From the autobiography: What Ram Prasad Bismil wrote in secret about his life while on death row

While we were busy organising and planning our revolutionary activities, one of the members based in Mainpuri began fancying himself as a leader. He formed a separate organisation and even collected some arms and ammunition. He ordered a comrade to arrange a robbery at a relative’s houses to arrange for some quick funds. The latter did not respond or comply. He was then given a notice and a death threat. He promptly went to the police and the whole plan was exposed. The police nabbed the members of this unit. The news also reached us.

A Congress session was about to be held in Delhi. We planned to sell our book How Did America Win Its Independence?, the one which had been seized by the UP government, at the venue. On the occasion of the Congress session, I took the members of the Sewa Samiti of Shahjahanpur along with my ambulance unit and staff. The ambulance staff had permission to enter everywhere without being stopped. Young men stood outside the pandal, holding copies for sale and announcing, ‘The book seized in UP: How Did America Win Its Independence?’ The secret police surrounded the Congress camp. Right across was the Arya Samaj camp, where the police began...

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