Rajendra Nath Lahiri was an Indian revolutionary, who was the mastermind behind Kakori conspiracy and Dakshineshwar bombing. He was active member of Hindustan Republican Association aimed at ousting the British from India. Born in present day Bangladesh, he was a M.A. student in Department of History, Banaras Hindu University when the revolutionary activities started in Uttar Pradesh. He joined the Hindustan Republican Association along with many other Bengali friends.
Among the Kakori martyrs, the names of three – Ashfaqullah Khan, Ram Prasad Bismil and Roshan Singh – are well remembered by every Indian, mainly because they were hanged on the same date: December 19, 1927, in the Gonda prison. However, the name of the fourth martyr, Rajendranath Lahiri, hanged two days before on December 17, 1927, largely remains forgotten.
Lahiri can be seen as an embodiment of the transition that the Indian revolutionary movement was going through in the late 1920s. In terms of ideology, the revolutionary movement witnessed a refinement from anti-British nationalism towards socialism; in matters of religious beliefs, there was a shift towards atheism.