Manmath Nath Gupta

Manmath Nath Gupta Biography

Manmath Nath Gupta was an Indian revolutionary writer, associated with freedom struggle movement. He wrote in Hindi, English and Bengali languages. He and eight other revolutionaries looted the 8-Down Saharanpur - Lucknow passenger train under the leadership of Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil on 8 August 1925 at Shahjahanpur and this incident is known as Kakori train robbery. All of them were caught by British and some were sentenced to death including Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan. As he was a teenager, he was imprisoned till 1946. He was associated with Hindustan Republican Association - a revolutionary group against British and also Indian National congress, though left it after Chauri Chaura case in 1922. It was Gupta who introduced Chandrasekhar Azad to the association. He died on 26^th October, 2000. ‘They Lived Dangerously - Reminiscences of a Revolutionary’ is his noted work in which he describes their revolutionary activities.

He was born in Varanasi in 1908. His ancestors originally belong to Hugly, West Bengal. His early education was done at Nepal, where his father worked as a headmaster of a school. He completed his school studies in Kashi Vidyapeeth. He got drawn towards freedom struggle movement quite at a younger age and he was only 13 then. While as a teenager he was jailed for 3 months for boycotting a reception of the Prince of Wales by the Maharaja of Banares.

He later worked as a volunteer of Congress, but was disappointed by its slow activities, particularly when Mahatma Gandhi called off the Non-Cooperation Movement after the incident at Chauri Chaura in 1922. He left congress and joined the revolutionary organization, Hindustan Republican Association. He has been arrested for his participation in Kakori train robbery apart from writing against British and he spent his majority of time in jail till Indian independence. It was his single mistake to shot an innocent passenger which resulted in the life sentence of his comrades in Kakori train robbery.   

Published: N/A

Updated: July 21, 2014