Anita Anand, The Patient Assassin, The True Tale of Massacre, revenge and the Raj, London, Simon and Schuster, 2019, pages 384, Kindle ed

The book, The Patient Assassin, by London-based Anita Anand is based on the life of Udham Singh, who assassinated Michael O’Dwyer, the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab during 1919, and was infamous for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar.

Anand’s ancestors on both sides, her own and her husband’s, were involved in some way or the other the sufferings of the biggest massacre during British Raj after the 1857 revolt. Her grandfather, Ishwar Das Anand, was in Jallianwala Bagh on that fateful day of April 13, 1919. He survived as he left a bit early before the firing was ordered by Reginald Dyer. Her husband’s ancestors settled in London in the 1930s and one of them lived with Udham Singh in London.

So, as a writer, Anand has the privilege of having heard the story from close family persons, as well as being a broadcast journalist with BBC, she has used her skills as a journalist and researcher to build the story of Udham Singh in a narrative style. She already has written another popular book on Sophia, the daughter of the last Maharaja of Punjab, Duleep Singh, and also co-authored another one on Kohinoor, with celebrated historian William Dalrymple. In this book, she has given a historical event the shape of a long narrative, to make it more interesting, and has taken the liberty to give almost a fictional form and a thriller as well.

Before Anand begins the narration, she quotes from one of the greatest novelists of the world, Charles Dickens:  “Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule” The quote is from one of his famous novels, A Tale of Two Cities, and shows that Anand, through the historic event, wishes to create a story of revenge as well.

Apart from 25 chapters of this spread-out narration, nine are in part one, and 16 are in part two. In the preface, the author has referred to her family connections to the event and the historical background and a few known facts, like the number of killings as per British and Indian perceptions. The author has also included a list of illustrations (which are very important and rare).

The preface has underlined that on April 13, 1919, Dyer, a British officer of Irish origin, had ordered his men to fire upon around 20,000 innocent and unarmed men, women and children. The victims included the youngest, a six-month old baby and the oldest, a man in his 80s.

Dyer was supported Michael O’Dwyer, then Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, who became the target of Udham Singh’s revenge, as Dyer had died early in 1927. Dyer had boasted that he could have killed many more had his men not exhausted firearms and if he could have driven his armoured car inside the Bagh through a narrow lane with machine guns, as he was seeking to teach a lesson to the restive province.

Anand refers to former British Prime Minister David Cameron expressing remorse but not apologising at the site itself 94 years later. Her grandfather, Ishwar Das Anand, suffered survivor’s guilt in his short life of 40 years. He lost his sight as well.

The Amazon advertisement of the book (edited) says:

 “The dramatic true story of a celebrated young survivor of a 1919 British massacre in India, Udham Singh and his ferocious twenty-year campaign of revenge that made him a hero to hundreds of millions—and spawned a classic legend. (Presence of Udham Singh in Jallianwala Bagh has not been conclusively proven, the evidence is there that he was away in Africa at the time of happening).”

When Michael O’Dwyer ordered Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer to Amritsar, he wanted him to bring the ‘troublesome’ city to heel. O’Dwyer had become increasingly alarmed at the effect Gandhi was having on this province, as well as the demonstrations, strikes, and shows of Hindu-Muslim unity. All these things, to him, were a precursor to a second Indian revolt.

What happened next shocked the world. An unauthorised gathering in Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar in April 1919 became the focal point for O’Dwyer’s law enforcers. Dyer marched his soldiers into the walled garden, blocking the only exit. Then, without issuing any order to disperse, he instructed his men to open fire, turning their guns on the dense part of the crowd, filled with over a thousand unarmed men, women, and children. For 10 minutes, the soldiers continued firing, stopping only when they ran out of ammunition.

According to legend (yes, not a proven fact), 18-year-old Sikh orphan Udham Singh was injured in the attack and remained surrounded by the dead and dying until he was able to move the next morning. Then, he supposedly picked up a handful of blood-soaked earth, smeared it across his forehead, and vowed to kill the men responsible.

