CM Nayab Saini Marks Shaheed Udham Singh's Martyrdom Day Live
Synopsis
Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini marked the 87th Martyrdom Day of Shaheed Udham Singh Ji with a live broadcast from Sanaur, Punjab, on 31 July 2026, honouring the revolutionary who was hanged on this date in 1940 for assassinating Michael O'Dwyer in retaliation for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
Key Takeaways
Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini joined the 87th Martyrdom Day observance of Shaheed Udham Singh Ji on 31 July 2026 .
The event was held at Sanaur, Patiala district, Punjab , and streamed live.
Udham Singh was hanged at Pentonville Prison on 31 July 1940 after assassinating former Punjab Lt.
Governor Michael O'Dwyer in London on 13 March 1940 .
The assassination was a direct act of retribution for the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre .
CM Saini's participation extends the commemoration across state boundaries into Haryana .
Eighty-six years after a revolutionary's noose fell at Pentonville Prison, his defiance still commands a live broadcast. Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini joined the 87th Martyrdom Day observance of Shaheed Udham Singh Ji on Friday, 31 July 2026, streaming the commemoration live from Sanaur, Punjab.
The act that history never forgot
On 13 March 1940, Udham Singh walked into Caxton Hall in London and shot dead Michael O'Dwyer, the former Lieutenant Governor of Punjab who had sanctioned the troops on that catastrophic April afternoon in 1919. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre — hundreds of unarmed civilians gunned down in an enclosed garden in Amritsar — had branded itself onto Udham Singh's conscience as a teenager. He spent two decades crossing continents, waiting for his moment. When it came, he did not run. He stood trial, was convicted, and was hanged at Pentonville Prison on 31 July 1940.
Sanaur as the site of remembrance
The event is being held at Sanaur, a town in Patiala district, Punjab. State leaders marking independence-era anniversaries through public broadcasts has become a steady feature of Indian political life — a way of stitching the freedom struggle into contemporary governance. CM Saini's presence, broadcast live, extends the commemoration across state lines into Haryana, underscoring that the memory of the martyrs belongs to no single state.
Udham Singh is remembered across the subcontinent by the name Shaheed-e-Azam — the supreme martyr — a title that places him alongside the tallest figures of the anti-colonial resistance. His act was not random violence; it was a precisely targeted response to a specific atrocity, and British courts acknowledged as much in the weight they gave his trial.
Every 31 July, the date the British state executed him, becomes a date the Indian state reclaims — through wreath-layings, public broadcasts, and the quiet insistence that the ledger of history has not been closed.
Point of View
Broadening the ideological tent of the independence story the party chooses to tell.
NationPress
31 Jul 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Shaheed Udham Singh?
Udham Singh was an Indian revolutionary who assassinated Michael O'Dwyer, the former Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, in London on 13 March 1940, in retaliation for the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre. He was hanged at Pentonville Prison on 31 July 1940.
Why is 31 July observed as Udham Singh's Martyrdom Day?
31 July marks the date in 1940 on which the British authorities executed Udham Singh by hanging at Pentonville Prison, London, following his conviction for the assassination of Michael O'Dwyer.
What was the Jallianwala Bagh massacre?
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place on 13 April 1919 in Amritsar, Punjab, when British Indian Army troops opened fire on a crowd of unarmed civilians gathered in an enclosed garden, killing hundreds. Michael O'Dwyer, as Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, had sanctioned the action.
Where was the 2026 Martyrdom Day event held?
The 87th Martyrdom Day of Shaheed Udham Singh was observed at Sanaur, a town in Patiala district, Punjab, on 31 July 2026.
Why did Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini attend a Punjab event?
Udham Singh is revered across the broader Punjab-Haryana cultural region. CM Saini's live participation reflects the practice of state leaders honouring pan-Indian freedom-struggle figures regardless of state boundaries.
