Eyewitness accounts turn into folktales for people in Kakori

At a time when elaborate celebrations are planned to commemorate the Kakori Train Action of 1925, the faces of the villagers in Kakori light up as they narrate the presence of their parents and grandparents at the time of the incident, finds HT

Lucknow: A whole generation has grown hearing eye-witness accounts of the Kakori Train action of August 9, 1925, so much so that thet have become folktales. With the passage of time, the intricate details shared by their ancestors may have been washed out from the minds of many but for some they are still fresh . Whenever anybody visits the Kakori Shaheed Smarak in Bajnagar village, he is welcomed by Munnilal Rajput (75), an old man dressed in a kurta and dhoti with a wooden stick in his hand.

Rahmat Ali (70) shared with a smile on his face that his father had seen the revolutionaries during the event. (Pic for representation)

He not just devotes his time to honorary upkeep of the Shaheed Smarak but also narrates an eye-witness account that he got from his grandmother Agana.

“My grandparents were devotees in a temple situated in the Shaheed Smarak compound. My grandmother told me that she was performing puja on August 8,1925 when a group of young men entered the premises and began planning something. After some time, they left for the station but failed to board the train. However, they turned up again at the same time the next day and barring a few, all went to the station again and the rest is history,” he said .

Describing his dedication to work at the Shaheed Smarak he said that he considered the freedom fighters as revered as the deities in the temple. “I spend my entire day in the smarak cleaning the statues and helping the visitors around the place,” he added.

Another resident of the village, Mithai Lal (48) said that he learnt from his grandfather that the place where the Shaheed Smarak stands tall today was covered with mahua and mango trees. “My grandfather told me that only a few would visit that side of the village,” said Lal.

Rahmat Ali (70) shared with a smile on his face that his father had seen the revolutionaries during the event. “My father along with other villagers watched them from a distance. They visited the village several times,” said Ali.

Jaffar Abbas (87) said that his father Ghulam Abbas was the last zamindar of Amethia Salempur village. “My father told me that after the incident, the revolutionaries mistakenly left behind a bedsheet. It had the mark of the washerman which helped the British government trace them,” said Abbas.