Bhagat Singh
Bhagat Singh
(28 September 1907 - 23 March 1931) was an Indian freedom fighter. Bhagat Singh was hanged
on 23 March 1931 along with his associates Rajguru and Sukhdev. He was one of the founding members of the Hindustan
Socialist Republican Association. Bhagat
Singh was a revolutionary as well as a fundamentalist thinker. He
rationally examined social, political, and cultural phenomena and expressed his
views on them.
Bhagat Singh  | |
|---|---|
| Born | 27 September 1907 Banga, Lyallpur District, Punjab Province, British India (present-day Faisalabad District, Punjab, Pakistan) |
| Died | 23 March 1931 (aged 23) Lahore Central Jail, Lahore, Lahore Division, Punjab Province, British India (present-day Lahore District, Punjab, Pakistan) |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Monuments | Hussainiwala National Martyrs Memorial |
| Other names | Shaheed-e-Azam |
| Organization | Naujawan Bharat Sabha Hindustan Socialist Republican Association |
Notable work | Why I Am an Atheist |
| Movement | Indian independence movement |
| Criminal charge(s) | Murder of John P. Saunders and Channan Singh |
| Criminal penalty | Capital punishment |
| Criminal status | Executed |
| Parents |
|
In 1928, Bhagat Singh and his accomplice Shivram Rajguru shot dead John Saunders, a 21-year-old British police officer, in Lahore while they were trying to assassinate James Scott, a senior superintendent of police.
The early life of Bhagat Singh
Bhagat Singh was born on 28 September
1907 in the village of Banga ( Punjab, British India,
now Pakistan ) in the Lyallpur district. His ancestral
home is located in Khatkar Kalan village
in Nawanshahr (now Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar ) district of
Indian Punjab. His father's name was Sardar Kishan Singh and
his mother's name was Vidyavati. It was a Jatt Sikh family
who adopted the ideas of Arya Samaj. At the time of his birth,
his father and two uncles, Ajit Singh and Swaran Singh had been released from
prison, which made him considered fortunate. His forefathers were active in the
Indian independence movement, some serving in the army of Maharaja
Ranjit Singh.
His family was politically active. His
grandfather, Arjan Singh, adopted Swami Dayanand Saraswati's Hindu
reformist movement, the Arya Samaj, which had a profound effect on Bhagat
Singh. His father and uncle were members of the Ghadar Party, which
was active for India's independence, led by Kartar Singh Sarabha and Hardial. Ajit
Singh was imprisoned by the British government in court cases while his second
uncle Swaran Singh died in Lahore in 1910 after his release from jail.
Bhagat Singh's early education was at
District Board Primary School, Lyallpur, (now in Pakistan). He later
joined the DAV. The high school entered Lahore. The British called
this school a 'nursery of anti-state activities. Although Bhagat Singh
was not a traditional type of reader, he used to read different types of
books. He was fluent in Urdu and used to write letters to his father
Kishan Singh in this language. Unlike many Sikh students his age, Bhagat
Singh did not attend the Khalsa High School in Lahore. Her
grandfather did not acknowledge the loyalty of the school authorities to the
British government. Instead, Bhagat Singh was promoted to Arya Samaj
Dayanand Anglo Vedic High school he was admitted to the hospital.
In 1919, when he was 12 years old,
Bhagat Singh visited Jallianwala Bagh, where thousands of unarmed people
gathered at a public meeting were killed. When he was 14 years old, he was
among the people of his village who welcomed the protesters against killing so many innocent people at Gurdwara Nankana Sahib on 20
February 1921. After withdrawing from the non-alignment movement, Bhagat Singh
became disillusioned with Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of
non-violence. After Gandhi's decision, policemen were killed
by villagers in the Chauri Chaura incident in 1922. Bhagat Singh led
the youth revolutionary movement to participate in and began
advocating for violent opposition to the British government in India.
In 1923, Bhagat Singh joined the
National College, Lahore, where he began to take part in extra-curricular
activities, such as the Nat-Kala Society.
