Ram Prasad Bismil

Ram Prasad Bismil ( Hindi: राम प्रसाद "बिस्मिल") (11 June 1897 — 19 December 1927) was an Indian poet, writer, revolutionary and an Indian freedom fighter who participated in the Mainpuri Conspiracy of 1918, and the Kakori Conspiracy of 1925, and fought against British Raj. He also had a good command over Urdu and the Hindi languages and was an accomplished poet, composing in these languages using the pen names Ram, Agyat and Bismil, the latter through which he became famously known by. He was also a multilingual translator and his Hindi poem "Manipuri ki Pratigya" became very famous. Bismil was hanged on 19 December 1927 by the British for his revolutionary activities. He was associated with Arya Samaj where he got inspiration from Satyarth Prakash, a book written by Swami Dayanand Saraswati. He also had a confidential connection with Lala Har Dayal through his guru Swami Somdev, a preacher of Arya Samaj. Bismil was one of the founding members of the revolutionary organization Hindustan Republican Association. Bhagat Singh praised him as a great poet-writer of Urdu and Hindi, who had also translated the books Catherine from English and Bolshevikon Ki Kartoot from Bengali. Early life Ram Prasad Bismil was born on 11 June 1897 to Muralidhar and Moolmati devi in Shahjahanpur district in erstwhile North-Western Provinces. He was born in a Rajput family.<ref name="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/remembering-shaheed-ram-prasad-bismil-tomar/ who traced their roots to Barwai in Morena district of Madhya Pradesh, He learned Hindi from his father at home and was sent to learn Urdu from a moulvi. He was admitted to an English-language school, despite his father's disapproval, and also joined the Arya Samaj in Shahjahanpur. Bismil showed a talent for writing patriotic poetry. Contact with Somdev As an 18-year-old student, Bismil read of the death sentence passed on Bhai Parmanand, a scholar and companion of Har Dayal. At that time he was regularly attending the Arya Samaj Temple at Shahjahanpur daily, where Swami Somdev, a friend of Paramanand, was staying. Angered by the sentence, Bismil composed a poem in Hindi titled Mera Janm (en: My Birth), which he showed to Somdev. This poem demonstrated a commitment to remove the British control over India.