The Benares Line
After Non-cooperation was called off in February 1922, the young men who had believed in it had nowhere to go. Sachindranath Sanyal, twice transported to the Andamans, gave them a party: the Hindustan Republican Association. This chapter opens on the train at Kakori and then follows the four men the Raj hanged for it.
Lessons in this chapter
- The 8 Down at Kakori — Chauri Chaura, the HRA, and the twenty minutes that put four men on a gallows
- Twice to the Andamans — Sachindranath Sanyal memorised a book in a cell, founded the HRA, and was sent back
- The Poet of Shahjahanpur — The Mainpuri pamphlet, the Kakori trial, the autobiography smuggled out of the condemned cell, and the morning of 19 December 1927
- Two Days Early — Rajendra Nath Lahiri, the historian from Pabna who was hanged at Gonda before the announced date
- The Man Who Was Not on the Train — Thakur Roshan Singh, the farmer who trained the shooters, and the four different routes to one gallows