by Anita Anand
17. Sir Michael Francis O’Dwyer, Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab, 1912–1919.
18. Brigadier General Reginald Dyer, or Rex to his friends, 1864–1927. He was known in India as the ‘Butcher of Amritsar’.
19. The narrow entrance to the Jallianwala Bagh through which Dyer marched his force, 1919.
20. The firing point inside the Jallianwala Bagh, 1919. From here, soldiers fired without warning.
21. The gallows erected at Kasur on 3 May and taken down under orders of the commissioner of Lahore.
22. The cage constructed at Kasur for the detention of suspects.
23. The Kucha Kurrichhan, the site of the assault on Miss Sherwood, which was closed by the crawling order.
24. In the aftermath of the massacre, the crawling order was designed to humiliate Amritsaris and it was part of a wave of ‘collective punishments’.
25. News of Gandhi’s arrest in 1919 caused widespread unrest.
26. An Indian tied to a ladder at Kasur railway station being flogged.
27. Victim of the aerial bombardment of Gujranwala after the massacre in Amritsar.
28. Dyer arrives back in England to face the Hunter Commission in November 1919.
29. Dyer’s coffin, draped with the Union Jack that had flown over his headquarters in Amritsar, is carried on a field gun and escorted by the Irish Guards.
30. Har Dayal – one of the founding fathers of the Ghadar movement.
31. Bhagat Singh, 1907–31, a hero to Udham Singh.
32. Udham Singh found work in the burgeoning motor industry of the United States in Detroit during the 1920s.
33. The changing face of Udham Singh after his release from prison on 23 October 1931.
34. One of the many faces of Udham Singh, c. 1935.
35. Publicity flyer for Elephant Boy in which Udham would work as an extra.
36. Udham Singh making rotis for a langar at the Shepherd’s Bush Gurdwara.
37. Major-General Sir Vernon Kell, 1873–1942. Founder and first director of MI5.
38. Justice McCardie who presided over the O’Dwyer vs Nair libel case in April–May 1924.
39. Udham Singh’s assassination of Sir Michael made it to the front page of most newspapers, making him the most hated man in Britain.
40. Press and police outside Caxton Hall on the night of the shootings.
41. Lord Zetland reporting for work the day after the shooting.
42. Lord Lamington attending the funeral mass for Sir Michael.
43. Krishna Menon with Jawaharlal Nehru. Both would initially repudiate Udham’s actions.
44. St John Hutchinson, the barrister who would represent Udham Singh in court. His client would take very little interest in his defence.
45. The Old Bailey, where jurors would take an hour and five minutes to find Udham Singh guilty of murder.
46. Pictures of Sir Michael in both Jallianwala Bagh and Delhi are frequently defaced by visitors even today.
47. Indian postage stamp honouring Udham Singh.
48. Jallianwala Bagh today where topiary soldiers take aim.
49. David Cameron laying a wreath at the Jallianwala Bagh memorial in 2013. Many felt his words fell short of the apology they were looking for from the British government.
50. Preserved bullet holes at Jallianwala Bagh.
51. This statue of Udham Singh outside Jallianwala Bagh was unveiled in 2018. His outstretched hand is holding the blood-soaked dirt of the garden.
1. Sir John Lawrence, Viceroy of India, 1864–69.
2. The Indian Mutiny of 1857 hardened the attitude of the Indian Civil Service for decades after.
3. The Golden Temple, Amritsar, c. 1900. The most holy shrine of the Sikhs.
4. The Raj at play, c. 1910.
5. Indian servants raising the children of the Raj, c. 1910.
6. Sir Michael O’Dwyer (back row, second from right), Lady O’Dwyer (front row, third from right) and Una O’Dwyer (front row, second from right) on a cheetah hunt, Hyderabad, 1909.
7. King George V and Queen Mary on the dais at the coronation durbar, 1911.
8. Indian soldiers marching through a French village, 1915. O’Dwyer worked tirelessly to urge Punjabis to volunteer for action.
9. Court sketch of Madhan Lal Dhingra, tried, found guilty and hanged for the assassination of William Hutt Curzon Wylie, 1909. Afterwards, Special Branch became much more interested in the activities of Indians in the United Kingdom.
10. Escorted supply lines over the Khyber Pass, c. 1910. Ishwar Das grew up nearby in the North-West Frontier Province.
© Alamy
11. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, leader of the Kheda agitation, in 1918 when he demanded the British ceased tax collection after a devastating natural disaster.
12. The Nihang. Akali Sikh warriors, c. 1905.
13. Kala Bagh surrounded by the dark green foliage which gave it its name ‘The Black Garden’, c. 1900. Ishwar Das grew up here.
14. Udham Singh’s childhood home in Sunam (now a museum).
15. Ishwar Das Anand, the author’s grandfather, shortly before he died.
16. Udham Singh (standing) jumping into a formal portrait of Bachan Singh (seated, left) and Manjit Singh Kassid (seated, right), Sunam, 1932.
