Chandrshekhar Azad: The lion who made the British tremble

The true name of Chandrashekhar Azad was Chandrashekhar Tiwari. Born in a brahmin family his mother wanted him to become a sanskrit scholar. But he was a warrior by birth and was interested in warfare. So he learnt archery from the tribals in his village and this helped him in using pistols later on. The massacre at Jallianwala Bagh lit fire in his heart and at the age of 15 he participated in the Non-cooperation movement of Gandhi. Arrested for doing so he was produced before the court where he got his name "Azad". The story goes
The Judge asked his name. He replied "Azad". Judge asked his father's name. He replied "Swaatantra" (freedom). The judge asked where he stayed. He replied "Jailkhana"(ie jail). The judge had lost his temper. He sentenced him to 15 days of rigourous imprisonment. The Azad said "I said all this because i knew you would send me to jail". Everyone laughed at this and judge lost his temper further. He sentenced him to 15 lashes. With each lash he said "Bharat Mata Ki Jai". After this incident he decided that getting thrashed like this would not fetch freedom He pledged that he would never get caught again and preserved this pledge throughout.

Azad joined Ram Prasad Bismil's HRA(Hindustan Republican Association) and participated in the famous Kakori train robbery where they looted money and arms from the train. Azad was never caught but many of his friends were executed later. Azad hid in the jungles near jhansi as acting as a saint and teaching people of the village. He was a popular figure in the village. He hatched the plot to slay J P Saunders after the killing of Lala Lajpat Rai. He tried his best to free Bhagat Singh and his friends and lost his life during such an attempt.

He met Nehru in 1931 and persuaded him to fight the case of Bhagat Singh. But Nehru refused. After this meeting he went to Alfred Park with some of his close friends to discuss but one of his  had turned as an informer and had informed the Police about his location. Bishweshwar singh and Nott Bower led the attack on Azad following the standard british way of firing from behind. But Azad noticed Bower pointed gun at him and showing his sharp shooting skills shot Bower on his wrist and Singh in his mouth(Singh was abusing Azad) and hid behind a huge tree. Alfred Park was surrounded by policemen. Nearly 40 vans of Police had been called. In the firing that ensued Azad killed 3 policemen and injured scores of them though hit in the thigh by a bullet. He gave cover fire to his friend Sukhdev Raj and helped him escape. When he had just one bullet left he fired it into his head keeping his pledge of not being captured. The police did not come near him for a long time fearing he might get up. Such was the fear he had instilled in them. Long live the memory of our heroes. Vande Mataram

Remembering our forgotten heroes!!

With the 65th independence day nearing it is now time to write a post on 3 of the revolutionary freedom fighters india produced in the last century. I am talking about Chandrashekhar Azad, Veer Savarkar and Madanlal Dhingra. This post will give a glimpse of this lesser known daredevil Madan Lal Dhingra and the other two will be talked about in the following posts.
Madan Lal Dhingra was a born patriot. He got sacked from his college in Lahore for protesting against the Principal's order to wear uniform stitched from English cloth. He got sacked from his job for trying to organize a union (he had a job under British). He made contact with Abhinav Bharat founded by Savarkar and managed to get a seat at University College, London. In London he trained under Savarkar. Abhinav Bharat Mandal mandal was trying to prepare a bomb on its own and dhingra played a crucial role here. One interesting instance:
The members were boiling a chemical for preparing bomb late night and all fell asleep. The chemical was on the verge of bursting out when a member got up to extinguish the flames. But what he saw was a miracle. Dhingra was holding the vessel which was more than 300 degrees hot with his bare hands and coolly placed it on the floor. The skin of his fingers was charred and blood was oozing out but he was calm as if nothing had happened.
The is one more such instance in his life:
Once there was a meeting to talk about the bravery of japanese in the war against the british. Dhingra was annoyed and said that Indians were brave too. All the people made jokes about him. Then ensued a verbal duel btw those people and dhingra. After some time a man poked dhingra's arm with a big needle saying "Let me see how brave indians are". Dhingra was unmoved. He stood still while the needle pierced its way through his hand. Such was his love for this country.

Dhingra assasinated Sir Curzon Wyllie who was then termed as the old unrepenting foe of india. Dhingra fired at Curzon with a revolver when he had attended a function organized by National Indian Association in London. He was later sentenced to death in London. Below are some excerpts from his words during and after trial:

"I do not want to say anything in defence of myself, but simply to prove the justice of my deed. As for myself, no English law court has got any authority to arrest and detain me in prison, or pass sentence of death on me. That is the reason I did not have any counsel to defend me."

"And I maintain that if it is patriotic in an Englishman to fight against the Germans if they were to occupy this country, it is much more justifiable and patriotic in my case to fight against the English. I hold the English people responsible for the murder of 80 millions of Indian people in the last fifty years, and they are also responsible for taking away ₤100, 000, 000 every year from India to this country."

Gandhi criticized Dhingra for his act. He said:
"It is being said in defence of Sir Curzon Wyllie’s assassination that...just as the British would kill every German if Germany invaded Britain, so too it is the right of any Indian to kill any Englishman.... The analogy...is fallacious. If the Germans were to invade Britain, the British would kill only the invaders. They would not kill every German whom they met.... They would not kill an unsuspecting German, or Germans who are guests. "

This statement shows the low logical skills of our Father of the Nation. If German's invade Britain the British cannot obviously ask everyone whether he s an invader or not before killing. Moreover Curzon had been deemed as a foe of india long before this incident.
And amazingly Dhingra got support from the British:
Talking about Dhingra Churchill said (Taken from Wikipedia):
 Churchill said that there has been much discussion in the Cabinet about him. Lloyd George had expressed to him his highest admiration of Dhingra's attitude as a patriot, in which he shared…He will be remembered two thousand years hence, as we remember Regulus and Caractacus and Plutarch's heroes and Churchill quoted with admiration Dhingra's last words, as the finest, ever made in the name of patriotism…"


Dhingra's Last 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 wealth 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. Vande Mataram!"