Chandra Shekhar Azad

Chandra Shekhar Sitaram Tiwari (23 July 1906 – 27 February 1931), popularly known as Chandra
Shekhar Azad, was an Indian revolutionary who reorganised the Hindustan Republican Association
(HRA) under its new name of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) after the death of
its founder, Ram Prasad Bismil, and three other prominent party leaders, Roshan Singh, Rajendra
Nath Lahiri and Ashfaqulla Khan. He hailed from Bardarka village in Unnao district of United
Provinces and his parents were Sitaram Tiwari and Jagrani Devi. He often used the pseudonym
"Balraj" while signing pamphlets issued as the commander-in-chief of the HSRA.[2]He worked closely
with Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru.

Early life

Chandra Shekhar Azad was born on 23 July 1906 in Bhabhra village as Chandra Shekhar Tiwari, in a
Kanyakubja Brahmin family, in the princely state of Alirajpur. His forefathers were from Badarka
village, of the Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh.[3] His mother, Jagrani Devi, was the third wife of
Sitaram Tiwari, whose previous wives had died young. After the birth of their first son, Sukhdev, in
Badarka, the family moved to the Alirajpur State.[4][5]

His mother wanted her son to be a great Sanskrit scholar and persuaded his father to send him to
Kashi Vidyapeeth at Banaras to study. In 1921, when the Non-Cooperation Movement was at its
height, Chandra Shekhar, then a 15-year-old student, joined. As a result, he was arrested on 24
December. On being presented before the Parsi district magistrate Justice M. P. Khareghat two
weeks later, he gave his name as "Azad" (The Free), his father's name as "Swatantrata"
(Independence) and his residence as "Jail". The angered magistrate punished him with 15 blows.[6]

Revolutionary life

After the suspension of the non-cooperation movement in 1922 by Mahatma Gandhi, Azad became
disappointed. He met a young revolutionary, Manmath Nath Gupta, who introduced him to Ram
Prasad Bismil who had formed the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), a revolutionary
organisation. He then became an active member of the HRA and started to collect funds for HRA.
Most of the fund collection was through robberies of government property. He was involved in the
Kakori Train Robbery of 1925, the shooting of John P. Saunders at Lahore in 1928 to avenge the
killing of Lala Lajpat Rai, and at last, in the attempt to blow up the Viceroy of India's train in 1929.
Azad got to read Karl Marx's Manifesto of the
Chandra Shekhar Azad
Communist Party from his comrade Shiv Verma.
When Azad was the commander-in-chief of the
revolutionary party, he often used to borrow a
book called ABC of Communism from writer
Satyabhakta to teach socialism to his cadres.
Despite being a member of Indian National
Congress, Motilal Nehru regularly gave money in
support of Azad.[7]

Activities in Jhansi

Azad made Jhansi his organisation's hub for

some time. He used the forest of Orchha, situated
15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Jhansi, as a site for Azad in 1926

shooting practice and, being an expert marksman,

Born Chandra Shekhar
he trained other members of his group. He built a
Sitaram Tiwari
hut near to a Hanuman temple on the banks of
23 July 1906
the Satar River and lived there under the alias of Bhabhra, Alirajpur
Pandit Harishankar Bramhachari for a long State, British India[1]
period. He taught children from the nearby village
Died 27 February 1931
of Dhimarpura and thus managed to establish a
(aged 24)
good rapport with the local residents.
Allahabad, United
Provinces, British
While living in Jhansi, he also learned to drive a
India
car at the Bundelkhand Motor Garage in Sadar
Bazar. Sadashivrao Malkapurkar, Vishwanath Cause of death Suicide by gunshot

Vaishampayan and Bhagwan Das Mahaur came

Other names Azad
in close contact with him and became an integral
Balraj
part of his revolutionary group. The then congress
leaders, Raghunath Vinayak Dhulekar and Sitaram Occupation Revolutionary

Bhaskar Bhagwat were also close to Azad. He

Organization Hindustan Socialist
also stayed for some time in the house of Rudra Republican
Narayan Singh at Nai Basti, as well as Bhagwat's Association
house in Nagra.
Movement Indian Independence
Movement
 Chandrasekhar Azad in Jhansi, in
Rudranarayan's house

With Bhagat Singh

HSRA pamphlet after Saunders' murder,

signed by Balraj, a pseudonym of Azad

The Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) was formed by Ram Prasad Bismil, Jogesh Chandra
Chatterjee, Sachindra Nath Sanyal and Sachindra Nath Bakshi in 1923. In the aftermath of the Kakori
train robbery in 1925, the British suppressed revolutionary activities. Prasad, Ashfaqulla Khan,
Thakur Roshan Singh and Rajendra Nath Lahiri were sentenced to death for their participation.
Azad, Keshab Chakravarthy and Murari Lal Gupta evaded capture. Azad later reorganised the HRA
with the help of fellow revolutionaries like Shiv Verma and Mahabir Singh.

