On the death anniversary of one of India's most daring early revolutionaries, Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary paused to honour a man who carried the fight for freedom all the way to the heart of the British Empire. On 17 August 2026, the senior BJP leader took to X to bow before the memory of Madan Lal Dhingra.

In his post, CM Choudhary wrote: 'Bhartiya swatantrata sangram ke mahan krantikari evam rashtrabhakt Madan Lal Dhingra ji ki punyatithi par unhe koti-koti naman' — offering 'countless salutes to the great revolutionary and patriot of the Indian freedom struggle on his death anniversary.' He added that Dhingra's 'indomitable courage, sacrifice, and martyrdom for the freedom of the motherland will continue to inspire the countrymen forever.'

Who was Madan Lal Dhingra — and why does his name still resonate

Madan Lal Dhingra was born in 1883 and travelled to London to study engineering. What he found there was a radicalising encounter with Indian nationalist thought, particularly through the circle of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. On 1 July 1909, at a public gathering in London, Dhingra shot and killed Sir Curzon Wyllie, a British Indian Army officer and aide to the Secretary of State for India. He made no attempt to flee.

At his trial, Dhingra delivered a statement that became one of the most cited declarations of the armed resistance movement — refusing to recognise the court's authority and framing his act as a soldier's duty to a colonised nation. He was hanged on 17 August 1909, aged 25. His execution date is the reason tributes fall on this day each year, just two days after Independence Day.

A ritual of remembrance with political roots

CM Choudhary's tribute fits a well-established pattern: leaders across India's political spectrum, and particularly within the BJP, regularly mark the death anniversaries of early 20th-century revolutionaries on social media. For the BJP, figures like Dhingra — who chose armed resistance over constitutional petition — hold a specific place in the party's reading of the freedom struggle, one that foregrounds sacrifice and nationalist fervour alongside the better-known Gandhian tradition.

The timing, two days after Independence Day, gives these tributes added resonance. The nation has just concluded its 15 August commemorations; Dhingra's anniversary arrives as a quiet but pointed coda — a reminder that freedom's price was paid in instalments, by individuals whose names rarely make it into school textbooks.

Dhingra was 25 years old when he was executed. That number, more than any rhetoric, is the sharpest argument his admirers still make.