Chandrashekhar Azad was born on July 23, 1906 to poor brahmin parents Sitaram Tewari and Jagrani Devi in village Bhaora in district Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh. Sitaram Tiwari was a watchman in the royal gardens of Alirajpur State. Chandrasekhar received his early education in a village school where he played among the Bhil boys and learnt archery. Soon he became an excellent shot. After completing his elementary schooling, he went to Varanasi and took admission in Sanskrit Pathshala.
In Varanasi, he came under the influence of a local revolutionary, Shiv Prasad Gupta. The massacre at Jallianwalla Bagh had a great impact on Chandrasekhar and he plunged into the freedom struggle. At 14 he was arrested.
When the magistrate asked him his name, Azad replied defiantly: ''My name is Azad''.
'Father's name': asked the magistrate angrily.
'Swadhin': the boy replied.
"Mother's Name"
"Dharti Ma"
The magistrate ordered 15 cane-strokes. He was tied to the flogging triangle. With each lash he shouted:
'Bande Mataram' The crowd shouted after him. He was publicly honored as 'Azad'. And the name struck
thereafter.
Through Manmathnath Gupta he joined the revolutionary movement in which he played a prominent part.
Later Azad joined the Hindustan Republican Association set up in October 1924 by Ramprasad Bismil,
Jogesh Chatterjea and Sachindranath Sanyal. On August 9, 1925, Azad along with other revolutionaries
held up a train at Kakori near Lucknow. Four of his accomplices -- Ramprasad Bismal, Ashfaqullah Khan,
Rajinder Nath Lahiri and Roshan Singh were caught and hanged by the British but Chandrasekhar escaped and eluded the police for six years.
A booklet "Yaad Kar Lena Kabhi" ("Remember Us Sometime"), published by Information and Broadcasting Ministry to commemorate 50 years of Independence, has an interesting letter by Azad.
On the run after Kakori train hold-up, Azad sought refuge at the home of an old widow. She mentioned in passing that she did not have the money to get her daughter married. Azad suggested that she turn him to the police and claim the Rs 5,000 that he carried on his head. "For Rs 5000? I wouldn't do it for Rs 5 lakh," she said.
Azad left his benefactor's home the following morning, keeping behind the money for the girl's wedding. An accompanying letter said:
"Forgive me for leaving without informing you. You did not agree to my proposal. But now I will decide what is to be done. Please arrange the marriage of my sister as soon as possible with the money I am leaving. I wish I could be present for the occasion. But who knows where I will be. But Amma, what more can a brother on the run do for his sister? If my luck permits I'll meet my brother-in-law one day and bless my sister in person."
With the success of the Russian revolution in 1917, Azad and many other revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh were increasingly coming under the influence of socialist ideas. Under Azad's leadership, all young revolutionaries (Bejoy Kumar Sinha, Shiv Varma and Jaidev Kapur in U.P., Bhagat Singh, Bhagwati Charan Vohra and Sukhdev in Punjab) met in Ferozshah Kotla Ground in Delhi on September 9 and 10, 1928 and re-organized Hindustan Republican Association into Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA). The leadership of the new organization was collective and their goal was socialism. Chandrasekhar was appointed the 'Commander of the military Division of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army' whose aim was to free India from the British through on organized armed struggle. The leadership of HSRA decided to move away from individual heroic action towards mass politics. The death of Lala Lajpat Rai from a brutal lath-charge on anti-Simon Commission demonstration on October 30, 1928 changed the course of HSRA.
To avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai, Azad, Bhagat Singh and Rajguru planned the shooting of J.A. Scott, the Superintendent of Police, Lahore on December 17, 1928. Scott escaped but J. P. Saunders, Assistant Superintendent of Police was killed. In an HSRA poster the action was explained thus: "The murder of a leader respected by millions of people at the unworthy hands of an ordinary police official ... was an insult to the nation. It was the bounden duty of young men of India to efface it... We regret to have had to kill a person but he was part and parcel of that inhuman and unjust order which has to be destroyed."
Chandrasekhar with others then planned the bomb explosion in the Central Legislative Assembly on April 8, 1929 to be executed by Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt to protest the passage of Public Safety Bill and Trade Disputes Bill which would reduce the civil liberties of citizens particularly workers. Red leaflets on which Party manifesto was inscribed were scattered all over the Assembly. It was entitled: 'Explosion Necessary to make the Deaf Hear'. A statement issued later said : 'The Bomb was necessary to awaken England from her dreams. We dropped the bomb on the floor of the Assembly Chamber to register our protest on behalf of those who had no other means to give expression to their heart-rending agony. Our sole purpose was to make the deaf hear.''
