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Udham Singh (December 26, 1899 – July 31, 1940), born Sher Singh and also known as Ram Mohammed Singh Azaad, was a Punjabi revolutionary, considered to be one of the most famous martyrs of the Indian freedom struggle. For this reason, he is often referred to as Shaheed Udham Singh (the word shaheed means "martyr"). He is also believed by many to be one of the earliest Marxists in India. He was known at various stages in his life by the following names: Sher Singh, Udham Singh, Udhan Singh, Ude Singh, Uday Singh, Frank Brazil, and Ram Mohammed Singh Azaad. Whilst living in England in 1940, Singh assassinated Sir Michael O'Dwyer, former Governor of the Punjab. This was in revenge for the Amritsar Massacre, which happened under O'Dwyer's rule, and which O'Dwyer had defended. Although condemned at the time, many Indians regard the assassination as an important step in India's struggle to end British colonial rule.
Early life
Sher Singh was born in a village called Sunam in the Sangrur district of Punjab to a farming family led by Sardar Tehal Singh, known as Chuhar Singh before taking amrit paan. He belonged to Kamboj family of the Jammu gotra subcaste. Tehal Singh was at that time working as a watchman on a railway crossing in the neighbouring village of Upall. He died in 1907. Sher Singh's mother followed soon after.
Sher Singh and his elder brother, Mukta Singh, were admitted to the Centre Khalsa Orphanage Pultighar in Amritsar on October 24, 1907 with the help of Bhai Kishan Singh Rogi. Both boys were administered the Sikh initiatory rites at the orphanage and received new names; Sher Singh becoming Udham Singh and Mukta Singh became Sadhu Singh. Sadhu Singh died in 1917, which came as a great shock to his brother. Singh trained in various arts and crafts and the orphanage and started up a painting shop, listing his name on the sign as "Ram Mohammed Singh Azaad", a sign that he believed in secularism over caste and religion. Udham Singh passed the matriculation examination in 1918 and left the orphanage.
Jallianwala Bagh Massacre and Udham Singh
It was the fateful Baisakhi Day, 13th April 1919 when thousands of unarmed, innocent & peaceful sitting Indians had assembled in Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar to register a peaceful protest against the misdeeds of Britishers, British Imperialism and the arrest and deportation of Dr. Satya Pal, Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew and other under the infamous Rowlatt Act. Udham Singh was present in the Jallianwala Bagh and serving water to the assembled people along with his friends from Centre Khalsa Orphanage.
General Reginald Edward Harry Dyer accompanied by two armoured cars on which machine guns were mounted reached the Bagh. General Dyer immediately upon entering the Bagh and without warning the crowd, ordered his men to open fire, concentrating on the areas where the assembled crowd was thickest. The firing started at 17:50 and lasted for about ten to fifteen minutes. Within no time, thousands of innocent defenseless peaceful sitting civilians were massacred and wounded.
Udham Singh held O’Dwyer responsible for the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh which became a turning point in his life. The incident prompted Udham Singh to took a vow and solemn pledge to avenge the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. After this he entered in active revolutionary politics.
Journey to Revolutionary Politics
After the massacre, Udham Singh left the orphanage and moved from one country to another to achieve the secret objective of his life. He then managed to reach Africa in the year 1920 and reached Nairobi in 1921. From there he managed to reach United States in the year 1924 and has worked with freedom fighters of Ghaddar Party, an Indian group known for its revolutionary politics and Lala Hardyal.
On the orders of Bhagat Singh, Udham Singh returned to India in 1927 with a consignment of revolvers. Upon arrival, however, he was arrested in Amritsar under the Arms Act, apparently given up by a fellow revolutionary. Singh stayed in jail for four years, missing the peak of India's revolutionary period and the actions of men like Bhagat Singh and Chandrasekhar Azaad.
Bhagat Singh was hanged with his fellow comrades Raj Guru and Sukhdev on March 23, 1931 for the murder of Mr. Saunders while Udham Singh was still in jail.
On release in 1932 from the jail, he returned to his native Sunam, but harassed by the local police, he once again returned to Amritsar and opened a shop as a signboard painter, assuming the name of Ram Mohammed Singh Azaad. This name, which he would use later in England, emphasized the unity of all the religious communities in India in their struggle for political freedom.