© National Portrait Gallery
17. Sir Michael Francis O’Dwyer, Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab, 1912–1919.
© National Army Museums
18. Brigadier General Reginald Dyer, or Rex to his friends, 1864–1927. He was known in India as the ‘Butcher of Amritsar’.
© British Library
19. The narrow entrance to the Jallianwala Bagh through which Dyer marched his force, 1919.
© British Library
20. The firing point inside the Jallianwala Bagh, 1919. From here, soldiers fired without warning.
21. The gallows erected at Kasur on 3 May and taken down under orders of the commissioner of Lahore.
22. The cage constructed at Kasur for the detention of suspects.
© British Library
23. The Kucha Kurrichhan, the site of the assault on Miss Sherwood, which was closed by the crawling order.
© National Army Museum
24. In the aftermath of the massacre, the crawling order was designed to humiliate Amritsaris and it was part of a wave of ‘collective punishments’.
25. News of Gandhi’s arrest in 1919 caused widespread unrest.
26. An Indian tied to a ladder at Kasur railway station being flogged.
27. Victim of the aerial bombardment of Gujranwala after the massacre in Amritsar.
28. Dyer arrives back in England to face the Hunter Commission in November 1919.
© National Army Museum
29. Dyer’s coffin, draped with the Union Jack that had flown over his headquarters in Amritsar, is carried on a field gun and escorted by the Irish Guards.
30. Har Dayal – one of the founding fathers of the Ghadar movement.
31. Bhagat Singh, 1907–31, a hero to Udham Singh.
32. Udham Singh found work in the burgeoning motor industry of the United States in Detroit during the 1920s.
33. The changing face of Udham Singh after his release from prison on 23 October 1931.
34. One of the many faces of Udham Singh, c. 1935.
35. Publicity flyer for Elephant Boy in which Udham would work as an extra.
36. Udham Singh making rotis for a langar at the Shepherd’s Bush Gurdwara.
© Getty
37. Major-General Sir Vernon Kell, 1873–1942. Founder and first director of MI5.
38. Justice McCardie who presided over the O’Dwyer vs Nair libel case in April–May 1924.
© Alamy
39. Udham Singh’s assassination of Sir Michael made it to the front page of most newspapers, making him the most hated man in Britain.
40. Press and police outside Caxton Hall on the night of the shootings.
41. Lord Zetland reporting for work the day after the shootin
g.
42. Lord Lamington attending the funeral mass for Sir Michael.
© Alamy
43. Krishna Menon with Jawaharlal Nehru. Both would initially repudiate Udham’s actions.
44. St John Hutchinson, the barrister who would represent Udham Singh in court. His client would take very little interest in his defence.
45. The Old Bailey, where jurors would take an hour and five minutes to find Udham Singh guilty of murder.
46. Pictures of Sir Michael in both Jallianwala Bagh and Delhi are frequently defaced by visitors even today.
47. Indian postage stamp honouring Udham Singh.
48. Jallianwala Bagh today where topiary soldiers take aim.
© Getty
49. David Cameron laying a wreath at the Jallianwala Bagh memorial in 2013. Many felt his words fell short of the apology they were looking for from the British government.
© Getty
50. Preserved bullet holes at Jallianwala Bagh.
51. This statue of Udham Singh outside Jallianwala Bagh was unveiled in 2018. His outstretched hand is holding the blood-soaked dirt of the garden.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are so many people I need to thank. First among them is Avtar Singh Jouhl, of the Shaheed Udham Singh Welfare Trust in Birmingham. It is thanks to his tireless efforts and relentless Freedom of Information requests that over a thousand papers regarding Udham Singh were released to the public in 1996. Mr Jouhl allowed me unfiltered access to his files. Many of these documents were never meant to see the light of day and were ordered sealed in perpetuity following Udham’s execution. Some documents were held back for a further twenty years. I gained access to them in 2016. They revealed details of Udham’s botched execution. It is little wonder they had been withheld from the public.
Some of these top-secret documents served as tantalising signposts to Special Branch and MI5 files which remain untraceable. I hope one day they too will be found.
Dr Navtej Singh of Punjab University has been invaluable in helping me navigate my way through a blizzard of paperwork, and I am very grateful. Avtar Singh Jouhl in particular has shown superhuman patience and endless generosity of spirit when it came to sharing what he found, and delighting in what I was unearthing.
Following in Udham’s footsteps took me from Britain to India and the Punjab, and to the United States, and I have people to thank in all of these places.
In Punjab I would like to mention the Desh Bhagat Yadgar centre in Jalandar, and particularly thank Dr Raghbir Kaur, the ex-general secretary of the museum, and Balwinder Kaur Bansal, a senior archivist. Their shelves are a repository of valuable Ghadar and nationalist material. Their knowledge and support was almost as valuable to me.
I am profoundly grateful also to the Central Khalsa Orphanage in Putlighar, Amritsar, where staff and boys took me to see a recreation of Udham Singh’s room and told me about the ethos of the orphanage, which remains unchanged to this day. The orphanage does great work and should be applauded for giving a future to so many who otherwise may have fallen on stony ground.