The truth, as the author has discovered, is more complex—but no less dramatic. The award winning journalist traced Singh’s journey through Africa, the United States, and across Europe until, in March 1940, he finally arrived in front of O’Dwyer himself in a London Hall, ready to shoot him down. The Patient Assassin shines a devastating light on one of history’s most horrific events, but it reads like a taut thriller and reveals the incredible but true story behind a legend that still endures today.” (Amazon ad ends here)

Many books have been written in many languages on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and Udham Singh, some of which have been quoted by Anand. She visited Sunam and met people known to Udham Singh still alive. Some of her narration could be contested on the factual level, as one researcher Navtej Singh earlier has authoritatively, with documentation, claimed that Udham Singh was not present in the Bagh on that day and that he was abroad for labour. But it is true that Anita Anand’s narrative style is more enchanting than the historical accounts of earlier authors.

Navtej Book-Udham Singh documents

History was earlier written in an academic manner as well as fiction, now a new more reader-friendly genre has developed, which is a combination of journalism, fictional narration and historical facts. History was considered a boring subject among school students earlier, maybe school textbooks are still boring, but new forms of history writing are becoming more attractive, but with a rider that the  narration and style should not lose the core message of historic tragedies. 

The Patient Assassin brings makes Udham Singh seem like a fictional hero, as well as a romantic, having many liaisons with women and leaving them without remorse, yet completely focused on his aim to shoot the murderer of Jallianwala Bagh.  He achieves this aim in well-planned plot and is proud of it. This aspect of Udham Singh is well brought out by Anand, a non-professional historian.

Rakesh Kumar-Udham Singh book title and documents

However, more important and authentic books on Udham Singh or Mohmmad Singh Azad, as he himself signed and presented in London’s trial court, are written by Navtej Singh, published by Punjabi University Patiala, and Rakesh Kumar, a retired engineer from Udham Singh’s own place, Sunam. The titles of those books are given in Anand’s book. A life size statue erected by the Indian government in 2018 at the entrance of Jallianwala Bagh Amritsar is also there, which does not match with the real photographs of Udham Singh, whose birth name was Sher Singh. He was an orphan and was brought up in Pingalwara School in Amritsar and later moved to Africa for labour work after his education in Amritsar was over. He travelled to many countries before shooting Michael O’Dwyer and getting executed on July 31, 1940 in London. His remains were brought to India 34 years later, in 1974.

The writer is a retired professor of JNU and an honorary adviser to the Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, Delhi.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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‘Sardar Udham’: a new film by Shoojit Sircar, a sensitive, brilliant and offbeat filmmaker, has been released on October 16, 2021. A totally unconventional, mysterious and fascinating subject, the character of Udham Singh has yet to be fully understood and deciphered so as to meaningfully portray and depict him in full glory with its inner life, contradictions, incredible journeys and infinite passion. Hence, the film is a brave move by a group of committed and progressive group of creative people with their roots in the National School of Drama in Delhi and the independent and progressive theatre movement of the past.

The film thereby enters a fantastic terrain of a dark and colourful life dedicated to the freedom of his country from the yoke of British colonialism – the protracted struggles, the ideals and magic of an irrepressible revolutionary who kept digging against all odds for two decades, and waited and strategized, to achieve his singular aim: revenge and justice for a massacre which shocked the entire nation in the early years of the freedom movement.

Sher Singh, Udham Singh, Frank Brazil, Ude Singh, Mohammad Singh Azad: Udham Singh lived a kaleidoscopic life camouflaged with multiple names and identities, imagined homelands and unknown geographies, celebrated rainbows and tragic tales. All his adult life he was chasing the relentless dream of freedom from British slavery and colonialism, with his steadfast belief in stoic revolutionary ideals, a committed secular and pluralist consciousness, with a vast network of committed and permanent comrades, even if many of them were ephemeral or just passing by. He travelled the world as a revolutionary with the Ghadar party, suffered and struggled, moved from abject and homeless poverty as a small boy to a sudden life of flamboyance, assumed new identities and changed names, camouflaged his face and character, smuggled revolutionaries across the American-Mexican and other borders, distributed arms and ammunition in India, spread propaganda in remote villages with leaflets and insurgent politics, and wowed to end the British rule in India.  

