On 28th September 1907, one of India’s greatest revolutionary freedom fighters, Bhagat Singh, was born. Though he died young, only 23 years of age, his actions inspired the youth of the nation to fight for the nation’s freedom. His execution spurred many to take up the revolutionary path, playing an important role in India’s freedom struggle.
Shaheed Bhagat Singh is considered to be one of the most famous revolutionaries of the Bharatiya Independence movement. His uncle, Sardar Ajit Singh, as well as his father, were great freedom fighters, so Bhagat Singh grew up in a patriotic atmosphere. At an early age, Bhagat Singh started dreaming of uprooting the British Empire. Never afraid of fighting during his childhood, he thought of ‘growing guns in the fields’, so that he could fight the British. The Ghadar Movement left a deep imprint on his mind. Kartar Singh Sarabha, hanged at the age of 19, became his hero. The massacre at Jallianwala Bagh on 13th April, 1919 drove him to Amritsar, where he kissed the earth sanctified by the martyrs’ blood and brought back home a little of the soaked soil. At the age of 16, he used to wonder why so many Bharatiyas could not drive away a fistful of invaders.
A brutal attack by the police on veteran freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai at an anti-British procession caused his death on 17th November 1928, in Lahore. This angered Bhagat Singh no bounds and he decided to avenge Lala Rajpat Rai’s death. In December 1928, Bhagat Singh and Shivaram Rajguru shot dead a British police officer General John Saunders. They mistook him for General James Scott, who had ordered lathi charge on Lala Lajpat Rai. Though he was a Sikh, he shaved his beard and cut his hair so that no one recognizes him during the dramatic escape to Calcutta from Lahore.
He came to Agra from there and established a bomb factory. The British Government responded by imposing severe measures like Trade Disputes Bill. He was on run for many months until he resurfaced in April 1929 to protest against this bill. He and Batukeshwar Dutt threw bombs in the Central Assembly Hall (now our Loksabha) while the assembly was in session shouting “Inquilab Zindabad”. The bombs did not hurt anyone, but the noise they made was loud enough to wake up an enslaved Nation from a long sleep. After throwing the bombs, Bhagat Singh and his friend deliberately courted arrest by refusing to run away from the scene. During his trial, Bhagat Singh refused to employ any Defense counsel.
During interrogation, the British came to know about his involvement in the death of John Saunders a year earlier. At the time of his trial, he didn’t offer any defence, rather used the occasion to propagate the idea of India’s freedom. His death sentence was pronounced on 7 October 1930, which he heard with defiant courage. During his stay in jail, he went on a hunger strike against the policy of better treatment for prisoners of foreign origin. He was sentenced to be hanged on 24 March 1931, but it was brought forward by 11 hours to 23 March 1931 at 7:30 p.m. It is said that no magistrate was willing to supervise the hanging. After the original death warrants expired it was an honorary judge who signed and oversaw the hanging.
Legend says, Bhagat Singh marched to the gallows with a smile on his face and his one last act of defiance was shouting “Down with British Imperialism.” India’s most famous freedom fighter was only 23 years old when he was hanged. His death inspired hundreds to take up the cause of the freedom movement. Old timers say that in many places, not a single hearth fire burned that day.
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A legend & very inspirational.