Student | Posted on
In India, 23 July is a special day because it's the birthday of Chandrashekhar Azad. This heroic freedom fighter who, on 26 August 1942, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, formed an armed resistance group called the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (also known as Hindustan Republican Association).
Image Source Google
Azad was opposed to British rule in India and considered these "British raj" rulers as "foreigners".
Chandrashekhar Azad was a leader of the Indian independence movement, and an important figure in the history of India. He was born in 1906 to an educated and wealthy family. He dropped out of college after witnessing brutality towards fellow students during British rule and became involved with Mohandas K. Gandhi's independence movement. Azad disagreed with Gandhi's nonviolent methods for achieving Indian independence, believing that a more militant style would not only be more effective at ousting the British but would also be more popular with masses of people who were drawn to violence. He became the leader of an extremist group known as the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) and spearheaded a revolution to end British rule in India. In 1931, he was captured by authorities and imprisoned for 18 months before being released. He was re-arrested a few years later and imprisoned for five years.
Azad, along with Bhagat Singh, left India and went to Germany for revolutionary training. The German government did not give Azad any help in his attempt to free India from British rule. By 1932, he had returned to India and resumed his campaign against British rule. He was arrested and imprisoned again. Azad remained in prison from 1936 to 1940, when he escaped from a moving train near Peshawar, during the Second World War. After the war, he resumed his campaign against British rule in India and was arrested again in Jhansi. He subsequently broke out of prison along with other revolutionaries (including Bhagat Singh). Azad continued his anti-British activities until he died in a plane crash in August 1944.
Image Source Google
Chandrashekhar Azad's early life is unknown; he was born on 23 July 1906 at Multan, Punjab (now Pakistan). He had no formal schooling and grew up under virtual illiteracy. He was probably dyslexic. Azad's first wife was Lalita Devi of Shahjahanpur. He had a son, Hemant Kumar (b. 1932), who lives in Allahabad, India. At the age of ten, Azad ran away from home and traveled to Benares where he worked at an Englishman's house in exchange for his food and lodging, he also used to work in the marketplace . He later joined Shri Bankey Bihari's temple as a priest and learned Sanskrit scriptures and grammar.
0