Sunday, October 04, 2009

Terror from the East

Earlier this month Radio 4 carried a short series “In Britain's White House” in which Sadiq Khan MP described the careers of Britain's first Asian MPs - Dadabhai Naoroji , Sir Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownaggree, & Shapurji Saklatvala.



Few people had ever heard of their names & contribution to English politics, not even those who are most interested in diversity in the modern House of Commons.

I have just come across another story of the intersection, a century ago, of Indian & English politics in England. I do not think I had ever heard of it before; it is certainly not a story which lives on in common discourse.

Today it would be called a terrorist act, though the contemporary reports in the Times archive make no use of that term – at least, not in relation to this event, or to any Indians or Indian organisations; there was 'terrorism' in Russia around this time.

On 1 July 1909 Sir Curzon Wyllie was assassinated by Madar Lal Dhingra at an entertainment given to Indians by the National Indian Association at the Imperial Institute in South Kensington.

Dr Cawas Lalcaca, a visiting Parsee physician from Shanghai, attempted to frustrate the assassin’s aim, but was himself mortally wounded.

Dhingra, who was detained at the scene, was tried, found guilty, & hanged at Pentonville prison, less than 7 weeks later on 17 August.

[As an aside, it would be fascinating to see a chart showing how the time elapsed between event & judicial disposal for such crimes has changed. Starting perhaps with the Fenian Manchester Martyrs who were found guilty of the murder, on September 18 1867, of Police Sergeant Brett & hanged less than 10 weeks later at the New Bailey Gaol in Salford]

Dhingra is described on at least one modern website as the first Indian martyr on the British soil. His case parallels those of other young modern male terrorists – he was a student (of engineering) at the University of London who was said to have been radicalised by Shyamji Krishnavarma, a London based extremist. Both were Hindu, & the cause was Indian nationalism.

Curzon Wyllie had had a long military & political career in India; he had been involved in the Afghan campaign of 1878-80, & in later years had held a variety of posts in a number of princely states. In 1901 he was called to London to be political aide de camp (?Special Adviser?) to the Conservative Secretary of State for India, & had worked especially on the arrangements for Indian representation at the Coronation of Edward VII. It is tempting to speculate that something in his personal history, especially in the complex politics of the princely states, had led to him being picked out as a target.

Shyamji Krishnavarma, who was in fact living in France at the time, vehemently denied even knowing Dhingra; he had however worked with Sir Curzon Wyllie for 5 years at Udaipur. (I put that in here only for personal interest – I have very fond memories of the time I spent in the city.)

An academic Life of Krishnavarma by Harald Fischer-Tiné was published just at the end of last year, which I look forward to reading, now I have heard of one small part of the story.





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