Madan Lal Dhingra ( September 18, 1883 - August 17, 1909 ) was an Indian revolutionary, who was hanged to death on August 17, 1909 at the age of 24, for killing British official Curzon Wyllie. An unwavering patriot, he was disowned by his family for the anti-British leanings, so much so that even after his death his family refused to take his body. He was considered the first martyr outside India.
Madan Lal Dhingra was born on September 18, 1883 in Amritsar, Punjab in an educated and affluent Hindu Punjabi Khatri family. His father Dr. Ditta Mal Dhingra, was a civil surgeon and had seven sons and one daughter. All seven sons including Dhingra studied abroad. Dhingra studied at Amritsar in Intermediate College until 1900. He went to Lahore to study at the Government College. Here he was influenced by the incipient nationalist movement, which at the time was seeking Home Rule rather than independence. Dhingra was especially troubled by the poverty of India. He studied the literature concerning the causes of Indian poverty and famines extensively, and felt that key issues in seeking solutions to these problems lay in Swaraj ( self government ) and the Swadeshi Movement.
Dhingra embraced with particular fervour the Swadeshi Movement, which aimed to increase India’s self sufficiency by encouraging Indian industry and entrepreneurship, and boycotting British and other foreign goods. He found that industrial and financial policies of colonial government were designed to suppress local industry and favour the purchase of British imports, which he felt was a major reason for the lack of economic development in India. In 1904, as a student of Master of Arts program, Dhingra led a student protest against the principle’s order to have a college Blazer made of cloth imported from Britain. He was expelled from the college for this. After following his expulsion he took a job as a Clerk at Kalka and also did odd jobs in Bombay. His elder brother, Dr. Bihari Lal, compeled him to go to Britain to continue his higher education in 1906 at University College London to study Mechanical Engineering.
He joined and had a membership of Abhinav Bharat Mandal founded by Sawarkar and his brother Ganesh. Several weeks before assassination of Curzon Wyllie, Dhingra had tried to kill Lord Curzon ( former Viceroy of India ) and Lieutenant-Governor of East Bengal Bampfylde Fuller. On the evening of July 1, 1909, Dhingra with a large number of Indians and Englishmen had gathered to attend the meeting hosted by the Indian National Association at Imperial Institute. When Curzon Wyllie, secretory of the state for India, was leaving the hall with his wife, Dhingra forced five shots right at his face. Dhingra was arrested on the spot by the police. Dhingra was tried in the Old Balley on July 23, 1909. In the court he made the statement as mentioned below:
"No English law court has got any authority to arrest and detain me in prison, or pass sentence death on me. Englishmen fight against the Germans if they were to occupy England. I hold the English people responsible for the murder of 80 million of the Indian people in the last 50 years, and they also responsible for taking away 100,000,000 pounds every year from India to England. I also hold responsible for the hanging and deportation of my patriotic countrymen who did jut the same as the English people doing the same for their country from Germans. As Germans has no right to occupy England, so the English people have no right to occupy India. I put forward this statement to show the justice of my cause to the outside world, and especially to our sympathizers in America and Germany."
He stated that his assassination was done in the name of Indian Independence and that his actions were motivated by patriotism. "I am proud to have the honour of laying down my life for my country. But remember, we shall have our own time in the days to come." Madan Lal Dhingra was hanged on August 17, 1909 at Pentoville Prison. The last words from gallows were: "My only prayer to God is that I may be re-born of the same mother and I may re-die in the same sacred cause till the cause is successful. Vande Mataram. A son like myself has nothing else to offer the mother but his own blood."
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