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Chandrashekhar Azad: The Vow of Azad

At 15, a magistrate asked his name. He answered “Azad” — the free one. Nine years later, he made sure he died that way too.

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Chandrashekhar Azad (23 July 1906 – 27 February 1931) was born in Bhabhra village, in what was then Alirajpur State.
Arrested at 15 during the Non-Cooperation Movement, he was taken before a magistrate. He gave his name as “Azad” (the Free), his father’s name as “Swatantrata” (Independence), and his residence as “Jail.” He was flogged, and the name Azad stuck for life.
After Gandhi suspended the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1922, Azad grew disillusioned and joined Ram Prasad Bismil‘s Hindustan Republican Association (HRA).
He took part in the 1925 Kakori Conspiracy, an armed train robbery that funded the HRA’s revolutionary activities.
In September 1928, he reorganised the HRA into the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), alongside ModHist0108 — Bhagat Singh.
He died on 27 February 1931, at Alfred Park in Allahabad, shooting himself with his last bullet rather than be captured alive.

In December 1928, Azad played a key role in the shooting of police officer J.P. Saunders in Lahore, an act of revenge for Lala Lajpat Rai‘s death. He covered the escape of Bhagat Singh and Shivaram Rajguru afterward.
Within HSRA’s internal documents, Azad signed under the pseudonym “Balraj.”
Azad was known for evading capture for years. He moved frequently and lived under disguise, while continuing to organise the HSRA’s activities across northern India.
At Alfred Park, surrounded by police, Azad held them off. This gave fellow revolutionary Sukhdev Raj Shukla time to escape. He then turned his final bullet on himself.
Alfred Park, the site of his death, was later renamed Chandrashekhar Azad Park in his memory.

Azad and Bhagat Singh represented two different faces of the same revolutionary current. Azad was the underground organiser who evaded capture for years; Singh was the strategist who deliberately sought arrest and trial. See ModHist0068 — Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and Revolutionary Nationalism for how these strategies fit into the wider movement.
His declaration of “Azad” as a name, father, and address at 15 wasn’t just defiance. It rejected the very categories — family, home, subjecthood — that colonial law expected a person to answer to.
His death came just weeks before Bhagat Singh’s execution. Within the same year, the HSRA lost both its underground organiser and its most visible martyr — a serious blow to the group’s operational strength.