He smiled at the gallows so that a nation might one day stand free. On Balidan Diwas — the martyrdom anniversary of Udham Singh — Union Home Minister Amit Shah bowed in remembrance of the revolutionary who carried the grief of Jallianwala Bagh all the way to London and answered it with an act that shook the British Empire to its core.

Posting in both Hindi and Punjabi on 31 July, Shah wrote: 'Amar Shaheed Udham Singh ji ke balidan diwas par unke charno mein naman karta hoon' — 'On the martyrdom anniversary of immortal martyr Udham Singh, I bow at his feet.' He described Singh as 'an unparalleled symbol of extraordinary courage and valour' who avenged the countrymen killed in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre by striking at the heart of British power in London, and who 'embraced the hangman's noose laughing' for the cause of freedom.

The act that defined a revolution: London, 1940

On 13 March 1940, Udham Singh shot and killed Michael O'Dwyer — the former Lieutenant Governor of Punjab who had sanctioned the Amritsar operation — at a public meeting in Caxton Hall, London. It was a premeditated act of retribution, executed 21 years after British troops under General Reginald Dyer opened fire on thousands of unarmed civilians gathered at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, on 13 April 1919. The massacre, which killed hundreds and wounded over a thousand, became one of the defining atrocities of colonial rule and a permanent wound in India's national memory.

Udham Singh was tried, convicted of murder, and hanged at Pentonville Prison, London, on 31 July 1940 — the date that India now marks as his Balidan Diwas. He was 40 years old. His remains were repatriated to India in 1974 and cremated at his birthplace, Sunam, Punjab.

The Ghadar connection: freedom's global network

Shah's tribute also highlighted Singh's association with the Ghadar Party, the early 20th-century revolutionary organisation founded by Indian expatriates — primarily in North America — to overthrow British rule through armed uprising. Singh's links to the Ghadar movement underscored the transnational character of India's freedom struggle: a network of workers, intellectuals, and soldiers spread across the United States, Canada, and Southeast Asia who kept the flame of resistance alive far from home.

Shah noted that Singh 'played an important role in awakening the spirit of freedom in the hearts of Indians living abroad through the Ghadar Party' — a line that carries particular resonance given the size and political consciousness of today's Punjabi diaspora in the UK, Canada, and the United States.

Hindi and Punjabi, side by side

The bilingual format of the post — identical text in Hindi and Punjabi — is a deliberate act of outreach. It signals respect for a martyr who belongs equally to the Hindi-speaking heartland and to Punjab, where Udham Singh was born and where his memory is most fiercely guarded. The gesture also speaks directly to Punjabi-speaking communities overseas, the very diaspora Singh once tried to mobilise.

Every 31 July, India pauses to remember a man who chose a London courtroom as the stage for his final statement. 'I am not afraid of death,' Singh reportedly said before his execution. 'I am dying for my country.' That sentence — unembellished, absolute — still echoes louder than any empire.