Chandra Shekhar Azad biography
Whenever we hear the word “Azad”, then our mind starts to imagine a person who is touching his mustaches proudly, and we know this person by the name of Chandrashekhar Azad.
A young revolutionary who happily gave up his life for India’s independence. As long as he fought the British for his country, he was always free.
The British government whose sun was never set in the world, but could not even catch Chandra Shekhar Azad.
He was free till his last breath.
Early Life
Chandra Shekhar Azad was born on 23 July 1906 in a village called Bhavra in Madhya Pradesh. But in today’s modern times, that village is known as Chandrashekhar Azad Nagar.
Although his family used to belong from Badarka village in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district, his father Sitaram Tiwari left his village and shifted to Bhabra village in Madhya Pradesh due to famine.
Chandra Sekhar did a lot of archery and shooting with the boys, but he was very fond of shooting. He was rebellious since childhood. He did not pay much attention to study, but his mind used to be on sports.
But then there was an event which had woken the whole of India and that event was the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, and this has shaken the soul of Chandra Shekhar, therefore he vowed to fight against the British.
My name is Azad
His real name was Chandrashekhar Tiwari but his friends used to call him by names like Panditji, Azad, Balraj, or quick Silver, but his favorite name was Azad and he loved the name very much.
His surname was Tiwari but he changed his surname to Azad. He did not even accept the caste bond.
There’s an interesting fact behind how he got his “Azad” surname. And this story has been mentioned by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
In the year 1921, when the Non-Cooperation Movement was at its peak, Chandrashekhar was arrested during a protest and was appeared in front of the magistrate.
At that time, Magistrate Mr. Khareghat was famous for his harsh punishments! Read below the talk between Magistrate and Azad
Magistrate: What is your name?
Azad: My name is Azad.
Magistrate: What is your father’s name.
Azad: My father’s name is Swadhinata.
Magistrate: What is your mother’s name.
Azad: India is my mother and jail is my home.
After this, the magistrate was so angry that he had sentenced Chandrashekhar 15 times to beat him with a stick.
When the child Chandrashekhar was beaten with stick 15 times, he did not even make any noise. Whenever he was beaten with a stick, he used to chant the slogan of Bharat Mata ki Jai (Hail Mother India).
And after the punishment, he was given some coins but he threw them on the jailor’s mouth. And after this incident, he got his name, Azad.
Start of revolution
After the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Chandrashekhar understood one thing that freedom will be gained not from talking but from guns. At that time, the non-violent movement of Mahatma Gandhi was at its peak and was supported by people all over India.
Chandrashekhar Azad also participated in the non-cooperation movement run by Mahatma Gandhi after which he was sentenced but when the movement was withdrawn after the Chaura-Chauri scandal, Azad became disenchanted with the Congress and after that, he moved to Benaras.
Banaras was a center of revolutionary activities in those days. There, Chandrasekhar met the great revolutionaries of India, Manathanath Gupta, and Pravesh Chatterjee. And influenced by those two leaders, Chandra Shekhar became a member of the Indian Democratic Union.
The motive of this organization was to loot those villagers who looted the poor people, but the members of this party soon realized that they could never side the public by looting their people.
Therefore, this organization changed its activities and started harming only the government establishments. The people of this team published the famous pamphlet The Revival to familiarize the whole of India with its aims. And after this, they carried out an incident which is written in golden words in the history of India – the Kakori scandal.
Kakori incident and commander in chief
Almost every educated person of independent India is familiar with the Kakori incident in which the great revolutionaries of India, Pandit Ramprasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan, Rajendranath Lahiri, and Thakur Roshan Singh were ordered to be hanged.
All these members of the Kakori conspiracy were looting the treasury of the British which the British were stealing from India and sending to their country, the Indian revolutionaries presented a challenge to the British.
However, most of the members of the Kakori incident were arrested only after this incident. And this team was sort of disintegrated.
After this incident, Azad also faced a crisis and the British government had given a command to catch him, but despite efforts, the British government had failed to catch him. After this, Azad arrived in Delhi where a secret meeting of all the remaining revolutionaries was held at Ferozeshah Kotla ground.
And in that assembly, apart from Azad, India’s well-known revolutionary Bhagat Singh was also included. There was talk for a new formation in that assembly and it was said that “the fight for revolution should be carried forward either we will die or win.
And that new organization was named Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. Whose commander was Chandra Shekhar Azad? The inspiring sentence of this organization was that “Our fight will continue till the final decision, either we will die or win”.
The assassination of saunders and bomb in the assembly
As soon as this organization became active, it started executing such incidents that the British government had fallen behind the members of this organization. To avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bhagat Singh was determined to assassinate Saunders, in which Chandrashekhar Azad also supported him.
Bhagat Singh was influenced by the Irish Revolution, so he decided to bomb the assembly and Azad also supported him in that.
After both these incidents, the British government had given full force in capturing the revolutionaries, due to which this organization was shattered again.
Azad tried hard to free Bhagat Singh but he could not succeed. And the British had arrested almost all the revolutionaries, but the British government could not catch Azad.
Alfred Park and Azad
Rajguru, Bhagat Singh, and Sukhdev were ordered to be hanged by the British government, after which Chandra Shekhar Azad was trying to reduce the punishment of the revolutionaries.
For which he had reached Allahabad, but unfortunately police got aware of this and police surrounded the entire Alfred Park from all four sides to catch Chandra Shekhar Azad and forced him to surrender but Azad did not surrender but martyred while fighting.
His last cremation was also done by the British Government without informing anyone. And when the common people came to know about his death, they came out on the streets,
People started worshiping the tree under which the great revolutionary took his last breath. And the whole of India was saddened by his death, it seemed as if India had lost a diamond.