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Madan Lal Dhingra: A Forgotten Martyr
by Chaman Lal
 Madan Lal Dhingra
was perhaps the first Indian freedom fighter to be executed on British
soil. He died in London on Aug 17, 1909. It is strange that no one in
the Indian government has paid any attention to the need to commemorate
the event.
Dhingra was born Feb 18, 1883 in Amritsar into a very rich family. His
father, Ditta Mal, retired as a government civil surgeon and had 21
houses in Katra Sher Singh and six bungalows on G.T. Road. Ditta Mal
shifted from his village Sahiwal in Sargodha district, now in Pakistan,
in 1850 and he held 10 bigha land and a haveli in his ancestral village.
He held the title of Rai Saheb, given by the British government.
Dhingra's father also had six buggies and his car ran on Amritsar's
roads, the first Indian to have this privilege in the city. He had seven
sons and a daughter. Three of his sons were trained medical doctors and
three were barristers-bar at law. One of his brothers, Bihari Lal
Dhingra, was a notorious prime minister of Jind state.
It was into such a family that the rebellious son was born. He did
physical labor while studying science in Lahore, where he got influenced
by the "Pagdi Sambhal Jatta" movement of Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit
Singh, uncle of Bhagat Singh. He later went to England for higher
studies, reaching London after two months by ship.
Dhingra took admission in an engineering course but quickly became
involved in India's freedom struggle. He was influenced by Shyamji
Krishan Verma and Veer Savarkar.
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Veer Savarkar, who was on a scholarship established by Shyamji Krishan
Verma, also reached England in 1906, the same year as Dhingra. Both were
of the same age group, but Savarkar was inclined to Hindutva ideology.
Shyamji Krishan Verma was more liberal and rational in his views, but he
had to leave for Paris as the British government harassed him a lot.
Dhingra was now under the spell of Savarkar and it was he who inspired
him to shoot Curzon Wyle, who was notorious for using Indians to serve
as spies in England. The pistol for this purpose was provided by
Savarkar to Dhingra, who shot Wyle dead in June 1909. After a trial
lasting one-and-a-half months, Dhingra was executed Aug 17, 1909 at the
age of 26 years.
Bhagat Singh wrote about Dhingra in his sketches about revolutionary
freedom fighters. It is the duty of the nation at both the government
and people's level to commemorate the event in a befitting manner.
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Madan
Lal Dhingra assassinated Sir Curzan Wyllie, political Aide-de-Camp to the
Secretary of State for India, Lord Morley in London in 1909. He was hanged
at Pentonville Prison, London, on 17 August, 1909. Before going to the
gallows on that day, Madan Lal Dhingra, spoke the following inspiring words:
'I believe that a nation held down by foreign bayonets is in a perpetual
state of war. Since open battle is rendered impossible to a disarmed race, I
attacked by surprise. Since guns were denied to me I drew forth my pistol
and fired. Poor in health and intellect, a son like myself has nothing else
to offer to the mother but his own blood. And so I have sacrificed the same
on her altar. The only lesson required in India at present is to learn how
to die, and the only way to teach it is by dying ourselves. My only prayer
to God is that I may be re-born of the same mother and I may re-die in the
same sacred cause till the cause is successful. Hail Bande Matram! Hail
Bande Matram !'
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Thirty-one years after Dhingra died, another Indian revolutionary, Udham
Singh, followed his path in England. He too was executed July 31, 1940,
under almost similar circumstances.
(The author is
a professor at the Centre of Indian Languages in New Delhi's Jawaharlal
Nehru University. He is considered an authority on the Indian
revolutionary movement. He can be reached on prof.chaman@gmail.com)
August 13,
2009
By arrangement with IANS
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