“There’s light even in the darkest places”
In a heavily British-supportive Punjabi family headed by Dr. Ditta Mal Dhingra, a boy was born on 18 September 1883. As history knows him today, his name was Madan Lal Dhingra. He was the sixth child in the family out of 7 boys and 1 girl. His father was a civil surgeon; 2 of his brothers were doctors and 2 more were barristers. Born in an upper-middle-class and influential family, Madan could have led a life of luxury and comfort. However, destiny had chosen him for a far greater purpose, ‘To Serve his Motherland!’
He studied in Amritsar at MB Intermediate College until 1900 and then went to Lahore to study at the Government College University till 1904. Here he was exposed to the nationalist movements that were going on in the country to achieve Home Rule or Swaraj. He also realized the deep state of poverty in India. Unlike his entire family, he was not going to remain silent.
In 1904, while still in college, he found out that the principal had ordered the blazers to be made from imported cloth. Here, Madan found an opportunity to step into this fight against the British by leading a student protest against the order. He was expelled from the college for this. His father, a British supporter told him to apologise to the college management and not participate in such activities again. However, his wrong mindset was not going to affect Madan at all. He refused and left his home to live his life on his own.
Madan worked in a Tanga service at Kalka, Shimla but was dismissed for refusing to obey similar orders as in college. Next, he worked as a factory labourer where he was again dismissed while organizing failed protests. Later, he went to Bombay and worked for some time before his family finally realized that they should help him.
On his elder brother’s advice, he went to Britain to study Diploma in Civil engineering in 1906. There he came in touch with the members of the India House, a meeting place of Indian revolutionaries, founded by Shyamji Krishna Verma in 1905. Dhingra like any other youngster, was living a carefree and fun-filled life initially. In one of their meetings at the India House, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, was giving a speech on India’s freedom when he was interrupted by a noise from the other room wherein Dhingra and his friends were enjoying themselves. Furious, Savarkar scolded Dhingra which made the latter feel ashamed about it and he did not come back to the India House for several days.
After this incident, Dhingra made up his mind to give his all to India’s freedom struggle. He joined the National Indian Association, founded by Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose in 1876 which believed in peaceful negotiations with the British. He started acting on double standards, denouncing Savarkar in public to gather the Britishers’ trust. Eventually, he gained Ms Emma Josephine Beck’s trust, secretary of the association. This allowed him to know the timings of important British functions where his probable targets would be present. He also left the India House and staged a false fallout with Savarkar to gain the complete trust of the British officials.
Madan’s first target was Lord Curzon, infamous for the Bengal partition in 1905. But fate saved him twice. Next, he targeted the ex-governor of Bengal, Bramfield Fuller, but this time Dhingra was the one who was late for the former’s meeting. Finally, Dhingra decided to kill Curzon Wyllie, head of the British Secret Police, who was trying to get information about Savarkar and his compatriots. Curzon Wyllie was a friend of Dhingra’s father and also knew Madan personally based on a recommendation from his eldest brother Kundan Lal Dhingra.
On 1st July 1909, the annual ‘At Home’ function was to be hosted by the Indian National Association at the Imperial Institute in honour of Lady Lyall, wife of Sir Alfred Lyall, a civil servant, historian and poet. Sensing his opportunity, Dhingra met for one final time with Savarkar to discuss his plans for the assassination of Curzon Wyllie. Savarkar gave him a note about the statement he had to give after the assassination. He also gave him a Belgian-made Browning pistol for the same. Dhingra had an early lunch and tea, leaving at 2 pm accompanied by fellow revolutionary Koregaonkar. He bought a new dagger, placed it in a leather casket and put it in one of his pockets. He also carried another Colt revolver with him.
On arriving at around 7 pm at the venue, Dhingra realized that he had forgotten to pick up his invitation pass. However, being an associate member, he entered after signing into the visitors’ book. When Curzon Wyllie was leaving the hall with his wife, Dhingra approached him as if to talk to him. As soon as he was close enough, Dhingra took out his Colt revolver and fired five bullets out of which four hit Wyllie as he reeled. His Parsee doctor, Cawas Lalkaka tried to help Wyllie but came in direct firing range of Dhingra and as a result, got fatally shot as well. After killing both of them, Dhingra tried to shoot himself but got overpowered by the police officials who arrested him and took him to Walton Street Police Station. One doctor examined Dhingra’s pulse and was shocked to find it normal as that of any calm person.
