Bhagat Singh, a
Sandhu Jat,
[1] was born on 28 September 1907 to Kishan Singh and Vidyavati at Chak No. 105, GB, Banga village, Jaranwala Tehsil in the
Lyallpur district of the
Punjab Province of
British India. His birth coincided with the release from jail of his father and two uncles, Ajit Singh and Swaran Singh.
[2] His family were Sikhs, some of whom had been active in Indian independence movements, and others having served in
Maharaja Ranjit Singh's army. His ancestral village was
Khatkar Kalan, near the town of
Banga in
Nawanshahr district (now renamed
Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar) of
Punjab.
[1]
His grandfather, Arjun Singh, was a follower of
Swami Dayananda Saraswati's Hindu reformist movement,
Arya Samaj,
[3] which had a considerable influence on the young Bhagat.
[1] His father and uncles were members of the
Ghadar Party, led by
Kartar Singh Sarabha and
Har Dayal. Ajit Singh was forced to flee to
Persia
due to pending court cases against him, while Swaran Singh died at home
in 1910 following his release from Borstal Jail in Lahore.
[4]
Unlike many Sikhs of his age, Bhagat Singh did not attend the Khalsa
High School in Lahore. His grandfather did not approve of the school
officials' loyalism to the British authorities.
[5] Instead, he was enrolled in the
Dayanand Anglo Vedic High School, an Arya Samaji institution.
[citation needed]
In 1919, at the age of 12, Bhagat Singh visited the site of the
Jallianwala Bagh massacre, where unarmed people gathered at a public meeting had been fired upon without warning a few days earlier, killing thousands.
[2] Bhagat Singh participated ardently in
Mahatma Gandhi's
Non-Cooperation Movement in 1920 and openly defied the
British by following Gandhi's wishes of burning his government school books and any imported British clothing he could find.
[citation needed] At the age of 14, he welcomed in his village, protestors against the
Gurudwara Nankana Sahib firing of 20 February 1921 which killed a large number of unarmed protesters.
[6]
Disillusioned with Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence, after Gandhi
called off the non-cooperation movement, following the violent murders
of policemen by villagers, which were a reaction to the police's killing
of three villagers by firing at
Chauri Chaura in the
United Provinces
in 1922, he joined the Young Revolutionary Movement. Henceforth, he
began advocating the violent overthrow of the British in India.
[7]
A rare historical photograph of students and staff of National College, Lahore, which was started by
Lala Lajpat Rai. Bhagat Singh can be seen standing fourth from the right.
In 1923, Bhagat Singh joined the National College in Lahore,
[a]
where he not only excelled academically but was also involved in
extra-curricular activities such as the dramatics society. By this time,
he was fluent in five languages.
[9] In 1923, Bhagat Singh won an essay competition set by the Punjab Hindi Sahitya Sammelan. In his essay on
Punjab's Language and Script, he quoted Punjabi literature and showed a deep understanding of the problems of afflicting Punjab.
[9] He founded the Indian nationalist youth organisation
Naujawan Bharat Sabha (Hindi: "Youth Society of India") in March 1926.
[10] He also joined the
Hindustan Republican Association,
[6] which had prominent leaders, such as
Ram Prasad Bismil,
Chandrashekhar Azad and
Ashfaqulla Khan. The name of the organisation was changed to
Hindustan Socialist Republican Association at Bhagat Singh's insistence.
[11] A year later, to avoid getting married by his family, Bhagat Singh ran away from his house to Cawnpore (
Kanpur).
[9] In a letter he left behind, he stated:
My life has been dedicated to the noblest cause,
that of the freedom of the country. Therefore, there is no rest or
worldly desire that can lure me now ...
[9]
It is also believed that he went to Cawnpore (Kanpur) to attempt to free the
Kakori train robbery convicts from jail, but returned to Lahore for unknown reasons.
[12] On the day of
Dussehra in October 1926, a bomb exploded in Lahore.
[9] Bhagat Singh was arrested for his alleged involvement in this Dussehra bomb case on 29 May 1927,
[13] but was released for exhibiting good behaviour against a steep fine of Rs. 60,000,
[9] about five weeks after his arrest.