However, amidst a colourful, secretive and hard life, and long journeys to distant countries, engaged with multiple tasks for the revolution, for 21 years he was chasing only one singular dream, single-mindedly and with a stoic passion unimaginable to an ordinary human being: to avenge the massacre of Jallianwala Bagh at Amritsar on April 13, 1919. And to kill the ruthless, racist and remorseless man who ordered and presided over the massacre – Lieutenant Governor Michael ‘O Dwyer, the dictator and ruler of British Punjab.

On April 13, 1919, a huge and peaceful protest meeting was being held at Jallianwala Bagh. There were earlier announcements that all protests and meetings are banned. However, the organisers were sure that their peaceful protest, as a part of the non-violent freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi, will face no difficulty from the administration. No one had even remotely imagined what followed next and shook India and changed the course of its history.

Brigadier General Reginald ‘Rex’ Dyer was the man chosen by Michael O’Dwyer to execute his unprecedented orders. Dyer blocked the narrow exit as the peaceful protesters, unaware of what was to arrive, prepared for the meeting. There was also many ordinary folks who were simply spending their time, resting, eating, meeting, in the Bagh like most days. The firing was ordered almost immediately.

For the next few minutes, there was a hail of bullets and people fell, dead and injured, hit by the bullets. Children too were shot. Bodies piled up, the dead, the dying and the alive and wounded trapped in the catastrophe. The people groaned, screamed and cried but no one even got a drop of water to drink. All through the night those who were still breathing lived with the dead, slowly dying. No medical or other relief was allowed. No one was allowed to move out or move in. The injured waited in pain to die. This was a genocide which India will never forget – nor will the British.

Anita Anand has written a meticulously researched book on the life and times of Udham Singh, perhaps the only such book written on the revolutionary tracing his entire life from birth to death, from a small village in British Punjab to Amritsar, Basra, Baghdad, the Ugandan Railway Company, London, Mexico, America, Europe, and finally back to London for the final act of revenge: ‘The  Patient Assassin: A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge and the Raj (Simon and Schuster, 2019, pages: 373).  Indeed, Anita Anand’s own grandfather was at the Jallianwala Bagh moments before the killings started.

Indeed, in an era whereby history is being subverted, distorted and degraded by the forces of Hindutva and the ruling dispensation in Delhi who did not participate in the freedom movement and backed Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust, this book should be a prescribed text for students in colleges and university campuses across the country. The resurrection of Udham Singh is the resurrection of the very idea of revolution, and the infinite quest for freedom and justice.

Writes Anita Anand: ‘‘It happened so fast it did not feel real. Dyer gave the order. His second in command, a man named Captain Crampton, repeated it, shouting out for all to hear. Whistles rang out from the line of uniformed men. They took aim, squeezed their triggers and fired… Sergeant Andrews, who was standing right at the side of Dyer, described the scene as if it formed before him in slow motion:

The whole crowd seemed to sink to the ground, a flutter of white garments… I saw no sign for a rush towards the troops… After a bit, I noticed that Captain Briggs was drawing up his face as if in pain and was plucking at the General’s elbow… Dyer seemed quite calm and rational. Personally, I wasn’t afraid. I saw nothing to be afraid about. I’d no fear that the crowd would come at us.’’

Anita Anand writes, “Men and children fell clutching their faces and chests, tearing flesh and ripped organs, creating a red mist over the place where they lay. The sight of children having their limps shattered by bullets and their eyes shot out before him was too much for Amritsar’s superintendent of police, John Rehill, who had been asked to show Dyer’s men the shortest route to the garden. After a few moments witnessing the scene he could stand it no more and walked out of the Bagh as the soldiers continued to swivel and fire. He would be so traumatized by what he had seen that he would never be able to speak of it. He would become a rampant alcoholic in the years that followed.’’