In 1923, he won an essay competition organized by the Punjab Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, in which he wrote about the problems of the Punjab. He was inspired by Giuseppe Matsini 's Young Italy Movement. In March 1926, he founded the Naujwan Bharat Sabha, a youth socialist ideological organization. He also joined the Indian Republican Association, of which Chandra Shekhar Azad, Ram Prasad Bismil, and Ashfaqullah Khan were prominent leaders. A year later,to escape a planned marriage, he fled to Kanpur. In a letter he left behind, he wrote:
My life has been devoted to the supreme cause, the freedom of the country, therefore, no rest or worldly desire can entice me now.
Police became concerned about his
influence on the youth and arrested him in May 1927 for his involvement in a
bomb blast in Lahore in May 1926. He was released on bail of Rs 60,000
five weeks after his arrest. He wrote and edited Urdu and Punjabi newspapers
published from Amritsar and also contributed to low-cost pamphlets
published by the Naujwan Bharat Sabha.
He wrote for the Kirti Kisan
Party magazine Kirti, and for a short time for
the Veer Arjun newspaper published from Delhi. He often
used obscure names such as Balwant, Ranjit, and Vidrohi when writing.
Revolutionary activists
In 1928, the British government set
up the Simon Commission to report on the political situation in India. Some
Indian political parties boycotted the commission because it had no Indian
members and there were protests across the country. When the commission
reached Lahore on 30 October 1928, people under the leadership of Lala Lajpat
Rai started protesting against it. Police tried to disperse the mob but
the mob turned violent. Scott, a British superintendent, ordered
the protesters to be lathi-charged. Lala Lajpat Rai died of a heart attack
on 17 November 1928 after being injured by the baton charge. The doctors
thought he had died of his injuries. When the matter was raised in the
United Kingdom Parliament, the British government denied any involvement in
Roy's death.
Bhagat HRA Was a prominent
member of the BJP and was probably responsible for the renaming of the Hindustan
Socialist Republican Association in 1928. HSRA Swears to avenge Lala
Lajpat Rai's death Singh conspired with revolutionaries like Shivram
Rajguru, Sukhdev Thapar, and Chandrasekhar Azad to
assassinate Scott. However, due to a misidentification, he was identified as
John P. Saunders, an assistant police officer, who was shot dead as he was
leaving the district police headquarters in Lahore on December 17, 1928.
The Navajo Bharat Sabha, which organized the Lahore Ross March with the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, noticed a decline in attendance at public meetings. Politicians, activists, and newspapers, including The People, founded by Roy in 1925, insisted that non-cooperation was better than violence. The assassination was condemned by Mahatma Gandhi as an isolated act but Jawaharlal Nehru later wrote:
Bhagat Singh became famous in the country not for his acts of terrorism but for avenging the death of Lala Lajpat Rai. He became a symbol; The work was forgotten, the symbol still stands, and within a few months, in every town and village in Punjab and the rest of North India, his name became famous. Countless songs were composed about him and the fame he gained was amazing.
Escape
After killing Saunders, they drove across the road from the district police headquarters to the DAV. They went to the entrance of the college and escaped. Channan Singh, an Indian head constable, started chasing them. When he did not back down, Azad shot him. From there, they cycled to safety. Police launched a massive search operation to nab them, blocking all entrances and exits to the city; The CID kept an eye on all the youths who had left Lahore. They hid for the next two days.
On 19 December 1928, Sukhdev met Goddess
Durgavati, also known as Durga Bhabi, the wife of Bhagwati Charan Vohra, an
HSRA member, and she agreed. He left Lahore for
Howrah (Kolkata) the next morning via Bathinda. Decided to catch the
oncoming train.
Bhagat Singh and Rajguru both left home the next day with loaded revolvers. Dressed in western clothes (Bhagat Singh cut his hair, cut his beard, and wore a hat on his head), and carrying the sleeping child of Goddess Durgavati, Bhagat Singh and Devi The young men passed away as a couple, while Rajguru assumed the form of a servant carrying the same. At the station, Bhagat Singh managed to hide his identity while buying tickets and the three came to Kavanpore (now Kanpur). There he boarded a train for Lucknow as passengers at the Howrah railway station were usually checked by the CID on a direct train from Lahore. At Lucknow, Rajguru left for Banaras separately, while Bhagat Singh, Durgavati Devi, and the child left for Howrah. A few days later, except for Bhagat Singh, all the others returned to Lahore.