[14] He wrote for and edited Urdu and Punjabi newspapers, published from
Amritsar,
[15] as well as briefly for the
Veer Arjun newspaper published in Delhi. He also contributed to
Kirti, the journal of the
Kirti Kisan Party ("Workers and Peasants Party"),
[10] and in September 1928, that party organised an all-India meeting of revolutionaries in
Delhi with Bhagat Singh as its secretary. He later rose to become this association's leader.
[9]
Later revolutionary activities
Lala Lajpat Rai's death and murder of Saunders
In 1928, the British government set up the
Commission, headed by
Sir John Simon,
to report on the political situation in India. The Indian political
parties boycotted the Commission, because it did not include a single
Indian in its membership, and it met with country-wide protests. When
the Commission visited Lahore on 30 October 1928, Lala Lajpat Rai led a
non-violent protest against the Commission in a silent march, but the
police responded with violence. The superintendent of police, James A.
Scott, ordered the police to
lathi charge
the protesters and personally assaulted Rai, who was grievously
injured, later on Rai could not recover from the injury and died on 17
November 1928. It was obviously known that Scott's blows had hastened
his demise.
[16] However, when the matter was raised in the British Parliament, the British Government denied any role in Rai's death.
[17] Although Bhagat Singh did not witness the event,
[14] he vowed to take revenge,
[17] and joined other revolutionaries,
Shivaram Rajguru,
Sukhdev Thapar and
Chandrashekhar Azad, in a plot to kill Scott.
[10]
However, in a case of mistaken identity, Bhagat Singh received a signal
to shoot on the appearance of John P. Saunders, an Assistant
Superintendent of Police. He was shot by Rajguru and Bhagat Singh while
leaving the District Police Headquarters in Lahore at about 4:15 pm on
17 December 1928.
[18]
Pamphlet by HSRA after Saunder's murder, signed by Balraj, the pseudo name for Chandrashekhar Azad
Although the murder of Saunders was condemned as a retrograde action
by Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress leader, others were more understanding
of the motivation.
Jawaharlal Nehru wrote that
Bhaghat Singh did not become popular because of his
act of terrorism but because he seemed to vindicate, for the moment,
the honour of Lala Lajpat Rai, and through him of the nation. He became a
symbol, the act was forgotten, the symbol remained, and within a few
months each town and village of the Punjab, and to a lesser extent in
the rest of northern India, resounded with his name. Innumerable songs
grew about him and the popularity that the man achieved was something
amazing.
[19]
Escape
After killing Saunders, the group escaped through the D.A.V. College entrance, across the road. Chanan Singh, a
Head Constable who was chasing them, was fatally injured by Chandrashekhar Azad's covering fire.
[20]
They then fled on bicycles to pre-arranged places of safety. The police
launched a massive search operation to catch the culprits and blocked
all exits and entrances from the city; the
CID kept a watch on all young men leaving Lahore. They hid for the next two days. On 19 December 1928, Sukhdev called on
Durgawati Devi popularly known as
Durga Bhabhi, wife of another HSRA member
Bhagwati Charan Vohra, for help, which she agreed to do. They decided to catch the train departing from Lahore to
Bathinda en route for
Howrah (
Calcutta) early the next morning.
[21]
To avoid recognition, Singh shaved off his beard and cut his hair short
so that he no longer appeared as a Sikh while the police were looking
for a Sikh.
[citation needed] Durga Bhabhi was Bengali (married to a Punjabi) and spoke Bengali fluently and therefore would pose as a woman from Calcutta.
Bhagat Singh and Rajguru left the house early the next morning, with both men carrying loaded revolvers.
[21]
Dressed in western attire and carrying Durga Bhabhi's sleeping child,
Bhagat Singh and Durga Bhabhi passed off as a young couple, while
Rajguru carried their luggage as their servant. At the station, Bhagat
Singh managed to conceal his identity while buying tickets and the three
boarded the train heading to
Kanpur (Cawnpore). At Kanpur, they boarded a train for
Lucknow since the CID at Howrah railway station usually scrutinised passengers on the direct train from Lahore.
[21] At Lucknow, Rajguru left separately for
Benares
while Bhagat Singh, Durga Bhabhi and the infant went to Howrah, with
all except Bhagat Singh returning to Lahore a few days later.
