Bhagat Singh
Bhagat Singh
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Bhagat
Singh
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Born
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Died
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Organization
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Naujawan
Bharat Sabha,
Kirti Kisan Party, Hindustan Socialist Republican Association |
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Influenced by
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Political movement
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Religion
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Bhagat Singh (IPA: [pə̀ɡət̪ sɪ́ŋɡ] (
listen); 28 September 1907 – 23 March 1931) was an Indian
socialist considered to be one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian
independence movement. He is often referred to as Shaheed Bhagat Singh, the word "Shaheed"
meaning "martyr" in a number of Indian languages. Born into a Sikh family which had earlier been involved in revolutionary
activities against the British Raj,
as a teenager Bhagat Singh studied European revolutionary movements and was
attracted to anarchist and Marxist ideologies. He became involved in numerous
revolutionary organisations, and quickly rose through the ranks of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) to become one of its main
leaders, eventually changing its name to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in 1928.
listen); 28 September 1907 – 23 March 1931) was an Indian
socialist considered to be one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian
independence movement. He is often referred to as Shaheed Bhagat Singh, the word "Shaheed"
meaning "martyr" in a number of Indian languages. Born into a Sikh family which had earlier been involved in revolutionary
activities against the British Raj,
as a teenager Bhagat Singh studied European revolutionary movements and was
attracted to anarchist and Marxist ideologies. He became involved in numerous
revolutionary organisations, and quickly rose through the ranks of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) to become one of its main
leaders, eventually changing its name to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in 1928.
Seeking revenge for the death of Lala Lajpat Rai at the hands of the police, Bhagat
Singh was involved in the murder of British police officer John Saunders. He
eluded efforts by the police to capture him. Together with Batukeshwar Dutt, he undertook a
successful effort to throw two bombs and leaflets inside the Central
Legislative Assembly while shouting slogans of Inquilab Zindabad. Subsequently they
volunteered to surrender and be arrested. Held on this charge, he gained
widespread national support when he underwent a 116 day fast in jail, demanding
equal rights for British and Indian political prisoners. During this time,
sufficient evidence was brought against him for a conviction in the Saunders
case, after trial by a Special Tribunal and appeal at the Privy Council in England. He was convicted and
subsequently hanged for his participation in the murder, aged 23. His legacy
prompted youth in India to begin fighting for Indian independence and he
continues to be a youth idol in modern India, as well as the inspiration for
several films. He is commemorated with a large bronze statue in the Parliament of
India, as well as a range of other memorials.
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Contents
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6 Legacy
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Early life
This picture is of the ancestral
home at Khatkar Kalan which preserved as museum due to its historical
importance of establishing the principle on which the four generations
contributed to freedom struggle. (Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Punjab).
Bhagat Singh, a Sandhu Jat, 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. 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.
His grandfather, Arjun Singh, was a follower of Swami
Dayananda Saraswati's Hindu reformist movement, Arya Samaj, which had a considerable influence
on the young Bhagat. 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.
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. Instead, he was enrolled in the Dayanand Anglo Vedic High School, an Arya Samaji institution.
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. Bhagat Singh participated ardently
in Mahatma
Gandhi's Non-Cooperation
Movementin 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. 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.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.
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, 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. 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. He founded the Indian nationalist
youth organisation Naujawan
Bharat Sabha (Hindi: "Youth Society of India") in March
1926. He also joined the Hindustan
Republican Association, which had prominent leaders, such as Ram Prasad Bismil, Chandrashekhar
Azad andAshfaqulla
Khan. The name of the organisation was changed to Hindustan Socialist Republican Association at Bhagat Singh's insistence. A year later, to avoid getting
married by his family, Bhagat Singh ran away from his house to Cawnpore. 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 ...
It is also believed that he went to Cawnpore to attempt
to free the Kakori train
robbery convicts from jail, but returned to Lahore for unknown
reasons. On the day of Dussehra in October 1926, a bomb exploded in
Lahore. Bhagat Singh was arrested for his alleged involvement in
this Dussehra bomb case on 29 May 1927, but was released for exhibiting good
behaviour against a steep fine of Rs. 60,000, about five weeks after his arrest. He wrote for and edited Urdu and
Punjabi newspapers, published from Amritsar, as well as briefly for the Veer Arjun newspaper published in Delhi. He
also contributed to Kirti, the journal of theKirti Kisan Party ("Workers and Peasants
Party"), 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.
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. However, when the matter was raised
in the British Parliament, the British Government denied any role in Rai's
death. Although Bhagat Singh did not
witness the event, he vowed to take revenge, and joined other
revolutionaries, Shivaram Rajguru, Sukhdev Thapar and Chandrashekhar
Azad, in a plot to kill Scott. 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.