1929 Assembly event
For some time now, Bhagat Singh has
been using the power of drama to provoke a revolt against Britain, magic
to show slides to tell about revolutionaries like Ram Prasad Bismil who died as
a result of the Kakori scandal. To buy a lantern.
In 1929, he proposed a dramatic act for HSRA to gain massive publicity for his cause. Inspired by the French anarchist Augustus Welt, who bombed the Chamber of Deputies in Paris, Bhagat Singh planned to detonate a bomb inside the Central Assembly. Nominal Intention Public Safety Bill and Trade Disputes ActWas to protest against, which was rejected by the Assembly but was being created by the Viceroy using his special powers; The real intention was to get himself arrested so that he could use the court as a medium to spread his propaganda. The HSRA leadership initially opposed Bhagat Singh's involvement in the bombing because they were convinced that his earlier involvement in the Saunders shootings would result in his execution and that a majority of party leaders told him. He was in favor of being preserved as the future leader. However, he finally decided that he was the most suitable candidate. After much debate, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt were chosen unanimously. According to the election plan, on April 8, 1929, the two were elected to a vacant seat in the Central AssemblyThe bomb was dropped. The bombs were not intended to kill, but some members, including George Ernest Schutter, a finance member of the viceroy's executive council, were injured. The whole hall was filled with smoke. He could have run away if he wanted to, but he had already thought that hanging was acceptable. He had decided not to run away. After the bomb exploded, they started chanting slogans of ' Inquilab-Zindabad '. Shortly afterward, police arrived and arrested him.
Assembly case hearing
According to Nati Nair, an associate professor of history, "public criticism of this terrorist act was clear." Gandhi once again issued stern words of disapproval of his work. Nevertheless, Bhagat was reportedly happy in prison and later called the legal proceedings a "drama." Singh and Dutt responded to the criticism by writing a Vidhan Sabha bomb statement:
We consider human life beyond the world to be sacred. We are not guilty of atrocities... nor are we 'crazy' according to the Lahore Tribune and some others... when force is used aggressively there is 'violence' and hence, morality But when it is used to advance a legitimate cause, it is ethical. I have heard the news of Bhagat Singh and Dutt's hunger strike with great sadness. For the past 20 or more days, they have not eaten anything. I have come to know that food is also being forced. They are not on hunger strike for any of their own interests but to improve the condition of political prisoners. I sincerely hope that their sacrifice will succeed.
Following a preliminary hearing in
May, the trial began in the first week of June.
On June 12, both were sentenced to life in prison for "illegally and maliciously endangering lives due to natural disasters." Dutt's trial was conducted by Asaf Ali, while Bhagat Singh conducted his own trial.
Arrest
In 1929, HSRA set up bomb factories in Lahore and Saharanpur.
On April 15, 1929, the Lahore Bomb Factory was searched and police arrested HSRA members, including Sukhdev, Kishori Lal, and Jai Gopal. Shortly afterward, the Saharanpur factory was also raided and some conspirators became informants. With the new information available, the police were able to connect the three areas of Saunders' assassination, the Assembly bombing, and the bomb-making area. Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru others were charged with Saunders' murder.
Hunger strike and Lahore case
Bhagat Singh was re-arrested on
charges of murdering Saunders and Channan Singh based on the evidence
against him, including statements from his associates Hans Raj Vohra and Jai
Gopal. The life sentence in the Assembly bombing case was postponed until
Saunders' case was decided. He was transferred from Delhi Jail to Mianwali
Central Jail. There he saw a distinction between European and Indian
prisoners. He considered himself a political prisoner along with
others. He noted that he had received an extra dose in Delhi which was not
being provided on Mianwali. He led other Indian, self-proclaimed political
prisoners who felt that they were being treated as ordinary criminals on hunger
strike. They demanded equality in food standards, clothing, toilet and
other health needs, as well as books and a daily newspaper. He argued that
in prison he should not be forced to work as a laborer or do any unclean thing.