[22][23][24]
1929 Assembly bomb throwing incident
To subdue the rise of revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh in the country, the British government decided to implement the
Defence of India Act 1915, which gave the police a free hand.
[25] Influenced by a French anarchist who bombed the French
Chamber of Deputies,
Bhagat Singh proposed to the HSRA his plan to explode a bomb inside the
Central Legislative Assembly, which was agreed to. Initially it was
decided that Batukeshwar Dutt and Sukhdev would plant the bomb while
Bhagat Singh would travel to the
USSR. However later the plan was changed. He entrusted Dutt to plant the bomb.
[26]
On 8 April 1929, Bhagat Singh and Dutt threw two bombs inside the
assembly rushing from Visitor's Gallery. Although there were no deaths
due to the bombing, few members were injured. The injured were
George Ernest Schuster (the finance member of the
Viceroy's Executive Council), B. A. Dalal, R. B. Rao, Shankar Rao and S. N. Roy.
[27][28] The smoke from the bomb filled the Hall and they shouted slogans of "
Inquilab Zindabad!" (in
Hindustani which means "Long Live the Revolution!") and showered leaflets.
[29][30]
The leaflet claimed that the act was done to oppose the Trade Disputes
and the Public Safety Bill being presented in the Central Assembly and
the death of Lala Lajapath Rai.
[31]
Few sustained injuries in the explosion but there were no deaths.
Bhagat Singh and Dutt claimed that the act was intentional and they were
arrested.
[32][33] Gandhi, once again, issued strong words of disapproval for their deed.
[19]
Assembly bomb case trial
Bhagat Singh and Dutt were charged with attempt to murder, and the trial began on 7 May 1929.
[32]
Doubts have been raised about the accuracy of testimony offered at the
trial. One key discrepancy related to the automatic pistol that Bhagat
Singh had been carrying prior to his arrest. One witness,
Sobha Singh,
told the court that Bhagat Singh had been firing the pistol two or
three times before it jammed, and some policemen stated that Singh was
pointing the gun when they arrived. Later Sobha Singh was
knighted as a reward for his testimony.
[34]
Sergeant Terry, who had confronted and arrested Bhagat Singh, testified
that the gun was pointed downward when he took it from Bhagat Singh and
that Bhagat Singh "was playing with it."
[34] According to the
India Law Journal, however, this was incorrect, as Bhagat Singh had turned over the pistol himself.
[32] According to Kooner,
[35]
Bhagat Singh "committed one great blunder" by taking his pistol on that
day "when it was clear not to harm anybody and offer for police arrest
without any protest." Kooner further states that the police connected
"the shell of the gun fire found from the (Saunders') murder site and
the pistol." The two were sent to the Sessions Court of Judge Leonard
Middleton,
[36]
who ruled that Bhagat Singh and Dutt's actions had undoubtedly been
'deliberate' as the bombs had shattered the one and a half-inch deep
wooden floor in the Hall.
[32] Dutt was defended by
Asaf Ali, while Bhagat Singh defended himself.
[37] Their appeal was turned down and they were sentenced to 14 years life imprisonment.
[38]
Further trial and execution
On 15 April 1929, the 'Lahore bomb factory' was discovered by the
police, leading to the arrest of other members of HSRA, out of which
seven turned informants, helping the police to connect Bhagat Singh with
the murder of Saunders.
[26]
Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev were charged with the murder of
Saunders. Bhagat Singh decided to use the court as a tool to publicise
his cause—the independence of India.
[39]
Hunger strike and Lahore conspiracy case
Bhagat Singh was re-arrested for murdering Saunders and Chanan Singh
based on substantial evidence against him, including the statements of
his associates, Hans Raj Vohra and Jai Gopal.
[32] His life sentence in the Assembly Bomb case was deferred till the Saunders' case was decided.
[40] Bhagat Singh was sent to the Mianwali jail from the Delhi jail,
[33]
where he witnessed discrimination between European and Indian
prisoners, and led other prisoners in a hunger strike to protest this
illegal discrimination.
[41]
They demanded equality in standards of food, clothing, toiletries and
other hygienic necessities, as well as availability of books and a
daily newspaper for the political prisoners,
[41] who they demanded should not be forced to do manual labour or any undignified work in the jail,
[42] as detailed in their letter to the Home Member on 24 June 1929.