‘‘No discrimination was made between targets. The son of the local doctor, a 13-year-old boy named Madan Mouhau, used to visit the garden every day to play with his friends. A bullet, aimed at his head, found its mark and shattered his skull.’’

The children who were later identified included: Sohan Lal, 9, Gian Chand, 15, Mohammed Shariff, 12, Abdulla Baksh, 15, Nand Lala, 12, Mohan Lal, 12, Harnam Singh, 15, Guru Brahman, 15, Nikmu Mal Girdhari, 14, Sunder Singh, 15, Sohan Singh, 15, Tara Singh, 15, Labhu Ram, 14, and Murli Mal, 12. There were at least 20,000 people at the Jallianwala Bagh that day, including many who were just hanging out, eating and resting, while scores of vendors sold Amritsari street food.

No one knows if Udham Singh was at the spot on that tragic day or not. No one really knows his whereabouts on that day. Like many aspects of his mysterious life, a huge expanse lies in twilight zones, hidden in strange shadows. Was he among the injured that day and did he survive the massacre – the answer remains shrouded in mystery.

Even Anita Anand, who painstakingly separates myth from the reality in this voluminous book, looking for both the shadows and the clarity of light, says that according to legend, Udham Singh was among the injured that day. He picked up a handful of blood-soaked earth and he vowed to avenge the massacre.

Indeed, more than 20 years later, he achieved his dream, as he waited, strategized, schemed, and worked for the liberation of his country. He killed Michael O’Dwyer, 70, even then an influential proponent of the colonial and racist apparatus, right on the dias, on March 13, 1940, in a packed meeting organized by the East India Association in London. Udham Singh had taken his revenge.

The British went into a tizzy. A big section of the ruling dispensation and its followers in the British society had felt no remorse or guilt at the massacre. No one was punished. It was therefore a shock coming after two decades.

British interrogators were also completely fooled by Udham Singh. He gave his name as Mohammad Singh Azad, a significant mix of multiple religious identities signifying both secularism and the spirit of revolutionary freedom. He gave the British multiple versions including one story that he had no intention to kill the man, it was merely an accident. The British just could not find out the micro details of his shadowy past, or his links with well-known revolutionaries, including inside the Ghadar party. He kept them going round and round with multiple, cooked up stories.

The assassination of Michael O’Dwyer created mass ripples across the British empire including in the freedom movement in India. The revolutionaries in India, especially, were thrilled and filled with a new fire of struggle. Even the non-violent movement led by Gandhi received a fillip. Udham Singh, suddenly, became a household name all over India, much like another legend from Punjab, Bhagat Singh.

Significantly, Udham Singh reportedly met or saw Bhagat Singh at the Mianwali Jail in Lahore. The man who eluded the police in several countries despite major intelligence tip-offs about his movement and underground activities across the globe, was finally caught by the police in Amritsar earlier, even while he dressed and posed as a well-off gentleman dressed in western clothes. The cops had no clue about his identity even then. They followed him across the lanes and grabbed him from behind. He was reportedly tortured and asked to confess.

Apparently, even then, he led the cops through multiple narratives, neither disclosing his real identity or his connections with the revolutionary underground movement. The cops just could not figure out who he really was or his real connections with revolutionaries in England, Europe, Mexico and America, or his other adventures. Finally, chasing a clue, they found a suitcase full of arms and ammunition.

Udham Singh landed in jail. Even in the jail he started his revolutionary campaign among the prisoners. He was beaten up brutally and sent into solitary confinement. However, he would return and continue to do what he wanted to do: anti-British propaganda and campaign to overthrow the British.

He was thereby sent to Mianwali Jail in Lahore where he reportedly met a man much younger to him, an intellectual, thinker, atheist and Marxist, who was soon after hanged: Bhagat Singh.

