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Shaheed Udham Singh (26 December 1899-31 July 1940) Chair

The Shaheed Udham Singh Chair was established in February 2023 on the initiative of the Government of Punjab. Shaheed Udham Singh was born on 26 December 1899 at Sunam Tehsil of the erstwhile Patiala State. Presently, Sunam city falls in the Sangrur district of Punjab. Udham Singh's parents died at his early age. He lived at Central Khalsa Orphanage, Putlighar, Amritsar. While living at the Orphanage, he passed the Matriculation examination in 1917. On 13 April 1919, Vaisakhi day, the Lieutenant Governor, Michael Francis O'Dwyer, under the command of Colonel Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, the temporary Brigadier-General, ordered his troops to fire upon the peacefully protesting people without any warning. In total, 1650 rounds were fired, and 379 innocent people were shot dead.

The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre had a deep effect on the mind of young Udham Singh. When Michael Francis O'Dwyer justified this inhuman incident, Udham Singh took an oath to avenge this massacre of the British Empire. He single-handedly avenged the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre and sacrificed his life for the independence of India. For this purpose, Udham Singh travelled extensively across four continents and around twenty countries in his two decades as a revolutionary freedom fighter. He is known to visit countries include Burma (Myanmar), Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq (Mesopatamia), Uganda, Nairobi, United States, Panama, Canada, Mexico, France, Italy, Germany, Holland (Netherlands), Poland, Austr ia, Hungary, Belgium, Soviet Union (Russia), and England from 1919 to 1940. He often travelled using various names and aliases such as Frank Brazil and Mohammad Singh Azad to evade British authorities while establishing contacts with the Ghadar Party and other anti-colonial revolutionary networks around the world.

On 13 March 1940, Udham Singh entered Caxton Hall, London, and killed Michael Francis O'Dwyer and injured others. He was arrested and tried for killing and was formally charged with the murder of Michael Francis O'Dwyer. He was hanged at the young age of forty years on 31 July 1940 at Pentonville Prison, London in England.

Although every Punjabi and Indian knows about Shaheed Udham Singh, his sacrifice and contribution to the freedom struggle of India, the purpose of the Shaheed Udham Singh Chair is to highlight his life, personality, and achievements based on academically authentic and historically objective sources. The self-motivated role of Shaheed Udham Singh in the freedom struggle of India, reinterpretation of the historical primary and secondary sources, government reports, contemporary Indian and British newspapers, all India Congress Committee reports, British Indian official reports related to the early life and education of Udham Singh, and his difficulties at Amritsar also be explored by the Chair. Some historians and scholars ignored the contribution of Shaheed Udham Singh because of the Official Acts of 1939; the files related to Shaheed Udham Singh were banned by the British Government, and the ban continued for a couple of years after the independence of India.

The Chair will also analyse some other important historical events like the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, national and international travels of Shaheed Udham Singh, his participation in revolutionary activities and parties, his occupations for livelihood, marital life, letters written to his friends, etc. Some other important aspects, like trial, execution, and last rites, also need to be reinterpreted. Based on available sources at the Prime Minister's Museum and Library, New Delhi, and the British Museum, London role and sacrifices by the Punjabis in India and abroad for independence, with special reference to Shaheed Udham Singh from the colonial forces, need a correct assessment, which is in a major way to fulfill the aims of Punjabi University, Patiala.

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ਪੇਸ਼ ਕੀਤੇ ਗਏ ਕੋਰਸ ਅਤੇ ਫੈਕਲਟੀ

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