Prithvi Singh Azad

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Prithvi Singh Azad
Lahore Conspiracy Trial
PartnerPrabhavati Devi
ChildrenAjit Singh Bhati
AwardsPadma Bhushan

Prithvi Singh Azad (1892–1989) was an

Ghadar Party.[citation needed] He suffered incarceration several times during the pre-independence period, including a term in the Cellular Jail. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 1977, for his contributions to society.[2]

Early and personal life

Prithvi Singh Azad was born on 15 September 1892 at Lalru, a small town in Mohali district of the North Indian state of Punjab.[citation needed] He did a lot of work for the upliftment of Dalits. While still in his teens, he was married to Prabhavati Devi, a lady of his own community and similar social background, in a match arranged by their parents in the usual Indian way. The marriage was entirely harmonious in the traditional Indian mould and it lasted all their lives, through the tribulations of the freedom struggle, imprisonment and relative poverty. The couple had children, including a son, Ajit Singh Bhati, and a daughter, Dr. Pragya Kumar, who retired as chief medical officer at Panjab University, Chandigarh.[3]

According to the historian Ramachandra Guha, who makes the assertion in his book "Rebels against the Raj," Mirabehn, daughter of a British admiral and one of Mahatma Gandhi's closest disciples, was enamoured of Prithvi Singh Azad and infatuated with him for many years; she even wrote him a number of letters expressing her feelings. However, he received absolutely no reciprocation from Azad, and finally she moved away. Guha refers to a number of respectable sources to make these assertions.

Biography

Singh was attracted to the nationalist movement while he was still in his teens, and is reported to have been influenced by the arrest of

Alfred Park on 27 February 1931, but the latter asked Prithvi Singh to escape while deciding to continue his battle with the forces;[5] alternatively another contention was that the two Azads met at Alfred Park a few days before the death of Chandra Shekhar.[6]

the plaque at Pruthvisinh Azad's bust at Bhavnagar

It was Chandra Shekhar who advised Azad to visit Russia for further training; it was reported that the idea to send Azad to Russia in fact came from

Mohandas Gandhi and joined the nationalist movement led by Gandhi.[citation needed] Between 1933 and the Indian independence in 1947, he was arrested several times, including for the Lahore Conspiracy Case, in which he was sentenced to death; the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment in the Cellular Jail.[8] After the Indian independence, he successfully contested the elections to the first Constituent Assembly of India from Punjab and was its member since the assembly met for the first time at Constitution Club Hall, New Delhi on 9 December 1946.[9] After India gained independence, he was selected as the Minister for Labor and Local Self-government, when Bhim Sen Sachar took over as the second Chief Minister of Punjab in 1949.[10] The Government of India honored him with the civilian honor of Padma Bhushan in 1977.[2] Azad was a track and field athlete later in his life, winning 4 gold medals in the M95 category at the 1987 World Masters Athletics Championships.[11]

Azad died on 5 March 1989, at the age of 96.[

Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi as Baba Prithvi Singh Azad Papers.[14][15] A local Hospital in Lalru, his native place, is being considered for renaming as Baba Prithvi Singh Azad Memorial Hospital.[16]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-1-59558-801-2
    .
  2. ^ a b "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  3. ^ "Prithvi Singh Azad's daughter donates land". The Tribune. 17 March 2005. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  4. ^ "Ghadari Babas in Kalapani Jail" (PDF). Punjab State Education Board. 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  5. ^ "Shaheed Chandra Shekhar Azad". Punjab Junta. 27 February 2015. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  6. ^ a b Chinmohan Sehanavis (October 2007). "Impact of Lenin on Bhagat Singh's Life". Mainstream. XLV (42).
  7. ^ Prithvi Singh Azad (1980). In Lenin's land. SOAS University of London. p. 144.
  8. ^ Vasant Teraiya (3 March 2016). "Padmabhushan Baba Prithvi Singh Azad The Legendary Crusader". YouTube. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  9. ^ "Constituent Assembly of India". Parliament of India. 9 December 1946. Archived from the original on 6 July 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  10. ISBN 978-81-7099-251-6
    .
  11. ^ "Rain, Wind and Cold Fail to Dampen Spirit of VII World Veterans Games" (PDF).
  12. ^ Prithvi Singh Azad (1990). Kranti Path ka Pathik. Haryana Sahitya Akademi. p. 420.
  13. ^ Prithvi Singh Azad (1987). Baba Prithvi Singh Azad, the Legendary Crusader: An Autobiography. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
  14. ISBN 978-979-3269-39-9
    .
  15. ISBN 978-1-59030-525-6
    .
  16. ^ "Name Lalru CHC after freedom fighter: Residents". The Tribune. 12 September 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2016.

Further reading

External links
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