(This graphic novel was originally published on 30 July 2019. It has been republished from The Quint’s archives in light of the release of the Hindi movie Sardar Udham, directed by Shoojit Sircar and based on the life Udham Singh.)
By all accounts, Udham Singh comes across as one of the most dramatic personalities of the colonial period – he avenged the Jallianwala Bagh massacre after waiting for 21 long years, travelled the world using aliases, and even acted as an extra in two British films – Elephant Boy (1937) and The Four Feathers (1939).
Considering this, it is surprising that his presence in popular discourse has remained relatively limited. Here’s an attempt to piece together some vignettes from his intriguing and yet, in some ways, enigmatic life.
It seems that in the time just before he carried out O'Dwyer's assassination in London on 13 March 1940, Udham Singh had changed his appearance to one which made him blend better in British society.
Journalist-author Anita Anand's The Patient Assassin gives vital insights into how the Punjabi revolutionary went about assassinating one of the most important officials of the Raj.
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