Dhingra, Madanlal : (c.1883-1909) A Punjabi Kshatriya, he went to London with a B.A. in engineering & like most Indian students of the day, stayed at India House at which Sāvarkar was the central figure. The hanging of Kanailal & Satyendra during the Alipur Bomb Trial angered everyone at India House. When Dhingrā offered to go the whole way in avenging their deaths, Sāvarkar tested his endur¬ance to pain by asking him to put his hand on the ground & suddenly thrusting a big thick needle into the back of his palm. The needle went through & the wound began to bleed profusely but Madanlal showed no reaction. On 1 July 1909, Madanlal went to the public meeting of anti-Indian officials & shot dead Lt. Col. Sir Curzon-Wyllie, Aide of the Secretary of State, & in charge of spying on Indian students in Britain. Dhingrā’s action provoked controversy across Britain & India, evoking enthusiastic admiration as well as condemnation. Sāvarkar published an article in which he all but endorsed the murder & worked to organize support, both political & for Dhingrā’s legal defence. At a meeting of Indians called for a condemnation of Dhingrā’s deed, Sāvarkar protested the intention to condemn & was drawn into a hot debate & angry scuffle with other participants. A secretive & restricted trial by the Brit Govt. & a death-sentence provoked outcry & protest throughout the Indian student & political community. Strongly protesting the verdict, Sāvarkar struggled with British authorities in laying claim to Dhingrā’s remains following his execution. [Bhagatsingh, Mere Krāntikāri Sāthi, Delhi, 1977; Internet]
... praise of the self-denying and lofty character of the new Regent. In the absence of a patriotic King like the Mikado such a man alone can form the centre of national reconstruction. Madanlal Dhingra Madanlal Dhingra pays the inevitable and foreseen penalty of his crime. We have no wish whatever to load the memory of this unfortunate young man with curses and denunciations. Rather we hope that in ...
... catch at tendencies in the air to give a fictitious dignity and sensational interest to actions really dictated by the exaggerated feelings common to Page 127 these nervous disorders. Madanlal Dhingra evidently considered that Sir William Curzon-Wyllie was his personal enemy trying to alienate his family and interfere with his personal freedom and dignity. To an ordinary man these ideas would... from beginning to end. Its first error was to rise to the bait of Mr. Madhusudan Das' grotesquely violent speech on the London murders and assume a political significance in the act of the young man Dhingra. The theory of a conspiracy behind this act is, we believe, generally rejected in England. It is not supported by a scrap of evidence and is repudiated by the London police, a much more skilful detective ...
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