21 police personnel inside. Gandhiji wanted no violence. The incident so pained him that he suspended the movement.
It utterly dismayed the youth who had worked themselves up into do-or-die mode. In frustration they turned to revolutionaries who were carrying on their fight regardless.
In Bengal the revolutionaries had regrouped and formed ‘Action Committee’ to fan the militancy. In U.P. Shachindranath Sanyal had organised a new revolutionary outfit with its headquarter at Banaras. It infact was just a branch of ‘Action Committee’ functioning behind the facade of a religious body called ‘Kalyan Ashram’. In the outer room that faced the road the youngmen used to sing prayers in the accompaniment of tablas, harmoniums and tambourines. In the inner room the revolutionary meeting used to be on.
Then, the revolutionaries decided to give up the pretences. The two outfits were formally merged into one body and named ‘Hindustan Republican Association’. A constitution was drawn and its aims and objectives explained.
The objective was to free the country from the colonial rule through an armed struggle. Then creation of a socialist republic of the states in the federal format was envisaged. The states were to be autonomous and all the citizens were to be granted the right of adult franchise. It was to be a exploitation free socialist state.
The concept had clearly been inspired by the Russian revolution.
Meanwhile Bismil just watched the developments. He had become wary of all the revolutionary acts. A cynicism had set in him. To him every revolutionary appeared suspect. But the fire to do-or-die spirit was still burning bright in him.
Bengal revolutionary leader Yogesh Chandra Chatterji wanted to speed up things. So, he became a member of the organisation and sat down to strengthen the set up.
In the middle of 1923 he reached Kanpur where he met Ramdulare Trivedi. They discussed the ways to add impetus to revolutionary movement. The two knew too well the revolutionary spirit of Ramprasad Bismil. They decided to rope him in into the organsation. Bismil had not doubt about the genuineness of their intentions.
Once again Bismil quit his steady job and jumped into the revolutionary stream of freedom struggle. He became a member of the organisation.
