Martyrdom centenary of Madan Lal Dhingra-17th August, 2009

Madan lal Dhingra is perhaps first Indian freedom fighter, who was executed in London on 17th August 1909. But it is strange that no one in public or Govt. has paid any attention to commemorate the event. Brief life sketch of Madan Lal Dhingra is being given here to draw attention towards his martyrdom, a century ago, for the freedom of the country.
Madan Lal Dhingra was born on 18th February 1883 in Amritsar in a very rich family. His father Dr. Ditta Mal retired as Govt. Civil surgeon and had twenty one houses in katra Sher Singh and six bunglaws on G.T.Road.Dr. Ditta Mal had shifted from his village Sahiwal in Sargodha district, now in Pakistan in 1850 and he held 10 bigha land and a haveli in his ancestral village. He was Rai Saheb title holder from British Govt., he had six buggies and his car ran on Amritsar roads, the first Indian to have this privilege in the city. He had seven sons and one daughter. Three of his sons were trained medical doctors and three were Barristers-Bar at Law. One of his brother Dr. Bihari lal Dhingra was notorious as Prime Minister of Jind state for his cruelties on people. It was in such family that a rebellious son was born, who did physical labour while doing his Bsc from Lahore, where he got influenced by Pagdi sambhal Jatta movement of Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh, uncle of Bhagat Singh. Later he went to England for higher studies on a ship, reaching London in two months from Bombay. He took admission in engineering course and became involved in Indian freedom struggle. He was influenced by Shyam ji Krishan Verma and Veer Savarkar. While Veer Savarkar, who came to England on a scholarship established by Shyam ji Krishan Verma, also reached in 1906, same year Dhingra reached. Both were of same age group, but Savarkar was inclined to Hindutva ideology. Shyamji Krishan Verma was more liberal and rational in his views, but he had to leave for Paris as British Govt. was harassing him a lot. Madan Lal Dhingra was now under the spell of Savarkar and it was he, who inspired him to shoot Curzon Wyle, who was notorious for using Indians to serve as informers for Britishers in England. Pistol for this purpose was also provided by Savarkar to Dhingra, who shot Wyle dead in June end 1909 and after one and a half month trial, he was executed on 17th August 1909 at the age of 26years plus.
Bhagat Singh wrote about Madan Lal Dhingra in his sketches about revolutionary freedom fighters.It is the duty of the nation at both Govt. and peoples level to commemorate the event in befitting manner. National Programme implementation committee to implement Govt. policies on national anniversaries should come out with detailed plans in this regard, while people’s organizations should chalk out their own commemorative programmes in this regard. Dhingra was perhaps first Indian freedom fighter to be executed on British soil,31 years later Udham Singh followed the same path an was executed on 31st July 1940 under almost similar circumstances.