Udham Singh Martyrdom Day: The Freedom Fighter Who Avenged Jallianwala Bagh
The Horror of Jallianwala Bagh
On April 13, 1919, in Amritsar, a peaceful gathering of people was attacked by British soldiers. They were shot at without warning. Michael O'Dwyer, who was the British Governor of Punjab at the time, supported this brutal attack. This tragic event, known as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, killed over 1,000 innocent people and injured more than 1,200 others. Many people died trying to escape or by jumping into a well.
Udham Singh's Early Life and Resolve
Udham Singh was born as Sher Singh on December 26, 1899, in Sunam, Sangrur district. He had a tough childhood, losing both his parents and his older brother early on. He grew up in an orphanage in Amritsar and saw the horrors of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre himself. This experience filled him with a strong desire for justice.
He was inspired by another famous freedom fighter, Bhagat Singh, and his revolutionary group. Udham Singh became active in the fight for India's freedom. He travelled a lot, sometimes using different names, to avoid the British and gather support for the cause. He was put in jail many times for fighting against British rule.
His Act of Vengeance and Lasting Legacy
After years of planning, Udham Singh finally acted. On March 13, 1940, in London, he shot and killed Michael O'Dwyer. Udham Singh didn't resist arrest and used his trial to speak out against British rule. He was found guilty and hanged on July 31, 1940, in a London prison.
His sacrifice made him a martyr. In 1974, his remains were brought back to India and honoured at Jallianwala Bagh. His chosen name, "Ram Mohammad Singh Azad," showed how important it was for all religions in India to unite for freedom. A district in Uttarakhand is named Udham Singh Nagar after him. Many states, like Punjab and Haryana, even have a public holiday on his martyrdom day to remember his great contribution to India's independence.
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Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Boy king who wanted best of the West for Kolhapur
KOLHAPUR: Had he lived a full life, Rajaram II of Kolhapur would have transformed his princely state. His journey to Europe, the first by a Hindu monarch, filled his mind with new ideas __ English education for the people and compulsory learning for girls, a modern judicial system, industries, museums, research centres and banks. But he died when he was 20. What he left behind is a rich account of his travels and experiences to Europe where he went on a study tour in 1870 and spent 150 days until his death in Florence in Italy. The monarch's enthusiasm made him journal. The account he kept of what he saw and experienced during his stay came to life over 150 years later when a digitized version of a book based on his dairy surfaced a few years ago. It was first published in 1872 as The Dairy of Late Rajah Of Kolhapoor-During His Visit To Europe in 1870, and edited by British official Edward West, who was in the prince's retinue. What Rajaram II chronicled can now be widely read. Head of the English department, Rajaram College Kolhapur, Raghunath Kadakane, has translated the book into Marathi on the monarch's 175th birth anniversary. Kadakane said despite a history of rebellion, Kolhapur's royalty and the British forged an alliance for the people. 'Rajaram II had vision and was eager to modernise his state after his return. His dreams were fulfilled by Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj more than 100 years later. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Why Seniors Are Snapping Up This TV Box, We Explain! Techno Mag Learn More Undo Shahu Maharaj opened schools, built dams and developed a pro-people administration,' he said. Shahu Chhatrapati, head of Kolhapur's royal family and a Congress MP, said they have the original copies of the dairy published by West but it is a private collection. Who Was Rajaram II? Born Nagojirao Patankar, he was adopted by the royal family of Karvir (Kolhapur) who are descendants of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. He was 16 in 1866 when he became king but like other princely states, Kolhapur was under the British crown. Since the prince was a minor, political agent Colonel G S Andersen deputed West to run the administration. After the 1857 war of independence, Kolhapur's ruler Chimasaheb or Shahu I was arrested and sent to Karachi where he passed away. The crown approved the adoption of Rajaram II and he was coronated in Pune. West wrote, 'A Parsee graduate of Bombay University was selected to carry out tuition and a scheme of education was carefully drawn." The Parsee graduate was Jamshetji Unwala. During his schooling, Rajaram II was housed in a residency far from the