Udham Singh – Life of a Hero, Peppered With History, Fiction, Thrill

Relook at a Book: Udham Singh – Life of a Hero, Peppered With History, Fiction, Thrill

Chaman Lal | 31 Jul 2022

• Books
• Politics
• India

The author, an award-winning journalist, uses an interesting narrative style to celebrate the life of Jalianwala Bagh massacre’s revenge taker, who was executed on July 31, 1940.

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.

Get the latest reports & analysis with people's perspective on Protests, movements & deep analytical videos, discussions of the current affairs in your Telegram app. Subscribe to NewsClick's Telegram channel & get Real-Time updates on stories, as they get published on our website.

SUBSCRIBE NEWSCLICK ON TELEGRAM

• Udham Singh
• General Dyer
• Jallianwala Bagh

RELATED STORIES

INTACH Submits Report to PM Modi Pointing Out Lapses in Jallianwala Bagh Facelift

Relook at a Book: The Blood Never Dried: A People’s History of the British Empire

Project ‘Erase Nehru’ Critical to BJP’s Hindu Rashtra Plans

‘Insult to Martyrs’: Modi Govt’s Renovation of Jallianwala Bagh Draws Sharp Criticism

Bhagwati Charan Vohra: Intellectual Giant of Indian Revolutionaries

No Mere Martyr: Chandra Shekhar Azad Had No Truck With ‘Kaley Angrez’

100 Years of Jalianwala Bagh: From Irfan Habib’s Lens

100 Years After Jallianwala Bagh, Is Dyerism Emerging in India?

Newsclick Daily Round-up Ep 84:100 Years of Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

Khooni Vaisakhi: A Poem from the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre 1919

Seven That Were Hanged questions Death Penalty-favourite of Bhagat Singh

https://www.newsclick.in/relook-book-andreyev-seven-hanged-questions-rationale-death-penalty

Relook at a Book: Andreyev’s ‘Seven That Were Hanged’ Questions the Rationale of Death Penalty

Chaman Lal | 22 Jul 2022

• Books
• Politics
• India
• International

The author underlines the futility of capital punishment in a world that is getting bloodier by the day.

Andreyev, Leonid, Seven that were Hanged, (Novella) first publication in Russian in 1891, many English translations, pages 80+

This is one of the favourite books of Bhagat Singh and his fellow revolutionaries. In many memoirs regarding the revolutionaries, there is reference to this book among the few favourites they read and discussed. The writer of this novella was Russian writer Leonid Andreyev, a friend of author Maxim Gorki, who encouraged him to concentrate on writing after he noticed his story published in 1898.

Andreyev was born in 1871 and worked as a police court reporter. Later, he turned out to be a celebrity playwright. Out of the 25 plays he wrote, his most famous one was He Who Gets Slapped. During the 1905 Russian Revolution, he defended democratic values. He also welcomed the February 1917 Russian democratic revolution, but was not comfortable with the Bolshevik October revolution later that year. He shifted to Finland, where he died in 1919.

Apart from plays, Andreyev also wrote fiction and his 1908 novella, Seven that were Hanged, is considered among his major works. This novella has many translations in English -- the first was in 1909 by Herman Bernstein, another by Thomas Seltzer in 1925, the latest one was in 2016 by Anthony Briggs. It was adapted into a play as well as a film.

Andreyev wrote a brief introduction to the novella’s first English translation –“Literature, which I have the honor to serve, is dear to me just because the noblest task it sets before itself is that of wiping out boundaries and distances.” He mentions the Russian state’s attitude to literature in those days:

‘I have treated ruling and slaughtering Russia with restraint and mildness may best be gathered from the fact that the Russian censor has permitted my book to circulate. This is sufficient evidence when we recall how many books, brochures and newspapers have found eternal rest in the peaceful shade of the police stations, where they have risen to the patient sky in the smoke and flame of bonfires.’

