Chandrasekhar Azad

Born 23 July 1906
Badarka, U.P.,India
Died 27 February 1931
Allahabad, U.P., India
Organization Primerly H.R.A. later on H.S.R.A.
Political movement Indian Independence Movement


Chandra Shekhar son of Sita Ram Tiwari, popularly known as Chandra Shekhar Azad (Hindi: चंद्रशेखर आज़ाद, Urdu: چندر شیکھر آزاد) born on 23 July 1906, at Badarka village in Unnao Distt. of Uttar Pradesh [1] and killed 27 February 1931, at Company/Alfred Bagh of Allahabad city of Uttar Pradesh, is one of the most important Indian revolutionaries, who reorganised the Hindustan Republican Association after the assassination of its founder Ram Prasad Bismil and three other party pillars (Thakur Roshan Singh, Rajendra Nath Lahiri and Ashfaqulla Khan) with the support of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Bhagwati Charan Vohra under the new name of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association.Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Revolutionary Life
3 Formation of Hindustan Socialist Republican Assocition
4 Activities In Jhansi
5 With Bhagat Singh
6 Dare-Devil's Death
7 Popular Culture
8 See also
9 References

Early life

Chandra Shekhar Azad, most often called Pandit Ji by his partymen after the death of Bismil as a token of regard, was an armed revolutionary. After the first Indian Rebellion of 1857, he was one amongst the many Indian revolutionaries to use arms in their fight for independence against the British rulers. He was born to an impoverished Brahmin family. He believed that it was his prime duty (Dharm in Hindustani) to fight for the right of others. It was also his belief that a soldier never relinquishes his weapon.

Chandra Shekhar Azad was born on July 23,1906 in village Bhavra in Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh. His father Pandit Sita Ram Tiwari was serving in Alirajpur State. His mother Jagrani Devi wanted to make his child Chandu a great Sanskrit scholar, so she pressurised his father to sent him to Kashi Vidyapeeth, Benaras for studying Sanskrit. In Dec 1921, when Mahatma Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement, so many students came out of their schools and colleges to join the movement. Chandra Shekhar was also one of them who not only actively participated in the protest movement but also faced the brutal conflict with the police. As a result he was arrested and received his first punishment at the teen age of fifteen and a half years. For this act of civil disobedience, when the magistrate asked his name, he immediately replied- "Azad" meaning bondless. When he was asked to tell his father's name, he told- "Swatantra" meaning self-esteemed. The magistrate became annoyed and asked in a rough tone- "Where is thy abode?" Without any hesitation he answered- "Jailkhana" meaning prison. Then the magistrate tried to teach him a lesson for his nonsense replies. He immediately ordered him for a fifteen days' imprisonment. Over the punishment he again commented- "Sir! I had correctly mentioned my abode because I knew you will certainly keep me there." The people present in the court laughed very loudly over the reply of Chandra Shekhar. The magistrate, who had totally lost his temper asked the policemen to punish him with the strong strokes of fifteen lashes. With each stroke of the whip he shouted boldly- "Bharat Mata Ki Jai !" (en.hail my motherland). From that point onwards, Chandra Shekhar assumed the title of 'Azad' and came to be known as Chandra Shekhar 'Azad'.
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Revolutionary Life

After suspension of the non-cooperation movement in 1922 by Gandhiji, Azad became more aggressive and violent. He committed himself to achieve complete independence by any means. To fulfil his commitment he was in search of an organisation. He met an young revolutionary Pranvesh Chatterji who introduced him to Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil who had till then formed a revolutionary organisation with the name of Hindustan Republican Association. In the very first introduction Bismil was impressed by Azad, when he put his hand over the lighing lamp and did not remove till the smell of burning the skin did not spread all over the atmosphere. Bismil extinguished the lamp by firing a bullet from his pistol and embrashed Azad. This is a true incidence of Shahjahanpur. He became active member of H.R.A. and started participating in the actions of party to collect the funds for H.R.A. These actions were nothing but the dacoities (en.robberies) in the party's code words. The ultimate aim of H.R.A. was full Indian independence where there be equal right and equal opportunity to every one without caste, creed, religion or social status and Azad liked it since very beginning. He also wanted to build a new India based on socialist principles. Azad and his compatriots also planned and executed several acts of violence against the British. Most of his revolutionary activities were planned executed from Shahjahanpur which was the home town of Ram Prasad Bismil. He was physically involved in the famous Kakori Train Robbery of 1925. Later on in the attempt to blow up the Viceroy's train in 1926, and at last the shooting of J. P. Saunders at Lahore in 1928 to avenge the killing of Lala Lajpat Rai.
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Formation of Hindustan Socialist Republican Assocition

