Opening the forgotten pages of history is enlightening. These pages bring us face to face with a past that sometimes sounds incredible. For example, what if I told you that the dead bodies of the great heroes of the Indian freedom movement, Bhagat Singh and his comrades Rajguru and Sukhdev were chopped to pieces after their execution.

What if I told you that Bhagat Singh was intently reading Lenin’s book minutes before his execution – he had asked the jailer (who had come in the evening to summon him to the gallows) to wait until he finished the page!No fear, no palpitations, no anxiety – Bhagat Singh was calm, composed, and serene in the face of death! And, what if I told you that no one in the Congress except Subhash Chandra Bose had the courage to displease Gandhi Ji and put forward a proposal in the Congress to pay last respects to the great martyrs. . . . Yes, there are many a mindboggling and forgotten story of how India had fought for freedom.

Statues of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev

Let us recall some of them on the birth anniversary of the martyr of martyrs – Bhagat Singh:

• The father and uncles of Bhagat Singh were members of the Ghadar Party. In the year 1915 this party, formed by Indian revolutionaries living in the US and Canada, had planned Ghadar Mutiny – a pan-Indian mutiny in the British Indian Army to end the British Raj. Of all the people who were put to trial after the 7-day-long Mutiny was successfully put down by the British, 42 were awarded death sentence, 114 were transported for life, and 93 were awarded varying terms of imprisonment.

• The 12-year-old Bhagat Singh visited the site of the infamous Jalianwala Bagh massacre in the year 1919. The teenaged boy returned with an anguished and tormented heart and some mud that he had collected from the blood-drenched ground where hundreds had been killed.

• Even after his arrest, Bhagat Singh did not allow the British Raj a single day of peace – the prison itself became an intimidating epicenter of the fierce political movement. He and his comrades started a hunger strike in the prison demanding equality in food standards, clothing, hygienic necessities, and access to books and newspaper. He was opposed to forced manual labor in the jail. As the strike spread beyond the jail, the British Raj had many a sleepless night – his popularity was growing with each passing day. The death of the great revolutionary Jatindranath Das in the jail after 63 days of hunger strike shook the country. Bhagat Singh ended his fast only after 116 days of hunger strike.

• In a series of unfortunate events, a secret plan by the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association to rescue the convicts failed. Its leading member, Bhagwati Charan Vohra, while attempting to manufacture bombs for the purpose, lost his life as a bomb accidentally exploded. Keeping all law and order aside, Bhagat Singh and his two comrades were hanged one day before the due date (24 March) and that too in the evening! People were deeply hurt by Gandhiji’s statement regarding the martyrs that “Bhagat Singh did not wish to live. He refused to apologize, or even file an appeal” and that “we should not imitate their act”.

  

  Pamphlet by HSRA after Saunders murder

• Few know that Bhagat Singh’s trial was a travesty of justice. The magistrate ordered that all the accused should be handcuffed and subjected to cruel beating after Verma, another accused in the case, threw his slipper at Jai Gopal Lal, outraged by his becoming a prosecution witness. When Singh and other accused refused to attend the court to register their protest, the magistrate ordered the trial to proceed without them! Shortening the customary process of determining justice, a special tribunal was set up to speed up the trial. No opportunity was given to the accused to defend themselves and they were absent from the court even when the death sentence was pronounced!

  

  Bhagat Singh's execution Lahore Tribune Frontpage

Even after 110 years of his birth, Bhagat Singh continues to live in the dreams and imagination of the people of India and inspire generation after generation to lead a noble life.

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