Metropolitan Police Report, file MEPO 3/1743, dated 16 March 1940
Being orphaned at the age of three, he was brought up in the Sikh orphanage attached to Khalsa College, Amritsar. He was issued with a passport on 20 March 1933 in Lahore in the name of Udham Singh. In a Metropolitan Police report, file MEPO 3/1743, dated 16 March 1940 (3 days after Udham Singh had been charged with the murder of Sir Michael O'Dwyer), we find information concerning his life, which reveals him to be a highly active, well-travelled, politically motivated, secular-minded young man with some great purpose in his life, a supporter of Bolshevism and driven by an ardent hatred of British rule in India. This is how the report runs:
Udham Singh served in the Army in Basra for a year and a half and in British East Africa for two years. He returned thereafter to India for a few months and then proceeded to London in the company of one PRITAM SINGH. The two sailed for the United States via Mexico. He worked for two years in California and for some months in Detroit and Chicago, whence he moved to East New York where he lived for five years. Thereafter he shipped for voyages in various vessels of the US Shipping Line according to his own account as a Porto Rican, because no Indians were allowed to be employed on US vessels. (He is known to have held a seaman's certificate in the name of FRANK BRAZIL of Porto Rico). From New York he made a trip to Europe, landing in France, and thereafter visiting Belgium, Germany and going as far as Vilna in Lithuania, returning via Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, Italy and France, embarking there for America. After another few months in the USA, he took employment on vessels plying to most of the Mediterranean ports and thereafter secured employment on the S.S. Jalapa as a carpenter. He arrived in this vessel at Karachi in July, 1927, and deserted from her in Calcutta.
While in America he appears to have come under the influence of Ghadar Party and to have been affected by its teaching. He used to read seditious literature published by this party. On 27 July 1927 he was fined at Karachi for having in his possession a large number of obscene postcards.
On 30 August 1927 he was arrested at Amritsar as it was suspected that he was in possession of unlicensed Arms. Two revolvers, one pistol, a quantity of ammunition and copies of the prohibited paper, Ghadr-i-Gunj , were recovered from him. He was prosecuted under section 20 of the Arms Act and was sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment. He stated that he had intended to murder Europeans who were ruling over Indians and that he fully sympathised with the Bolsheviks, as their object was to liberate India from foreign control. He was released from gaol on 23 October 1931.
He visited his village for a short time in 1933 and then proceeded to London where in 1934 he was known to be living at 9 Alder Street, Commercial Road.
On 5 July 1934, as Udham Singh, he applied in London for endorsements to his passport no. 52753, issued in Lahore: he gave his address as 4, Best Lane, Canterbury, Kent, and said he had a business as a sports outfitter in India, but that he had not worked since his arrival some nine months previously. (There is, however, evidence to show that he had been pursuing the calling of a peddler). He announced that he wished to travel by motor-cycle via Germany, Belgium and Poland to Russia, across Russia to Odessa, where he would take ship for Constantinople en route for India. This was considered rather strange, in view of the fact he had recently broken his arm, but as he had not at that time been identified as an Indian of extremist views no objections could be raised.
On 12 May 1936, he applied in London for endorsements for Holland, Germany, Poland, Austria, Hungary and Italy, giving the address 4, Duke Street, Spitalfields, E. The application was granted.
On 16 May 1936 he applied in Berlin for further endorsements including the Eastern European countries and the USSR. In view of the fact that he had not asked for these at the time of his application in London four days earlier, he was informed that his case would have to be referred to London, where upon he withdrew his application.
On 25 June 1936 he was reported as arriving in London from Leningrad, and in the following November it was reported that he was living with a white woman in the West End of London and was working at intervals on crowd scenes at film studios. On several occasions he is reported to have expressed extreme views and he is known to have boasted that he had smuggled arms into India.
In August, 1938, UDHAM SINGH was charged in London with demanding money with menaces. The Jury disagreed at the first trial and he was acquitted at the second trial.
He has not come under notice at meetings organised by Indian extremist movements in London.
On National Registration day he registered in the name of AZAD Singh, under Serial No. EACK/305/7, giving his occupation as carpenter, and stating that he was born on 23 October 1905. His address was given as: 581 Wimborne Road, Bournemouth.
A further record of antecedents was supplied by the prisoner to Detective Sergeant Lisney and this is also attached.
It appears his last employment terminated on 7th November, 1939, since when he has been receiving 17/-per week unemployment benefit in the name of SINGH AZAD.
Assassination of O'Dwyer
Udham Singh escaped from the prison and left India. He traveled widely in countries like Egypt, Russia, France and Germany, making contact with the revolutionaries there. He eventually arrived in England in 1933 and assumed the name Ram Mohammed Singh Azad. By this time he had decided to assassinate Sir Michael O'Dwyer, whom Singh viewed as the main perpetrator of the Jallainawala Bagh massacre. (O'Dwyer had been governor of Punjab at the time). Singh moved to Devon, where O'Dwyer lived, and took a job as a bus driver. He then waited for the right moment to strike so as to make the biggest political statement.
