Ashfaqulla Khan Short Essay in English

Ashfaqulla Khan was a luminary revolutionary figure of Indian national movement. He along with his friend Ram Prasad Bismil inspired Indian youth to serve their country and instilled a new fervour and zeal among them against the cruel colonial British rule in India. Ashfaqulla Khan was born on October 22, 1900 AD in Shahjahanpur of the North Western Province of the then British India (now in Uttar Pradesh). His father Shafiqur Rahman served in the police department.

Ashfaqulla Khan was immensely inspired by the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi. Like lakhs of Indian youth, he also decided to do something for his country. But the sudden suspension of the Non-cooperation Movement hurt him a lot. At that moment he decided to move ahead from non-violence and peaceful methods to purge his country of the curse of cruel British rule.

He joined Ram Prasad ‘Bismil’ and became a member of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA). The end of British rule by any means was the chief objective of the HRA. Ashfaqulla Khan and Bismil, the great revolutionary duo are best remembered as the chief architects of the Kakori event which really shook the roots of the British empire in 1925. Actually, the HRA was in dire need of money to carry out its anti-British rule activities and operations. After a meeting by the HRA members, on August 09, 1925, 10 HRA fighters including Ashfaqulla Khan held up the 8-Down train at Kakori near Lucknow and looted the government treasury in it. Ten HRA revolutionaries involved in the Kakori event were Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Rajendra Lahiri, Thakur Roshan Singh, Sachindra Bakshi, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Banwari Lal, Mukundi Lal, Keshab Chakravarthy and Manmathnath Gupta.

The Kakori event was a huge challenge to the British government and it took serious actions against it. All the revolutionaries got arrested by the police but Chandra Shekhar Azad was still at large. Ashfaqulla Khan, Ram Prasad Bismil, Rajendra Lahiri and Thakur Roshan Singh were sentenced to capital punishment for being the major figures in the Kakori event. Other revolutionaries were given long terms of imprisonment. Ashfaqulla Khan was executed on December 19, 1927 at Faizabad while his other three friends also sacrificed their lives for their country in December 1927 in different Jails. The Martyrdom of these revolutionaries further intensified the movement against British rule and left indelible imprints of bravery and patriotism on the Indian freedom movement.

Ashfaqulla Khan composed many poems in Urdu and a few ones in Hindi under the penname of ‘Varasi’ and ‘Hazrat’ Like his friend Bismil, he expressed his love and emotions for his country through his poems.