Udham Singh was born on 26 December 1899. The father’s name of Udham Singh was Tahal Singh, a watchman in Uppal village. Singh lost his parents when he was just 7 years old. He also lost his brother in the year 1917.
In India, he is sometimes called “Shaheed i Azam”, which means “The Great Martyr”. The reason is that Michael O’Dwyer had supported a massacre of over 1,000 people over 20 years before he was assassinated. In 1919, riots broke out against British rule in Punjab, which was ultimately put down by firing on civilians, including women and children. There had been riots a few days before that killed four Europeans and burned down some British banks, but the crowd fired upon is considered a group of peaceful protesters.