[43]
Muhammad Ali Jinnah spoke in the Assembly supporting Bhagat Singh,
[44] and sympathised with the prisoners on hunger strike. He declared on the floor of the Assembly:
The man who goes on hunger strike has a soul. He is
moved by that soul, and he believes in the justice of his cause ...
however much you deplore them and however much you say they are
misguided, it is the system, this damnable system of governance, which
is resented by the people.
[45]
Jawaharlal Nehru met Bhagat Singh and the other strikers in Mianwali jail. After the meeting, he stated:
I was very much pained to see the distress of the
heroes. They have staked their lives in this struggle. They want that
political prisoners should be treated as political prisoners. I am quite
hopeful that their sacrifice would be crowned with success.
[46]
The Government tried to break the strike by placing different food
items in the prison cells to test the hungry prisoners' resolve. Water
pitchers were filled with milk so that either the prisoners remained
thirsty or broke their strike but nobody faltered and the impasse
continued. The authorities then attempted forcing food using feeding
tubes into the prisoners, but were resisted.
[47][b] With the matter still unresolved, the Indian Viceroy,
Lord Irwin, broke his vacation in
Simla to discuss the situation with the jail authorities.
[49]
Since the activities of the hunger strikers had gained popularity and
attention amongst the people nationwide, the government decided to
advance the start of the Saunders murder trial, which was henceforth
called the Lahore Conspiracy Case. Bhagat Singh was transported to
Borstal Jail, Lahore,
[50]
and the trial of this case began there on 10 July 1929. In addition to
charging them for the murder of Saunders, Bhagat Singh and 27 other
prisoners were charged with plotting a conspiracy to murder Scott and
waging a war against the King.
[32]
Bhagat Singh, still on hunger strike, had to be carried to the court
handcuffed on a stretcher: he had lost 14 pounds (6.4 kg) weight from
133 pounds (60 kg) before the strike.
[50]
By now, the condition of another hunger striker,
Jatindra Nath Das,
lodged in the same jail had deteriorated considerably. The Jail
committee recommended his unconditional release, but the government
rejected the suggestion and offered to release him on bail. On 13
September 1929, Das died after a 63-day hunger strike.
[50]
Almost all the nationalist leaders in the country paid tribute to Das' death, and Mohammad Alam and
Gopi Chand Bhargava resigned from the Punjab Legislative Council in protest.
Motilal Nehru moved a successful
adjournment motion in the Central Assembly as a censure against the "inhumane treatment" of the Lahore prisoners.
[51]
Bhagat Singh finally heeded a resolution of the Congress party and the
request of his father, ending ended his 116-day hunger strike on 5
October 1929.
[32] During this period, Bhagat Singh's popularity among common Indians extended beyond Punjab.
[52][53]
Bhagat Singh's attention now turned to his trial, where he was to face a
British team representing the Crown and comprising C. H. Carden-Noad,
Kalandar Ali Khan, Gopal Lal and the prosecuting inspector, Bakshi Dina
Nath.
[32]
The defence was composed of eight lawyers. When Jai Gopal turned into a
prosecution witness, Prem Dutt, the youngest amongst the 28 accused,
threw his slipper at Gopal in court.
[54]
The magistrate ordered that all the accused should be handcuffed,
despite all other revolutionaries having dissociated themselves from the
act. Bhagat Singh and others refused to be handcuffed and were
therefore subjected to brutal beating.
[55]
The revolutionaries refused to attend the court and Bhagat Singh wrote a
letter to the magistrate citing various reasons why they had done so.
[56]
The trial was henceforth ordered to be carried out in the absence of
the accused or members of the HSRA. This was a setback for Bhagat Singh
as he could no longer use the trial as a forum to publicise his views.
[57]
Special Tribunal
Bhagat Singh in prison.
circa 1927.
To speed up the slow trial,
[32]
the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, declared an emergency on 1 May 1930, and
promulgated an ordinance setting up a special tribunal composed of three
high court judges for this case. The ordinance cut short the normal
process of justice as the only appeal after the tribunal was at the
Privy Council located in England
[32]
The Tribunal was authorised to function without the presence of any of
the accused in court, and to accept death of the persons giving evidence
as a concession to the defence. Consequent to
Lahore Conspiracy Case Ordinance No.3 of 1930,
the trial was transferred from Rai Sahib Pandit Sri Kishan's court to
the tribunal composed of Justice J. Coldstream (president), Justice G.