Kolhapur palace. He grew up among Europeans and interacted with the company staffers from the residency. Before he left for Europe, 20-year-old Rajaram II laid the foundation of an English medium school later named Rajaram High School. It also got a college with former acting president B D Jatti and other eminent people like Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Yashwantrao Chavan, N C Kelkar, Vinda Karandikar and actor R Madhavan as students. Seeds of a voyage When the Duke of Edinburgh came to Bombay in 1870 none of the native princes who flocked to meet him attracted more attention than, or created as favourable an impression, as Rajaram II, West wrote. It was here that the seeds of a voyage to Europe were sown. Being a Hindu, he overcame the taboo attached to a 'sea voyage'. The British govt gave him permission and West, the Parsi tutor and 10 sevaks (staffers) and a hakim began the journey. West wrote that Rajaram II was first Hindu reigning prince to visit Europe, and the first in the lineage of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Duleep Singh, the last Sikh ruler, visited Europe as an exile and was not the king at that time. Singh hosted Rajaram II at his Elveden Hall residence in London. Witness to history On June 23, ten days after he landed at Paris, Rajaram II witnessed the first telegraphic message sent from India to Britain. "At 10pm, (I) went to Mr Pender's to see the telegraphic communication between England and India and America which was lately completed. The Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, and many ladies and gentlemen were present. I was struck at seeing that the Prince of Wales received the answer to his telegram from the Viceroy of India in five minutes," Rajaram II noted. He was referring to John Pender who in 1869 founded British Indian Submarine Telegraph Company. He used huge ships like Great Eastern to lay thousands of km of undersea cables. Earlier, telegraphic links, which existed since 1864 were overland cables. The next day, Rajaram II met Queen Victoria in Windsor Castle. It was first of his two meetings with her. "I was presented to the Queen by the Lord Chamberlain on the lawn. She made a graceful bow to me and asked me kindly whether this was my first visit to England. She appeared to be in good health, and to be a kind-hearted lady," Rajaram II wrote. Here, he saw swords and daggers belonging to Tipu Sultan who died in 1799 in battle. Rajaram II also visited East India Association debates over cotton from India being exported to Britain. Dadabhai Naoroji helped Rajaram II with insights. His itinerary included visits to Royal Society, Oxford University where he interacted with vice-chancellor, the Royal Academy, the coach factory, the silk factory, the British Museum, cotton mills, the Royal Theatre and other places. He learned that silk imported from India was woven into embroidered clothes and sold back in India. At Forbes Walton's Museum, Rajaram II saw Maharaja Ranjeet Singh's golden throne. Forbes told Rajaram II that he had so many artifacts from India that he had no room to keep them. Death in florence and a connect with shelley Rajaram II's rheumatic condition worsened in Florence in Italy. It was November and the chill in the air made him worse. He had refused to see doctors and relied on his hakim. But West brought in top Italian physicians to inspect Rajaram II. The last entry in his diary was about the snowfall that he saw for the first time in his life. He died on Nov 30, 1870. "Congestion of the abdominal viscera, together with collapse of nervous power," was the cause of the death that doctors reported. A cremation was not allowed since Italy was a Catholic state and forbade it. The only exception was made some 50 years ago for Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley who drowned on July 8, 1822, off the coast of Italy when his boat, the Don Juan, sank during a storm. Shelley's body washed ashore near Viareggio in Tuscany. Quarantine laws and local customs led to his cremation on the beach on August 16, 1822, in the presence of friends, including fellow poet Lord Byron and Edward Trelawny. West wrote that the question of the disposal of the Rajah's remains after his death gave rise to some difficulties. 