Appalled by the brutal violence, Azad did not feel that violence was unacceptable in such a struggle, especially in view of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre of 1919, when a British Army unit killed hundreds of unarmed civilians and wounded thousands in Amritsar. The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre deeply influenced young Azad and his contemporaries. He once claimed that as his name was "Azad' he would never be taken alive by police.That is why he killed himself towards the end of a shootout with the police. Azad also believed that India's future lay in socialism. Allegedly, he was aware of the informer who betrayed him to the police.

Azad was a true follower and confident friend of Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil moreover he was very strong pillar of Hindustan Republican Association. When he converted the party into a new one H.S.R.A. Vishwanath Vaishampayan was known as the right hand of Azad who also wrote the Biography of Azad, which has many secret and valuable facts about revoloutionary movement.
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Activities In Jhansi

In his very brief life of 25 years, Chandra Shekhar Azad had made Jhansi his organisation's hub for a considerable duration. He chose the forest of Orachha situated at about fifteen kilometers from Jhansi for shooting practices. He was a brilliant shooter and he used to train other members of his group in Orchha. Near the forest he had built up a hut aside a Hanuman Temple on the banks of a small river called Satar. He lived there in the disguise of Pandit Hari Shankar Brahmachari for a long period and started teaching kids of the nearby village Dhimarpura. In this way he managed to establish good rapport with the local residents. The village Dhimarpura is now named after him and is known as Azadpura by the M.P. government.

While living in Jhansi, he also learnt to drive a car at Bundelkhand Motor Garage in Sadar Bazar of the cantonment area. Sadashivrao Malkapurkar, Vishwanath Vaishampayan and Bhagwan Das Mahaur- all the three activist came in his close contact and became an integral part of his revolutionary group. The then congress leaders from Jhansi Pandit Raghunath Vinayak Dhulekar and Pandit Sitaram Bhaskar Bhagwat were also close to Azad. He also stayed for sometime in the house of Master Rudra Narayan Singh situated at Nai Basti and Pandit Sitaram Bhaskar Bhagwat's house in Nagra.

No doubt Jhansi was a safe place in his own words and true to them, as soon as he left Jhansi, he fell victim to the betrayal of a former group member, the residents of Jhansi suspect so.
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With Bhagat Singh

The Hindustan Republican Association (H.R.A.) was formed by Ram Prasad Bismil, Yogesh Chandra Chatterji, Sachindra Nath Sanyal and Shachindra Nath Bakshi in 1924 just after two year of the Non co-operation movement. In the aftermath of the Kakori train robbery in 1925, the British clamped down on revolutionary activities. Sentenced to death for their participation were Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil, Shayar Ashfaqulla Khan, Thakur Roshan Singh and Rajendra Nath Lahiri. Three escaped capture; one was Keshav Chakravorty, and the other was Chandra Shekhar Azad and third was Murari Lal. Keshav Chakravorty was no other but Dr.K.B.Hedgewar[2] who formed a new organisation in the name of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the year 1925, whereas Chandra Shekhar Azad reorganized the Hindustan Republican Association with the help of secondary revolutionaries like Sheo Verma and Mahaveer Singh. He was also a close associate of Bhagwati Charan Vohra who helped Azad, along with Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru,to transform the Hindustan Republican Association into Hindustan Socialist Republican Association in 1928 so as to achieve their fundamental aim of complete Indian independence based on socialist principles.
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Dare-Devil's Death

