On the 114th anniversary of Madan Lal Dhingra’s execution, a memorial in the name of him is being formally inaugurated in Amritsar’s Golbagh area.
- Madan Lal Dhingra was an Indian revolutionary who was hanged to death on August 17, 1909, at the age of only 24, for killing British official Curzon Wyllie.
- While studying in London, Dhingra came in contact with Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Shyamji Krishna Varma, both active in revolutionary circles in the city.
- He became a member of the secretive Abhinav Bharat Mandal founded by Vinayak Savarkar and his brother Ganesh.
- It was here that Dhingra’s eventual plan of assasinating Curzon Willie would materialise, and he would pick up the required shooting skills to carry out the killing.
- On July 1, 1909, Dhingra attended the annual ‘At Home’ function hosted by the Indian National Association at the Imperial Institute, London.
- Curzon Wyllie, at the time selected to be the political aide-de-camp to the Secretary of State for India, was also present in the function with his wife.
- When he was leaving the function, Dhingra fired five shots at Curzon Wyllie, four of which hit the target.
- Dhingra was pronounced guilty and executed on August 17, 1909 at the Pentoville prison in London.
- Dhingra would be buried in London with his remains returning to India only in 1976. He was cremated at Amritsar’s Mal Mandi area that year, and the location of his cremation was conscecrated with a statue, the first in his hometown, decades after his sacrifice.
