Shaheed Udham Singh was one of the most prominent figures of the Indian Independence movement. He was a revolutionary. On 31 July 1940, Ram Mohammad Singh Azad was sent to the gallows at Pentonville Prison in the UK and was buried within the prison grounds
He was convicted for the assassination of Michael O'Dwyer, the former lieutenant governor of Punjab, who was born in Sunam, Punjab in British India on 26 December 1899.
It is believed that O'Dwyer was responsible for the brutal incident at the Jallianwala Bagh in 1919, where over 300 people were massacred by the troops under General Reginald Dyer.
O'Dwyer was Punjab's lieutenant governor and he had ordered the shooting of unarmed Indian civilians at Jallianwala Bagh, where there was a gathering on the traditional festival of Baisakhi.
O'Dwyer was assassinated by Udham Singh inside Caxton Hall, Westminister, London on 13 March 1940. As per the reports, O'Dwyer had supported General Dyer's action following the massacre and had imposed martial law in Punjab after the horrific incident.
5 Unknown Facts About Ram Mohammad Singh Azad
Udham Singh called himself Ram Mohammad Singh Azad as the name represented the three major religions of India at the time. No one could guess from his appearance or his name if he was a Hindu, a Muslim, or a Sikh.
Shaheed Bhagat Singh was his role model. Bhagat Singh was also hanged by the British government in 1931 on similar charges.
There is a district named after the revolutionary freedom fighter in the Indian state of Uttarakhand known as Udham Singh Nagar.
Udham Singh and his elder brother were raised at an orphanage after their father died. Singh left the orphanage in 1919.
Singh did not run away after killing O'Dwyer and, he waited for cops to come and take him under arrest. He went on a hunger strike for 42 days while in custody.
Udham Singh was represented in court by VK Krishna Menon, the fifth defence minister of independent India from 1957 to 1962.
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