C. Hilton and Justice Agha Hyder (members).
[58]
The case commenced on 5 May 1930 in Poonch House, Lahore against 18 accused.
[59]
On 20 June 1930, the constitution of the Special Tribunal was changed
to Justice G.C. Hilton (president), Justice J.K. Tapp and Justice Sir
Abdul Qadir.
[59] On 2 July 1930, a
habeas corpus petition was filed in the High Court challenging the ordinance and said that it was
ultra vires and therefore illegal, stating that the Viceroy had no powers to shorten the customary process of determining justice.
[32] The petition argued that the
Act,
allowed the Viceroy to introduce an ordinance and set up such a
tribunal only under conditions of break down of law-and-order, whereas
there had been no such breakdown. However, the petition was dismissed as
'premature'.
[60]
Carden-Noad presented the government's grievous charges of conducting
dacoities, bank-robbery, and illegal acquisition of arms and ammunition
amongst others.
[32]
The evidence of G.T.H. Hamilton Harding, the Lahore superintendent of
police, shocked the court, when he stated that he had filed the
First Information Report against the accused under specific orders from the chief secretary (D.J. Boyd
[61]) to the governor of Punjab (
Sir Geoffrey Montmorency[61])
and that he was unaware of the details of the case. The prosecution
mainly depended upon the evidence of P.N. Ghosh, Hans Raj Vohra and Jai
Gopal who had been Bhagat Singh's associates in the HRSA. On 10 July
1930, the tribunal decided to press charges against only 15 of the 18
accused, and allowed their petitions to be taken up for hearing the next
day. The tribunal conducted the trial from 5 May 1930 to 10 September
1930.
[32]
The three accused against whom the case was withdrawn included Dutt,
who had already been awarded a life sentence in the Assembly bomb case.
[62]
The ordinance (and the tribunal) would lapse on 31 October 1930 as it
had not been passed in the Central Assembly or the British Parliament.
On 7 October 1930, the tribunal delivered its 300-page judgement based
on all the evidence and concluded that participation of Bhagat Singh,
Sukhdev and
Rajguru was proved beyond reasonable doubt in Saunders' murder, and sentenced them to death by hanging.
[32] The remaining 12 accused were all sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment.
[63]
Appeal to the Privy Council
In
Punjab,
a defence committee drew up a plan to appeal to the Privy Council.
Bhagat Singh was initially against the appeal, but later agreed to it in
the hope that the appeal would popularise the HSRA in Britain. The
appellants claimed that the ordinance which created the tribunal was
invalid, while the government countered that the Viceroy was completely
empowered to create such a tribunal. The appeal was dismissed by
Judge Viscount Dunedin.
[64]
Reactions to the judgment
After the rejection of the appeal to the Privy Council, Congress party president
Madan Mohan Malviya filed a mercy appeal before Lord Irwin on 14 February 1931.
[65] An appeal was sent to
Mahatma Gandhi by prisoners to intervene.
[32] In his notes dated 19 March 1931, the Viceroy recorded:
While returning Gandhiji asked me if he could talk
about the case of Bhagat Singh, because newspapers had come out with the
news of his slated hanging on March 24th. It would be a very
unfortunate day because on that day the new president of the Congress
had to reach Karachi and there would be a lot of hot discussion. I
explained to him that I had given a very careful thought to it but I did
not find any basis to convince myself to commute the sentence. It
appeared he found my reasoning weighty.
[66]
The
Communist Party of Great Britain expressed its reaction to the case:
The history of this case, of which we do not come
across any example in relation to the political cases, reflects the
symptoms of callousness and cruelty which is the outcome of bloated
desire of the imperialist government of Britain so that fear can be
instilled in the hearts of the repressed people.
[65]
An abortive plan had been made to rescue Bhagat Singh and fellow inmates of HSRA from the jail. HSRA member
Bhagwati Charan Vohra (husband of
Durga Bhabhi) made bombs for the purpose, but died making them when they exploded accidentally.
[12]
Writings in prison
Bhagat Singh also maintained the use of a diary, which eventually
grew to include 404 pages. In this diary, he made numerous notes
regarding the quotations and popular sayings of various people whose
views he agreed with. Prominent in his diary were the views of
Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels.
