Speech on Chandra Shekhar Azad

              CHANDRA SHEKHAR AZAD 

      

Chandra Shekhar was born on 23 July 1906 in village Bhavra in Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh to pandit Sita Ram Tiwari and Jagrani Devi. Pandit Sita Ram Tiwari, Father of Chandra Shekhar Azad, was a poor, orthodox Brahmin, who had to leave his home village Badarka (U.P.) in search of livelihood. He served as a watchman in a state garden in Bhavra, a village formerly in Alirajpur State and Now in the Jhabua District of Madhya Pradesh. It was here in a bamboo hut plastered with mud that Jagrani Devi gave birth to Chandra Shekhar Azad on July 23, 1906.

He received his early schooling in Bhavra. For higher studies he went to the Sanskrit Patashala at Varanasi. He was fond of wandering and hunting with Bhil boys of his neghbourhood with bow and arrows. This was very much disliked by his orthodox father.

Those were the days of the great national upsurage on non-violent non-cooperation movement of 1920-21 under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. Young Chandra Shekhar along with other students was fascinated and drawn into it. By nature he loved energetic activities more than passive studies. Very soon he became a favorite of the local leaders like Shiva Prasad Gupta. When arrested, he was so young that handcuffs were too big for his wrists.

He was put on trial before a magistrate who was known to be notorious for his brutality towards freedom fighters. Chandra Shekhar’s natural aptitudes led him to contact Manmath Nath Gupta. Through him he joined the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army where he soon gained the admiration of its leaders. They lovingly called him ‘quick-silver’ for his restless energy. He took an active part in every armed action of the party under the leadership of Ramprasa Bismil. He was involved in the Kakori Conspiracy (1926), the attempt to blow up the Viceroy’s train (1926) the Assembly Bomb Incident, the Delhi Conspiracy, the Shooting of Saunders at Lahore (1928) and the Second Lahore Conspiracy.

“Dushman Ki Goliyon Ka Ham Samna Karenge, Azad hee rahe Hain, Azad hee rahenge”

Azad was of the opinion that the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army had moved far ahead and that no purpose would be served by asking individuals to take to armed action. The time had come to pass on to mass revolutionary actions culminating in a socialist revolution. To achieve that it was necessary to make a thorough study of the methods that were so successfully used by the Bolsheviks in Russia.

For this purpose as a regular member of the H.S.R. Army, he was asked to proceed to Russia at his own resources. The only help the party would provide him was an automatic pistol with a magazine of eleven cartridges. The assignment was fulfilled in letter and spirit, but, alas, Azad was no more there to guide and instruct the group further.

As is believed by most of the knowledgeable revolutionary comrades of that time, Azad was betrayed by an associate who turned a traitor. On February 27, 1931, in the Alfred Park, Allahabad, Azad was surrounded by a well-armed police party. For quite some time he hold them at bay, single-handed, with a small pistol and a few cartridges. Even the enemy was all praise for his sharp shooting skill and courageous composure. As he could hit quite a few of the assailants who were firing at him from behind covers. Left with only one bullet, he fired it at his own temple and lived up to his resolve that would never be arrested and dragged to the allows to be hanged.

Bhagat Singh in comradely used jokes to tease him, saying “Panditji, they shall need two ropes for you, one four your neck and the other for your heavy belly”. Azad used to reply, “Let your cherished hangman’s noose be for your neck. So long as this Bamtulbukara (this is what he called his pistol) is with me- nobody can ever drag me tied in a rope making me dance like a monkey to the gallows”. On such occasions, he would fondly recite a hindustani couplet, his only poetic composition. “Dushman Ki Goliyon Ka Ham Samna Karenge, Azad hee rahe Hain, Azad hee rahenge”.

It may be remembered that when Azad fell fighting on February 27, 1931, Bharat Singh was still waiting for the hangman’s noose and got his cherished martyrdom 24 days later, on 23 March 1931.

Chandra Shekhar Azad was born in abysmal penury and all sorts of superstition. He got no schooling worth the name, still through his robust common sense and learning while struggling he led the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army.

Among those who felt proud to be let by him were such illustrious martyrs as Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev, Bhgwati Charan, Saligram Shukla ans such other renowned revolutionaries as Batukeshar Dutt, Bejoy Kumar Sinah, Siva Varma, Jayadev Kapur, Gaya Prasad, Sadashiva Rao and many others. Azad’s revolutionary carrier has become symbolic of the first steps of the poor, illiterate, oppressed Indian masses along the revolutionary path towards socialist equality, liberty and fraternity. Till his death he was unmarried and lived the austere life of a “brahmachari”, he began in the Pathshala.