On 13 March 1940, Sir Michael was one of a distinguished company at a joint meeting in the Tudor Hall, Caxton Hall, Westminster, of the East India Association and the Royal Central Asiatic Society.
Extract from Udham Singh's Diary including the date of O'Dwyer's murder
As the meeting was breaking up Udham Singh fired all 6 rounds of a .45 Smith & Wesson revolver into a group of people on the platform of whom O'Dwyer was a part. O'Dwyer was was hit twice in the back, and killed instantly. One bullet passing through his heart and right lung. Another bullet passed through both kidneys.
Lord Zetland, Secretary of State for India, was hit twice although he was only slightly injured, as were Lord Lamington and Sir Louis Dane. The numbers of people killed were not as large as could have been expected, as Udham Singh used 30 year old, poor fitting .44 bullets.
Udham Singh was overpowered before he left the room. His hatred had not been diminished by killing O'Dwyer:
Shaheed Udham Singh leaving the Caxton Hall after his arrest
"I did it because I had a grudge against him, he deserved it. I don't belong to any society or anything else. I don't care, I don't mind dying. What is the use of waiting until you get old? That is no good ... Is Zetland dead? He ought to be, I put two in him. I bought the revolver from a soldier in a public house. My parents died when I was 3 or 4 ... Only the one dead, eh? I thought I could get more."
On 1 April 1940, Udham Singh was formally charged with the murder of Sir Michael O'Dwyer. On 4 June 1940, he was committed to trial, at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, before Justice Atkinson, who sentenced him to death. An appeal was filed on his behalf which was dismissed on 15 July 1940. On 31 July 1940, Udham Singh was hanged at Pentonville Prison. As with other executed prisoners, he was buried later that afternoon within the prison grounds.
Memorials of Shaheed Udham Singh
Shaheed Udham Singh’s and Shaheed Madan Lal Dhingra’s death certificate have been recently obtained from England and have been placed at Ghadar Martyrs Museum in Jalandhar and can now be seen by public. During the trial, Udham Singh had made a request that his remains be sent back to India, but this was not allowed. In 1973, however, the Government of India, at the instance of the Punjab Government, asked for the return of Udham Singh's remains. Their request was allowed by the UK Government, and his exhumed remains were handed over to representatives of the Indian Government. The ashes of Shaheed Udham Singh were brought to India on 19th July 1974 and were taken to his birth place Sunam (Punjab) after huge procession at various places i.e. Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. After cremation at Sunam on 31st July 1974, the ashes were emerged on 2nd August 1974 in the water of river Sutlej at Kiratpur Saheb and in the river Ganges at Haridwar.
Many memorials in the shape of statues, Dharamshalas ( at Delhi, Sunam , Chandigarh , Sirsa) Educational Institutes ,Libraries , Orphanages and Hospitals have been erected /constructed . Government of India has issued a commemorative postage stamp in the memory of Shaheed Udham Singh on the 52nd Martyrdom Day.
State government of Punjab, UP has also declared public Holiday on 31st July and in Haryana on 26th December.
UP Government have names a small town on the name of Udham Singh as Udham Singh Nagar.
Legacy
- Shaheed Udham Singh Samarak Trust (Regd.), Administrative Office: AE - 199-200, Shalimar Bagh, Delhi, Delhi - 110052
- Shaheed Udham Singh Memorial Bhawan Society(Regd.), Sector 44-D, Chandigarh, India.
- Shaheed Udham Singh Educational and Charitable Trust (Regd.), Sector 53, S.A.S. Nagar Mohali, Punjab
- Shaheed Udham Singh Welfare Centre, 346, Soho Road, Handsworth, Birmingham, B21 8EG.
- The Shaheed Uddham College of Engineering & Technology located in Tangori, India is named after Singh.
- British Asian popular music group Asian Dub Foundation wrote a song celebrating Mohammed Singh Azad called 'Assassin'.
Notes
References
- Various articles written by Nanak Chand Kamboj, which were published in magazines like Kamboj Hiteshi, Vishal Kamboj and Sourverniers of All India Kamboj Maha Sabha (Regd.).
- http://www.kambojsociety.com/udham_biography.asp (Website developed by Deepak Kamboj and Nanak Chand Kamboj)
- A Saga of the Freedom Movement and Jallianwala Bagh Udham Singh by Prof. Sikandar Singh
- http://www.lalkar.demon.co.uk/
- Emergence of The Image by Avtar Singh Jouhl and Navtej Singh
Sources
- http://allaboutsikhs.com/martyrs/udham4.htm
- http://kambojsociety.com/udham_biography.asp
- http://www.suscet.ac.in/Udham.php
- http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv2n2/singh.html