The hunger strike increased public
support for Bhagat Singh and his associates around June 1929. The Tribune newspaper
in particular was prominent in the agitation and reported on public
meetings in places like Lahore and Amritsar.
In an attempt to limit the gathering,
the government had to implement Section 144 of the Criminal Code.
Jawaharlal Nehru met Bhagat Singh and
other strikers at Mianwali Jail. After the meeting he said :
I have heard the news of Bhagat Singh and Dutt's hunger strike with great sadness. For the past 20 or more days, they have not eaten anything. I have come to know that food is also being forced. They are not on hunger strike for any of their own interests but to improve the condition of political prisoners. I sincerely hope that their sacrifice will succeed.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, speaking in
support of the strikers in the Assembly, said:
The person who goes on a hunger strike has a soul. He is inspired by that spirit, and he believes in the justice of his actions... although you disturb them and, however, very much you say they have been misled, this is a system, this There is a dirty system of government, which people are against.
The government tried to break the
strike by placing various food items in the prisoners' cells. The water
jugs were filled with milk, either to keep the prisoners thirsty or to break
the strike; No one stumbled and the protest continued. Attempts were
made to force-feed them but failed. As the matter was still unresolved,
the Indian Viceroy, Lord Irwin, visited Shimla to discuss the situation
with the jail authorities. Reduced his leave Because the activities
of the hunger strikers had gained popularity and attention across the country,
the government decided to initiate the Saunders murder trial, which was later
called the Lahore conspiracy case. Singh was transferred to Borstal Jail,
Lahore and the trial began on 10 July 1929. In addition to Saunders' murder
charges, Bhagat Singh and 27 other prisoners were charged with plotting to
assassinate Scott and waging war against King. Bhagat Singh was still on hunger
strike and had to be handcuffed on a stretcher and taken to court; He had
lost 60 to 6.4 kg of his actual weight since the strike began.
The government started offering
concessions but refused to go into the main issue of recognizing the
"political prisoner" category.
In the eyes of the authorities, if
anyone broke the law, it was a personal act, not a political one, and they were
ordinary criminals. The condition of another hunger striker, Jatinder Nath
Das, lodged in the same jail till now, had deteriorated considerably. The
jail committee recommended unconditional release but the government rejected
the suggestion and offered to release him on bail.
On September 13, 1929, Das died after
a 63-year hunger strike. Almost all nationalist leaders in the country paid
tribute to Das's death. Mohammad Alam and Gopi Chand BhargavResigned
from the Punjab Legislative Council in protest and Nehru moved a successful
adjournment motion in the Central Assembly condemning the "inhumane
treatment" of Lahore prisoners. Bhagat Singh finally passed the Congress
party resolution and ended his hunger strike on 5 October 1929 at the request
of his father. During this time, Bhagat Singh's popularity among the general
public extended beyond Punjab.
Bhagat Singh's attention now turned to his trial, where he had to face the Crown Prosecution Team which included. H. Cordon-Node, Kalander Ali Khan, Jai Gopal Lal, and prosecuting inspector Bakshi Dina Nath. The defense consisted of eight lawyers. Prem Dutt Verma, the youngest of the 27 accused, threw his shoe at Gopal when he recanted and became a prosecution witness in the court. As a result, the magistrate ordered all the accused to be handcuffed. Singh and others refused to be handcuffed and were brutally beaten. The revolutionaries refused to appear in court and Bhagat Singh wrote a letter to the magistrate stating several reasons for their refusal. The magistrate ordered the trial without the accused or members of the HSRA. This was a shock to Bhagat Singh as he could not use the trial as a forum to disseminate his views.
Special Tribunal
To expedite the slow trial, the
Viceroy, Lord Irwin, declared a state of emergency on May 1, 1930, and
introduced an ordinance establishing a special tribunal of three High Court
judges for the case. This decision reduced the normal process of justice
as the tribunal was the only appeal of the Privy Council based in England. On
July 2, 1930, a habeas corpus petition was filed in the High
Court challenging the ordinance because it was grossly inferior and
therefore illegal; The viceroy had no power to undermine the traditional
process of administering justice. The petitioner contends that the Defense
of India Act 1915 allowed the Viceroy to introduce an ordinance and set up such
a tribunal, only under the conditions of breach of law and order as claimed.
