By Uzair Rizvi for TwoCircles.net,
“Weep not children, weep not elders,
I am Immortal! I am Immortal!
Kakori, UP: These were the words of Indian freedom fighter Ashfaqullah Khan, who was one of the main architects of the ‘Kakori Train Robbery’. He was also the first Muslim who was hanged in a conspiracy against British rule in India. When Ashfaqullah wrote these lines, he would have been sure that the martyrdom of revolutionaries would be celebrated in free India. But, today the massive and glittering memorials have overshadowed the martyrs’ memorial.
Kakori Memorial, 30 km from Lucknow, is a monument constructed to commemorate the martyrs who laid down their lives during the Kakori conspiracy against the then British rulers. 22nd October was the 113th birth anniversary of Ashfaqullah Khan. TCN visited the memorial on the occasion and found it crying for attention.
The memorial in Kakori, which also includes the cenotaphs of Ashfaqullah Khan, Ramprasad Bismil, Roshan Singh, Rajendra Lahiri and Chandrashekar Azad wears a deserted look and only a few attend to its care.
What should have been a place to be visited frequently has become forlorn and neglected. The amenities for visitors too are appalling.
“The Shaheed Smarak usually gets a facelift twice in a year. On 9th August (the day robbery took place) and 9th December (the day on which Ashfaqullah Khan and other revolutionaries were hanged),” said Ashok, caretaker of the monument. Pointing towards shattered window panes and uncut grass, he said, “Now, the repairing and maintenance work will be undertaken in December only.”
Not only the memorial but the ungainly premises and damaged road reflect the indifference of the officials. “Ministers come here and make fake promises, nothing is being done to uplift the memorial so that it may attract people. It draws a maximum of 2-3 visitors in day”, said Kamlesh, a local resident.
The memorial was built in the honor of the martyrs and dedicated to the countrymen by the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on December 19, 1983. The memorial comes under the state Public Works Department (PWD). The memorial stands near KM 1085/4-7 railway milestone, two kilometers from the Kakori railway station, where the revolutionaries stopped the passenger train going to Lucknow from Shahjahanpur carrying government treasury.
Kakori railway station master S.K. Chaudhary said, “Not many trains stop here, when some does, a few passengers become curious after reading the inscription, unfortunately neither the state government nor the centre has done anything to highlight the importance of Kakori, which played an important role in the country’s freedom struggle.”
When TCN tried to contact the PWD officials, none of them were willing to comment on it, one officer assured though that the problems will be looked upon and will be resolved soon.
On August 9, 1925, the revolutionaries executed their plan of robbing the number eight down train travelling from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow. They only looted the British treasury. Police later arrested many and tried them in what became famous as the Kakori conspiracy case. Ashfaqullah Khan and his fellow revolutionaries were hanged on 19th December, 1927.