The Patient Assassin

A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge and the Raj

By: Anita Anand

Narrated by: Anita Anand

Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the Pen Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2020

Anita Anand tells the remarkable story of one Indian's twenty-year quest for revenge, taking him around the world in search of those he held responsible for the Amritsar massacre of 1919, which cost the lives of hundreds.

When Sir Michael O'Dwyer, the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, ordered Brigadier General Reginald Dyer to Amritsar, he wanted him to bring the troublesome city to heel. Sir Michael had become increasingly alarmed at the effect Gandhi was having on his province, as well as recent demonstrations, strikes and shows of Hindu-Muslim unity. All these things, in Sir Michael's mind at least, were a precursor to a second Indian Mutiny. What happened next shocked the world. An unauthorised political gathering in the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar in April 1919 became the focal point for Sir Michael's law enforcers. Dyer marched his soldiers into the walled garden, filled with thousands of unarmed men, women and children, blocking the only exit. Then, without issuing any order to disperse, he instructed his men to open fire, turning their guns on the thickest parts of the crowd. For ten minutes, they continued firing, stopping only when 1650 bullets had been fired. Not a single shot was fired in retaliation.

According to legend, a young, low-caste orphan, Udham Singh, was injured in the attack, and remained in the Bagh, surrounded by the dead and dying until he was able to move the next morning. Then, he supposedly picked up a handful of blood-soaked earth, smeared it across his forehead and vowed to kill the men responsible, no matter how long it took.

The truth, as the author has discovered, is more complex but no less dramatic. She traced Singh's journey through Africa, the United States and across Europe before, in March 1940, he finally arrived in front of O'Dwyer in a London hall ready to shoot him down. The Patient Assassin shines a devastating light on one of the Raj's most horrific events, but reads like a taut thriller, and reveals some astonishing new insights into what really happened.

©2019 Anita Anand (P)2019 Simon & Schuster UK

Critic reviews

"Reads like a thriller…colourful, detailed and meticulously researched." (Sunday Times)

"Gripping from start to finish." (Peter Frankopan, bestselling author of The Silk Roads)

!Remarkable and brilliantly researched non-fiction thriller...focusing on one extraordinary story that had never been properly told before." (William Dalrymple, Spectator)

A long overdue history

Beautifully narrated with feeling, the story of Udham Singh had been nearly forgotten outside of Punjab. I know he did not figure in our history books. Anita Anand has done us a tremendous service of rounding out the history of India which has long been dominated by a handful of names. She has enabled Udham Singh to take his rightful place in India’s struggle for Independence. I bought the book before I finished the first chapter. Highly recommended.