Shaheed Udham Singh

01Orphanage and Jallianwala

Udham Singh, first named Sher Singh, was born at Sunam in Sangrur district. He lost both parents young and was brought up in the Central Khalsa Orphanage at Putlighar, Amritsar. On 13 April 1919, Baisakhi day, General Dyer’s troops fired into the crowd in Jallianwala Bagh, killing hundreds. Sir Michael O’Dwyer, the Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab, defended the firing. Udham Singh drifted through East Africa and America, joined the Ghadar circle, was jailed in India for keeping arms from 1927 to 1931, and later reached England.

02Caxton Hall

On 13 March 1940 O’Dwyer spoke at a meeting of the East India Association and the Royal Central Asian Society at Caxton Hall, Westminster. When it ended, Udham Singh drew a revolver hidden in a book and shot him dead, wounding others on the platform. He made no attempt to run. At his trial he gave his name as Ram Mohammad Singh Azad, joining the names of India’s three faiths. He was hanged at Pentonville prison on 31 July 1940. In 1974 his remains were brought home, and his ashes were immersed in the Sutlej and kept at Jallianwala Bagh and Sunam.

Place · Founded by Guru Ram Das, c. 1577AmritsarThe city of the pool of nectar, founded by the fourth Sikh Guru around the tank in which the Harmandir Sahib stands. Twice blown up by Ahmad Shah Abdali and twice rebuilt, it is the heart of the Sikh faith, the Dharmic sibling of the Hindus.Read →