[1] Madan Lal Dhingra was born on 18 February 1883 in Amritsar, India, in an educated and affluent Hindu Punjabi Khatri family.

His father, Dr. Ditta Mal Dhingra, was a civil surgeon, and Madan Lal was one of eight children (seven sons and one daughter).

He studied the literature concerning the causes of Indian poverty and famines extensively, and felt that the key issues in seeking solutions to these problems lay in Swaraj (self-government) and the Swadeshi movement.

Dhingra embraced with particular fervour the Swadeshi movement, which aimed to increase India's self-sufficiency by encouraging Indian industry and entrepreneurship, and boycotting British (and other foreign) goods.

His father, who held a high, well-paying position in government service and had a poor opinion of agitationists, told him to apologise to the college management, not to participate in such activities again, and prevent (or revoke) the expulsion.

Dhingra refused, and chose not even to go home to discuss matters with his father, but to take a job and live as per his own wishes.

By now, his family was seriously worried about him, and his elder brother, Dr. Bihari Lal, compelled him to go to Britain to continue his higher education.

Dhingra finally agreed, and in 1906, he departed for Britain to enroll at University College, London, to study mechanical engineering.

[2] Dhingra arrived in London a year after the foundation of Shyamji Krishna Varma's India House in 1905.

[2] Later, Dhingra became distant from India House and was known to frequent a shooting range on Tottenham Court Road.

He joined and had a membership in, a secretive society, the Abhinav Bharat Mandal founded by Savarkar and his brother, Ganesh.

[citation needed] During this period, Savarkar, Dhingra, and other student activists were outraged by the 1905 Partition of Bengal.

Dhingra was abandoned for his political activities by his father, Ditta Mall, who was the Chief Medical Officer in Amritsar.

He had earned distinction in a number of locations including Central India and above all in Rajputana where he rose to the highest rank in the Service.

[2][7] When Curzon Wyllie, political aide-de-camp to the Secretary of State for India, was leaving the hall with his wife, Dhingra fired five shots right at his face as a patriotic act and in revenge for the inhumane killings of Indians by the British Government in India, four of which hit their target.

After the judge announced his verdict, Dhingra is said to have stated: "I am proud to have the honour of laying down my life for my country.

[11] Guy Aldred, the printer of The Indian Sociologist, was sentenced to twelve months hard labor.

[13] The following are said to be Madan Lal Dhingra's last words, just before he died at the gallows: I believe that a nation held down by foreign bayonets is in a perpetual state of war.

Dhingra's coffin was accidentally found while authorities searched for the remains of Shaheed Udham Singh, and repatriated to India on 13 December 1976.

Dhingra is widely remembered in India today, and was an inspiration at the time for revolutionaries such as Bhagat Singh and Chandrasekhar Azad.

[5] The family sold his ancestral house and refused an offer to purchase it made by BJP leader Laxmi Kanta Chawla who intended to turn it into a museum.

[5] In the movie Veer Savarkar, actor Pankaj Berry portrayed Madan Lal Dhingra.

In India, in 2023, DD National broadcast a TV serial Swaraj which included a full episode on Madan Lal Dhingra.

The 2024 epic movie Swatantrya Veer Savarkar, actor Mrinal Dutt portrayed Madan Lal Dhingra.