Udham Singh

Udham Singh (born Sher Singh; 26 December 1899 – 31 July 1940) was an Indian revolutionary belonging to Ghadar Party and HSRA, best known for assassinating Michael O'Dwyer, the former lieutenant governor of the Punjab in India, on 13 March 1940. The assassination was done in revenge for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar in 1919, for which O'Dwyer was responsible and of which Singh himself was a survivor. Singh was subsequently tried and convicted of murder and hanged in July 1940. While in custody, he used the name Ram Mohammad Singh Azad, which represents the three major religions in India and his anti-colonial sentiment.

Singh was a well-known figure of the Indian independence movement. He is also referred to as Shaheed-i-Azam Sardar Udham Singh (the expression "Shaheed-i-Azam" means "the great martyr"). A district (Udham Singh Nagar) was named after him as a homage by the Mayawati government in October 1995.

Udham Singh was born Sher Singh into a Sikh family on 26 December 1899 in the neighbourhood of Pilbad in Sunam, around 130 miles south of Lahore, British India, to Tehal Singh, a Kamboj, low-skilled low-paid manual labourer and his wife Narain Kaur. He was their youngest, with a two-year difference between him and his elder brother, Sadhu. When they were around age three and five respectively, their mother died. The two boys subsequently stayed close to their father while he worked in the village of Nilowal carrying mud from a newly constructed canal, part of Punjab Canal Colonies. After being laid off he found work as a railway crossing watchman in the village of Upali.

In October 1907, while taking his sons by foot to Amritsar, their father collapsed and died at Ram Bagh Hospital. The two brothers were subsequently handed to an uncle who being unable to keep them, gave them to the Central Khalsa Orphanage, where according to the orphanage register, they were initiated on 28 October. Rebaptised, Sadhu became “Mukta”, meaning “one who has escaped re-incarnation”, and Sher Singh was renamed “Udham Singh”, Udham meaning “the upheaval”. At the orphanage he was affectionately referred to as "Ude". In 1917, Mukta died of an unknown sudden illness.

Shortly thereafter, despite being below the official age of enrolment, Udham Singh persuaded authorities to allow him to serve in the British Indian Army during the First World War. He was subsequently attached to the lowest ranking labour unit with the 32nd Sikh Pioneers to work on restoration on the field railway from the coast up to Basra. His young age and conflicts with authority led him to return to Punjab in less than six months. In 1918, he rejoined the army and was despatched to Basra and then Baghdad, where he carried out carpentry and general maintenance of machinery and vehicles, returning after a year to the orphanage in Amritsar in early 1919.

On 10 April 1919, a number of local leaders allied to the Indian National Congress, including Satyapal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, were arrested under the terms of the Rowlatt Act. A military picket fired on a protesting crowd, precipitating a riot which saw numerous European-owned banks attacked and several Europeans attacked in the streets. On 13 April, over twenty thousand unarmed people were assembled in Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar to celebrate the important Sikh festival of Baisakhi, and to peacefully protest the arrests. Singh and his friends from the orphanage were serving water to the crowd. Troops under the command of Colonel Reginald Dyer opened fire on the crowd, killing several hundred; this became known variously as the Amritsar Massacre or the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

Singh became involved in revolutionary politics and was deeply influenced by Bhagat Singh and his revolutionary group. In 1924, Singh became involved with the Ghadar Party, organising Indians overseas towards overthrowing colonial rule. In 1927, he returned to India on orders from Bhagat Singh, bringing 25 associates as well as revolvers and ammunition. Soon after, he was arrested for possession of unlicensed arms. Revolvers, ammunition, and copies of a prohibited Ghadar Party paper called "Ghadr-di-Gunj" ("Voice of Revolt") were confiscated. He was prosecuted and sentenced to five years in prison.^{[citation needed]}

Upon his release from prison in 1931, Singh's movements were under constant surveillance by the Punjab Police. He made his way to Kashmir, where he was able to evade the police and escape to Germany. In 1934, he reached London, where he found employment. Privately, he formed plans to assassinate Michael O'Dwyer. In Singh's diaries for 1939 and 1940, he occasionally misspells O'Dwyer's surname as "O'Dyer", leaving a possibility he may have confused O'Dwyer with General Dyer. However, General Dyer had died in 1927, even before Udham Singh had planned the revenge. In England, Singh was affiliated to the Indian Workers' Association in Coventry and attended their meetings.