But the purpose of this novella is to question death penalty or capital punishment, which is relevant even today. The novelist says: ‘My task was to point out the horror and the iniquity of capital punishment under any circumstances. The horror of capital punishment is great when it falls to the lot of courageous and honest people whose only guilt is their excess of love and the sense of righteousness-in such instances, conscience revolts. But the rope is still more horrible when it forms the noose around the necks of weak and ignorant people.’

The novella is the story of the execution of five revolutionaries and two ordinary criminals, but the author’s sympathy lies more with the ordinary murderers, because he feels that the revolutionaries, with their strong will and ideas, can face death boldly, but same can turn ordinary criminals to insanity!

The 73-page novella is divided into 11 small chapters and begins with first chapter under the title- ‘At One O’ clock, Your Excellency!’ The Czarist minister is reported by the chief of his guards that exactly at one o’ clock next afternoon, the revolutionaries will attack him. The minister is surprised at this information, as he himself had come to know of this just hours ago. The description of the whole night spent awake by the minister, the imagination of his fears and anxieties, have been depicted psychologically.

The story moves to the second chapter, ‘Condemned to be Hanged’ with the arrest of the four revolutionaries at the gate of minister’s house. While the three men and a woman are arrested with bombs and weapons at the gate, another woman is also arrested from the place where the conspiracy to kill the minister was hatched. They all were very young, the eldest was a 28-year-old man and the youngest was a 19-year-old woman. The trial was held swiftly in the fortress, they were imprisoned and condemned to death. They were calm, very serious and thoughtful. Their contempt for the judges was so intense during the trial that they did not even feign cheerfulness or smile. Bhagat Singh and the other revolutionaries’ conduct during their trials was perhaps impacted by their readings of such novels.

Sergey Golovin, son of an ex-officer was the main character among the revolutionaries. The young pale girl, known by the name Musya, was among two women. Tanya Kovalchuk was the other woman, a motherly figure, who was ready to sacrifice her life for others. Werner was the bitterest of all and Vasily Kashirin most terrified of death.

The two other prisoners condemned to death were Ivan Yansen, a farm hand, who had killed his master and tried to rape his daughter and Tsiganok Golubets, a Russian bandit, a Tatarian, proud of his act of murder of three persons and jovial about the sentence.

One chapter each is dedicated to describing the mental state all the seven persons are going through. Golovin and Tanya are not afraid of death and try to help others to come to terms with the sentence. Musya also tries to provide succor to other criminals who are sentenced to death. The most pitiable condition is of Yansen who, while being led to the gallows, is begging to be allowed to live. Golovin’s father prepares his wife not to show any sorrow or fear before his son and keeps his and his own and his son’s pride intact, while meeting him in prison. Women even kiss ordinary non-political criminals to give them a sense of human warmth. Sergey keeps exercising to keep fit all through. There is lot of philosophising and psychoanlaysis of the characters.

In the final 11th chapter, all the seven are -’On the way to Scaffold’. They are taken in vehicles to a far off location where the gallows are in a snow-filled region. They are asked to walk in twos, holding hands and everyone’s state of mind is depicted by the author in a somewhat dramatic manner.

The novella ends with this last paragraph:

“The sun was rising over the sea.

The bodies were placed in a box. Then they were taken away. With stretched necks, with bulging eyes, with blue, swollen tongues, looking like some unknown, terrible flowers between the lips, which were covered with bloody foam-the bodies were hurried back along the same road by which they had come-alive. And the spring snow was just as soft and fresh; the spring air was just as strong and fragrant. And on the snow lay Sergey’s black rubber-shoe, wet, trampled underfoot.

Thus, did men greet the rising sun.’

Bhagat Singh and his revolutionary comrades had read such literature to strengthen their resolve to face death bravely, but author had written to underline the futility of capital punishment, which colonial and oppressive rulers like the Russian Czar could never understand. Nor is it understood today after more than hundred years of publication of such humanist literature.