Bhagat Singh was reading Lenin moments before he was hanged, according to legend. Udham Singh was an illiterate who perhaps had never read Lenin or Marx, though he was actively engaged with the communists and Ghadar party in America and elsewhere. The hanging of young Bhagat Singh shook Udham Singh deep inside. Henceforth, the much older revolutionary would call the young martyr his one, only and ultimate Guru.

Udham Singh was born in a very poor family. His ailing mother died very young. His name was Sher Singh as a child. His brother was Sadhu Singh. His father, a poor worker, lived in abject poverty. Looking for work, he trekked with his little sons to Amritsar. Tired, hungry and weary, he died on the way.

Some wandering priests found the two little boys. They were taken to a distant relative. The relative took care of them despite his own economically weak condition. He then found a benevolent Sikh who ran an orphanage, and the big-hearted man happily adopted the two orphan children.

From an orphan, an unemployed young carpenter trying to work in the army and the Ugandan Railway Company in the Middle-East in the lowliest of ranks,  to a globe-trotter, smuggling arms, revolutionaries and anti-British literature, Udham Singh travelled across Europe and America with his connections with the international Ghadar movement. He did several jobs in America, lived both overground and underground, apparently married a woman with whom he travelled to multiple places changing jobs, while continuing with his revolutionary work. She would really never know that this man was destined for an obsessive goal which had driven him with one-dimensional zeal for so many years: Revenge. And justice for Jallianwala Bagh.

Udham Singh left his wife and comrades to come back to London to fulfill his mission. He made the supreme sacrifice in revenge of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. He was quickly hanged on July 31, 1940, at Bradbury in England.

He was quickly hanged because the British did not want a huge public trial whereby the gruesome narratives of the massacre would yet again be resurrected with meticulous details in the public domain. Nor did they want Udham Singh, alias, Mohammad Singh Azad, to spread his anti-British tirade in the trial, because by then he had already become an icon, a role model and a hero for the revolutionaries and freedom fighters in India and abroad. Hence, they hanged him without even a proper trial.

Earlier, on June 5, 1940, the jury gave unanimous verdict. Udham Singh was found guilty of murder.

According to Anita Anand, when asked by the judge if had anything to say, Udham Singh came out with a sheaf of papers, his last testimony. Predictably, the media did not report it.

He had written in those bundle of papers:

I am not afraid to die. I am proud to die. I want to help my native land, and I hope when I have gone that in my place will come others of my countrymen to drive the dirty dogs – when I am free of the country. I am standing before an English jury in an English court. You people go to India and when you come back you are given prizes and put into the House of Commons, when we come to England, we are put to death. In any case I do not care anything about it, but when you dirty dogs come to India –the intellectuals they call themselves, the rulers – they are of bastard blood caste, and they order machine guns to fire on the Indian students without hesitation. I have nothing against the public at all. I have more English friends in England than I have in India. I have nothing against the public. I have great sympathy with the workers of England, but I am against the dirty British government. Your people are suffering the same as I am suffering through those dirty dogs and mad beasts – killing, mutilating and destroying. We know what is going on in India… hundreds of thousands of people being killed by your dirty dogs….

‘‘The judge ordered prison officers to drag him from the dock. As he was pulled away, Udham was heard to scream: ‘You people are dirty. You don’t want to hear from us what you are doing in India, Beasts. Beasts. Beasts. England, England, down with imperialism, down with the dirty dogs…’ His distant voice was heard shouting: Inquilab! Inquilab! Inquilab! Revolution! Revolution! Revolution!…’’

Udham Singh’s remains are buried in Jallianwala Bagh at Amritsar. His statue holding a fistful of blood-soaked earth has been erected outside the site of the massacre. His relentless quest for justice and revenge thereby remains etched across time and space in the history of resistance, struggle and liberation. He was truly one of the greatest and bravest of revolutionaries and martyrs in the history of all revolutions. Contemporary India needs not only the resurrection of his memory and life and times as a tribute to his greatness, it needs him as an eternal icon of inspiration and idealism.