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.
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. 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 forHowrah (Calcutta) early the
next morning. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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. On 8 April 1929, Bhagat Singh and Dutt threw two bombs
inside the assembly rushing from Visitor's Gallery. 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. 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. 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. Gandhi, once again, issued strong
words of disapproval for their deed.
Assembly bomb case trial
Bhagat Singh and Dutt were charged with attempt to
murder, and the trial began on 7 May 1929. 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. 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." According to theIndia Law Journal, however, this
was incorrect, as Bhagat Singh had turned over the pistol himself. According to Kooner, 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, 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. Dutt was defended by Asaf Ali, while Bhagat Singh defended
himself. Their appeal was turned down and they were sentenced to
14 years life imprisonment.
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. 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.
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. His life sentence
in the Assembly Bomb case was deferred till the Saunders' case was decided. Bhagat Singh was sent to the
Mianwali jail from the Delhi jail, where he witnessed discrimination
between European and Indian prisoners, and led other prisoners in a hunger
strike to protest this illegal discrimination.
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, who they demanded should not be
forced to do manual labour or any undignified work in the jail, as detailed in their letter to the
Home Member on 24 June 1929.
Muhammad Ali
Jinnah spoke in the Assembly supporting Bhagat Singh, 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.
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.
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. With the matter still unresolved, the Indian
Viceroy, Lord Irwin, broke his vacation in Simla to discuss the situation with the jail authorities. 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, 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. 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.
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.
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 Nehrumoved a successful adjournment motion in the Central Assembly as a censure
against the "inhumane treatment" of the Lahore prisoners. 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. During this period, Bhagat Singh's
popularity among common Indians extended beyond Punjab. 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. 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. 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. The revolutionaries refused to
attend the court and Bhagat Singh wrote a letter to the magistrate citing
various reasons why they had done so. 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.
Special Tribunal
Bhagat Singh in prison. circa 1927.
To speed up the slow trial, 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. 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).
The case commenced on 5 May 1930 in Poonch House, Lahore
against 18 accused. 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. 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. The petition argued that the Act,
allowed the Viceroy to introduce an ordinance and set up such a tribunal only
under conditions of breakdown of law-and-order, whereas there had been no such
breakdown. However, the petition was dismissed as 'premature'. Carden-Noad presented the
government's grievous charges of conducting dacoities, bank-robbery, and
illegal acquisition of arms and ammunition amongst others. 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) to the governor of Punjab (Sir Geoffrey Montmorency) 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. The three accused against whom the case was withdrawn
included Dutt, who had already been awarded a life sentence in the Assembly
bomb case.
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. The remaining 12 accused were all
sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment.
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.
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. An appeal was sent to Mahatma Gandhi by prisoners to intervene. 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.
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.
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.
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. The comments in his diary led to an
understanding of the philosophical thinking of Bhagat Singh. 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.
Execution
Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were sentenced to death
in the Lahore conspiracy case and ordered to be hanged on 24 March 1931. That schedule was moved forward by
11 hours to 23 March, although Bhagat Singh was not informed of this until the
day arrived. Bhagat Singh was hanged on 23 March 1931 at 7:30 pm 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. 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).
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. 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. The accused were absent from the court
and the judgement was passed ex-parte. 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.
Reactions to the executions
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. Gandhi faced black flag
demonstrations by angry youths who shouted "Down with Gandhi". TheNew 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.
Hartals and strikes of mourning were called. 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.
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.
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."
Popularity among people
In the words of Subhas Chandra
Bose: "Bhagat Singh had become the symbol of the new awakening
among the youths ..." Jawaharlal Nehru acknowledged that the popularity of
Bhagat Singh was leading to a new national awakening, saying
He was a clean fighter who faced his
enemy in the open field ... he was like a spark that became a flame in a
short time and spread from one end of the country to the other dispelling the
prevailing darkness everywhere.
Four years after Bhagat Singh's hanging, the Director of
the Intelligence Bureau, Sir Horace Williamson, wrote:
His photograph was on sale in every
city and township and for a time rivalled in popularity even that of Mr. Gandhi
himself.
Ideals and opinions
Influences
Bhagat Singh was attracted to anarchism and communism. He was an avid reader of the
teachings of Nikolai Bakunin and also read Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. Bhagat Singh did not believe in the Gandhian ideology—which advocated Satyagraha and other forms of non-violent
resistance, and felt that the politics of Gandhism would replace one set of
exploiters with another. Some of his writings like Blood Sprinkled on the Day of Holi
Babbar Akalis on the Crucifix were influenced by the struggle of Dharam
Singh Hayatpur.
