Udham Singh was born "Sher Singh" on December 26, 1899, to Tehal Singh, a Kamboj manual laborer with poor skill and low pay, and his wife Narain Kaur in the Pilbad locality of Sunam, some 130 miles south of Lahore in British India. He was their youngest child, and he and his older brother, Sadhu, were separated in age by two years. Their mother passed away when they were about three and five years old, respectively. While transporting the boys to Amritsar on foot in October 1907, their father fell and passed away at Ram Bagh Hospital. After being given to an uncle, who was unable to care for them, the two boys were later placed in the Central Khalsa Orphanage, where, per the orphanage registration, they were first admitted on October 28. After being rebaptized, Sadhu was given the name "Mukta," which means "one who has avoided reincarnation," and Sher Singh was given the name "Udham Singh," which means "the upheaval." Mukta passed away in 1917 from an unexplained unexpected illness.
Udham Singh convinced officials to let him join the British Indian Army during World War I even though he was under the legal age of enlistment. He was then sent to the 32nd Sikh Pioneers' lowest-ranking labor unit to work on the field railway's repair from the Iraqi coast all the way up to Basra. He returned to Punjab in less than six months due to his youth and issues with authorities. He reenlisted in the army in 1918 and was sent to Basra and later Baghdad, where he performed carpenter work and general maintenance on machines and vehicles. In early 1919, he returned to the orphanage in Amritsar.
Several local leaders who supported the Indian National Congress, including Satyapal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, were detained on April 10, 1919, in accordance with the Rowlatt Act. More than 20,000 unarmed people gathered at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, on April 13 to celebrate Baisakhi, a significant Sikh holiday, and to peacefully denounce the arrests. Water was being distributed to the throng by Singh and his buddies from the orphanage. The inhabitants were confined within the bagh when Brigadier-General R.E.H. Dyer stationed his forces at the little entrance, which also served as the sole primary escape. He then abruptly gave his soldiers the command to open fire. A total of 1,700 bullets were fired at the defenceless crowd. Although the official death toll was less than 400, some estimates indicate that this act of mass murder resulted in the deaths of more than a thousand individuals. This event is also known as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre or the Amritsar Massacre. It is stated that Udham Singh swore an oath to get retribution following the Jallianwala Bagh slaughter.
Singh joined the Ghadar Party in 1924, which was organising Indians abroad to fight colonial rule. He soon joined their campaign team and distributed their revolutionary literature across the villages of Punjab. In Amritsar, where he owned a store, he concentrated his revolutionary activities. He also connected with the violent Babbar Akali movement at this time, joining them in organising. He became heavily active in the Ghadar movement, too, and rose to prominence as one of its leading leaders while he was living in the United States. Through Mexico, Singh entered the country illegally in 1924 and finally settled in San Francisco, the heart of the Ghadar movement in North America. He was invited by the Ghadar Party to travel to a number of American cities in order to inform people first hand about the Jallianwala Bagh atrocity, to encourage the development of local party chapters, and to raise money. In 1937's The Elephant Boy and in 'The Four Feathers' two years later, he appeared as an extra while he was still in the US.
Singh founded his own party, the Azad Party, as a branch of the Ghadar movement in addition to his engagement with the Ghadar Party. The party set out to promote Indian independence while also raising money for Indian revolutionary organisations. Singh was deeply ingrained in the global Ghadar revolutionaries' network.
Armed with Ghadarite propaganda and with the purpose of speeding and encouraging the anti-colonial fight, he travelled to India. The Arms Act led to his arrest in Amritsar on August 30, 1927, however additional "seditious" material was also discovered in his hands, along with two revolvers, a handgun, ammunition, and copies of several banned publications. Udham Singh received a five-year jail term. He was moved from one prison to another because he was a challenging inmate for the guards to control. He first encountered Bhagat Singh in one of those prisons. Bhagat Singh rapidly became a friend of Udham Singh's, who became so enamoured with him due to his charisma that he referred to him as his "guru" and "best friend" and kept a picture of him in his wallet. Udham Singh participated in a forty-day hunger strike and attempted to utilize his trial, like the HSRA (Hindustan Socialist Republican Association) revolutionaries, as a platform to further his political and revolutionary beliefs. Udham Singh departed for England in 1931, two years after his release from jail.
