Udham Singh

Shaheed Udham Singh (1899–1940) was an Indian revolutionary. He is regarded by many in India as a symbol of courage and self-sacrifice in India's struggle to end British colonial rule in India.

Udham Singh was born in 1899 in Sunam village in Sangrur district of Punjab province in the family of a farmer named Sardar Tehl Singh. Udham lost his parents at the tender age of five and was brought up by the Khalsa Orpahnage in Amritsar. He started his livelihood as an apprentice carpenter. He was in the audience at Jallianwala Bagh on April 13, 1919 when General Reginald Dyer ordered his men to open fire on unarmed public that had gathered there for a meeting, resulting in the deaths of more than 3000 people. The incident had left an indelible impression in the young mind of Udham Singh and he entered revolutionary politics. He traveled to the US in 1924 and worked there with the Ghaddar Party, a revolutionary group from India. On the orders of Bhagat Singh he returned to India in 1927 with a consignment of arms. But on arriving in India, he became a victim of someone’s betrayal and was arrested. He was jailed for 4 years. This was the peak period of right winged revolutionaries in India led by the likes of Bhagat Singh and Chandrasekhar Azad.

Udham Singh was still in jail when Bhagat Singh was executed in 1931. He was determined to carry forward the struggle of his idol Bhagat Singh. Udham Singh managed to escape from the prison and slip out of the country. He traveled widely in countries like Egypt, Russia, France and Germany and made contact with the revolutionaries there. Finally he arrived in England in 1933 and assumed the name of Ram Mohammed Singh Azad. By this time he had decided to assasinate Sir Michael O'Dwyer , the Governor of Punjab at the time of Jallianwala Bagh massacre, whom he regarded as the main perpetrator of the Jallainawala Bagh massacre. He moved into the town of Devon where Sir Dwyer lived and started working as a bus driver. He got many opportunities to assasinate Sir Dwyer and get away unnoticed. But this would have been an act of cowardice and would have served very little political purpose. So he patiently waited for seven years until April 13, 1940. A meeting was called at the Caxton Hall in London of officers who had served in colonial India. Sir Dwyer was the chief guest there. Udham Singh walked into the meeting and shot dead Sir Dwyer with a revolver and injured four others. He was arrested and executed by the British on July 31, 1940. In his trial he expressed no regret for killing Dwyer.