“Brave deeds…”

I have read the article "Brave deeds recorded” (Parsiana, August 7, 2005) on Dr Cawas Lalcaca, who was only 48 when he was gunned down by the assassin Madan Lal Dhingra. However, the article does not tell the complete story.

The killer, a young Indian man from the Punjab dressed informally in a plain suit and a carefully wound light blue turban left his lodgings in Ledbury Road, Bayswater, London, for the last time on July 1, 1909. He was an engineering student at London’s University College, had already been out earlier in the evening at a shooting range on the Tottenham Court Road where he had practiced firing his American Colt revolver at a paper target, and had asked for the gun to be cleaned and oiled before he left as he intended to use it again later. As he walked quickly towards South Kensing­ton, Dhingra carried the Colt, another automatic revolver and a long dagger hidden in his coat. His destination was the Jehangir Hall at the Imperial Institute, where the National Indian Association had organized a concert and reception; one of their ‘At Homes’ held for the purpose of giving Indian students and visitors to London a chance to meet people sympathetic to Britain’s colonial subjects and rule.

The dress code was ‘evening dress or native costume’ and as Dhingra arrived at the meeting he must have realized that his clothes and blue turban actually made him stand out in the midst of the black tail-coats and brilliant Indian fabrics. Did he arrive at the reception late or did he wait outside, listening nervously to the concert, conscious of the burden of the two revolvers and dagger in his coat pockets? Witnesses later reported that Dhingra inconspicuously mingled among the crowd outside and had done nothing to arouse suspicion. It was not until the reception was nearly over and the students, visiting dignitaries and civil servants had started to leave, proceeding out onto the landing of the reception hall, that Dhingra made his move. He pushed his way through the crowd, trying to get near to the ADC to the Secretary of State for India, Sir W.H. Curzon-Wyllie who was his primary target. As Wyllie waited on the landing for his wife to collect her shawl from the cloakroom, Dhingra approached him, raised the revolver, and fatally shot him several times at almost point blank range. Seeing the shoo­-ting, Dr Cawas Lalcaca, who was

close by tried to intervene and placed himself between the gunman and Wyllie, but he was also gunned down by Dhingra and slumped to the floor in a pool of blood. Dhingra then tried to raise the gun to his own head, but other guests overpowered him before he could pull the trigger, and was arrested by police constables who had been summoned and arrived a little later.

The suspicion that Dhingra intended to become a political martyr was corroborated by a statement, explaining his aims for the dastardly act, that was found in his coat pocket. The finding of the note and its content was suppressed by the police at the time, so as not to encourage similar criminal acts. However, Dhingra’s motivation to single out Wyllie was clear. He had read in a magazine published from India that Wyllie was "one of the old unrepentant foes of India who had fattened himself on the misery of the Indian peasant.” In the parlance of today, it might be said that the "terrorist” was a "freedom fighter” seeking to liberate the "humiliated” Indian people from the yoke of a "brutal occupation.” As part of the assassin’s final statement before sentence was passed, at his trial in court at the Old Bailey in front of Chief Justice, Lord Alverstone he uttered that "the only lesson required for Indians at present is to learn how to die, and the only way to teach it is by dying ourselves. Therefore I die, and seek glory in my martyrdom.” He was an unrepentant suicide assassin, and managed to kill not only his target, but also the innocent Parsi doctor. The article seems to imply that Lalcaca died saving Wyllie. But read the wife’s tribute to Lal­ca­ca. It clearly says "trying to save my beloved husband...” In fact Lalcaca, though un-armed himself, may have tried to overpower Dhingra single-han­dedly before others could react, and in doing so sacrificed his own life.

Dhingra was tried at the Old Bailey on July 23, 1909 for the two premeditated murders, and sentenced to death according to the law. He was hanged at Pentonville Prison on August 17, 1909. Yes, justice was swift and fitted the crime in those days.

Mahatma Gandhi, still in South Africa at the time, was greatly disturbed by Dhingra’s murderous act, and said something that was to be his own guiding principle upon his return to India and throughout his fight for independence from the British: "I must say that those who believe and argue that such murders may do good to India are ignorant men indeed. No act of treachery can ever profit a nation. Even should the British leave in consequence of such murderous acts, who will then rule in their place? The only answer is: the murderers... India can gain nothing from the rule of murderers — no matter whether they are black or white.”

ARDESHIR B. DAMANIA

California, USA