Image of the .32 bore Colt Pistol of Azad kept in Allahabad Museum

In the last week of Feb, 1931 Azad went to Sitapur Jail and met Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi. He had a hope in his mind that Vidyarthiji would do something in the case of Bhagat Singh and others as he had previously done in the Kakori conspiracy case. Vidyarthi suggested him to go to Allahabad and meet Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru because he would be more useful than any body else. If he is convinced he can persuade Gandhiji to talk to the Viceroy Lord Irwin in reaching an agreement with the British Government in the forthcoming Gandhi-Irwin Pact. Azad met Pandit Nehru in the early morning of 27 Feb, 1931 at his residence Anand Bhawan in Allahabad. He tried to convince Nehru but the result was not fruitful. In stead of getting convinced by arguments Nehru asked Azad to leave his place go away from there. Azad could not tolerate it at all and moved away murmuring something in his mouth. From Anand Bhawan he reached straightforward to the Alfred Park on his bicycle. He sat under a tree of Jamun (in. Hindi) after standing his bicycle behind the tree. He was discussing some confidential matter with Sukhdev Raj who was a man of his party. In the meantime a police jeep arrived there. Deputy Superintendent of Police Visheswar Singh along with S.S.P.(C.I.D.) J.R.H. Knott Wauber got down from the jeep. C.I.D. S.S.P. by pointing his finger towards Azad wanted to tell the Dy.S.P. that this corpulent man is the exact person to whom he was informed just now. Seeing a police man pointing out his finger towards him, Azad immediately dragged out his Colt Pistol from pocket and fired at the right wrist of S.S.P. Knott Wauber. "What a wonderful shot!"- cried Sukhdev Raj and took the shelter of tree. Visheswar Singh abused Azad and called him with bad names. Another bullet from his pistol hit his mouth breaking the jaw of Dy.S.P. Visheswar Singh. Within a few minutes policemen surrounded the whole park. During the initial encounter, Azad suffered a .303 bullet wound in his thigh, making it difficult for him to escape. But even than he made it possible for Sukhdev Raj to escape by providing him cover fire. After Sukhdev Raj escaped, Azad managed to keep the police at bay for a long time. Finally, with only one bullet left in his pistol and being completely surrounded and outnumbered, Chandra Shekhar Azad shot himself, keeping his pledge to never be captured alive. Finally, with only one bullet left in his pistol and being completely surrounded and outnumbered, Chandra Shekhar Azad shot himself, keeping his pledge to never be captured alive. However, British managed to fabricate the story in the police report and stated that he was killed in the police encounter by a troop leaded by the Officer-in-charge of Colonelganj Police Station Chowdhury Vishal Singh. According to the reliable sources a C.I.D. Inspector Ram Vadan Singh had given this information to Vishal Singh that his S.S.P. along with one Dy.S.P.have been seriously injured from a sever attack by some Indian revolutionary. It is also said that the police officers who came after the death of Azad did not approach his dead body for about half an hours. When a buckshot gun was fired into his tibia bone and no movement was noticed in the body only then the police could touch his dead body.[3] The secret file related to Azad is preserved in C.I.D. Headquarters, 1, Gokhale Marg, Lucknow. The Colt Pistol of Chandra Shekhar Azad is displayed at the Allahabad Museum along with a rare photo of his dead body, sketch of which is given hereunder.

Public and Police Officers watching dead body of Chandra Shekhar Azad


Statue of Azad at Chandra Shekhar Azad Park
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Popular Culture

Azad is an icon/hero to the Indians today. Alfred Park, where he fought his last battle was renamed Chandra Shekhar Azad Park, so were scores of schools, colleges, roads and other public institutions across India. Ever since Manoj Kumar's film released in 1965 Shaheed the character of Azad has become central to any film or commemoration of the life of Bhagat Singh. His role was played by Sunny Deol in the movie 23rd March 1931: Shaheed. In the movie The Legend of Bhagat Singh, starring Ajay Devgn where the prominent role of Azad was played by Akhilendra Mishra.

The patriotism of Chandra Shekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan was also depicted in Rang De Basanti- a contemporary Bollywood film starring Aamir Khan, released on 26 January 2006. The movie, which draws parallels between the lives of young revolutionaries such as Azad and Bhagat Singh and today's youth, also dwells upon the lack of appreciation among today's Indian youth for the sacrifices made by these heroes. Aamir Khan reprised the role of Azad. The film also depicts the famous Kakori Train Robbery.
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See also