'His Hindoo attendants shrank from the idea of the body being embalmed or disposed of in any way but that prescribed by their religion, namely, cremation. On the other hand, cremation, except in the case of Shelley, had not been heard of in Italy for centuries, and the municipal law of Florence ordained, under penalty of two years' imprisonment, that whenever anyone died, the corpse should be buried in a coffin," he added. Cremation approved British minister Augustus Paget pushed for Rajaram II's body to be cremated as per Hindu tradition. The mayor of Florence Signor Peruzzi presented the matter before the council of ministers and upon conditions, permission was granted for a cremation post-midnight. Early on Dec 1, Rajaram II's was cremated on the banks of Arno River with Mugnone stream passing by in Cascine Park. The municipality expected only a few to attend but West recorded that a huge crowd had gathered, and security had to be placed. Kadakane said that Rajaram II made a lasting impression on the people he met in Europe and therefore permission for a cremation was granted. Shahu Chhatrapati said his ancestor Rajaram II had a good education and was fluent in English and western mannerisms. His going to Europe to study had not been attempted by anyone in the lineage. His death in Europe did not stop his heirs from going there. But, it came after four decades when Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj visited. Later on, all the heads of the royal family made such trips. 'I have visited Florence to see his memorial which is well-maintained by the local administration. A bridge across Arno River too bears his name,' he said. A monument in Indo-Saracenic style Two years later a "Monumento all'Indiano," or Monument to the Indian, was erected with bust of Rajaram II under a cenotaph (Chhatri) built in Indo-Saracenic style. At the time of his demise, the Italian unification was in progress and new thoughts were emerging. Reformists accepted cremation and by the end of the 19th century crematoriums opened in Italy and later in Britain as well. West published Rajaram II's diary after returning to Britain in 1872. He died in Naples in Italy a few hours from Florence where Rajah he served as a companion too was cremated. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Friendship Day wishes , messages and quotes !
India.com
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‘A Glimpse of My Life' by Ram Prasad Bismil: A moving autobiography of a young revolutionary
Ram Prasad Bismil's life was devoid of any glory or achievement. He was an idealist who dreamt of freeing his country from the British. He sincerely believed that through acts of violence and killing, they would strike terror in the hearts of the British bureaucracy. That their acts of courage and sacrifice would also inspire the youth of the country to take up cudgels against the British. His was a brief life, which was tragically cut short in 1927 when, at the age of 30, he was hanged for his involvement in the Kakori dacoity case. The moment of his death would have been a moment of both satisfaction and dejection for him. He would have been gratified for having made the supreme sacrifice of his life for a cause that was so dear to him. But he was also much less than certain whether his sacrifice had brought the cause of India's freedom any closer to fulfilment. Such was his lot, and of many others of his generation who thought and believed like him. The importance of Bismil's life lies not so much in what he achieved but in his ideals and the sincerity with which he pursued them. When in jail, Bismil started writing about his life on scattered scraps of paper that were available to him. They were surreptitiously smuggled out and printed after Bismil was hanged. These have now been translated admirably and competently into English by Awadhesh Tripathi as A Glimpse of My Life, thus making them accessible to a wider readership. A life of revolt Bismil lived during the first three decades of the 20th century, when the ideas of anti-imperialist Indian nationalism had begun to break out of the ivory towers of Indian politics, located in the metropolitan cities, and had spread out to small cities and towns. Stories of the Swadeshi movement had begun to reach people through newspapers. Ideas of Indian nationalism were being transmitted to remote areas and, in the process, getting transformed. People's experiences of discontent with British rule were now finding a new articulation. It was in this climate that Bismil grew as a young teenager in Shahjahanpur, a small city in UP. Quite unlike many other nationalist leaders, Bismil grew up in a completely locked and insular zone, where he had no exposure to modern ideas of liberalism and secularism. His social environment was remarkably devoid of broad external influences. The one major source of inspiration for him was the Arya Samaj. Very early in his life, Bismil transcended the narrow world of self-interest and aspired to a life of service to larger causes. This major shift was informed by three major influences: traditions and family socialisation, anti-imperialist nationalism that had reached the interiors of Indian society, and the Arya Samaj. These influences created a personality that was both unique and complex. His personal life was deeply conservative, in which he nurtured ideas of austerity and celibacy. He attached great value to Brahmacharya, which