In Sunam I was lucky to meet men and women who were generous with their time and knowledge. Chief among them was Gagandeep Singh, whose father was one of the foremost local politicians in Sunam at the time Udham’s remains were brought home. Gagandeep and his wife Ranjeet Kaur opened their hearts and home to me, and spent a great deal of time and effort showing me around Sunam and introducing me to relevant people.
Shingara Singh, the curator and guardian of Udham’s family home in Sunam, has likewise been unstintingly generous with his time and knowledge.
Historian Rakesh Kumar, whom I visited in Ferozpur in Punjab, has done exemplary work on Udham Singh’s story, and I would like to thank him for his time and hospitality. He was very helpful in showing me what happened to Udham’s remains after they were cremated in India.
Jewan Depak deserves very special thanks for pointing me to original Punjabi sources, including the unpublished memoir of Manjit Singh Kassid, and helping me to translate these faithfully. His efforts and enthusiasm for this project were beyond helpful.
If there has been one area of frustration in the writing of this book, it has been the difficulty in getting my hands on the original confession of Udham Singh, made in 1927. It has been widely reproduced in the work of Dr Sikander Singh, cited within this book. He told me the document quoted in his work lies in the National Archive in New Delhi, and though the relevant file does show up on the archive database, repeated attempts to locate it over a period of two years failed. On occasion it was suggested that the file might have been misplaced. On others, that it was not and had never been in the collection. Sikander Singh insists it is there.
Unable to see the original with my own eyes, I determined to fact check what had been quoted. To that end I spent over a year and a half cross-referencing names, dates and places against Metropolitan Police files, American census records, immigration documents and the archives of various local and central government institutions in the United States and Great Britain. These are all cited in the endnotes.
It was greatly reassuring to find corroboration in a plethora of official records. The fact that some of the spellings in Sikander Singh’s reproduction of the confession were near approximations of what I was finding was comforting rather than concerning. It lent credibility to the idea that the confession was taken down by non-English-speaking police during what must have been a brutal interrogation. To the scribe, these names were entirely foreign.
Believing Udham’s confession was real was not the same as believing it was true. It was gratifying to find supporting documents in a number of 1920s and 1930s archives that supported his confession details and suggested he had given a true account of his American adventure. Finding Lupe Singh was an especially rewarding moment.
I am grateful to archivists at the Bentley Library in Michigan who were able to find Professor Riggs (‘Riggest’ in the Sikander Singh text) in the 1920s faculty records. They provided vital leads which helped me trace the Pritam Singh story in other contemporary sources and the Michigan press.
My thanks to my friend Susie Aboulhawa, who took time out of her own hectic life to trawl New York census, electoral and residential lists to confirm or disprove some of my theories.
Back in England, special thanks is owed to Gary Poole, former governor of Pentonville Prison, and Gagandeep Singh, the serving Sikh chaplain at Pentonville. Together they guided me around the prison, showed me where Udham was held, where he was executed and where his body was buried. It was a sobering and moving experience.
Amandeep Madra of the UK Punjab Heritage Association remains my go-to guy when I need somebody knowledgeable to bounce ideas off. The work he and his colleagues are doing in locating war graves of Indian soldiers and showing how many were recruited from villages and towns in Punjab will add greatly to the historical record.
It was Amandeep who very kindly introduced me to Robert Clark. His help in navigating First World War archives was invaluable. Robert shone such helpful light on the enlistment processes and places Udham Singh would have encountered before his tour of Basra.
Historian Nick Lloyd was extremely helpful in talking through the life and personality of Sir Michael O’Dwyer. I’d like to especially thank Nick for sharing his thoughts on the relationship between Sir Michael and his son. I know he has a book on the former lieutenant governor in the pipeline and I greatly look forward to reading it.
Daniel Brückenhaus, author of an extraordinary book on the surveillance of anti-colonialists in Europe, was both delightful and extremely generous with his time and knowledge. Not only did he share original research from German archives, he helped me to understand the Sikh–German nexus that existed in the run-up to the Second World War.
My thanks to Christiane Baehr, who diligently translated some of these original German documents. We have been friends since school; I stalled after A-level German, and just as in the old days, she helped me with
my homework.
Sital Singh of the Punjab restaurant in London was a treasure trove of information. His grandfather, Gurbachan Singh, was one of the Sikh pedlars and close friends of Udham Singh during his time in London. Funny, generous and with an extraordinary recall, Sital Singh brought his grandfather to life.
My sincerest thanks also to Peter Singh, the son of Banta Singh, one of the last people to see Udham as a free man. He has been wonderfully helpful in piecing together the final days before the assassination and giving me an idea of Udham’s state of mind on the eve of his revenge.
I have known Lord Indarjit Singh for almost two decades, but I had no idea of his personal connection to the Udham Singh story till I was deeply involved in my research. As the son of Dr Diwan Singh, head of the Shepherds Bush Gurdwara, Lord Singh had his own recollections to share, as well as his father’s. The irony of discussing Udham’s story in the House of Lords in Westminster, a stone’s throw from the assassination, was lost on neither of us.