Was, However, the petition was dismissed prematurely.
Cordon-Node charged the government
with looting and illegal possession of weapons and ammunition. Lahore
Superintendent of Police G. T. H. Hamilton Harding's evidence
shocked the court. He said that he had directed the Chief Secretary to
register an FIR against the accused under special orders of the Governor
of Punjab. The report was filed and they were unaware of the details of
the case. The prosecution is primarily P.S. N. Depending on the
evidence of Ghosh, Hans Raj Vohra, and Jai Gopal who were Bhagat Singh's allies
in HSRA.
On July 10, 1930, the tribunal
decided to suppress the charges against only 15 of the 18 accused and appealed
the next petition. The trial ended on September 30, 1930. The three
accused whose charges were withdrawn included Dutt, who was sentenced to life
imprisonment in the Vidhan Sabha bomb case.
The Ordinance (and the Tribunal)
expired on 31 October 1930 as it had not been passed by the Central Assembly or
the British Parliament.
On October 7, 1930, the tribunal passed a 300-page judgment based on all its evidence and found the involvement of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru in Saunders' murder. He was sentenced to death. Three of the other convicts ( Ayojia Ghosh, Jatinder Nath Sanyal, and Desh Raj) were acquitted, Kundan Lal was sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment, and Prem Dutt to five years.
Appeal to Privy Council
In the state of Punjab, a defense committee devised a plan to appeal to the Privy Council. Bhagat Singh initially opposed the appeal but later agreed in the hope that the appeal would promote HSRA in the UK. The appellants claimed that the ordinance which created the tribunal was invalid while the government denied that the viceroy was fully empowered to form such a tribunal. The appeal was dismissed by Judge Viscount Dundee.
Feedback on the Decision
After the Privy Council rejected the
appeal, Congress party president Madan Mohan Malviya appealed to
Irwin on February 14, 1931. Some prisoners appealed to Mahatma Gandhi to
intervene.
In his notes dated 19 March 1931, the
Viceroy wrote:
On my way back, Gandhiji asked me if he could talk about Bhagat Singh's case as the news of his execution on March 24 had appeared in the newspapers. It will be a very unfortunate day as the new Congress president is scheduled to arrive in Karachi on that day and there will be a heated discussion. I explained to them that I had thought about it very carefully but I did not find any basis for convincing myself to punish. He seemed to find my argument weighty.
The
Communist Party of Great Britain reacted to the case:
The history of this case, from which we find no precedent in political matters, shows the symptoms of restlessness and cruelty which are the result of the bloated will of the British imperial government to create fear in the hearts of the oppressors. Could go
A plan to rescue Singh and fellow HSRA prisoners failed. Bhagwati Charan Vohra, husband of HSRA member Durga Devi, tried to make a bomb for this purpose but was killed when a sudden bomb exploded.
Execution
Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev
were sentenced to death in the Lahore conspiracy case and were ordered to be
hanged on March 24, 1931. He was hanged. It is reported that at that time
no magistrate was ready to monitor the execution of Bhagat Singh as required by
law.
Instead, the execution was overseen by an honorary judge who also signed three death warrants, as their original warrants had expired. The jail authorities then took out the broken bodies in the back wall of the jail and secretly cremated the three outside the village of Ganda Singhwala and then in Ferozepur. About 10 km (6.2 miles) away from the Sutlej river threw ashes.
Criticism of tribunal hearings
Bhagat Singh's trial has been described by the Supreme Court as "contrary to the basic tenets of criminal jurisprudence" as the accused had no chance to defend himself. The special tribunal adopted for the trial was out of the ordinary, and its decision can only be appealed to the Privy Council, based in the United Kingdom. The accused were absent from the court and the verdict had already been passed. The Legislative Assembly, which was introduced by the Viceroy to form a special tribunal, was never approved by the Central Legislative Assembly or the British Parliament, and as a result, became bound by no legal or constitutional sanctity.
Execution reactions
The executions were widely reported
by the press, especially on the eve of the completion of the Congress
part's annual convention in Karachi. Angry youths showed black
flags to Gandhi. The New York Times reported:
The terrorist rule in the city of Kwanpore in the United Provinces and the attack on Mahatma Gandhi by a young man outside Karachi were in response to the death sentence of Bhagat Singh and two of his comrades.
