Ram Prasad 'Bismil' (1897-1927) remains among the best-known revolutionaries of India's struggle for freedom. In this autobiography, Bismil reflects on his life, as well as on the people and ideas that inspired him, and on the revolutionary movement he built. He remembers his childhood, the hardships his parents faced, the role his mother and guru played in shaping him, his involvement in the Kakori train robbery, his experiences in prison, and his comrades fighting alongside him for freedom from British rule.
Bismil not only offers glimpses of his eventful life but also lays out his ideas on gender, caste, class, communalism, justice, nation-building and the attractions and pitfalls of revolutionary activity. The readers of his autobiography will find many of these ideas to be of great relevance in present-day India.
Originally titled Nij Jiwan Ki Chhata, this book was written in secret during Bismil's imprisonment, while he was on death row. It is a passionately narrated account of the life of a young and daring freedom fighter who lived and died with the single aim of freeing India from foreign rule.