Udham Singh-The one who died for the motherland #BlogchatterA2Z

Shaheed Udham Singhwas a revolutionary belonging to the Ghadar Party.He is known for the assassination he did . 

The assassination was in revenge for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre(1919) in Amritsar for which O'Dwyer was responsible.

He is also referred to as Shaheed-i-Azam Sardar Udham Singh ("Shaheed-i-Azam", means "the great martyr"). 

Udham Singh , born on 26 December 1899, in Sangrur . His real name was Sher Singh.

His father died when Singh was very young . Then he and his brothers were adopted by an orphanage.

In 1919,  a number of local leaders of the Indian National Congress were arrested and the protestors against were fired by British troops.

Three days later ,  over twenty thousand unarmed people had gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh to protest against the act.

At that time, Udham Singh and his friends from the orphanage were serving water to the crowd.

Then happened the Jallianwala Bagh massacre for which O'dwyer was responsible. I think since then he had a grudge against him.

On 13 March 1940, Michael O'dwyer was to speak at a joint meeting of at Caxton Hall (London).

 Singh concealed inside his jacket pocket a revolver he had earlier purchased from a soldier .He entered the hall and found an open seat.

 As the meeting concluded, Singh shot O'Dwyer twice as he moved towards the speaking platform. One of these bullets passed through O'Dwyer's heart and right lung, killing him on the spot .

Singh was arrested immediately and tried for the killing.

In April 1940, Udham Singh was formally charged with the murder of O'Dwyer . Asked to explain his motive, Singh said: 

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? 

Singh was convicted of murder and sentenced death . He was hanged at the Pentonville Prison.

Udham Singh was later cremated in his birthplace of Sunam in Punjab and his ashes were scattered in the Sutlej river.

Some of his ashes were retained; these retained ashes are kept inside a sealed urn at Jallianwala Bagh.

 A district of Uttrakhand called Udham Singh Nagar was named after him to pay homage.


Let us all salute such soldiers !!!