Azad; The Ultimate Revolutionary

In the history of contemporary India, we're made familiar with a number of changes and instances that contributed to and led to the independence of the country. A man who demands consistent recollection for his efforts is the quicksilver revolutionary who didn't concede to the imperialists even in death.

AZAD, source: the wire

‘What is your name?’

‘Azad’

‘What is your father’s name?’

‘Freedom’

‘Where do you live?’

‘Prison’

From representations in popular culture to the inferred description we’re fed through history books, Chandrashekar Azad was the man who chose to shoot himself instead of giving up his freedom and getting captured by the imperialists. Majorly known for his role in the Kakori train robbery and the assassination of John Saunders, a British police officer, Azad was a revolutionary through and through. Born to a gardener and a homemaker in a small district of Madhya Pradesh, Azad’s childhood brimmed with exciting practices like archery.

It wasn’t long until Azad’s spirit came to the fore. Having joined the tehsil office at a young age, Azad’s revolutionary spirit came to the fore when he was asked to bow down to an English official. Escaping to Bombay, Chandrashekar sought work in the shipping yard. However, the deplorable conditions of the workers struck him deeply and emotions of liberation stirred him all along.

Consequently, he enrolled in the Kashi Vidyapith of Banaras where he slowly started getting involved in the freedom struggle. He earned his alias ‘Azad’ when he was sentenced to whiplashes by a local magistrate. Consequently, revolutionaries like Sachindranath Sanyal, Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee, and Ramprasad Bismil tasked Azad to become an active member of the Hindustan Republican Association by distributing pamphlets and messages to different members of the party.

By 1925 when the spark of independence had lit, Azad planned the Kakori train robbery. Having participated in multiple train robberies, Azad was convinced that there’d be no issues with this one. However, the incident put him and his alliance in direct confrontation with the Raj. Consequently, most of the party members involved in the train robbery were hung by the imperial government.

Throughout this time, Azad had managed to escape to Jhansi and change his appearance to escape the British authorities. After the formation of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, the assassination of J.P. Saunders and the bombing of the Central Assembly shortly followed. What followed was a series of incidents that either disarrayed the party or led to the manhunt of the revolutionaries.

As a man who’d come to learn several intricacies of the system, Azad would often warn the populace of the dangers of the Indian bourgeoisie coupled with British subjugation and even though the India he sought to make is far from fruition, the memory of the revolutionary who laid his life for the subcontinent endures.

Jehi din hoi jai surajva,

Arhar ke daliya, dhan ke bhatua

Khoob kachar ke Kaibena

Array Jehidin hoi hai surajava

(In an independent India, the masses will have enough food to eat,

Clothes to wear and a house to live in)