Bhagat Singh

Bhagat Singh

Subject: Indian History

Section: Freedom struggle

Context- A photograph of Bhagat Singh in Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s office has run into a controversy.

Concept-

About Bhagat Singh:

• Bhagat Singh (September 1907 – 23 March 1931) was a charismatic Indian revolutionary.
• Born as Bhaganwala, Bhagat Singh grew up in a petty-bourgeois family of Sandhu Jats settled in the Jullundur Doab district of Punjab.
• In 1923, Bhagat Singh joined the National College, Lahore which was founded and managed by Lala Lajpat Rai and Bhai Parmanand.
• In 1924, he became a member of the Hindustan Republican Association, started by Sachindranath Sanyal.
  • The main organiser of the Association was Chandra Shekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh became very close to him.
• It was as a member of the HRA that Bhagat Singh began to take seriously the philosophy of the Bomb.
  • Armed revolution was understood to be the only weapon with which to fight British imperialism.
• In 1925, Bhagat Singh returned to Lahore and he and his colleagues started a militant youth organisation called the Naujawan Bharat Sabha.
• In April 1926, Bhagat Singh established contact with Sohan Singh Josh and through him the ‘Workers and Peasants Party’ which brought out the monthly magazine Kirti in Punjabi. Bhagat Singh worked with Josh and joined the editorial board of Kirti.
• In 1927, was first arrested on charges of association with the Kakori Case, accused of an article written under the pseudonym Vidrohi (Rebel). He was also accused of being responsible for a bomb explosion in Lahore.
• In 1928, Bhagat Singh changed the name of the Hindustan Republican Association to the Hindustan Socialist Republic Association (HSRA).
• In 1929, he along with BatukeshwarDutt, set off two explosive devices inside the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi, and then allowed themselves to be arrested, while shouting the famous slogan: “InquilabZindabad“, or “Long live the revolution”.
• In 1930, when Azad was shot, the HSRA collapsed. Naujawan Bharat Sabha replaced HSRA in Punjab.
• In 1931, Bhagat Singh was arrested and charged in the Saunders murder case, along with Rajguru, Sukhdev and others. The trio was ordered to be hanged on 24 March 1931 but the sentence was carried out a day earlier at the Lahore Jail. He was executed at the age of 23.

Bhagat Singh’s Political Ideology:

• He regarded Kartar Singh Sarabha, the founding member of the Ghadar Party as his hero.
• Bhagat was also inspired by Bhai Parmanand, another founding member of the Ghadar Party.
• He was attracted to anarchism and communism. He was an avid reader of the teachings of Mikhail Bakunin and also read Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky.
• His “azaadi” freedom was not limited to the expelling of the British; instead, he desired azaadi from poverty, azaadi from untouchability, azaadi from communal strife, and azaadi from every form of discrimination and exploitation.
• ‘Why I am an Atheist’ is an essay written by Bhagat Singh in 1930 while he was imprisoned in the Lahore Central Jail.
• 23rd March is observed as ‘Martyrs’ Day’ or ‘Shaheed Diwas’ or ‘Sarvodaya Day’ in honour of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev.
• * The song “Mera Rang De Basanti Chola…. is said to be written by revolutionary Ram Prasad Bismil, who was hanged at Gorakhpur jail in 1927.