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It was 80 years ago (July 31, 1940) Udham Singh died on the gallows in the Pentonville prison of London. Through the contemporary police documents, we come to know that before reaching London he had been to Mesopotamia, Kenya, Uganda, USA, and USSR, all in quest of Indian revolutionaries and ammunition. It was on reaching British shores that he took the name of MOHAMMAD SINGH AZAD. In fact he had secured a passport with this name. He even attempted to organise fellow English labourers. Udham Singh’s choice of the name as MOHAMMAD SINGH AZAD was not a fluke. He chose it to underline the cardinal fact that India could be liberated only by the collective and united efforts of all Indians. There is a reasonable apprehension that if Udham Singh returns to India with this name today he may be lynched.

The British masters wanted to censure any news about his trial so that Udham Singh’s revolutionary deeds were kept hidden in India. The day his trial started in London the Governor General in New Delhi sent a telegram to the Secretary of State.. It read:

“We understand that during the trial the accused intends to pose as a martyr and indulge in heroics. We would be glad if steps are taken to secure that press in England do not report substantially and that Reuters only carry as brief and unsensational a summary as possible.”

This telegram showed that the Britishers, glorified as great believers in the fair-play and rule of law, germane to democracy, were masters in manipulating the fourth estate.

Explaining the reason behind the killing of one of the main perpetrators of Jallianwala Bagh massacre Udham Singh made the following statement.

“I did it because… he deserved it. He… wanted to crush the spirit of my people, so I have crushed him. For full 21 years, I have been trying to wreak vengeance. I am happy I have done the job. I am not scared of death. I am dying for my country.”

He continued,

“I do not care about the sentence of death…I am dying for a purpose…We are suffering from the British Empire…I am proud to die to free my native land and I hope that when I am gone…in my place will come thousands of my countrymen to drive you dirty dogs out; to free my country…you will be cleansed out of India. And your British imperialism will be smashed…I have nothing against the English people at all…I have great sympathy with the workers of England. I am against the imperialist government. DOWN WITH BRITISH IMPERIALISM!”

These words of MOHAMMAD SINGH AZAD rang out through a London courtroom on March 13, 1940, where he was produced immediately after killing Michael O’Dyer, the Lt. Governor of Punjab, the architect of the Jallianwala massacre who ordered the crackdown. MOHAMMAD SINGH AZAD was none other than Udham Singh. Born in a Dalit Sikh family and brought up in an orphanage, Udham Singh was present in the public meeting at Amritsar on the fateful bloody Baisakhi day of 1919.

Having fallen under a heap of dead bodies, Udham Singh had miraculously survived the carnage. But so deep was the hatred evoked by the 20-year old vowed not to rest until he had avenged the killing of the innocent hundreds. He achieved his target 21 years later. And ‘Mohammad Singh Azad’-the name he adopted-underscored the fact that the overthrow of the British rule was impossible without the unity of the Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh populace of the land. Today this call is more relevant when Hindutva rulers are bent upon dividing the Indian nation on the basis of religion.

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photo courtesy: PTI

हालांकि कांग्रेस सरकार की ओर से किया गया यह वादा पूरा नहीं सका क्योंकि राज्य में कांग्रेस पार्टी करीब 10 साल से सत्ता से बाहर है। उधम सिंह की बड़ी बहन आस कौर के प्रपौत्र जग्गा सिंह द्वारा शिरोमणि अकाली दल और भाजपा सरकार से बार..बार अपील किए जाने का अभी कोई परिणाम नहीं निकला है।

भाषा की खबर के अनुसार,  भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम के इतिहास में 13 अप्रैल 1919 को अमृतसर के जलियांवाला बाग में खूनी दिवस के दौरान उधम सिंह वहां उपस्थित थे। बाद में करीब 21 साल बाद उन्होंने लंदन में माइकल ओ ड्वायर की हत्या कर इस नरसंहार का बदला लिया था। जलियांवाला बाग में कत्लेआम के समय माइकल ओ ड्वायर ही पंजाब का गवर्नर था। बाद में उधम सिंह को हत्या के आरोप में लंदन में फांसी दे दी गयी थी।