[67] The comments in his diary led to an understanding of the philosophical thinking of Bhagat Singh.
[68] In his prison cell, he also wrote a pamphlet entitled
Why I am an Atheist, in response to him being accused of vanity by not accepting God in the face of death.
[69]
Execution
Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were sentenced to death in the
Lahore conspiracy case and ordered to be hanged on 24 March 1931.
[70] That schedule was moved forward by 11 hours to 23 March, although Bhagat Singh was not informed of this until the day arrived.
[61][71] Bhagat Singh was hanged on 23 March 1931 at 7:30 pm
[72] in
Lahore
jail with his comrades Rajguru and Sukhdev. It is reported that no
magistrate of the time was willing to supervise his hanging as was
required by law. The execution was supervised by an honorary judge, who
also signed the three death warrants as their original warrants had
expired.
[73]
The jail authorities then broke the rear wall of the jail and secretly
cremated the three martyrs under cover of darkness outside
Ganda Singh Wala village, and then threw the ashes into the
Sutlej river, about 10 km from
Ferozepore (and about 60 km from Lahore).
[61][70][74]
Criticism of the Special Tribunal and method of execution
Bhagat Singh's trial has been described by the Supreme Court as
"contrary to the fundamental doctrine of criminal jurisprudence" because
there was no opportunity for the accused to defend themselves.
[75]
The Special Tribunal was a departure from the normal procedure adopted
for a trial and its decision could only be appealed to the Privy Council
located in Britain.
[32] The accused were absent from the court and the judgement was passed ex-parte.
[76]
The ordinance, which was introduced by the Viceroy to form the Special
Tribunal, was never approved by the Central Assembly or the British
Parliament, and it eventually lapsed without any legal or constitutional
sanctity.
[77]
Reactions to the executions
Front page of
The Tribune announcing Bhagat Singh's execution
The execution of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were reported
widely by the press, especially as they were on the eve of the annual
convention of the
Congress party at
Karachi.
[78] Gandhi faced black flag demonstrations by angry youths who shouted "Down with Gandhi".
[11] The
New York Times reported:
A reign of terror in the city of
Cawnpore
in the United Provinces and an attack on Mahatma Gandhi by a youth
outside Karachi were among the answers of the Indian extremists today to
the hanging of Bhagat Singh and two fellow-assassins.
[79]
Hartals and strikes of mourning were called.
[80] The
Congress party, during the
Karachi session, declared:
While dissociating itself from and disapproving of
political violence in any shape or form, this Congress places on record
its admiration of the bravery and sacrifice of Bhagat Singh, Sukh Dev
and Raj Guru and mourns with their bereaved families the loss of these
lives. The Congress is of the opinion that their triple execution was an
act of wanton vengeance and a deliberate flouting of the unanimous
demand of the nation for commutation. This Congress is further of the
opinion that the [British] Government lost a golden opportunity for
promoting good-will between the two nations, admittedly held to be
crucial at this juncture, and for winning over to methods of peace a
party which, driven to despair, resorts to political violence.
[81]
In the 29 March 1931 issue of
Young India, Gandhi wrote:
"Bhagat Singh and his two associates have been
hanged. The Congress made many attempts to save their lives and the
Government entertained many hopes of it, but all has been in a vain.
Bhagat Singh did not wish to live. He refused to apologise, or even
file an appeal. Bhagat Singh was not a devotee of non-violence, but he
did not subscribe to the religion of violence. He took to violence due
to helplessness and to defend his homeland. In his last letter, Bhagat
Singh wrote, " I have been arrested while waging a war. For me there can
be no gallows. Put me into the mouth of a cannon and blow me off."
These heroes had conquered the fear of death. Let us bow to them a
thousand times for their heroism.
But we should not imitate their act. In our land of millions of
destitute and crippled people, if we take to the practice of seeking
justice through murder, there will be a terrifying situation. Our poor
people will become victims of our atrocities. By making a dharma of
violence, we shall be reaping the fruit of our own actions.
Hence, though we praise the courage of these brave men, we should never
countenance their activities. Our dharma is to swallow our anger, abide
by the discipline of non-violence and carry out our duty."
