As coincidences go, this one is really bizarre. Ninety one years ago, to the date on Tuesday, a train heist took place in an obscure town near Lucknow. The Kakori Conspiracy is now a documented fact of Indian history, and guess what? It happened on August 9, in a strikingly similar fashion, the same day of the month as the Chennai train robbery, just short of a century apart.
The train was carrying currency from the British Treasury Chest and a part of it was stolen by young men who planned the heist and set it in motion.
However, the scale and timing were entirely different and more importantly, its cause and objective. The Kakori train robbery, later known as the Kakori Revolution, took place on August 9, 1925, in Uttar Pradesh on a train towards Lucknow that was carrying passengers from central U.P.
The train also had a box containing money and near a small town of Kakori, about 15 km from Lucknow, the daring act was attempted. A group of armed revolutionaries overpowered the train driver and guards and managed
to seize the box containing the money.
The youth were all members of the Hindustan Republican Association. They managed to take away Rs. 8,000 that was being transported from the railway guard’s carriage near Kakori to the government treasury in Lucknow. The key players in the daring act were Ramprasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan and Chandrashekar Azad, among others.
Twitter was abuzz with posts about the train robbery in the State, comparing it with the robbery at Kakori 91 years ago when a group of young men launched their own revolutionary struggle.
Published - August 11, 2016 12:00 am IST