In 1928, along with Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries he secretly reorganised the Hindustan
Republican Association (HRA), renaming it as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association
(HSRA) on 8—9 September,[8] so as to achieve their primary aim of an independent socialist India.
Azad then conspired with revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru
to assassinate the Superintendent of police, James A. Scott in order to avenge Lala Rajpat Rai's
death.[9] However, in a case of mistaken identity, the plotters assassinated John P. Saunders, an
Assistant Superintendent of Police, instead of Scott. Azad also shot dead an Indian police head
constable Channan Singh who attempted to chase Singh and Azad, as he was leaving the District
Police Headquarters in Lahore on 17 December 1928.[10] An insight into his revolutionary activities
is provided by Manmath Nath Gupta, a fellow member of HSRA in his numerous writings. Gupta has
also written his biography titled "Chandrashekhar Azad" in his book History of the Indian
Revolutionary Movement (English version of above: 1972) which provides further insights on Azad's
activities, his ideologies, and the HSRA.

Death

The tree at Alfred Park in Allahabad where

Azad died

On 27 February 1931, the CID head of the police at Allahabad, J. R. H. Nott-Bower was tipped off by
Veer Bhadra Tiwari that Azad was at Alfred Park and was having a talk with his companion and aide
Sukhdev Raj. On receiving it, Bower called on the Allahabad Police to accompany him to the park to
arrest him. The police arrived at the park and surrounded it from all four sides. Some constables
along with DSP Thakur Vishweshwar Singh entered the park armed with rifles and the shootout
began. Azad killed three policemen but was badly wounded in the process of defending himself and
helping his colleague Raj. Azad told him to move out in order to continue the freedom struggle and
gave him cover fire for Raj to safely escape from the park. Azad hid behind a jamun tree to save
himself and began to fire from behind it. That tree no longer survives because it was cut down by
the British on the same day, now Azad's statue stands at the place of tree. One of the shot from
Azad hit Bower's wrist who was hiding behind a Moolashree tree, tree survived for a long time but
no longer survives. The police fired back. After a long shootout, holding true to his pledge to always
remain Azad (Free) and never be captured alive, he shot himself in the head with his gun's last bullet.
In the shootout, Bower and DSP Singh were injured in the right hand and jaws respectively. The
police recovered Azad's body after the other officers arrived at the site. They were hesitant to come
close to Azad after finding him dead.

The body was sent to Rasulabad Ghat for cremation without informing the general public. As it
came to light, people surrounded the park where the incident had taken place. They chanted slogans
against the British government and praised Azad.[11]

Legacy

Statue of Azad at Alfred Park in Prayagraj

Jawaharlal Nehru in his autobiography wrote that Azad met him a few weeks before his death,
inquiring about the possibility of not being considered an outlaw as a result of Gandhi-Irwin pact.
Nehru wrote that Azad also saw the 'futility' of his methods and so did many of his associates,
though was not completely convinced that 'peaceful methods' would work either.[12]

Several schools, colleges, roads, and other public institutions across India are also named after
Azad.
Starting from Jagdish Gautam's 1963 film Chandrasekhar Azad and Manoj Kumar's 1965 film
Shaheed, many films have featured the character of Azad. Manmohan played Azad in the 1965 film,
Sunny Deol portrayed Azad in the movie 23rd March 1931: Shaheed (2002), Azad was portrayed by
Akhilendra Mishra in The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002) and Raj Zutshi portrayed Azad in Shaheed-
E-Azam (2002). In the 2006 film, Rang De Basanti, produced and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash
Mehra, Azad was portrayed by Aamir Khan, which was about the lives of Azad, Bhagat Singh,
Shivaram Rajguru, Ram Prasad Bismil, and Ashfaqulla Khan; the film drew parallels between the
lives of young revolutionaries such as Azad and Singh, and today's youth, and dwelt upon the lack of
appreciation among Indian youth today for the sacrifices made by these men.[13]

The 2018 television series Chandrashekhar chronicled the life of Azad from his childhood to his
being a revolutionary leader. In the series, young Azad was portrayed by Ayaan Zubair, Azad in his
teens by Dev Joshi and the adult Azad by Karan Sharma.[14]

In 2023 DD National serial Swaraj included a full episode (epi:65) on Chandra Shekar Azad. The title
role of Chandra Shekar Azad was played by actor Manish Naggdev.

