Book 5 - The Patient Assassin by Anita Anand
I waited for this book to come out for ages. I bought it the weekend it came out, back in April 2019. The fact that I rushed out and bought a book at full price tells you something about how eager I was to read this. I can count on one hand the number of books I've bought at full price and still have fingers left over.
I marched into the shop like a woman with a purpose..and couldn't find the book. I asked the lady who worked there who told me exactly where it was and that my dress was really nice (I did the typical thing of saying how old it was and how cheap it was).
Came home and promised myself I would read this book and I would give it the time it deserved. It would not go on the tube with me because I wanted to keep it clean and not batter it. Finally the time came when we got corona'd.
The book tells of the life of one of my personal heroes, Shaheed Udham Singh ji and how he took his revenge on the British for the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh. Jallianwala Bagh is where my most favourite person in the world grew up, which is why this is a subject so close to my heart.
Shaheed Udham Singh ji was a normal man, as most revolutionaries are before they are called to arms. The book does not idolise him (many people do though, myself being one of them). Instead, the author allows the reader to make up their own mind (even if some of us already know their mind..). With the current climate as it is, it's quite eye opening to see just how normal his life was and how you can make such massive changes whilst doing usual day in, day out things.
He came to the notice of the British govt but they were unable to use the information they had for any real purpose. He moved from India, to America, to Russia and finally to England. In England, he worked in the east end as one of the rag-men, a job that a lot of Punjabi men did when they first came to England. The job entailed taking rags from factories on Fashion Street and Commercial Street and selling them around London. I spoke to my grandad to verify this and he confirmed it. However, my grandad came here "thanks" to divvy Amin and was in the west of London where they worked in the factories because they were the jobs the hardworking folk took (read between the lines).
It would be easy for this book to be biased as the author also has a vested interest but it was very balanced (as balanced as you can be towards tyrannical British who have no idea about the land they think they are "fit" to "govern") but that you can still come out of it with your feelings very much on the right side. I mean there comes a time when the truth will show you where the balance tipped.
Another thing I loved about this book was that it fact checked and showed it, for example, if it said "stayed with Harbans in Jallandar", records were checked to see if a Harbans did indeed at that itme, live in Jallandar near to where Shaheed Udham Singh ji was.
The book charts the birth of Shaheed Udham Singh ji into abject poverty, his mother passing, his father passing, his brother passing, him going out to other countries for work and joining the army. Although accounts vary as to whether he was in the Bagh when the massacre took place, he definitely heard about it. This is where he decided to exact revenge on the two men who had killed his fellow men. The book details exactly what happened and it made me cry more than once but then despite all my hard heartedness, I am a massive empath and I can't deal with people in pain.
The book covers the lives of the two men who orchestrated the massacre. They are not mentioned here because they are too lowly to come from my mouth and therefore, by extension, my fingers.
Shaheed Udham Singh was heavily involved in the Ghadar Party, which started life in America. I have family living near to where it started out and when I next visit them, I am going to do some onsite research into the party. The site I have linked to has a book coming out about the Party which I have added to my list of books to read (it's currently at a solid 80 and that doesn't include the books I currently have at home to read).
The book tracks his movements and we end up in London..where Shaheed ji patronises the Shepherd's Bush Gurdwara (still there to this day..I was taken here as a child so many times and when I was old enough, my parents told me about Shaheed Udham Singh). He manages to make his way to where one of the perpetrators of the massacre is giving a speech, slips a gun from his pocket and shoots him dead. I know the name of the hall where he was shot, but I know there are spying eyes everywhere so I won't name it.
Once Shaheed ji had shot him, he took his punishment and was put in Pentonville. The British only connected some of the dots when they found Shaheed ji's notebook in his pocket and even then, they couldn't make sense of half the stuff in there.
I think this secret note-taking is something that all Punjabis of a certain age did..my grandad always had a small notebook that he made coded notes in...my dad does the same and I also do the same but that's because the latter two learnt it from watching the former. You know what they say, "real g's move in silence like lasagna".
I found out something quite interesting whilst reading this book, but as it was a while ago, I can't remember if I've got this the right way but I believe that the brother of Ian Fleming was in charge of, or did a lot of work on the Shaheed Udham Singh ji file but he was not liked in the office because he was a bit of a jobsworth. I also found out that the guy who founded and was the first director of MI5 was called K (his actual name was Vernon Kell) and in my mind, that's why the call Judi Dench M in the Bond films..I mean the connection is there.
Shaheed Udham Singh ji was hung on 31 July 1940. Shaheed ji's remains were eventually sent back to India and some are in the museum in Jallianwala Bagh which bears his name.
This is the best book I have read all year. I am biased due to the subject matter but besides that, it taught me things I did not know before and it's a good read for anyone who wants to know what the British actually did in India.
I would give this book a million stars if I could. It has remained in pristine condition and takes pride of place on my bookshelf at home.
Rest in eternal power Shaheed Udham Singh ji.
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