Lease of life

Freedom fighter Udham Singh's grandson works as a daily wager to make both ends meet. He was provided with financial assistance worth Rs 11 lakh at a function in the Capital on Wednesday

Lease of life

Freedom fighter Udham Singh's grandson works as a daily wager to make both ends meet. He was provided with financial assistance worth Rs 11 lakh at a function in the Capital on Wednesday

Almost 70 years ago, his grandfather Udham Singh assassinated Michael O'Dwyer -the mastermind behind the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, earning himself a place along with other revolutionaries who had fought for the independence of the country.

Tough life: Jeet Singh, grandson of freedom fighter Udham Singh,works
as a daily wager in a construction company while his two sons Pics/Mid Day

However, after the country got independence, he was virtually forgotten by the political leadership, resulting in his family being utterly neglected.u00a0 So much so that his grandson Jeet Singh, who is now 55, works as a daily wager in Sangrur in Punjab to make his both ends meet.

Back in time: Jeet Singh holding a copy of the book "Forgotten Indian
heroes & martyrs: their neglected descendants", that was released in
New Delhi on Wednesday. PIC/Rajeev Tyagi

On Wednesday, Jeet Singh finally seemed to get some recognition for his lineage when he was felicitated at a function in the capital and presented with cheques worth Rs 11.40 lakh.

The felicitation was organised by two Delhi-based journalists, Shivnath and Neena Jha, as part of their ongoing movement, Andolan: Ek Pustak Se, with a hope of providing Singh a decent life. The couple also launched a book "Forgotten Indian Heroes and Martyrs: Their Neglected Descendants-1857-1957" on the occasion.

"It's a tragedy that Jeet Singh is living in anonymity and penury in Punjab. Singh is engaged in a private construction company as a daily wager. Besides former President Giani Zail Singh, several Prime Ministers, chief ministers, local politicians and bureaucrats had assured Jeet of doing something for his family but nothing ever happened," said Shivnath while speaking on the occasion.

"His life has only become more miserable by the day. So through my book I had tired to provide Jeet, a dignified, if not luxurious, life. The book talks about the descendants of more than 22 forgotten heroes and is the fourth in the series launched by 'Andolan Ek Pustak Se' movement, which began in the year 2005," added Neena.

The book has accounts of descendants of martyrs like Rani Laxmi Bai, Tatya Tope, Thakur Durga Singh, Azimullah Khan, Jaipal Singh (who fought with Babu Kunwar Singh in Bihar), Mangal Pandey, Zabardast Khan, Surendra Sai, Udham Singh, Khudiram Bose, Bhagat Singh, Ras Behari Bose, Chandra Shekhar Azad, among others.

Jeet says that his hand-to-mouth condition had left him with no option but to make his two children work to supplement his meagre income. "My elder son Jaspal works in a cloth shop while his younger brother Bobby assists at a printing shop. But my troubles don't stop me from smiling proudly on this day, and remembering what my granddad did for the country," said Singh.

Expressing grief over the sad condition of Singh, Vimal Joshi, a history professor from Delhi University said, "The least one would expect any government to do is to identify the families of these heroes and give them a pride of place in all national functions. Needless to say, their education and medical care should be the responsibility of the state."

Who was Udham Singh?
Twenty years after the massacre, the genocide was avenged by an inspired young man, Udham Singh. On March 13, 1940, at 4.30 pm in the Caxton Hall, London, where a meeting of the East India Association was being held in conjunction with the Royal Central Asian Society, Udham Singh fired five to six rounds from his pistol at Dwyer, who was Governor of the Punjab when the massacre had taken place. Dwyer was hit twice and fell to the ground dead and Lord Zetland, the Secretary of State for India, who was presiding over the meeting, was injured. Udham Singh was overpowered though in fact he had made no attempt to escape while maintaining all the time that he had done his duty for his country. On July 31, 1940, Udham Singh was hanged in Pentonville Prison in London.

The bloody Baisakhi of 1919
The Baisakhi of April 13, 1919 is a watershed day in India's history. Hundreds of peaceful demonstrators - children, women included - were massacred by the British forces under General Michael O'Dwyer at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab. Those killed were common people who had nurtured a dream of freedom for India.

Other cases
*u00a0Vinayak Rao Tope, the fourth generation descendant of 1857 mutiny leader Tatya Tope, along with wife Saraswati and three children Pragati, Tripti and Ashutosh, was virtually begging on the streets of Bithor in Kanpur for years. In 2007, Lalu Prasad Yadav granted them an aid of Rs 5,00,000.
* Sultana Begam, the great granddaughter-in-law of India's last emperor and commander-in-chief of 1857 mutiny, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was living in a slum in Howrah and running a tea shop for her livelihood. Moved by her plight, senior politicians like Mamta Banerjee offered her financial help.