At the beginning of the last century, a large number of Hindus in undivided Punjab stopped using their surnames. They did so under the influence of the Arya Samaj, as a protest against the caste system. Among them was my grandfather. Consequently, since then we have carried no indicator of our gotra at the end of our names.

Despite this “name-dropping”, I have been curious about the family’s antecedents. Our family name had been ‘Vohra’. It appears that our clan had a pronounced militant trait. During the revolutionary phase of our freedom struggle, there were at least four of them. The star, of course, was Bhagwati Charan Vohra, who died while fabricating a bomb, which was to be used in the attempt to spirit Bhagat Singh out of jail. Bhagwati’s wife, Durga Devi, posed as Bhagat Singh’s wife to give him the cover of a respectably married man, when he escaped to Kolkata after assassinating Inspector Saunders.

My father, Virendra (no surname!) was the youngest of the lot: just 18 and one of the first to be arrested in the Saunders case. He was later involved in the plot to do in the Punjab governor. Then there was Hans Raj Vohra, one of those who roped my father into the band. There was also one Dev Vohra, of whom I had not heard earlier. He who wrote to me after my father’s demise: “Virendra was the one who prompted me to shoot at Abdul Aziz, the government prosecutor in Bhagat Singh’s case.” Dev failed to kill his man and was finally arrested, but no charge could be proved.

... contd.