जग्गा सिंह इस समय अपने परिवार के छह सदस्यों के साथ बेहद गरीबी में जीवन गुजार रहे हैं। इसके अलावा उन्हें 60 वर्षीय पिता जीत सिंह की देखभाल भी करनी पड़ती है। वह एक दिहाड़ी मजदूर हैं।

तीस वर्षीय जग्गा सिंह दसवीं तक पढ़े हैं और 2,500 रपये मासिक की तनख्वाह पर संगूर की एक कपड़ा दुकान में काम करते हैं। उन्हें उम्मीद है कि प्रधानमंत्री नरेन्द्र मोदी और गृहमंत्री राजनाथ सिंह उनके पत्रों पर ध्यान देंगे।

सिंह अब इस कड़ाके की और धुंध भरी सर्दी में अपने विरोध को यहां जंतर मंतर तक ले आए हैं। उन्हें उम्मीद है कि अब राष्ट्रीय राजधानी में सत्ता के गलियारों में उनकी आवाज जरूर सुनी जाएगी। हालांकि अभी तक केन्द्र में सत्तारूढ़ भाजपा अथवा पंजाब में सत्तारूढ़ शिअद-भाजपा से उन्हें कोई ठोस आश्वासन नहीं मिला है ।
 

The post उधम सिंह के परपोते को चपरासी की नौकरी पाने के लिए करना पड़ रहा है संघर्ष appeared first on SabrangIndia.

हालांकि कांग्रेस सरकार की ओर से किया गया यह वादा पूरा नहीं सका क्योंकि राज्य में कांग्रेस पार्टी करीब 10 साल से सत्ता से बाहर है। उधम सिंह की बड़ी बहन आस कौर के प्रपौत्र जग्गा सिंह द्वारा शिरोमणि अकाली दल और भाजपा सरकार से बार..बार अपील किए जाने का अभी कोई परिणाम नहीं निकला है।

भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम के इतिहास में 13 अप्रैल 1919 को अमृतसर के जलियांवाला बाग में खूनी दिवस के दौरान उधम सिंह वहां उपस्थित थे। बाद में करीब 21 साल बाद उन्होंने लंदन में माइकल ओ ड्वायर की हत्या कर इस नरसंहार का बदला लिया था। जलियांवाला बाग में कत्लेआम के समय माइकल ओ ड्वायर ही पंजाब का गवर्नर था ।

बाद में उधम सिंह को हत्या के आरोप में लंदन में फांसी दे दी गयी थी।

जग्गा सिंह इस समय अपने परिवार के छह सदस्यों के साथ बेहद गरीबी में जीवन गुजार रहे हैं। इसके अलावा उन्हें 60 वर्षीय पिता जीत सिंह की देखभाल भी करनी पड़ती है। वह एक दिहाड़ी मजदूर हैं।

तीस वर्षीय जग्गा सिंह दसवीं तक पढ़े हैं और 2,500 रपये मासिक की तनख्वाह पर संगूर की एक कपड़ा दुकान में काम करते हैं। उन्हें उम्मीद है कि प्रधानमंत्री नरेन्द्र मोदी और गृहमंत्री राजनाथ सिंह उनके पत्रों पर ध्यान देंगे।

सिंह अब इस कड़ाके की और धुंध भरी सर्दी में अपने विरोध को यहां जंतर मंतर तक ले आए हैं। उन्हें उम्मीद है कि अब राष्ट्रीय राजधानी में सत्ता के गलियारों में उनकी आवाज जरूर सुनी जाएगी।

हालांकि अभी तक केन्द्र में सत्तारूढ़ भाजपा अथवा पंजाब में सत्तारूढ़ शिअद-भाजपा से उन्हें कोई ठोस आश्वासन नहीं मिला है ।

The post शहीद उधम सिंह का प्रपौत्र चपरासी की नौकरी के लिए धरने पर appeared first on SabrangIndia.