At the age of 23, if anyone was smiling just before he was being hanged, he was Bhagat Singh. India will never forget the courage and sacrifice of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev.
1. BHAGAT SINGH SANDHU:
Bhagat Singh, a Sandhu Jatt was born on September 27, 1907 in Punjab’s Chak No. 105 GB Banga village near Jaranwala Tehsil in the Lyallpur district of the Punjab Province of British India (now in Pakistan).
He grew up in a freedom fighters family. His uncle, Sardar Ajit Singh, as well as his father (Kishan Singh), were great freedom fighters.
At an early age, Bhagat Singh started dreaming of growing guns in the fields so that he could fight against the colonial rule.
The Ghadar Movement left a deep imprint on his mind.
Kartar Sing Sarabha, hanged at the age of 19, became his hero.
In 1919, when he was 12 years old, Bhagat visited the site of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre hours after thousands of unarmed people gathered at a public meeting had been killed.
The massacre at Jallianwala Bagh on April 13, 1919 drove him to go to Amritsar.
In 1923, Bhagat joined the National College in Lahore, where he also participated in extra-curricular activities like the dramatics society.
He won an essay competition set by the Punjab Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, writing on the problems in the Punjab.
Inspired by the Young Italy movement of Giuseppe Mazzini, he founded the Indian nationalist youth organisation Naujawan Bharat Sabha in March 1926. He also joined the Hindustan Republican Association,[22] which had prominent leaders, such as Chandrashekhar Azad, Ram Prasad Bismil and Shahid Ashfaqallah Khan.
He was preparing for his B.A examinations when his parents planned to have him married. .
To avoid an arranged marriage, Bhagat ran away to Cawnpore.
In a letter he left behind, he said:
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.
Hunger strike: 116 days huger strike by Bhagat Singh is recorded as the biggest hunger strike in the history of India. His life sentence in the Assembly Bomb case was deferred until the Saunders case was decided.
He was sent to Central Jail Mianwali from the Delhi jail. There he witnessed discrimination between European and Indian prisoners. He considered himself, along with others, to be a political prisoner. He noted that he had received an enhanced diet at Delhi which was not being provided at Mianwali. He led other Indian, self-identified political prisoners he felt were being treated as common criminals in a hunger strike. They demanded equality in food standards, clothing, toiletries, and other hygienic necessities, as well as access to books and a daily newspaper. They argued that they should not be forced to do manual labor or any undignified work in the jail.
2. SUKHDEV THAPAR:
Born on May 15, 1907, Sukhdev Thapar had witnessed the brutal atrocities that the Imperial British Raj had inflicted on India, which then led him to join the revolutionaries, vowing to set India free from the shackles of British dominion.
As a member of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), Sukhdev Thapar organised revolutionary cells in Punjab and other areas of North India. He even went on to educate the youth at the National College in Lahore, greatly inspiring them about India’s glorious past.
He along with other renowned revolutionaries started the ‘Naujawan Bharat Sabha’ at Lahore that was an organisation involved in various activities, mainly gearing the youth for the freedom struggle and putting an end to communalism.
He also took active part in several revolutionary activities like the ‘Prison hunger strike’ in 1929; however, he is best remembered for his courageous attack in the Lahore Conspiracy Case.
3. SHIVARAM RAJGURU:
Shivaram Rajguru, a proud Maratha was born on August 24, 1908, had witnessed British’s atrocities on India and its people.
This instilled within him a strong urge to join hands with the revolutionaries in a bid for India’s freedom struggle.
He joined HSRA with a motive to strike fear into the heart of the British empire. Rajguru made British to take notice of the growing domestic uprising when they dealt crucial blows with attacks like in the Lahore Conspiracy Case and the bombing of the Central Assembly Hall in New Delhi.
* ASSEMBLY INCIDENT TRIAL
The dramatic protest was met with widespread criticisms from the political arena. Bhagat Singh responded – “Force when aggressively applied is ‘violence’ and is, therefore, morally unjustifiable, but when it is used in the furtherance of a legitimate cause, it has its moral justification.”