Mahatma Gandhi and all other pacifist activists and philosophers have been against capital punishment. Mutual killings by human beings are not a new phenomenon. From the onset of human civilisation, which has grown out of Darwinian theory of evolution, no living being other than humans kills other beings, even the most feared ones, such as snakes, lions etc. It is to satisfy their hunger that stronger animals kill weaker ones.

In the earlier phase of human civilisation, the human race was doing the same, though mostly killing animals to eat. This is also true during wars, when many a times human beings had to eat human flesh to survive. Some cruel colonial masters also forced prisoners to eat human flesh. It is with the development of civilisation and culture, that human societies have organised themselves on certain ‘social contract’ created out of concepts like democracy etc. Even today, in many Arabian countries ‘blood money’ is an accepted form of justice for murder!

There are more than a hundred countries in the world that have done away with capital punishment. India is not one among these, yet some form of demand and urgency exists in India, too. Ironically, the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi are publicised in India and abroad, but his principled opposition to capital punishment is not given much importance. Defending Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries from execution, Mahatma Gandhi did whatever he could, but ironically, he did not emphasise upon his own basic principle of being against capital punishment. Had he done so, he would not have been subjected to such scrutiny as he is now in context of the revolutionaries’ execution.

There are two extremes in the world today. On the one side, there are blood seekers of the religious fundamentalist variety, who want to lynch anyone who speaks against their professed religion. India has lately among such nations. Another perspective was seen in the case of even the worst criminals, like Andres Breivik in Norway who killed more than 70 children playing in a park. The Norwegian people, despite this most brutal Nazi kind of crime, did not make cat calls for his lynching or fansi do, fansi do (hang him).

Stable societies treat such crimes as aberrations. Even as Sweden Prime Minister Olof Palme was killed inside a theatre while watching film with his wife like any other citizen without security, the Swedish society did not resort to the kind of madness that Indian society has resorted to, providing any petty politician police security in such a visible and annoying form.

In jurisprudence, there are theories of retribution and deterrence as opposed to reformative and rehabilitative theories. Bhagat Singh in his jail notebook had taken detailed notes of these theories. He was like other humanist philosophers of the world, who were in favour of reformative and rehabilitative justice system and considered the British colonial system to be retributive jurisprudence.

Seven that were Hanged once again reminds the human society of the relevance of building a society where there is no capital punishment, as in the roots of any crime, lie a social set-up that is exploitative and oppressive. To counter it, the task of society is to build a system based on equality, fraternity and justice -- a far looking dream today despite many social revolutions!

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

Victor Hugo's last Novel-Ninety Three and world revolutionaries

Hugo, Victor, Ninety-Three, a novel, first French original edition 1874

https://www.newsclick.in/relook-book-victor-hugo-last-novel-influenced-revolutionaries

