Latest revision as of 12:42, 13 April 2025

[edit] A brief biography

Feb 28, 2025: The Indian Express

The is one of the very few available photos of Chandra Shekhar Azad. (Wikimedia Commons)
From: Feb 28, 2025: The Indian Express

Chandra Shekhar Azad was only 24 when he died on February 27, 1931. And through his death he ensured that his resolve to never be captured alive — to be azad (free) till his very last breath — was not broken. Here’s the story.

Becoming ‘Azad’

Born in the princely state of Alirajpur (present-day Madhya Pradesh) in 1906, Chandra Shekhar Sitaram Tiwari grew up in poverty. He left his home when only 15 years-old. After a brief while in the dockyards of Bombay, Chandra Shekhar found himself in Benares, where he was given free accommodation and clothing at a Sanskrit school.

But studies did not interest him. And with the Mahatma Gandhi-led Non Cooperation Movement at its apex, the politically bustling Benares gave him ample opportunity to do other things. Soon, he was a part of Congress-organised youth groups, picketing liquor shops and participating in protests. He would eventually be arrested, charged with disrupting public disorder, and produced before a magistrate. It was at this point that Chandra Shekhar became Azad.

“The judge asked the young boy his name and other family details. He replied that his name was ‘Azad’, his father’s name was ‘Swatantra’ [Independence] and his home address was a jail cell,” historian Aparna Vaidik wrote in Waiting for Swaraj: Inner Lives of Indian Revolutionaries (2021). Enraged at his insolence, the judge ordered that Chandra Shekhar be caned 15 times.

After being released, Chandra Shekhar dropped his Brahmin name and took on the title of Azad, making resolving to never be captured again.

From satyagraha to revolution

Azad was very upset when Gandhi called off the Non Cooperation Movement in February 1922. And like many of his contemporaries, his frustration pushed him down a more militant path.

As fellow revolutionary Manmathnath Gupta recalled, “This is is the line from where the new current started in the lives of people like Chandrashekhar Azad and myself, who later on from being staunch followers of Gandhi jumped to the other side, and were sucked in the vortex of revolutionary movement”. (NMML papers).

He would soon join the Hindustan Republican Army (HRA) of Ram Prasad Bismil and Sachindranath Sanyal, where he participated in numerous political dacoities to raise funds for an eventual armed uprising. The most famous of these was the Kakori train robbery of 1925. Of those involved, Azad was the only one to escape the authorities — Azad had fled to Jhansi, where he lay low till the trial ended.

Subsequently, he began organising again. It was at this time that he met Bhagat Singh.

HSRA’s two actions

The two would eventually gather a crew of revolutionaries from across United Provinces and Panjab, and establish the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in 1928. This was the successor to the HRA, but now with a far more explicit socialist bent, courtesy Bhagat Singh.

While Bhagat Singh was the political ideologue of the organisation, Azad was its military leader — the one who strategised, planned and helped execute ‘actions’, gave the young men training in target practice, and helped organise arms and ammunition. He would, most famously, plan and execute the murder of John Saunders, a British police officer in Lahore in December 1928. Bhagat Singh and Rajguru shot Saunders, while Azad shot dead a police constable who chased the assassins.

The HSRA pamphlet after Saunder’s death said the following: “With the death of J P Saunders the assassinaiton of Lala Lajpat Rai has been avenged… Today the world has seen that the people of India are not lifeless; their blood has not become cold… Our aim is to bring about a revolution which would end all exploitation of man by man. Inqualab Zindabad!” It was signed by ‘Balraj’, one of the many pseudonyms that Azad went by.

The HSRA would carry out one more “action” — the bombing of the Central Assembly in Delhi by Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt in 1929. After this, the British crackdown sent the organisation in disarray. Almost all of its leaders were eventually arrested. Bhagat Singh, along with Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar would be hanged for the killing of Saunders on March 21, 1931.

Last stand in Allahabad

But Azad remained free, continuing to operate while underground, mostly focussed on hatching a plan to free his comrade Bhagat Singh from prison. But his luck would soon run out.

On February 27, 1931, Azad was on his way to meet fellow revolutionary Sukhdev Raj (no connection to Sukhdev Thapar) at Allahabad’s Alfred Park when the police got to know about his whereabouts. The park was soon surrounded by a police battalion. Outmanned and outgunned, Azad nonetheless put up a brave fight.

He helped Sukhdev escape, and put up his final stand. He shot as many as three policemen dead, but was badly injured in the process. With only one bullet left in his pistol, Azad decided to stay true to his resolve to never be taken alive, and shot himself in the head. (Some accounts dispute this fact, and say that he succumbed to his wounds instead).

The police hurriedly cremated his body. Today, the park where Azad laid his life is named after him and a smaller memorial plaque stands in front of the tree where he sought cover from police firing.