Both of them were great
men. The older of the two was Savarkar, the brave fighter for freedom. He fought for
nearly fifty years to drive out the British from India. The other one was Madanlal
Dhingra, whose story you are going to read.
Punjab is one of the states of India. It is called Punjab because of the five holy
rivers that flow in the area. 'Paanch Aab' means five waters, that is, five rivers.
From olden times the State has given birth to great saints and brave warriors. The
Punjabis are great fighters. Some 450 years ago there was danger to Hinduism from Islam.
Guru Nanak founded the Sikh religion in order to save Hinduism at that time. It was here
that Guru Govind Singh, the tenth 'Guru' of the Sikhs, fought for it. That is why the
Punjab is known as 'the Sword - Arm of India.'
Amritsar is a city in Punjab. Here is a great temple of the Sikhs, built in the middle
of a lake. It was here in Amritsar that Madanlal Dhingra was born.
I Madanlal's father was a rich man. He was called Doctor Sahib Ditta. He was a
well-known doctor in Amritsar. He had earned a lot of money. He respected the British as
much as he respected God.
Dhingra was the son of such a father. He had a brother who had gone to England to study
medicine ; later he settled down there.
Like his father, he too regarded the British as gods.
Dhingra was unlike him. He was a smart lad from ‘childhood. He was good at sports
as well as studies. He had his early schooling in Lahore and Amritsar. As a boy he used to
dream that he would study well, take a degree and somehow go to England to become an
engineer.
But he would not ask his father for money. He therefore decided to work in order to
earn the money he needed to go abroad. He was married by then and had a child too.
Dhingra went to Kashmir and got a job in a Government department. He worked at Simla
and Kolkatanga also and was able to earn enough money to be able to go to England.