to him was the fountainhead of all virtues. As he grew older and came under the influence of Arya Samaj, he worked towards Shuddhi, a purificatory movement geared towards re-converting Muslims back to Hinduism. The Shuddhi movement was generally anti-Muslim and ridden with communal overtones. But his involvement with Shuddhi did not come in the way of a deep emotional bonding with Ashfaqullah Khan, his fellow revolutionary who was involved in the Kakori train dacoity and eventually hanged along with him. His memoirs are full of very fond and moving references to his soulmate Ashfaqullah Khan, and through him, to the supreme necessity of Hindu-Muslim unity. Bismil's social universe was very Gandhian, even though he did not come directly under Gandhi's influence and may not have been aware of it. It is also possible that his social ideas were inspired by sources other than Gandhi. But the Gandhian stamp on his social ideas is quite unmistakable. Bismil's idea of a viable economy was that of a decentralised village economy, in which villages would be able to sustain themselves without depending on outside forces for their needs. Also, he wanted villagers to grow as 'true khadi-wearing, swadeshi patriots' who would read and write and 'subscribe to newspapers so that they keep themselves informed of what is happening in the country'. This sounds so remarkably similar to Gandhi's imagination of an ideal Indian village. However, his political universe could not have been more distant from Gandhi's. Bismil's political world was marked by guns, bombs, and killing. The politics of underground violence required money. Therefore, a train carrying the government treasury had to be looted. It was for this offence that he was caught and hanged. For most of his life, he was convinced that these acts of violence would strike terror in the British officials and bureaucrats and would thus help to liberate the country. However, such politics had its pitfalls. There was just no support, financial or political, from society. The extremely efficient intelligence network of the British enabled them to catch all those involved in the Kakori dacoity. Some of the efficiency of the British network stemmed from the fact that a number of Indians were ready to collaborate with the government and provide information about the revolutionaries. Often, factional fights among them let out their secrets. Many practitioners of underground violence turned approvers after being arrested. Both the factors – fear of torture by the police and the incentives offered – were at work. This was the inevitable fate of all such clandestine, secretly held, underground violent activities. Quite often, common people were also suspicious of them. Bismil was aware of these pitfalls, yet remained committed to the politics of underground violence till a few months before the end of his life. His personal, social, and political trajectories flowed in very different directions. One was not a derivative of the other and existed quite independently of the other. On death row After Bismil was arrested, he was found guilty and given a death sentence. The two moments – awareness of the impending death and the actual death – were separated by three months. Bismil spent these three months in deep introspection. His last note in the memoirs is just three days before the hanging. It was during this period that he began to question the efficacy of violent methods. He realised that the route to effective politics lay through educating and mobilising the masses and not through violence and killing: '… if we had directed our efforts towards educating the masses and spreading awareness among them, our actions might have been more successful and more lasting'. The following were his thoughts during the last moments of his life: 'I am now convinced that no revolutionary organisation can be successful in India … as the conditions are not conducive for revolution. That is why it is foolish to attract the country's youth to revolutionary work and ruin their lives in the process. It is likely to do more harm than good. My final message to the youth is that they should choose to serve the nation sincerely instead of entertaining the romantic idea of using revolvers or pistols'. Bismil's short life of 30 years was rich, unique, and in keeping with the highest ethical standards. When in jail, there were moments of opportunity for him in which he could have escaped. But he chose not to escape as it would have put the careers of the policemen at risk of removal. He lived his life selflessly and acted out his ideological commitments. His memoirs give us an ample reflection of his life and ideas. Awadhesh Tripathi has done well to make this world available to readers of the English language. Salil Misra is a visiting faculty member at the BM Munjal University, Manesar.
