Veer Savarkar, who was on a scholarship established by Shyamji Krishan Verma, also reached England in 1906, the same year as Dhingra. Both were of the same age group, but Savarkar was inclined to Hindutva ideology. Shyamji Krishan Verma was more liberal and rational in his views, but he had to leave for Paris as the British government harassed him a lot.

Dhingra was now under the spell of Savarkar and it was he who inspired him to shoot Curzon Wyle, who was notorious for using Indians to serve as spies in England. The pistol for this purpose was provided by Savarkar to Dhingra, who shot Wyle dead in June 1909. After a trial lasting one-and-a-half months, Dhingra was executed Aug 17, 1909 at the age of 26 years.

Bhagat Singh wrote about Dhingra in his sketches about revolutionary freedom fighters. It is the duty of the nation at both the government and people's level to commemorate the event in a befitting manner.

Thirty-one years after Dhingra died, another Indian revolutionary, Udham Singh, followed his path in England. He too was executed July 31, 1940, under almost similar circumstances.

(13.08.2009-The author is a professor at the Centre of Indian Languages in New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is considered an authority on the Indian revolutionary movement. He can be reached on prof.chaman@gmail.com)