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‘Kakori Shaurya Gatha Express’ to mark the year-long centenary celebrations of Kakori Train Action.

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• The Uttar Pradesh government has collaborated with the railways to run a 12-coach ‘Kakori Shaurya Gatha Express’ train, showcasing episodes from the Indian freedom struggle.
• This initiative is part of the year-long centenary celebrations, Kakori Shatabdi Mahotsav.
• The Bharatendu Natya Academy will perform Nukkad Nataks at all destinations covered by the train.
• The train will also display records of the Kakori Train Action and its 3D Augmented reality (AR)/ virtual reality (VR) model.

Kakori Train Action

• It was an armed action that took place on August 9, 1925, on a train in central Uttar Pradesh.
• It occurred at the town of Kakori, about 16 km from Lucknow which was where the train was headed.
• It was carried out by the Hindustan Repulic Association in the Kakori town of the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh).
• The HRA did believe in armed action against the imperialist government, they planned this dacoity to generate money, which they desperately needed.
• On August 9, 1925, a group of HRA activists including Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaq Ullah Khan, Chandrashekhar Azad, Manmathnath Gupta, Rajendra Lahiri, and others stopped a train at Kakori near Lucknow and walked away with the government cash from the guard’s coach.
• Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, and Roshan Singh were hanged while others were sentenced to different jail terms for their involvement in Kakori Train Action (1925).

Hindustan Republican Association (HRA)

• The revolutionaries of the U.P. and Punjab established the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) in 1924.
• Its objective was “to establish a Federated Republic of the United States of India by an organized and armed revolution.”
• Its founders include Ram Prasad Bismil Ashfaqulla Khan, Sachindra Nath Bakshi, Sachindranath Sanyal, and Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee.
• Around 1928, at New Delhi's Feroz Shah Kotla, Chandrasekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, and Sukhdev Thapar were among the individuals who renamed it and established the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army, also known as the HSRA.