Prof Shankar Chatterjee, Hyderabad
The British rule led to the rise of Indian nationalism as people began to resist colonial rule. The British came to India, thousands of kilometers away, to exploit our human, natural, mineral, and other resources. Because of their misrule, the freedom movement started, and many people sacrificed their lives. On July 31, 1940, Udham Singh was hanged to death in London.Udham Singh (birth name Sher Singh; December 26, 1899–July 31, 1940) was an Indian revolutionary belonging to the Ghadar Party and the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), known for assassinating Michael O’Dwyer, the former Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab in India, on March 13, 1940. Udham Singh assassinated Michael O’Dwyer in revenge for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar in 1919, for which O’Dwyer was responsible and of which Singh himself was a witness. Sher Singh’s mother died when he was about three years old, and his father passed away a few years later. Orphaned at a young age, he and his elder brother were admitted to the Central Khalsa Orphanage in Amritsar in 1907. They were initiated into the Sikh religion at the orphanage, and Sher Singh was renamed Udham Singh. Singh was furious because of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. On April 13, 1919, at least 10,000 people assembled at Jallianwala Bagh for a peaceful protest against the Rowlatt Acts, legislation passed by the British that year, which allowed certain political cases to be tried without juries and permitted the internment of the accused without trial. The British officer Reginald Dyer arrived at the protest site and ordered his troops to seal off the exit and open fire on the unarmed crowd, killing indiscriminately. Singh was serving water to the attendees at the time of the attack and watched it. This sparked in him a hatred for colonial rule.The Lieutenant Governor of Punjab at the time, Michael O’Dwyer, not only condoned Reginald Dyer’s actions but also justified them. Later on, Michael O’Dwyer went back to London. Singh came to London and decided on his action. He came to know that Michael O’Dwyer would be attending an event at Caxton Hall in Westminster on March 13, 1940, and chose this opportunity to assassinate him. Singh reached the hall with a loaded gun, and after O’Dwyer had given a speech, Singh shot him twice. O’Dwyer fell to the floor and succumbed to the gunshot wounds. Singh was subsequently tried and convicted of murder and hanged on July 31, 1940. While in custody, he used the name ‘Ram Mohammad Singh Azad,’ which represents the three major religions (Hinduism, Islam, and Sikhism, respectively) in united India. Singh’s actions evoked different reactions in India. Overall public sentiment was positive, with several Indian nationalists, including many Congress supporters, supporting his action and considering him a hero and a martyr. Revolutionary Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose approved of Singh’s actions. But Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru denounced the assassination. The patriotic feelings of Singh can be understood because before the judge had passed the sentence, Singh said, “I am not afraid to die. I am proud to die.… I have great sympathy with the workers of England, but I am against the dirty British government.”Like all Indians, we respect this great hero and martyr.(Sources of this article are, a) britannica.com/biography/Udham-Singh and b)wikipedia.org/wiki/Udham_Singh)
