Madan Lal Dhingra

Place of birth: , British India

Place of death: Pentonville Prison. London, Britain

Movement: Indian Independence movement

Major
organizations: India House

Early life

Madan Lal Dhingra was born on February 18, 1883[1] to a prosperous Hindu family in the province of Punjab. His father Ditta Mal was a wealthy civil surgeon[1]. Dhingra’s family were loyalists of the British, and disowned him after his expulsion from college in Lahore owing to illicit political activities. Dhingra had to work as a clerk, a Tonga (rickshaw) puller, and a factory labourer. Dhingra attempted to organize a union there, but was sacked. He worked for sometime in Bombay, before acting upon the advice of his elder brother and going to England for higher studies. In 1906, Madan Lal departed for England to enroll at University College, London, to study Mechanical Engineering. He was supported by his elder brother and some nationalist activists in England.

With Savarkar

See also: India House
Dhingra came into contact with noted Indian independence & political activists Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Shyamji Krishnavarma, who were impressed by Dhingra’s perseverance and intense patriotism, and turned his focus to the freedom struggle. Savarkar believed in revolution by any means, and supposedly gave Dhingra arms training, apart from membership in a secretive society, the Abhinav Bharat Mandal. He was also a member of India House, the base for Indian student political activity.
During this period, Savarkar, Dhingra and other student activists were enraged by the execution of freedom fighters such as Khudiram Bose, Kannai Dutt, Satinder Pal and Kanshi Ram in India. It is this event that is attributed by many historians as having led Savarkar and Dhingra scheme of exacting direct revenge upon the British.