Udham Singh was not just a rebel for a large portion of his life; he was also a migratory labourer. In the months after his arrival in London in the fall of 1934, Singh continued to hold a variety of low-paying occupations. He was a carpenter, an electrician, and a street vendor. Additionally, he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain's trade union affiliate and communist Surat Ali's group, the Indian Workers Association (IWA), in London. The IWA worked for both the liberation of India and bettering the living conditions of the immigrant working classes in Britain.
Speaking at a gathering of the East India Association and the Central Asian Society (now the Royal Society for Asian Affairs) in Caxton Hall in London on March 13, 1940, was Michael O'Dwyer. Singh had used his wife's ticket to get into the event. Singh hid a pistol in a book with pages that were shaped like a revolver. He bought this pistol from a soldier in a bar. He then entered the hallway and sat down. Singh fired twice at O'Dwyer as he approached the podium after the meeting. Singh was detained right away following the incident.
In secret, he prepared to kill Michael O'Dwyer when he arrived in London in 1934. Michael O'Dwyer was the actual perpetrator of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, according to Udham Singh. When the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre took place in Amritsar on April 13, 1919, Michael was the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab. O'Dwyer expressed his support for Reginald Dyer's actions in Jallianwala Bagh and made it clear that he thought Dyer's directive to fire at the people was appropriate.
Singh was formally charged with killing Michael O'Dwyer on April 1 of that year and lodged at Brixton Prison. He was initially questioned about his intentions. He used the name, 'Ram Mohammed Singh Azad' while he was being held. The first three letters of his name reflect the three main religious groups in India (Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh); the last word, azad—which means "free"—reflects his anti-colonial feeling. Singh engaged in a 42-day hunger strike while awaiting his trial, during which he was force-fed. His trial began at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, on June 4, 1940, before Mr Justice Atkinson. V.K. Krishna Menon and St. John Hutchinson were his solicitors. The attorney for the prosecution was G. B. McClure.
Singh clarified his motivations when asked:
"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."
Singh was found guilty of murder and given the death penalty. Albert Pierrepoint executed Singh by hanging him at Pentonville Prison on July 31, 1940. His remains are kept in Amritsar, Punjab, near the Jallianwala Bagh. Every year on July 31, numerous organisations hold marches in Singh's hometown of Sunam, and flower garlands are placed on each monument of him there.
MLA Sadhu Singh Thind requested that Singh's bones be excavated and sent to India in 1974. Thind accompanied the remains back to India. Indira Gandhi, Shankar Dayal Sharma, and Zail Singh accepted the coffin. On August 2, 1974, his ashes were split into seven urns and sent to various locations, including the libraries of the Shaheed Udham Singh Arts College in Sunam and Haridwar, Kiratpur Sahib, Rauza Sharif, and Sunam.
Singh received the "Nishan-e-Khalsa" posthumously from the Anandpur Sahib Foundation in 1999, the tercentenary of the founding of the Khalsa and the centenary of his birth.
Near Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar is a museum honouring Singh.
In Sunam, the ancestral home of Singh has been transformed into a museum. The museum has 30 letters and other items on exhibit.
His ancestral town's name, Sunam, was officially renamed to "Sunam Udham Singh Wala."
A number of films have been made on Singh, including Jallian Wala Bagh (1977), Shaheed Uddham Singh (1977), Shaheed Uddham Singh (2000), and Sardar Udham (2021).
Singh is honoured with the district name Udham Singh Nagar in Uttarakhand.
Frank Brazil, an animated video, was published by the Indian band The Ska Vengers on the occasion of his 75th birthday. As a master of disguise, Udham Singh used several aliases during his revolutionary career, Frank Brazil being one of them.
Image
Udham Singh - Source Punjab martyrs museum, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Ghadar Party Flag - Source Rueben lys at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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