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Chandra
Shekhar was born on 23 July 1906 to Pandit Sita Ram Tiwari and
Jagrani Devi. He received his early schooling in Bhavra. For higher
studies he went to the Sanskrit Pathashala at Varanasi.
Young Chandra Shekhar was fascinated by and drawn to the great
national upsurge of the non-violent, non-cooperation movement of
1920-21 under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. When arrested and
produced before the magistrate, he gave his name as 'Azad', his
father's name as 'Swatantra' and his residence as 'prison'. The
provoked magistrate sentenced him to fifteen lashes of flogging. The
title of Azad stuck thereafter.
After withdrawal of the non-cooperation movement, Azad was attracted
towards revolutionary activities. He joined the Hindustan Socialist
Republican Army (HSRA) and was involved in the Kakori Conspiracy
(1926), the attempt to blow up the Viceroy's train (1926), the
Assembly bomb incident, the Delhi Conspiracy, the shooting of
Saunders at Lahore (1928) and the Second Lahore conspiracy.
Azad was on the wanted list of the police. On 27February 1931, in
the Alfred Park, Allahabad, when an associate betrayed him,
well-armed police circled Azad. For quite sometime he held them at
bay, single-handedly with a small pistol and few cartridges. Left
with only one bullet, he fired it at his own temple and lived up to
his resolve that he would never be arrested and dragged to gallows
to be hanged. He used to fondly recite a Hindustani couplet, his
only poetic composition:
'Dushman ki goliyon ka hum samna karenge,
Azad hee rahein hain, azad hee rahenge'
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