[82]
[90][101] Furthermore, Bhagat Singh wrote his essay
Why I Am an Atheist before his execution;
[11] towards the end of which he wrote:
Let us see how steadfast I am. One of my friends
asked me to pray. When informed of my atheism, he said, "When your last
days come, you will begin to believe." I said, "No, dear sir, Never
shall it happen. I consider it to be an act of degradation and
demoralisation. For such petty selfish motives, I shall never pray."
Reader and friends, is it vanity? If it is, I stand for it.
[69]
Conspiracy theories
Mohandas Gandhi
One theory is that
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had an opportunity to stop Bhagat Singh's execution, but refrained from doing so.
[102] A variation of this theory is that Gandhi actively conspired with the British to have Bhagat Singh executed.
[102]
Gandhi's supporters argue that Gandhi did not have enough influence
with the British to stop the execution, much less arrange it,
[102] but claim that he did his best to save Bhagat Singh's life.
[103]
They also assert that Bhagat Singh's role in the independence movement
was of no threat to Gandhi's role as its leader, and so Gandhi would
have no reason to want him dead.
[95] Gandhi, during his lifetime, always maintained that he was a great admirer of Bhagat Singh's patriotism.
[102]
He also stated that he was opposed to Bhagat Singh's execution (and for
that matter, capital punishment in general) and proclaimed that he had
no power to stop it.
[102]
On Bhagat Singh's execution, Gandhi said, "The government certainly had
the right to hang these men. However, there are some rights which do
credit to those who possess them only if they are enjoyed in name only."
[104]
Gandhi also once remarked about capital punishment, "I cannot in all
conscience agree to anyone being sent to the gallows. God alone can take
life, because he alone gives it."
[105] Gandhi had managed to have 90,000 political prisoners who were not members of his
Satyagraha movement released under the
Gandhi-Irwin Pact.
[95] According to a report in the Indian magazine
Frontline, he did plead several times for the commutation of the death sentence of Bhagat Singh,
Rajguru and
Sukhdev,
including a personal visit on 19 March 1931. In a letter to the Viceroy
on the day of their execution, he pleaded fervently for commutation,
not knowing that the letter would be too late.
[95] Lord Irwin, the Viceroy of India later said:
As I listened to Mr. Gandhi putting the case for
commutation before me, I reflected first on what significance it surely
was that the apostle of non-violence should so earnestly be pleading the
cause of the devotees of a creed so fundamentally opposed to his own,
but I should regard it as wholly wrong to allow my judgment to be
influenced by purely political considerations. I could not imagine a
case in which under the law, penalty had been more directly deserved.
[95]
While Gandhi did appreciate Bhagat Singh's patriotism and how he had
overcome the fear of death, he did not support the violence involved.
[citation needed]
Legacy
Indian independence movement
Bhagat Singh's death had the effect that he desired and he inspired thousands of youths to assist the remainder of the
Indian independence movement.
[92] After his hanging, youths in regions around northern India rioted in protest against the
British Raj and Gandhi.
[106]
Memorials and museums
- Statue in the Parliament of India
On 15 August 2008, an 18-foot tall bronze statue of Bhagat Singh was installed in the
Parliament of India, next to the statues of
Indira Gandhi and
Subhas Chandra Bose.
[107] A portrait of Bhagat Singh and Dutt also adorns the walls of the
Parliament House.
[108]
- National Martyrs Memorial
The National Martyrs Memorial, built at Hussainiwala in memory of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru
The place where Bhagat Singh was cremated, at
Hussainiwala on the banks of the Sutlej river, became Pakistani territory during the
partition. On 17 January 1961, it was transferred to India in exchange for 12 villages near the
Sulemanki Headworks.
[74]
Batukeshwar Dutt was cremated there on 19 July 1965 in accordance with
his last wishes, as was Bhagat Singh's mother, Vidyawati.
[70] The National Martyrs Memorial was built on the cremation spot in 1968
[109] and has memorials of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. During the
1971 India–Pakistan war,
the memorial was damaged and the statues of the martyrs were removed
and taken away by the Pakistani army. They have not been returned since
[74][110] but the memorial was rebuilt in 1973.
[70]
Annually, on 23 March, the
Shaheedi Mela (Punjabi: Martyrdom Fair) is observed at the National Martyrs Memorial, when thousands of people pay homage.