During the
Karachi session, the Congress party had announced:
Disassociating itself from any form of political violence, the Congress praises the bravery and sacrifice of Bhagat Singh, Sukh Dev, and Raj Guru and mourns their bereaved families. Congress is of the view that his triple execution was an act of absurd change and a deliberate attack on the whole nation's demand for the commotion. It goes beyond the idea of the Congress that the British government has lost a golden opportunity to promote goodwill between the two countries and to win peacefully.
On March 29,
1931, in the issue of Young India, Gandhi wrote:
Bhagat Singh and his two accomplices have been hanged. Congress tried hard to save lives and the government enjoyed many of its hopes, but all were in vain.
Bhagat Singh did not want to live. He also refused to apologize or appeal. Bhagat Singh was not a devotee of non-violence, but he was not in favor of religious violence. Out of helplessness and to defend his country, he chose the path of violence.
In his last letter, Bhagat
Singh wrote, "I was arrested while fighting a war. I cannot be hanged. Put
me in the muzzle of a cannon and blow me up." These heroes had
overcome the fear of death. Let's bow a thousand times for their bravery.
But we should not imitate
their work. There are millions of helpless and disabled people in our
country, if we go to the practice of seeking justice through murder, it will be
a scary situation. Our poor people will be the victims of our oppression. By
making religion a religion of violence, we are reaping the fruits of our labor.
While we admire the courage of these brave men, we should never underestimate their accomplishments. Our religion is to swallow our anger, follow the discipline of non-violence, and fulfill our duty.
Gandhi Controversy
It is said that Gandhi had a chance
to stop Singh's execution but he did not. Another theory is that Gandhi
conspired with the British to hang Bhagat Singh.
On the contrary, Gandhi's supporters
argued that his influence on the British government was not enough to stop the
execution, but he claims that he did his best to save Singh's life. He also
claims that Bhagat Singh's role in the independence movement was not a threat
to Gandhi's role as a leader, so Gandhi had no reason to kill Bhagat Singh. Gandhi
always said that he was a great admirer of Bhagat Singh's patriotism. He
also said that he opposed the execution of Bhagat Singh and declared that he
had no power to stop it. Gandhi said of Bhagat Singh's execution:
"The government must have had the right to execute these men." Gandhi
once remarked on the death penalty: "I cannot agree to the death penalty
for anyone.
Only God gives life and He alone can
take it." Gandhi released 90,000 political prisoners who were not
members of the Satyagrahi movement under the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. According
to a report in the Indian magazine Frontline, he made several requests for
commutation of the death sentences of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev,
including a personal visit on 19 March 1931.
In a letter to the viceroy on the day of his military suspension, he earnestly requested change, not knowing that the letter would arrive too late.
Ideals and Ideas
Bhagat Sing h's role model was Kartar
Singh Sarabha. He considered Kartar Singh, a founding member of the Ghadar
Party, as his hero. Bhagat was also inspired by Bhai Parmanand, another
founder of the Gadar Party. Bhagat Singh was drawn to anarchism and communism.
He was a reader of the teachings of Mikhail Bakunin and also of Karl
Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Trotsky.
In his last will and testament, Too
Young Political Workers, he declares his ideal to be "the new and social
reconstruction, the Marxist basis". Bhagat Singh is a Gandhian. Not
believing in ideology - which advocated satyagraha and other forms of
non-violent protest and felt that such politics would take the place of another
exploiter.
From May to September 1928, Bhagat
Singh wrote a series of articles on anarchism in Kirti. He
was concerned that the public misunderstood the concept of anarchism, and
wrote: "People are afraid of the word anarchy. The word anarchy has been
so misused that even Indian revolutionaries have been called anarchists to discredit
it." He clarified that anarchy means the absence of the ruler and the
end of the state, not the absence of orders. He goes on to say: "I
think the idea ofa wider community in India, the Vasudhiva Kutumbak of
Sanskrit, etc., has the same meaning." He believed that:
The ultimate goal of anarchism is complete freedom, according to which no one will hate God or religion, nor will anyone be mad for money or worldly desires. There will be no chain on the body or control by the state. It means the church, God, and religion; State; They want to destroy private property.