•       Bhagat Singh was a voracious reader of books and the variety of books he read varied from Political economy to literature. Though Victor Hugo is a hugely known, rather a classic writer of 19^th century, but he is known more for his novel Les Misérables. Victor Hugo, who lived a rich and tumultuous life of 83 years, is considered one of the most respected writers of not only France, but of Europe as a whole. Nineteenth century was a century of enlightenment in Europe after French revolution of 1793, giving rise to the slogan of Equality, Fraternity and Liberty, which later became part of French constitution and even UNO motto.
•       Bhagat Singh had read Les Misérables also, but on this novel Ninety-Three, he and Sukhdev had discussions. Along with Leonid Andreyev novel Seven that were Hanged their personalities as revolutionaries were shaped to some extent on the lives of revolutionaries in these two novels in France and Russia, at least these novels had left deep impression on them.
•      For France, Victor Hugo as a writer, was one of the greatest. France gives more respect to its writers than its political leaders. As once one of most powerful President of France Charles de Gaulle had famously said about Jean Paul Sartre that Sartre is France and I can not arrest France. That time Sartre had come on roads to support France’s rebellious students in 1968. Victor Hugo wrote much in terms of quantity, but is known for quality of his works as well. Apart from ten books of fiction, he wrote more than fifty more books, which include poetry, plays, prose and political writings. His other famous novel is Hunchback of the Notre Dame. Very few personalities of the world have got so much space on Wikipedia, as Victor Hugo has got. Victor Hugo is considered as foremost writer of Romantic movement in literature.
•      Ninety-Three was his last writing published in 1874 at the age of 72 years. He died in 1885 at the age of 83 years. Victor Hugo was not only a writer; he was active in political life of France and took part in its revolutionary activities as well. Hugo had become member of prestigious French Academy of Letters of France in 1841 and entered Upper Chamber of Parliament in 1845, nominated by then King. Later he was elected to Second Republic’s National Assembly like lower chamber in 1848, as a conservative. He broke from Conservatives in 1849 and became votary of abolition of death sentence. He spoke in favour of ending misery of the poor people and for universal suffrage. He was also in favour of free education for all children. In 1851, when Napoleon III seized the power, Hugo went into exile in 1855 and returned to France in 1870 only, after Napoleon III was deposed. Although like Charles Dickens in England, Victor Hugo also initially supported French colonialism of Africa as ‘civilizing mission’. But later he became strong votary of abolishing slavery in the Caribbean and also of decolonising Africa. He famously said in 1862-‘Only one slave on Earth is enough to dishonor the freedom of all men. So, the abolition of slavery is, at this hour, the supreme goal of the thinkers’