Anarchism
From May to September 1928, Bhagat Singh published a
series of articles on anarchism in a Punjabi periodical Kirti. He expressed concern over
misunderstanding of the concept of anarchism among the public and tried to
eradicate its misconception among people, writing "The people are scared
of the word anarchism. The word anarchism has been abused so much that even in
India revolutionaries have been called anarchist to make them unpopular." As anarchism means absence of ruler
and abolition of state, not absence of order, Bhagat Singh explained, "I
think in India the idea of universal brotherhood, the Sanskrit sentence vasudhaiva
kutumbakam etc., has the same meaning." He wrote about the growth of
anarchism:
The first man to explicitly
propagate the theory of Anarchism was Proudhon and that is why he is called the
founder of Anarchism. After him a Russian, Bakunin, worked hard to spread the
doctrine. He was followed by Prince Kropotkin etc.
Bhagat Singh explained anarchism in the article:
The ultimate goal of Anarchism is
complete independence, according to which no one will be obsessed with God or
religion, nor will anybody be crazy for money or other worldly desires. There
will be no chains on the body or control by the state. This means that they
want to eliminate: the Church, God and Religion; the state; Private property.
Marxism
Bhagat Singh was profoundly influenced by Marxism, saying that the ideal for him and
his comrades was "the social reconstruction on Marxist basis". Indian historian K. N. Panikkar described Bhagat Singh as one of the
early Marxists in India. From 1926 onwards, he studied the history of the
revolutionary movement in India and abroad. In his prison notebooks, he quoted Vladimir Lenin in reference to imperialism and
capitalism and also the revolutionary thoughts of Trotsky. When asked what his last wish was,
Bhagat Singh replied that he was studying the life of Lenin and he wanted to
finish it before his death. In spite of his belief in Marxist
ideals however, Bhagat Singh never joined the Communist
Party of India.
Atheism
Bhagat Singh began to question religious ideologies after
witnessing the Hindu–Muslim riots that broke out after Gandhi disbanded the Non-Cooperation
Movement. He did not understand how members of these two groups,
initially united in fighting against the British, could be at each other's
throats because of their religious differences. At this point, Bhagat Singh dropped
his religious beliefs, since he believed religion hindered the revolutionaries'
struggle for independence, and began studying the works of Bakunin, Lenin,
Trotsky—all atheist revolutionaries. He also took an interest in Soham Swami's book Common Sense (Bhagat Singh incorrectly referred
to Niralamba Swami as the author of the book, however
Niralamba had only written the introduction), which advocated a form of
"mystic atheism". While in his prison cell in 1931, he
wrote a pamphlet entitled Why I am an Atheist in which he discussed and advocated
the philosophy of atheism. This pamphlet was a result of some criticism by
fellow revolutionaries on his failure to acknowledge religion and God in jail;
the accusation of vanity was also dealt with in this pamphlet. He supported his
own beliefs and claimed that he used to be a firm believer in The Almighty, but
could not bring himself to believe the myths and beliefs that others held close
to their hearts. In this pamphlet, he acknowledged the fact that religion made
death easier, but also said that unproved philosophy is a sign of human
weakness. In this context, he noted:
As regard the origin of God, my
thought is that man created God in his imagination when he realised his
weaknesses, limitations and shortcomings. In this way he got the courage to
face all the trying circumstances and to meet all dangers that might occur in
his life and also to restrain his outbursts in prosperity and affluence. God,
with his whimsical laws and parental generosity was painted with variegated
colours of imagination. He was used as a deterrent factor when his fury and his
laws were repeatedly propagated so that man might not become a danger to
society. He was the cry of the distressed soul for he was believed to stand as
father and mother, sister and brother, brother and friend when in time of
distress a man was left alone and helpless. He was Almighty and could do
anything. The idea of God is helpful to a man in distress.
Martyrdom
His mentor as a young boy was Kartar Singh
Sarabha, whose photo he always carried in his pocket. Bhagat Singh is himself considered a
martyr for acting to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai. In the leaflet he threw in the
Central Assembly on 9 April 1929, he stated: "It is easy to kill
individuals but you cannot kill the ideas. Great empires crumbled, while the
ideas survived." After studying the Russian
Revolution, he wanted to die so that his death would inspire the
youth of India which in turn will unite them to fight the British Empire. While in prison, Bhagat Singh and
two others had written a letter to Lord Irwin, wherein they asked to be treated as prisoners of
war and consequently to be executed by firing squad and not by hanging. Prannath Mehta, Bhagat Singh's
friend, visited him in the jail on 20 March, four days before his execution,
with a draft letter for clemency, but he declined to sign it.
