Young Blooded Revolutionaries

Manmath Nath Gupta was an Indian revolutionary, born on February 7, 1908, in Benaras. He was imprisoned at the young age of 13 for 3 months, for distributing pamphlets against the Prince of Wales

Revolutionary Manmath Nath Gupta, member of the HRA; Source: Public Domain

The Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) was at the forefront of the revolutionary movement of the freedom struggle. They were known for their radical beliefs, as opposed to Gandhi’s non-violent, gradual methods of protest. The revolutionaries believed in armed resistance – they led multiple armed robberies and attempted mutinies against the British forces.

One of HRA’s most valued members was Manmath Nath Gupta, a Hindi, English and Bengali writer. He was born into a Bengali family on February 7, 1908, in Benaras.

His tryst with the freedom struggle started at a young age. At the innocent young age of 13, Manmath Nath was distributing pamphlets in his hometown of Benaras, to push for the boycott of the reception ceremony planned for the Prince of Wales by the Maharaja of Benaras.

He was approached by a police officer, who enquired upon the contents of the pamphlet. Without flinching a muscle, young Manmath Nath Gupta was quite obstinate in his replies to the policeman. As a result, he was imprisoned at the age of 13! He told the judge that he would not cooperate, and he was imprisoned for 3 months. His notorious ways of protest against the British had quite an early beginning!

His association with the HRA led him to be friends with yesteryear revolutionaries we revere, such as Chandrashekhar Azad. In a bone-chilling incident that Gupta wrote about in one of his books, he recalls the time that Azad got his hands on a brand-new pistol and was extremely hyped about trying it out. Inadvertently, he shot the pistol at Manmath Nath Gupta, which missed his head by a mere two inches! Though Gupta was safe, Azad took a while to shake off the incident.

Manmath Nath Gupta was also involved in the HRA’s famous Kakori Conspiracy – an armed train robbery carried out near Lucknow in 1925. During this incident, Manmath Nath, who was still a hot-blooded teen, shot a passenger on the train, killing him instantaneously. Though he was not sentenced to death because of being a minor, he served 14 long years of imprisonment, including a few years at the infamous Cellular Jail in Andaman.

After he was released from jail, he took up writing – he wrote mainly against the British, but also engaged with political commentary. He even wrote a paper on Ram Prasad Bismil, a fellow revolutionary who had been hanged for his anti-British activities.

After independence, Manmath Nath Gupta joined the Communist Party of India (CPI) and became a part of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

In his final interview on Doordarshan, he expressed regret for shooting the passenger in Kakori, for which his dear revolutionary friends had to pay the price with their lives while he served 14 years of imprisonment.

Manmath Nath Gupta passed away on the night on Diwali in 2000, at the age of 92.