— Victor Hugo, 17 January 1862

•    During Paris Commune in France from 18^th March 1871 to 27^th May, he was in Brussels, he was critical of atrocities on ‘both sides.’ He freed himself from the impact of religion and declared himself to be Free Thinker, in the tradition of Voltaire, a progressive trend in those times. His rationalism had offended some people and he had faced slogans like Burn Hugo. Despite his many contradictions, he had become a hero for France by 1870, he had remained member of National Assembly again and when he died, France mourned his death as a national hero. In many cities of France, lanes or areas are named after him.
•       Interesting part of his last novel Ninety-Three is that on one side ‘Reds’ like Joseph Stalin and Bhagat Singh had read and appreciated it. On the other side ‘Whites’ like iconic novelist of individualism Ayan Rand also admired this novel and even wrote an introduction to one of its English translations. 
•    The novel was written on 1793 French revolution but in the shadow of Paris Commune of 1871, as the novel was published in 1874. It is long novel of nearly 350 pages and not very simple narration or storytelling. Ninety-Three (Quatrevingt-treize) is the last novel by Victor Hugo. The novel concerns the Revolt in the Vendée and Chouannerie – the counter-revolutionary revolts in 1793 during the French Revolution. It is divided into three parts, but not connected chronologically; each part tells a different story, offering a different view of historical general events. The action mainly takes place in Brittany and in Paris. The civil war in France had started in November 1792 and the murders which started were so terrible that they raised one’s hair on head. A troop of "Blues" (soldiers of the French Republic) encounter in the bocage Michelle Fléchard, a peasant woman, and her three young children, who are fleeing from the conflict. She explains that her husband and parents have been killed in the peasant revolt that started the insurrection. The troop's commander, Sergeant Radoub, convinces them to look after the family.
•       Meanwhile, at sea, a group of Royalist "Whites" are planning to land the Marquis de Lantenac, a Breton aristocrat whose leadership could transform the fortunes of the rebellion. While at sea, a sailor fails to properly secure his cannon, which rolls out of control and damages the ship. The sailor risks his life to secure the cannon and save their ship. Lantenac awards the man a medal for his bravery and then executes him (without trial) for failing in his duty. Their corvette is spotted by ships of the Republic. Lantenac slips away in a boat with one supporter, Halmalo, the brother of the executed sailor, and the corvette distracts the Republican ships by provoking a battle the damaged ship cannot win.
•           Lantenac is hunted by the Blues, but is protected by a local beggar, to whom he gave alms in the past. He meets up with his supporters, and they immediately launch an attack on the Blues. Part of the troop with the family is captured. Lantenac orders them all to be shot, including Michelle. He takes the children with him as hostages. The beggar finds the bodies, and discovers that Michelle is still alive. He nurses her back to health.
•        antenac's ruthless methods have turned the revolt into a major threat to the Republic. In Paris, Danton, Robespierre and Marat argue about the threat, while also sniping at each other. They promulgate a decree that all rebels and anyone who helps them will be executed. Cimourdain, a committed revolutionary and former priest, is deputed to carry out their orders in Brittany. He is also told to keep an eye on Gauvain, the commander of the Republican troops there, who is related to Lantenac and thought to be too lenient to rebels. Unknown to the revolutionary leaders, Cimourdain was Gauvain's childhood tutor, and thinks of him as a son.
•      Meanwhile, Michelle has recovered and goes in search of her children. She wanders aimlessly, but eventually hears that they are being held hostage in Lantenac's castle. At the castle Sergeant Radoub, fighting with the besiegers, spots the children. He persuades Gauvain to let him lead an assault. He manages to break through the defences and kill several rebels, but with Halmalo's aid, Lantenac and a few survivors escape through a secret passage after setting fire to the building. As the fire takes hold, Michelle arrives, and sees that her children are trapped. Her hysterical cries of despair are heard by Lantenac. Struck with guilt, he returns through the passage to the castle and rescues the children, helped by Radoub. He then gives himself up. Lantenac, who throughout had been most ruthless and without any sense of humanity in him, shows a kind of some human kindness for children, whom he had kept as hostages, makes revolutionary Gauvain a bit soft towards him. Lantenac fate was certain, he was going to be guillotined after a trial chaired by former priest Cimourdain. Gauvain out of his idealist humanism, releases Lantenac and takes his place in prison by changing clothes with him. Next morning at the time of trial, instead of Lantenac, it is their own revolutionary comrade Gauvain, who faces trial, which creates consternation among the jury. Radaub is part of jury headed by Cimourdain, who treats Gauvain as his son, as he had tutored him as a child. Out of three member judges panel Radaub acquits Gauvain seeing his past sincere and unfailing revolutionary record. Cimourdin sides with other judge to convict Gauvain and before Gauvain has to guillotined next morning, goes and meets him in prison during his last night. Next morning Gauvain is guillotined and at the same time a shot is heard, Cimourdined had shot himself with pistol. The novel ends there.
•     Joseph Stalin had read the novel during his seminary in Georgia and was deeply impacted by the character of Cimourdin. Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev had discussion on this novel. Sukhdev had no sympathy for Cimourdin committing suicide, he was against the very idea of suicide as a revolutionary. However, after being arrested and in jail, Sukhdev himself thought of suicide instead of spending whole life behind jail walls. Sukhdev could not sustain long hunger strike as Bhagat Singh and BK Dutt and many other comrades had observed. The two letters exchange between Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev, one outside jail and second inside jail throws light on the philosophical attitude towards the concepts of Love and Suicide. Bhagat Singh was quite harsh in criticism of Sukhdev about the idea of committing suicide and he tells him clearly that inside and outside jail, both had changed positions. Bhagat Singh argued that revolutionaries had to remain prepared for long sufferings inside and outside jail without ever thinking of suicide, though Bhagat Singh like Stalin understood Cimourdin’s dilemma, who could perform his duty as revolutionary to get his son convicted and guillotined, but then out of paternal emotions shot himself dead.
•         This novel had influenced a lot those Indian revolutionaries, who were fond of and read literature, like the other revolutionaries of the world. Though not much discussed as literary classic, yet ninety-three stands apart among its readership of revolutionaries across the world. That keeps the novel’s socio-political relevance live even after nearly 150 years after its publication!
•    The novel has been digitized under Gutenberg project and available free on Internet Archives.