Trial proceedings commenced in May where Bhagat Singh sought to defend himself, while Batukeshwar Dutt was represented by Afsar Ali. The court ruled in favour of a life sentence citing malicious and unlawful intent of the explosions.
* LAHORE CONSPIRACY CASE
Soon after the sentencing, the police raided the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) bomb factories in Lahore and arrested several prominent revolutionaries. Three individuals, Hans Raj Vohra, Jai Gopal and Phanindra Nath Ghosh turned approver for the Government which led to a total of 21 arrests including those of Sukhdev Thapar, Jatindra Nath Das and Shivaram Rajguru. Bhagat Singh was re-arrested for the Lahore Conspiracy case, murder of Assistant Superintendent Saunders and bomb manufacturing.
Trial started against 28 accused in a special session court presided over by Judge Rai Sahib Pandit Sri Kishen, on July 10, 1929.
* SAUNDERS MURDER
On December 17, 1927, Bhagat Singh and Shivaram Rajguru shot and killed assistant superintendent of police John Saunders. They were supported in this act by their compatriots Sukhdev Thapar and Chandrashekhar Azad. However, their original target was not Saunders but superintendent of police James Scott who had ordered his men to lathi-charge protesters leading to the death of the nationalist leader Lala Lajpat Rai
* THE JUDGEMENT
Owing to the slow pace of the legal proceedings, a special tribunal consisting of Justice J Coldstream, Justice Agha Hyder and Justice GC Hilton was set up on the directives of the Viceroy, Lord Irwin on May 1, 1930. The tribunal was empowered to proceed without the presence of the accused and was a one-sided trial that hardly adhered to the normal legal rights guidelines.
The tribunal delivered its 300-page judgement on October 7, 1930. It declared that irrefutable proof has been presented confirming the involvement of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru in the Saunders murder. Bhagat Singh admitted to the murder and made statements against the British rule during the trial. They were sentenced to be hanged till death.
* GANDHI CONTROVERSY
There have been suggestions that Gandhi had an opportunity to stop Singh’s execution but refrained from doing so. Another theory is that Gandhi actively conspired with the British to have Singh executed. In contrast, Gandhi’s supporters argue that he 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 Singh’s life. They also assert that Singh’s role in the independence movement was no threat to Gandhi’s role as its leader, so he would have no reason to want him dead. Gandhi always maintained that he was a great admirer of Singh’s patriotism. He also stated that he was opposed to Singh’s execution (and for that matter, capital punishment in general) and proclaimed that he had no power to stop it. Of 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 sentences of 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 arrive too late. Lord Irwin, the Viceroy, 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 judgement to be influenced by purely political considerations. I could not imagine a case in which under the law, penalty had been more directly deserved”.
* EXECUTION
Bhagat Singh along with his comrades Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged in Lahore Jail On March 23, 1931 at 7:30 am.
It is said that the trio proceeded quite cheerfully towards the gallows while chanting their favourite slogans like “Inquilab Zindabad” and “Down with British Imperialism”.
India’s beloved sons were cremated at Hussainiwala on the banks of Sutlej River.
At the time of their execution, Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev Thapar were just 23 years old. And Shivaram Rajguru was only 22
March 23rd 2017 marks the 86th anniversary of the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. This day is even celebrated as Martyrs day or “balidan din” rightly so to pay the nation’s tribute for their martyrdom sacrifice.
As a freedom fighter, he was considered to be one of the most famous revolutionaries of the Bharatiya Independence movement. For this reason, he is often referred to as Martyr Bhagat Singh. At such a young age, if anyone was smiling just before being hanged to death, it was Martyr Bhagat Singh.
“It is easy to kill individuals but you cannot kill the ideas. Great empires crumbled while the ideas survived..” – Bhagat Singh