Soon after joining Hindustan Republican Association Ramprasad Bismil found that the organisation was facing the same old problem of the finance. It had no funds. There were great revolutionary programmes and plans to upset the apple cart of the British but no money to fund those grandiose projects. The revolutionaries needed guns, bombs and other things. But the organisation could not afford even a cup of tea for its members.
No one had any idea what to do.
Ramprasad Bismil knew how money could be raised. It was the old tried formula of robberies although it was an unsavoury act. But there was no other option for the militants. No one would provide money to the revolutionaries for fear of police. Bismil had taken a vow that he would never again land himself in trouble by getting involved in unlawful acts.
But the situation here was pitiable. He found that other members had used up whatever they had and their families were starving. For the future there was no hope.
Manpower was no problem. After the suspension of the Congress movement the youth were too eager to join the ranks of the revolutionary groups only if they could raise friends to finance the plans. The people with money had become elected members of councils and assemblies.
Nothing moved without money. At least one has to feed oneself to stay alive. The spirit of sacrifice only was meaningless.
Still there were some people who provided small sums to revolutionaries but it was not enough. The organisation needed sizable funds to become really operative.
It takes lot of effort to stay clear of the police and its informers. In such situation it was just impossible to carry on the business in normal way. Then, there could be a possibility that the small sum donor could be a police spy throwing a bait. In few districts there were organisation members who needed to be given subsistence money atleast.
The things dragged on in this way for a few months. Then, the donors refused to cooperate further for fear of catching police attention.
Now the situation was alarming.
Entire responsibility of the organisation had fallen on the shoulders of Ramprasad Bismil. All members looked up to him like orphans for the solutions. From various districts the field workers were sending urgent message for money. Some personally came to see Bismil about funds. Many of them had incurred debts.
Bismil borrowed money from some acquaintance. He lost face when he was unable to pay back. A worker fed up with money problem quit the organisation and went away.
The members of the working committee were in bad shape. Their dresses were turning into slimy rags. Most of the days no eats were available. Everyone was under debt. Some of them used to go to places in the guise of the students where the religious people served free meals to learners. More district workers had quit.
Bismil himself had incurred a debt of five hundred rupees. Still worse condition of others pained him so much so that he could not eat his food.
He knocked at the door of all the sympathisers for the financial help but everyone shied away. He didn’t know what to do. Tears would well up in his eyes when hungry haggard faces of young revolutionaries surrounded him to ask, “Panditji, now what are we going to do?”
Their sunken eyes and parched lips made him cry. Those dedicated to the cause of the country were reduced to worse fate than beggars. No one had a one whole dress. Mostly they lived in thinning langots. For food they would join the line of the beggars if some one came to feed the poor as some religious custom.
Sometimes they lived on 2 paise worth of sattu (roasted barley flour) each. Bismil had years old habit of drinking milk each day. Now doing so looked obscene. He would prefer to take fistful of sattu mixed in water with the rest.
Bismil was feeling guilty.
How could he live with himself after destroying the future of so many youngsters. When they were recruited to the organisation they were promised a heaven of the free nation where everything would be rosy and plenty. The founders of the organisation had done that. Bismil was not one of them. He joined the set up at later stage. Now those big mouth planners were nowhere on the scene. Ramprasad Bismil was left holding the sack. He learnt that many youngsters were weaned away from their studies on the promise of bright future. Had Bismil known these facts he would not have joined the working committee.
But now it was his baby. What to do?
At last he decided to do whatever to deal with the challenge.
He called an immediate meeting of the leading members and asked for suggestions. Money had to be created whatever the means, he reiterated. The state of confusion and indecision had to be ended. The desperate situation forced them to consider robbing the rich people as the most convenient and effective method to raise funds without delay.
It was unlawful and anti-social no doubt. But they rationalised it by arguing that the act was for a noble purpose in the service of the motherland. Some one said that the rich were rich because they had stolen the money from the poor working class people.
The robbery method had already been tried before by the revolutionaries. But things got messed up when the greedy people had infiltrated the revolutionary groups. That gave the revolutionaries bad name. Genuine ones didn’t consider robbing rich a crime. Some even said that after the gain of independence the robbed money could be returned to the owners.
During 1906-07 revolutionary youth held meetings in Calcutta where a proposal was mooted that to finance the revolutionary acts funds be created by robberies. The ideas was to loot the rich people. Some members thought that it would lead to loss of sympathy of the people towards the militants. They suggested that the government treasuries should be robbed instead. The suggestion was rejected because it amounted to throwing a direct challenge to the government which would invite massive retaliation. And the revolutionary groups were not strong enough yet to bear the brunt of entire government force counter attack. So, the decision to rob the rich was agreed upon.
They decided that a comprehensive details of the robbed amounts be kept. It was to be returned after the independence. Infact, after robberies proper receipts were sent to the robbed people accepting the loan and a promise to return it when the country gained freedom. The promissory notes were issued on behalf of the ‘Independent Kingdom of United India’.
The revolutionaries referred to the Russian revolutionaries and the Irish freedom fighters who used to do the similar things to justify their acts. Infact they used to call the looted amounts as ‘Forced donations’.
The Indian revolutionaries adhered to strict code of conduct while committing robberies. The woman, children and the old were not harmed. No misbehaviour with women was tolerated.
Sometimes the revolutionaries used to dupe the rich through impostering the police.
Once a revolutionary group in police uniforms reached a village. The group included Bismil who was a fair skinned person. In sola hat and breeches he could pass off as an Englishman in dim light. Mahavir Singh had a beard which helped him pose as a Sikh police officer. Everyone in the village was convinced that it was a government police party come to the village to search the house of the moneylender. The party robbed the moneylender and departed. Only after their departure and the screaming by the victim revealed to villagers their true identity.
The robberies were not very productive. There was danger involved and yield was mostly poor. Sometimes entire effort proved fruitless. Nothing was gained. To make matters worse revolutionaries were losing public sympathy. Alarmed at it the working committee of the organisation decided to stop robbing the fellow Indians. The problem of the funds was still there. How to raise money was the burning issue. The youngmen wanted to present themselves as revolutionaries and not as dacoits.
So, now it was decided to rob government treasuries only. It could solve the financial problem and at the same time throw a challenge to the government. The new policy was agreed upon.
