Hansraj "Wireless"

The Legend of Hansraj “Wireless”

This blog is just an effort of sorts to put on record what all is known by me of this extraordinary person, namely Hansraj “Wireless”. Since he is known by this name Wireless, I won’t put this word in quotes anymore. This is more or less his real name now.

Info about Hansraj Wireless is sketchy in the extreme. Even Wikipedia doesn’t have much on him. Google all you like, and the only info one does get is that he was involved in an abortive plot to assassinate a Viceroy, Lord Irwin by blowing up his train near what is now known as ITO Bridge in Delhi.

So, here’s the precious little that I’ve gathered about Hansraj Wireless:

He was a Punjabi, said to be of the Ramgarhia community. This info is probably correct because Ramgarhias are clever with their hands, adept with tools and machinery of all kinds, and claim Vishwakarma as their patron saint or God.

Hansraj Wireless was probably born in the early 20^th Century, or maybe even at the fag end of the 19^th. He was a self taught enthusiast in the then fairly new technology of electricity, and the even newer science of electronics. He was a genius with electronic circuits and dabbled in radio, wireless and remote control. Only, in those days the term Remote Control wasn’t in vogue, the accepted phrase being Radio Control. This talent of his explains his nickname Wireless. This is quite remarkable considering that few parts of India even had electricity.

Since he dabbled in remote control circuits, it seems the revolutionaries drew him to their fold and got him to rig up a circuit for blowing up the VIP train. The explosives exploded all right, but they seem to have been of insufficient power and the Viceroy survived.

Hansraj thereafter formed (or joined) a revolutionary group in Punjab called the Atishi Chakkar (Fiery Circle). But this soon broke up after an abortive attempt to assassinate the Punjab Governor. And then, according to a Pakistani blog http://knowmeknowsindh.blogspot.in/2016/05/freedom-fighter-hansraj-wireless-in.html he fled to Sindh Province, where he continued his revolutionary activities. Then he was arrested and jailed in Hyderabad (Sindh). According to this blog, the case of Hansraj Wireless was discussed at length in the Sindh Legislative Assembly. Then, it appears that he was released on health grounds and promising to eschew violence. Interestingly, the proceedings of the Assembly constantly refer to him as Hansraj (Wireless).

After that Hansraj Wireless drops off the radar. Then he re-surfaces in the early ’Forties. He now becomes a showman exhibiting his extraordinary gadgets to a paying audience. Patent? He never applied for one, or if he did, he was never granted one. His gadgets ranged from the mundane radio-telephony to various contraptions operated by remote control.

In the mid Forties, about 1944 or 1945, he had his show in Lahore. Father, who was a college student there, didn’t go, but his good friend, late Shri Attar Singh did. He came back full of wonder at all the things he had seen. He described an automatic shoe polishing machine which polished both your shoes, but clamped a tight hold over the second foot until the owner of the foot had put in the requisite coin in the slot. Another device was an electric bulb which lit up or went off by Hansraj standing at a distance and signalling with a hand. Like a good showman, he would open his palm and raise the hand, and the bulb would come on. Then he would lower the hand and close the palm; the bulb would go off. Infra-red sensors were not exactly in use use in those days. So how did he do it? Yet another contrivance was a recording device which recorded sound on a spool of thread (probably coated with some magnetic material. One must remember that in those days magnetic recording tape was unheard of. The nearest thing in the market was a wire recorder, which did the recording on a steel wire drawn at quite high speed over the magnetic sensor.

Then India became independent and Hansraj Wireless started doing the fairgrounds circuit in independent India, mostly in Punjab. He took his show from one important fair in North India to the next. But by now he seems to have gotten a bit tired and jaded. Shri Chand Kishore, who lives in Kullu, said that he has seen his show when it came to town sometime in the 1950s. It was a full-fledged show of three hours; entry by ticket. Shri Chand Kishore also describes the same shoe polishing machine which Sh. Attar Singh had seen about a decade back. Apart from that, Hansraj Wireless demonstrated another trick. A motor car drove up after Hansraj Wireless had set up his apparatus. As soon as Hansraj Wireless, sitting on the sidelines pressed a button, the engine went dead and the car came to a halt. Hansraj Wireless claimed that he had made the device which made the ignition coil (which makes the spark plugs of the petrol engine to burn the fuel) go dead. Now it’s hard to say if he really did that or it was a trick car, which one might expect from a fairground conjurer. And yes, there was no wire or anything physical contact between Hansraj Wireless’s apparatus and the car.

I grew up hearing this man’s name off and on but never got to know any more about him. I know a person in Pathankot, a Ramgarhia Sikh, who claims that Hansraj Wireless was related to him in some way. He says that Hansraj Wireless died sometime in the Sixties leaving a daughter. Before dying, my friend claims, Hansraj Wireless built a house for her near a powerline. He had rigged up some circuitry which supplied the house with free electricity by induction from the overhead lines.

Thus, all the info that I’ve gathered so far is hearsay. No records, but maybe in some old newspaper archives there might be news items about Hansraj Wireless. I’ll be interested to know if folks can add to the above or correct it if wrong.