[111] The day is also observed across the Indian state of
Punjab.
[112]
- Bhagat Singh Museum & Bhagat Singh Memorial
The Shaheed-e-azam Sardar Bhagat Singh Museum opened on his 50th death anniversary at his native village,
Khatkar Kalan.
There, memorable belongings of Singh, including his half-burnt ashes,
the blood-soaked sand and blood-stained newspaper in which the ashes
were wrapped, are exhibited.
[113]
A page of the first Lahore Conspiracy Case's judgement through which
Kartar Singh Sarabha was sentenced to death and on which Singh put some
notes is also exhibited in the museum.
[113] A copy of the
Bhagavad Gita with Bhagat Singh's signature, which was given to him in Lahore Jail, and other personal belongings, are also displayed there.
[114][115] The Bhagat Singh Memorial was built in 2009 in Khatkar Kalan at a cost of
16.8 crore (US$2.6 million).
[116]
- Other
The
Supreme Court of India
established a museum to display landmarks in the history of India's
judicial system, displaying records of some historic trials. The first
exhibition that was organised was the
Trial of Bhagat Singh, which opened on 28 September 2007, on the birth centenary celebrations of Bhagat Singh.
[75][77] In September 2007, the Governor of
Pakistani Punjab,
Khalid Maqbool, announced that a memorial to Bhagat Singh would be displayed at
Lahore Museum.
According to the governor, Bhagat Singh was the first martyr of the
subcontinent and his example was followed by many youths of the time.
[117][118] However, the promise was not fulfilled.
[119]
Modern day
The youth of India still draw tremendous amount of inspiration from Bhagat Singh.
[120][121][122] He was voted the "Greatest Indian" in a poll by the Indian magazine
India Today in 2008, ahead of Subhas Chandra Bose and Gandhi.
[123]
During the centenary of his birth, a group of intellectuals set up an
institution named Bhagat Singh Sansthan to commemorate him and his
ideals.
[124] The
Parliament of India paid tributes and observed silence as a mark of respect in memory of Bhagat Singh on 23 March 2001
[125] and 2005.
[126]
In Pakistan, after a long-standing demand by activists from the Bhagat
Singh Foundation of Pakistan, the Shadman Chowk square in Lahore, where
he was hanged, was to be renamed as Bhagat Singh Chowk. As of December
2012, this proposal is on hold due to a legal challenge.
[127][128]
- Movies
Several popular
Bollywood films have been made capturing the life and times of Bhagat Singh.
[129] The first is
Shaheed-e-Azad Bhagat Singh (1954), followed by
Shaheed Bhagat Singh (1963), starring
Shammi Kapoor as Bhagat Singh.
[130] Two years later,
Manoj Kumar portrayed Bhagat Singh in an immensely popular and landmark film,
Shaheed.
[130] Three major films about Singh were released in 2002:
Shaheed-E-Azam,
23 March 1931: Shaheed and
The Legend of Bhagat Singh.
[129] The 2006 film
Rang De Basanti is a film drawing parallels between revolutionaries of Bhagat Singh's era and modern Indian youth.
[92][131] It covers a lot of Bhagat Singh's role in the Indian freedom struggle.
[132] The movie revolves around a group of college students and how they play the roles of Bhagat Singh's friends and family.
[92] In 2008,
Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) and
Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD), a non-profit organisation, co-produced a 40-minute documentary on Bhagat Singh entitled
Inqilab, directed by
Gauhar Raza.
[133][134]
- Theatre
Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru have been the inspiration for a
number of plays in India and Pakistan, that continue to attract crowds
even today.
[135][136][137]
- Songs
The patriotic Hindustani songs, "
Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna" ("The desire to sacrifice") and "Mera Rang De Basanti Chola" ("O Mother! Dye my robe the colour of spring"
[138]);
[c] while created by
Ram Prasad Bismil, are largely associated with Bhagat Singh's martyrdom and have been used in a number of Bhagat Singh-related films.
[129]
- Other
In 1968, a postal stamp was issued in India commemorating the 61st birth anniversary of Bhagat Singh.
[139]
In September 2006, Indian Government decided to issue commemorative
coins in his memory. However, the coins had still not been issued in
June 2011.
[140]