Controversy
Last wish
Randhir Singh,
a Ghadar Party revolutionary convicted of the first Lahore
Conspiracy Case claimed to have met Bhagat Singh in
Lahore Central Jail on 4 October 1930 during his release. Bhagat Singh was
condemned on 7 October 1930 contradicting his presence in condemned cells on 4
October. According to Randhir Singh, Bhagat Singh mentioned to him,
that he (Bhagat Singh) had shaven "his hair and beard under pressing
circumstances" and that "it was for the service of the country". He also said that Bhagat Singh told
him that his companions had "compelled him to give up the Sikh
appearance", and that he was ashamed. He had expressed, as his last wish
before being hanged, the desire to get amrit from Randhir Singh and to once again
adorn the 5 Ks. However, this was not granted by the
jail authorities. However Many scholars are sceptic about this meeting as,
Randhir Singh being the only source of information about sudden change in
Bhagat Singh's point of view towards religion casts doubts, as Bhagat Singh was
a strong critic of religion. Furthermore, Bhagat Singh wrote his
essay Why I Am an Atheist before his execution; 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.[67]
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. A variation of this theory is that
Gandhi actively conspired with the British to have Bhagat Singh executed. Gandhi's supporters argue that
Gandhi did not have enough influence with the British to stop the execution,
much less arrange it, but claim that he did his best to save Bhagat Singh's
life.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. Gandhi, during his lifetime, always maintained that he
was a great admirer of Bhagat Singh's patriotism. 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. 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." 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." Gandhi had managed to have 90,000
political prisoners who were not members of his Satyagraha movement released under the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. 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. 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.
While Gandhi did appreciate Bhagat Singh's patriotism and
how he had overcome the fear of death, he did not support the violence
involved.
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. After his hanging, youths in regions
around northern India rioted in protest against the British Raj and Gandhi.
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. A portrait of Bhagat Singh and Dutt also adorns the walls
of the Parliament House.
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. Batukeshwar Dutt was cremated there on 19 July 1965 in
accordance with his last wishes, as was Bhagat Singh's mother, Vidyawati. The National Martyrs Memorial was
built on the cremation spot in 1968 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 but the memorial was rebuilt in 1973.
Annually, on 23 March, the Shaheedi Mela (Punjabi: Martyrdom Fair) is
observed at the National Martyrs Memorial, when thousands of people pay homage. The day is also observed across the
Indian state of Punjab.
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. 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. 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. The Bhagat Singh Memorial was built in 2009 in Khatkar
Kalan at a cost of 
16.8 crore (US$2.9 million).
16.8 crore (US$2.9 million).
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. 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. However, the promise was not
fulfilled.
Modern day
The youth of India still draw tremendous amount of
inspiration from Bhagat Singh. He was voted the "Greatest
Indian" in a poll by the Indian magazine India Today in 2008, ahead of Subhas Chandra
Bose and Gandhi. During the centenary of his birth, a group of
intellectuals set up an institution named Bhagat Singh Sansthan to commemorate
him and his ideals. The Parliament of
India paid tributes and observed silence as a mark of respect
in memory of Bhagat Singh on 23 March 2001 and 2005. 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.
Movies
Several popular Bollywood films have been made capturing the
life and times of Bhagat Singh. The first is Shaheed-e-Azad Bhagat Singh (1954), followed by Shaheed Bhagat Singh (1963), starring Shammi Kapoor as Bhagat Singh. Two years later, Manoj Kumar portrayed Bhagat Singh in an
immensely popular and landmark film, Shaheed. Three major films about Singh were
released in 2002: Shaheed-E-Azam, 23
March 1931: Shaheedand The
Legend of Bhagat Singh. The 2006 film Rang De Basanti is a film drawing parallels between
revolutionaries of Bhagat Singh's era and modern Indian youth. It covers a lot
of Bhagat Singh's role in the Indian freedom struggle. The movie revolves around a group of
college students and how they play the roles of Bhagat Singh's friends and
family. 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.
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.
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"); 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.
Other
In 1968, a postal stamp was issued in India commemorating
the 61st birth anniversary of Bhagat Singh. In September 2006, Indian Government
decided to issue commemorative coins in his memory. However, the coins had
still not been issued in June 2011.
Criticism
Bhagat Singh was criticised both by his contemporaries
and by people after his death, both for his violent and revolutionary stance
towards the British as well as his strong opposition to the pacifist stance
taken by Gandhi and the Indian
National Congress. The methods he used to convey his
message, such as shooting Saunders and throwing non-lethal bombs, stood in
stark contrast to Gandhi's non-violent methodology.