Historian KN Panicker considered Bhagat Singh to be one of the earliest Marxists in India. Political theorist Jason Adams stated that he loved Lenin more than Marx. From 1926 onwards, he studied the history of the revolutionary movement in India and abroad. In his prison notebook, he quoted Lenin and Trotsky's revolutionary views in the context of imperialism and capitalism. When asked about his last wish, Bhagat Singh replied that he was studying Lenin's life and wanted to fulfill it before his death. Despite his belief in Marxist ideals, Bhagat Singh never joined the Communist Party of India.
Atheism
After Bhagat Singh broke up the
non-cooperation movement and witnessed the Hindu-Muslim riots, he started
questioning religious ideologies. At this point, Bhagat Singh abandoned
his religious beliefs because he believed that religion had hampered the
revolutionaries' struggle for independence and he began to study the works of
Bakunin, Lenin, Trotsky - all atheists revolutionaries. Given. He also
showed interest in Soham Swami's book Common Sense.
In 1930-31, while in jail, Bhagat
Singh came in contact with a fellow prisoner, Randhir Singh, a Sikh
leader who later formed the Akhand Kirtan Jatha. According to Shiv
Verma, a close associate of Bhagat Singh, who later organized and edited the
writings, Randhir Singh tried to convince Bhagat Singh of the existence of God,
and when he failed he criticized him: "You are famous and There is ego
inside you which is like a black curtain between Ture and God ".
In response, Bhagat Singh asked,
" Why am I an atheist? He wrote that his atheism was not born out of
arrogance. In this article, he wrote about his beliefs and said that he was a
firm believer in Almighty God, but he could not believe in myths and fantasies
like others. While acknowledging that religion has made death easier, he also
said that unreliable philosophy is a sign of human weakness.
In this context, he wrote:
At the end of the article, Bhagat Singh wrote:
- On August 15, 2008, an 18-foot-tall bronze statue of Bhagat Singh was erected in the Indian Parliament along with statues of Indira Gandhi and Subhash Chandra Bose. Pictures of Bhagat Singh and Dutt have also been hung on the walls of Parliament House.
- The place where Bhagat Singh was cremated at Dhussainiwala on the banks of the Sutlej became part of Pakistan during partition.
- On 17 January 1961, it was transferred to India in exchange for 12 villages near Sulemanki Headworks. He was cremated there on 19 July 1965 as per the last wish of Batukeshwar Dutt. The National Martyrs' Memorial was erected at the cremation ground in 1968 and monuments to Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev were erected. The National Martyrs' Memorial was erected at the cremation ground in 1968 and monuments to Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev were erected. During the Indo-Pak war of 1971, the monument was damaged and the statues of martyrs were removed by the Pakistan Army. They did not return the idols. But rebuilt in 1973.
- Shahidi Mela is held annually on March 23 where people pay homage at the National Martyrs Memorial. This day is also celebrated in the Indian state of Punjab.
- The Shaheed-e-Azam Sardar Bhagat Singh Museum was inaugurated at his native village Khatkar Kalan on the occasion of the 50th Martyrdom Anniversary. The exhibits include Singh's bones, blood-soaked sand, and a blood-stained newspaper wrapped in ashes. The first Lahore conspiracy case judgment page, in which Kartar Singh Sarabha was sentenced to death and on which Bhagat Singh sent some notes, and a copy of the Bhagwat Gita signed by Bhagat Singh, What he found in the Lahore jail and other personal belongings are also on display.
- The Bhagat Singh Memorial was established in 2009 at Khatkar Kalan at an INR cost of 8 168 million ($ 2.3 million).
- The Supreme Court of India has set up a Historical Museum to display the history of the judicial system of India, displaying records of some of the historical trials. The first organized exhibition was the trial of Bhagat Singh, which was opened on September 28, 2007, to mark the centenary of Bhagat Singh's birth.