Allegations were made that Dhingra was under the influence of ‘bhang’ when he committed the assassination. However, testimonies by witnesses, Ms Beck and checkups by the doctors confirmed that he hadn’t taken any drug.
Dhingra was produced in front of Mr. Horace Smith, the Magistrate of Westminster Police Court where he did not plead for mercy. He was then sent to the Sessions Court, Old Bailey on 23rd July, where he gave one of his most popular and important statement,
"I do not want to say anything in defence of myself, but simply to prove the justice of my deed. As for myself, no English law court has got any authority to arrest and detain me in prison, or pass sentence of death on me. That is the reason I did not have any counsel to defend me. And I maintain that if it is patriotic in an Englishman to fight against the Germans if they were to occupy this country, it is much more justifiable and patriotic in my case to fight against the English. I hold the English people responsible for the murder of 80 millions of Indian people in the last fifty years, and they are also responsible for taking away £100,000,000 every year from India to this country. I also hold them responsible for the hanging and deportation of my patriotic countrymen, who did just the same as the English people here are advising their countrymen to do. And the Englishman who goes out to India and gets, say, £100 a month, that simply means that he passes a sentence of death on a thousand of my poor countrymen, because these thousand people could easily live on this £100, which the Englishman spends mostly on his frivolities and pleasures. Just as the Germans have no right to occupy this country, so the English people have no right to occupy India, and it is perfectly justifiable on our part to kill the Englishman who is polluting our sacred land. I am surprised at the terrible hypocrisy, the farce, and the mockery of the English people. They pose as the champions of oppressed humanity—the peoples of the Congo and the people of Russia—when there is terrible oppression and horrible atrocities committed in India; for example, the killing of two millions of people every year and the outraging of our women. In case this country is occupied by Germans, and the Englishman, not bearing to see the Germans walking with the insolence of conquerors in the streets of London, goes and kills one or two Germans, and that Englishman is held as a patriot by the people of this country, then certainly I am prepared to work for the emancipation of my Motherland. Whatever else I have to say is in the paper before the Court I make this statement, not because I wish to plead for mercy or anything of that kind. I wish that English people should sentence me to death, for in that case the vengeance of my countrymen will be all the more keen. I put forward this statement to show the justice of my cause to the outside world, and especially to our sympathisers in America and Germany."
The court sentenced Madan Lal Dhingra to die by hanging on 17th August 1909 at 9 am. While being removed from the court, he proudly said that he didn’t care about the verdict as he got the honour to lay down his life for his motherland.
Dhingra had wished for his belongings to be sold and the money to be given to the National Fund, but the police did not do so, stating that there was no official will made by him.
The period between the assassination and Dhingra’s hanging was chaotic. Four days after the event occurred, his brother Bhajan Lal condemned his act at a public meeting. All his family members shamelessly disowned him and dropped the surname Dhingra to avoid trouble with the Britishers. Back in India, Congress leaders like Gokhale, NC Kelkar, Mahatma Gandhi and many others condemned him as well. The only person who stood with him on foreign soil was his compatriot Savarkar. Savarkar openly supported Dhingra and defended him in front of the media and various public meetings. Even Ireland supported Dhingra with leaflets inscribed with ‘Ireland Honours Dhingra’ pasted all across the country.
Finally, the date of his death had arrived. His friends made last-ditch efforts to meet him, but as the Britishers would have it, they weren’t allowed inside. Neither was the request to have Dhingra be cremated according to Hindu rituals passed. Even as he was hanged at Pentonville Prison, his face didn’t show a trace of fear.
His last words from the gallows were,
“I believe that a nation held down by foreign bayonets is in a perpetual state of war. Since open battle is rendered impossible to a disarmed race, I attacked by surprise. Since guns were denied to me I drew forth my pistol and fired. Poor in wealth and intellect, a son like myself has nothing else to offer to the mother but his own blood. And so I have sacrificed the same on her altar. The only lesson required in India at present is to learn how to die, and the only way to teach it is by dying ourselves. My only prayer to God is that I may be reborn of the same mother and I may re-die in the same sacred cause till the cause is successful. Vande Mataram!”
Madan Lal Dhingra’s family continues to disown him to this date, even after so many years since independence. They even refused to convert his house into a museum and instead sold it away. Such a selfless patriot couldn’t get any support even from his family members; hats off to that brave lad who laid down his life for this country at the tender age of 25 years when he could have chosen to follow his family’s path of siding with the Britishers. Truly, ‘A Lotus That Bloomed in British Mud.’
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