“He is a mad man” – said Gandhi !

“His act was a senseless deed” – said Nehru !

“We condemn his act of terror and apologise and hope we are not punished for it” – – resolution passed by Congress !

He was Shaheed Udham Singh and the senseless deed he did was that he killed Michael Dwyer.

Michael was the monster who massacred 1526 innocent unarmed peaceful Indians in Jallianwala Bagh in 1919. Udham singh was 19 year old volunteer who was serving water to the 20,000 people gathered in the garden on festival of Baisakhi. They were brutally massacred by Gen Dwyer and Udham singh was live witness to it.

He wanted to avenge the brutality and get some sense of justice to these martyrs. British GOVT didn’t take any action. Congress couldn’t get british to act on Dwyer. So Dwyer happily retired to England and lead a peaceful rich life.

Meanwhile, Udham singh joined Gadhar Party and fought for freedom. He was jailed for 5 years and there he was inspired by death and martyrdom of Bhagat Singh who wanted to take action on Dwyer.

After release, he escaped from India through Kashmir. He went to Germany and then to London.

He joined as engineer and pursued Dwyer for 6 years. He procured a gun, learnt shooting and then found that on 13, March, 1940 Dwyer was speaking in Caxton hall, London. He hid a gun in a book in which he had carved a place for gun. Sat in front row and shot two bullets into heart and lung of Dwyer. He died instantly.

Udham Singh didn’t escape. He bravely courted arrest. He told these words to the judge:

“I did it because I had a grudge against him. He deserved it. He was the real culprit. He wanted to crush the spirit of my people, so I have crushed him. For full 21 years, I have been trying to seek vengeance. I am happy that I have done the job. I am not scared of death. I am dying for my country. I have seen my people starving in India under the British rule. I have protested against this, it was my duty. What greater honour could be bestowed on me than death for the sake of my motherland?”

He was sentenced to death in the court. He fasted for 42 days in the jail and was brutally tortured and hanged on July 31, 1940. Meanwhile in India congress condemned his act. Gandhi and Nehru abused him for making british angry and they forced congress to pass a resolution against killing of Dwyer.

They were very busy those days helping british recruit Indian soldiers for World War – II and they didn’t want Punjab to get upset with british. This is our great freedom fighting party which condemned killing of a monster like Dwyer who massacred 1526 people in Punjab.

Udham Singh was buried in London and like other freedom fighter’s, he is forgotten in India. No textbooks talk about him. Few people know about him.

His story is a great and inspiring one. A film is being made on this great freedom fighter. Udham Singh is played by Vicky Kaushal and the movie is directed by Shoojit Sircar, produced by Ronnie Lahiri and Sheel Kumar and written by Ritesh Shah and Shubhendu Bhattacharya. Mayawati named a District in Uttarakhand after him in 1995. In 1974 his remains were exhumed and brought to Bharat and he was cremated here. His ashes are in urn in Jalian Wala Bagh.

A SALUTE TO THIS BRAVE HEART – UDHAM SINGH!