See also

Bhagat Singh

Ashfaqulla Khan

Kakori Train Robbery

History of India

Partition of India

Partition of Bengal (1905)

Independence Day (India)

Indian independence movement

Revolutionary movement for Indian independence

Women of the Indian independence movement

References

1. "REVEALING THE TRUTH BEHIND THE REAL BIRTH PLACE AND DATE OF AZAD! – A Soul
Window" ([Link]
 azad/) . 28 January 2017.

2. "Mahatma Gandhi tried his best to save Bhagat Singh" ([Link]

on/mahatma-gandhi-tried-his-best-to-save-bhagat-singhs-life) . Retrieved 4 September 2018.

3. "Pratappur Bhaunti इस the ancestral village of Chandrashekhar Aazad" ([Link]

om/uttar-pradesh/kanpur/pratappur-bhaunti-is-the-ancestral-village-of-chandrashekhar-azad-1
708963363) . inext live. 2024.

4. The Calcutta review ([Link] . University of

Calcutta. Dept. of English. 1958. p. 44. Retrieved 11 September 2012.

5. Catherine B. Asher, ed. (June 1994). India 2001: reference encyclopedia ([Link]
om/books?id=F_BtAAAAMAAJ) . South Asia Publications. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-945921-42-4.
Retrieved 11 September 2012.

6. Rana, Bhawan Singh (2005). Chandra Shekhar Azad (An Immortal Revolutionary of India) (http
s://[Link]/books?id=sudu7qABntcC) . Diamond Pocket Books. pp. 22–24.
ISBN 9788128808166.

7. Mittal, S. K.; Habib, Irfan (June 1982). "The Congress and the Revolutionaries in the 1920s".
Social Scientist. 10 (6): 20–37. doi:10.2307/3517065 ([Link] .
ISSN 0970-0293 ([Link] . JSTOR 3517065 ([Link]
[Link]/stable/3517065) .

8. Habib, Irfan (September 1997). "Civil Disobedience 1930–31". Social Scientist. 25 (9/10): 43–
66. doi:10.2307/3517680 ([Link] . JSTOR 3517680 ([Link]
[Link]/stable/3517680) .

9. Gupta, Amit Kumar (September 1997). "Defying Death: Nationalist Revolutionism in India, 1897-
1938" ([Link] . Social Scientist. 25 (9/10): 3–27.
doi:10.2307/3517678 ([Link] . JSTOR 3517678 ([Link]
[Link]/stable/3517678) .

10. Nayar, Kuldip (2000). The martyr : Bhagat Singh experiments in revolution. New Delhi: Har-Anand
Publications. p. 39. ISBN 81-241-0700-9. OCLC 46929363 ([Link]
929363) .

11. Khatri, Ram Krishna (1983). Shaheedon Ki Chhaya Mein. Nagpur: Vishwabharati Prakashan.
pp. 138–139.

12. An Autobiography. Nehru, Jawaharlal. 1936. p. 262. ISBN 9780143031048.

13. Is The Indian Script Unique ([Link] .
Film Writers Association. 13 April 2012. Event occurs at 23:34. Archived ([Link]
org/varchive/youtube/20211213/8BFSpBoX9uM) from the original on 13 December 2021.
Retrieved 1 August 2016 – via YouTube.

14. "This peace is the result of the sacrifice of freedom fighters like Azad: Ayaan Zubair" ([Link]
[Link]/tv/news/hindi/this-peace-is-the-result-of-the-sacrifice-of-freedom-f
ighters-like-azad-ayaan-zubair/articleshow/[Link]) . The Times of India. 31 March
2018.

Further reading

Brahmdutt, Chandramani. Kranti Ki Laptain. ISBN 81-88167-30-4 (in Hindi)

Krishnamurthy, Babu. Ajeya ("Unconquered"). Biography of Azad (in Kannada)

Amar Shaheed Chandrashekhar Azad by Vaishampayan (in Hindi)

Waiting for Swaraj: Inner Lives of Indian Revolutionaries by Aparna Vaidik

External links