"Eliminate ideas"
He said in a leaflet thrown at the Central Assembly on April 9, 1929: "It is easy to kill people but you cannot kill ideas. Great empires fell while ideas survived." While in prison, Bhagat Singh and two others wrote a letter to Lord Irwin asking him to act like a prisoner of war and to be shot instead of hanged. Four days before Singh's execution, Bhagat Singh's friend Pranath Mehta visited him on March 20 with a draft letter of apology, but Bhagat Singh refused to sign it.
Fame
Subhash Chandra Bose said that "Bhagat Singh has become a symbol of new awakening among the youth." Nehru acknowledged that Bhagat Singh's popularity was on the rise towards a new national awakening and said: Became and removed the darkness from one end of the country to the other. " Sir Horace Williamson, director of the Intelligence Bureau, wrote four years after his execution:
Heritage and Monuments
Bhagat Singh is an important figure
in today's Indian painting. His memory, however, defines categorization and
presents problems for different groups who may try to make it
relevant. Pritam Singh, a professor specializing in the study of
federalism, nationalism, and development in India, says:
Bhagat Singh represents a challenge to almost every trend in Indian politics. Gandhi-inspired Indian nationalists, Hindu nationalists, Sikh nationalists, the parliamentary left and the ruling armed struggle, and the left-wing Naxalites compete with each other to fix Bhagat Singh's legacy, and yet each of them claims their own heritage. Has to face a paradox. Gandhi-inspired Indian nationalists find Bhagat Singh's violent approach problematic, Hindu and Sikh nationalists are disturbed by his atheism, the parliamentary left views his views and actions from a Naxalite point of view, and Naxalite influence Bhagat Singh's personal terrorism. The exaggerations in his later life are considered historical facts.
In modern times
The youth of India is still very
much inspired by Bhagat Singh. He was voted "Great Indian" by Bose
and Gandhi in a 2008 poll by Indian magazine India Today. During
the centenary of Bhagat Singh's birth, a group of intellectuals founded an
organization called Bhagat Singh Sansthan in memory of his
ideals. The Parliament of India commemorated and paid silent tribute to
Singh on 23 March 2001 and 2005.
In Pakistan, the Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation of PakistanShadman Chowk in Lahore, where Bhagat Singh was hanged, was renamed Bhagat Singh Chowk after a long-running demand of the BJP. The change was successfully challenged in a Pakistani court. On September 6, 2015, the Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation filed a petition in the Lahore High Court seeking the renaming of the Chowk as Bhagat Singh Chowk.
Movies and Television
Bhagat Singh's life and times have
been portrayed in many films. The first film based on Bhagat Singh's life
was Shaheed-e-Azad Bhagat Singh (1954) in which Prem Abid
played the role of Singh.
In Shaheed Bhagat Singh (1963), Shammi Kapoor played
Bhagat Singh. Shaheed (1965) starring Manoj Kumar and Amar
Shaheed Bhagat Singh (1974) in which Som Dutt played Bhagat
Singh. Three films about Bhagat Singh were released in 2002, Shaheed-e-Azam, March
23, 1931: Shaheed and The Legend of Bhagat Singh starring Sonu
Sood Bobby Deol, and Ajay Devgn played Bhagat Singh.
Siddharth played the role of Bhagat
Singh in the film Rang De Basanti (2006), which portrayed the
similarities between the revolutionaries of Bhagat Singh's era and the modern Indian
youth. Gurdas Mann played the role of Bhagat Singh in Shaheed
Udham Singh, a film based on the life of Udham Singh. Karam Rajpal
played the role of Bhagat Singh in Star India's television series Chandrasekhar
which was based on the life of Chandra Shekhar Azad.
In 2008, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library and Anhad, a non-profit organization, produced Bhagat Singh's 40-minute documentary film Revolution, directed by Gohar Raza.
Theater
Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru have been the source of inspiration for many popular dramas in India and Pakistan.
Songs
The patriotic Hindustani songs produced by Ram Prasad Bismil, "Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna" and "Mera Rang De Besant Chola" are mainly associated with Bhagat Singh and have been used in many related films.
In 1968, India issued a postage stamp commemorating Singh's 61st birthday. A ₹5 coin was also issued in 2012 commemorating Bhagat Singh for circulation.