The Red Leaflet was more expressive. It was signed by Balraj (assumed name of Azad) in his capacity as the Commander-in-Chief of the Hindustan Republican Army (The Auxiliary Wing). The leaflet read:
''In these extreme provocative circumstances, the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, In all seriousness, realizing their full responsibility, has decided and ordered its Army to do this particular action, so that a stop be put to this humiliating force and to let the alien bureaucratic exploiters do what they wish, but they must be made to come before the public eye in their naked form. Let the representatives of the people return to their constituencies and prepare the masses for the coming revolution, and let the Government know that while protesting against the public Safety and Trade Disputes Bills and the callous murder of Lala Lajpat Rai, on behalf of the helpless Indian masses, we want to emphasize the lesson often repeated by history, that it easy to kill individuals but you cannot kill the ideas. Great empires crumbled while ideas survived. We are sorry to admit that we who attach so great a sanctity to human life, we who dream of a glorious future, when man will be enjoying perfect peace and full liberty, have been forced to shed human blood. But the sacrifices of individuals at the altar of 'Great Revolution' that will bring freedom to all, rendering the exploitation of man
by man impossible, is inevitable.''
For the next two years Chandrasekhar successfully evaded arrest. Government announced an increased reward of Rs 30,000 on him, dead or alive. He went underground and from there he planned an armed revolution and for this purpose he secured Rs 14.000 by an armed 'robbery' on a Delhi firm on July 6, 1930. It is in the course of the investigation of this case that the police got hold of information of Chandrasekhar's secret plot. The police also discovered a bomb factory in Delhi with a stock of chemicals enough to make explosives to fill about 6,000 bombs.
Chandrasekhar now fled to Punjab and intensified his revolutionary activities there. On December 23, 1930, Hari Kishan, who belonged to Mardan in the NWFP and had earlier taken part in Naujwan Bharat Sabha started by Bhagat Singh, shot at the Punjab Governor, Sir Geoffrey de Montemorrency, at the annual convocation of Punjab University at Lahore. It is believed that Hari Kishan got the inspiration from Azad. The police also concluded that Chandrasekhar must be hiding in Punjab.
In the meantime, the Lahore Conspiracy Case gave a severe blow to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. Almost all its leaders were arrested. Chandrasekhar made a desperate attempt to rally a few workers who were still at large. For this purpose he went to Allahabad to meet an old companion, in Alfred Park, on February 27, 1931. One of those who knew about this meeting leaked the information to the police. A big police party in plain clothes encircled him in the park.
Sheltered by a single, big neem tree Azad held out for long exchanging fire with the police, loading and reloading his revolver. When he came down to the last bullet, he shot himself rather than being captured by the British.
Alfred Park has since been renamed as Amar Shaheed Chandrashekhar Azad Park.
For days, people gathered to see the 'holy neem tree' which had sheltered the great revolutionary. Even children went regularly to touch the soil where Azad had lain, free till the last from the British yoke. Angry with this mass reverence, the British finally ordered that the neem tree felled. A memorial stands in its place today.
Chandrasekhar fought alone against huge numbers, with revolvers in both hands. He killed several policemen and wounded the British police Superintendent, Nott Bower and an Indian police officer, Bisheshwar Singh. His arm and leg had been riddled with bullets. He fought like a lion.
He also died like a lion. In the words of K. G. Ghosh, the author of 'Roll Call of Honor'. 'There were two wounds on the lower part of his right leg, one of which fractured the tibia. Another bullet was extracted from the right thigh. The fatal wound appeared to be on the right side of the head and another in the chest. The body was sent to Rasulabad Ghat for cremation which was performed under strict police guard. Thus a blazing meteor illumined that dark firmament of political subjection with its own brilliance during the short duration of its course moving towards total extinction in the limitless womb of eternity having a name that would adorn the pages of history. On February 28, 1931, from the post-mortem Report it was known that four bullets and a fragment of the fifth had been extracted from the body.'
He was 24 years, 7 months and 4 days old when he died. A freedom fighter and a martyr every Indian should be proud of. But times have changed. Today, Mayawati, who owes her Chief Ministership of U.P. to the sacrifices of heroes like Azad has decided to rename a college in Etawah and a university in Kanpur (that were named after Azad) after Ambedkar. To Mayawati, Azad was a 'merely a terrorist.' What can one expect from the desh drohis who rule the country today.
