Shivraj Singh Chouhan pays tribute to Sardar Udham Singh on martyrdom anniversary
Synopsis
Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan paid solemn homage to revolutionary Sardar Udham Singh on his martyrdom anniversary, 31 July 2026. Udham Singh was hanged in 1940 after assassinating Michael O'Dwyer, the Punjab Lieutenant Governor at the time of the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
Key Takeaways
Shivraj Singh Chouhan posted a Hindi tribute to Sardar Udham Singh on 31 July 2026 , the anniversary of Udham Singh's execution.
Sardar Udham Singh was hanged by the British on 31 July 1940 after assassinating Michael O'Dwyer in London on 13 March 1940 .
Udham Singh had witnessed the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 13 April 1919 and spent over two decades seeking to avenge it.
Chouhan described Udham Singh as a 'brave son of Mother India' who gave everything for the motherland.
Annual commemorations on 31 July are observed by central and state governments across India.
On the martyrdom anniversary of one of India's most defiant revolutionaries, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan paid solemn homage to Sardar Udham Singh on 31 July 2026 — the day the British Crown hanged the man who had waited two decades to answer the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
Posting in Hindi, Chouhan wrote: 'माँ भारती के वीर सपूत... अमर हुतात्मा सरदार उधम सिंह जी के बलिदान दिवस पर विनम्र श्रद्धांजलि अर्पित करता हूँ!' — 'I humbly pay tribute to the immortal martyr Sardar Udham Singh, the brave son of Mother India, on his martyrdom day.' He added that every particle of the motherland would forever take pride in a son who gave everything for his land.
The act that made Udham Singh immortal
Sardar Udham Singh was present in Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, on 13 April 1919, when General Reginald Dyer ordered troops to open fire on an unarmed crowd gathered for a public meeting. Hundreds were killed and wounded in what remains one of the most searing episodes of British colonial rule in India. Udham Singh carried that wound for more than two decades. On 13 March 1940, at Caxton Hall in London, he shot and killed Michael O'Dwyer — the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab at the time of the massacre — in a packed public meeting. He made no attempt to flee. Tried and convicted, he was executed on 31 July 1940, declaring in court that he bore no hatred toward the English people, only toward those who had oppressed his country.A tradition of official remembrance
Chouhan's tribute follows a long-standing practice across India's political spectrum: leaders mark the anniversaries of independence-era revolutionaries with public statements, framing anti-colonial sacrifice as a living part of national identity. 31 July sees central and state governments hold commemorative events, and Udham Singh's name regularly surfaces in parliamentary discourse as a symbol of resistance that refused to be extinguished by empire. The minister's closing line — 'वीर सपूत के चरणों में प्रणाम!' ('I bow at the feet of this brave son') — struck the register of personal reverence rather than political rhetoric, consistent with the solemn tone such anniversaries command. Eighty-six years after the gallows at Pentonville Prison, India still keeps the appointment.Point of View
Devotional, absent of party framing — signals that these tributes are calibrated to resonate as acts of cultural remembrance rather than partisan positioning. As India moves deeper into its post-75th-Independence-year moment, such commemorations carry growing symbolic weight in shaping how the republic remembers its most defiant sons.
NationPress
31 Jul 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is 31 July observed as Udham Singh martyrdom day?
31 July is the day Sardar Udham Singh was executed by the British at Pentonville Prison, London, in 1940 , after being convicted for the assassination of Michael O'Dwyer .
Who was Sardar Udham Singh and what did he do?
Sardar Udham Singh was an Indian revolutionary who shot and killed Michael O'Dwyer , the former Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, in London on 13 March 1940 , to avenge the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.
What was the Jallianwala Bagh massacre?
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place on 13 April 1919 in Amritsar , when British troops under General Reginald Dyer opened fire on an unarmed crowd, killing and wounding hundreds of Indians.
Who was Michael O'Dwyer?
Michael O'Dwyer was the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab at the time of the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre . He was assassinated by Udham Singh in London in 1940 .
What did Shivraj Singh Chouhan say about Udham Singh?
Shivraj Singh Chouhan called Udham Singh a 'brave son of Mother India' and an 'immortal martyr,' saying every particle of the motherland would forever take pride in him for giving his all for the nation.
