The site of festive joy turned into an inferno as the ghosts of imperialism unleashed their fury. General Dyer's orders resulted in the death of hundreds of innocent people. He was merely a puppet, controlled by the whims and fancies of O'Dwyer- the villain of the story, the maker of the tragedy. As he sat in London, he encouraged his men to violently suppress any agitation against the Rowlatt Act on the other side of the world. His intent was clear, any Indian unwilling to accept their subjugation under the British regime was an enemy, an enemy that needed to be vanquished.

Dyer was informed of this congregation, and he decided to take matters into his hands. There were no attempts to peacefully disperse the crowd, no warning given; it was only blood.

Blood. Screams. Pain.

The Amristar massacre made it clear that the British empire did not care about Indians, and many decided to take the perilous road of the Indian freedom struggle.

To this new crop of young revolutionaries belonged Udam Singh, an unwavering soldier of the nation. It is believed that little boy Udham was present at the Jallianwala Bagh and was wounded because of the firring. Some even claim that he offered water to the inured and helped a woman find her husband. Amidst this gore and gruesome death, the boy swore to take revenge and mend the wounds of his motherland. Historians, however, have contested these claims, but these legends still play a part in the construction of Udham's memory in the consciousness of today's Indians. Yet there is no doubt that the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh left a deep imprint on the youth of Punjab. It did not matter if they or their loved ones were present there. All that mattered was the fact that a foreign power had infiltrated their homes and taken the entire country hostage. It was thus the time to reclaim their land. He believed that it was futile to evoke the conscience of the morally corrupt colonial government and cowardly to beg for its generosity.

Udham Singh swore to kill O'Dwyer, the man immersed in the mania of imperialism who orchestrated the indiscriminate killing of civilians. It was a sin to even think about it. It was an act of greatest audacity to even look a British official in the eye. It was an open invitation to death. Yet, there was nothing that could stop Singh, and he made it his life mission to teach O'Dwyer a lesson that would fit his crime.

Udham's freedom fervour and political ideas were greatly influenced by his personal experiences, particularly the hardships he faced as a child of a poor family. Born on 26 December 1899 as Sher Singh, he lost his mother at a very young age. His father, being a person of the lower caste, was a daily wage worker. As a result, both Singh and his elder brother started to work early on. Unfortunately, their father too passed away, and the siblings were put up in the Central Khalsa Orphanage by their uncle, who did not have the means to support them. It was here that this young boy got this new name, Udham Singh. Tragedy soon followed, and he lost his brother too. He was now left all alone. The making of an immortal hero was still not finished. After joining the British Indian Army despite being below the official age of enrollment during the First World War and working there as a mechanic, welder, and carpenter, he finally came back to India in 1919. This year was a momentous marker in the history of the Indian freedom struggle and Udham Singh's life. No more was he a young man trying to make it through the general hardships of life, but a revolutionary committed to the cause of freedom.

It was here that the ideas of Bhagat Singh and his Marxist-Leninist inclinations began to crystallise his political opinions. Although Bhagat Singh was far younger than Udham, the latter had no qualms in accepting him as his guide. Contrary to popular opinion, these two revolutionaries were not very close in a personal capacity but were comrades in the fight against colonialism. The Gadhar moment spearheaded by like-minded Punjabi men who wanted India to be a communist nation became a shared dream between the two.

Since this fight for liberation was being sculpted in the United States and Canada, Udham decided to bid adieu to his motherland. It was on Bhagat Singh's suggestion that he travelled across half the globe to find members and ammunition that would make it possible to materialise this dream.

Just as everything was going according to the plan, hell broke loose, and Singh was put under arrest. Charges of conspiring against the empire and possessing arms without a license were slapped on him. Udham was officially an enemy of the state from this point. He had also had with him multiple copies of the Gadhar Party Paper, which was seen as blasphemy against the British regime.

It was concluded that Singh was too dangerous, and even constant surveillance of his each and every move would not be able to contain the threat that he posed. He was a ticking time bomb, and the British wanted to get rid of him at the first opportunity. In 1927, Udham was thrown behind bars. Fate played its own cruel hand as Bhagat Singh was hanged while he was serving his prison sentence. The dawn these two men wanted to see together, where glimmering rays of the rays would touch the sovereign land of India, now seemed like a distant fantasy.

It felt like Singh was a bottomless pit, from whose darkness one can never escape as it trails behind you even if you manage to escape. When he was finally released, the world had changed quite a bit. Unlike earlier days, it was difficult to carry out his clandestine attempts at bringing down the colonial government as they followed him everywhere.

When he had enough, Udham Singh decided to evade this constant jail that he was forced to live in. He managed to reach Kashmir, then Germany and finally Britain. For twenty long years, he had waited to strike back. The chase eventually took him to London, where he started working as an engineer.

His target was Michael O'Dwyer, the man under whose jackboot many Indians perished. He knew it would be difficult to get even close to him, forget putting a bullet through his body, as oppressing Indians made him a celebrated official of the empire. With utmost precision and dedication, Udham came up with a plan. The Caxton Hall would see history unfold under its roof on 13 March 1940. O'Dwyer had been invited to the joint meeting of the East India Association and the Central Asian Society. Singh snuck in his revolver by hiding it in a hollowed-out book. Just as the Englishman started to move towards the podium, the hall bellowed with screams. Udham Singh had managed to keep his promise. He had taken his revenge. Michael O'Dwyer had died due to the two bullets that he fired.

This was it. It was never his intent to run away or hide. An escape was never a part of this plan. This was an act of revenge for those who had been wronged, and his mission was now complete.

Singh was arrested and taken to prison on charges of murder.

Not once did he try to plead his case or think of ways to reduce his punishment. He even took up the name Ram Mohammad Singh Azad while he was in custody. It was not just in his name but his iron-like spirit too that glimpses of India shone through. Udham Singh was convicted and given the death penalty. His speech from this day shook the British empire to its core, and they put in all to prevent its circulation. Yet, when can the winds of change ever be contained. Singh's words echoed through the hearts of not just Indians but every single person living under the clouds of colonialism.

Udham Singh was executed on 31 July 1940, but his legacy became immortal. In just 40 years, he managed to do the unimaginable. It is important to note that he was not merely a man driven by blind rage but a revolutionary who understood very well how the machinery of imperialism worked. Singh believed in a universal fight against it and even joined forces with Irish nationalists.

It was finally in 1974 that his ashes were handed to India, and he could finally rest in the lap of the nation for which he sacrificed everything.