SHAHEED BHAGAT SINGH
Bhagat Singh was the follower of Karl Marx, Trotsky and Lenin and was influenced by communism.23 From 1927 to 1928 Bhagat Singh spent most of his time analyzing the history of the radical groups in India like Ghadarites, Kirti and Akalis. A major part of Bhagat Singh‟s writings dealt with the above mentioned movements and the Kakori and Delhi Bomb Cases. He also focused his attention on revolutionary figures and encouraged them to come out for the cause of freedom. He was of the view that there was the need for the young blood to come out and participate in the revolutionary process. In a bid to avoid state surveillance, he started to write in various newspapers under the false name of virodhi or rebel and an earlier piece of his writing of Bhagat Singh was about the Babbar Akali movement. This article was published in the Pratap in the March, 192624and this organization was an armed effort by the Sikhs to free India from colonial rule so that their Gurudwaras could also be free from the administration of dishonest Mahants. It remained confined to the Bari Doab and it existed mainly in rural areas. The organizers of this faction were primarily those army men who had abandoned the military service to forge an alliance with the Non-Cooperation lobby. Bhagat Singh was very fascinated by the motivation, self-sacrifice and dedication of these men. In his article, he praised their commitment towards their ideals
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| shaheed a aazam |
Bhagat Singh also brought into light hitherto marginalized narratives of other freedom fighters based in Punjab. For example in May, 1927 he wrote in Kirti about the courage and bravery of plotters of Kakori case. On the 9th August of 1925 when a group of revolutionaries of the Hindustan Republican party held up and robbed the train at Kakori, near Lucknow. This train was transporting the government assets therefore the government was highly motivated to catch the perpetrators. After a series of hearings on 6th April, 1927, the chief revolutionaries accused were sentenced to death. In his work Bhagat Singh described this episode in detail and also highlighted the camaraderie between the accused and the tranquility with which they received their death penalties. He concludes his article with a note on those people who expressed no kindness for the guilty persons.
We heave a sigh and think we have performed our work. We do not have that courage and fire, we do not suffer for we have become dead bodies. Today they are sitting on a Hunger-Strike and suffering and we are silently observing the demonstration. May God grant them the strength and nerves they need in their last few days.
Bhagat Singh believed in the politics of violence and anarchy so when Kirti reprinted an article in its issue of May 1928 about the theme of violence, it is quite interesting to observe that being a participant of the editorial panel of Kirti how he got involved in the discussions about explaining the modern ideology of violence.28This editorial piece tried to support the phenomenon of violence by negating the existing explanation of terrorism as the disparaging, coercive and unfair usage of power. In the same year after explaining violence Bhagat Singh tried to describe what the actual meaning of anarchism was.29 A series of articles on anarchism were published in Kirti in 1928. Bhagat Singh‟s was using his literary skills to motivate and clarifying the misunderstandings of Indians about political ideology of resistance because in his thinking the phenomenon of „anarchism‟ had become so notorious due to British propaganda that Indian people were afraid of to adopt it for fulfillment of their rights.30At this point he was right because government twisted this term so much by declaring revolutionaries as anarchists to make them and their ideology unpopular.
This research work clarifies why resistance and violence caught Bhagat‟s attention. In his views, the eventual outcome of anarchism was absolute autonomy in which no one is infatuated with any religion, neither were they obsessed with pursuit of wealth or other similar worldly pursuits. There must be no control by the state on anybody32 that is why when he got arrested, he uttered in a daring and obvious way that “it takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear.
During the same year in 1928, Simon Commission 34 visited India to review the development or governance under Government of India Act 1919 and give suggestions for reforms. While protesting against the commission, Lala Lajpat Rai was badly injured which resulted in his death a month later. 35 To avenge the death of this great leader, Bhagat Singh and his associates Shivram Rajguru and Sukh Dev killed Assistant Superintendent of Police, Mr. Saunders. It was a case of mistaken identity as they had actually planned to slay the Superintendent of Police, J.A. Scott, who was believed to have struck Lala Lajpat Rai during a political protest.36After this incident Bhagat Singh fled from Lahore but this was a temporary step as he could not keep himself away from his chosen path. So on 8 April, 1929 Bhagat and Batu Keshwar Dutt (B. K. Dutt) went one step further and flung bombs in the Central Assembly Hall where the gathering was being held to accept the Defense of India Act, which would give additional authority to police to arrest any person and question him.37 After throwing the bomb, which did not injure anybody, Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt got arrested.
Hunger Strike of Bhagat Singh
In the prison, Bhagat Singh started hunger strike for the better treatment
to political prisoners for more than 60 days. During the trial of Saunder‟s murder
case Bhagat was transported to Mianwali jail from Delhi penitentiary, because he
went on a long hunger strike against favoritism to European prisoners. They asked
for fairness in quality of foodstuff, clothes, toiletries and other supplies as well as
accessibility of daily newspaper and books for the opinionated prisoners.42 It was
also demanded by them that political captives must not be compelled to do intense
labor or other humiliating jobs in jail.43 Muhammad Ali Jinnah also defended the
rights of the prisoners. Government made an effort to split the strikers by offering
different facilities to different strikers. Water and milk were placed before them so
that the prisoners would be tempted to end their protest but they continued their
hunger strike. Food was forcefully fed to them using feeding tubes, but they
resisted this treatment also.44The Viceroy of India Lord Irwin finished his holiday
in Simla to talk about the circumstances with the prison authorities and to resolve
the matter. At last, the British government accepted the fact that prisoners would
not quit the hunger strikes at any cost and announced that it accepted the demands
of the prisoners for equal and better treatment and asked them to quit the strike.
Not even a single hunger striker was taken in by the promises of the government
because they did not trust the British Government. Bhagat Singh too responded the same manner because his understanding was that the same assurances were given
by Government in 1927 to Kakori Railway prisoners for their better treatment, but
the Government did practically nothing for them and now it would repeat the same
behavior .
Since the actions of the protestors had attracted interest and attention of
the people of India, the government decided to go forward with the Saunders
murder case, which was hereafter known as the Lahore Conspiracy Case.45 Singh
was then moved to the prison of Lahore and the case started there on 10th of July
1929. Singh and 27 others were accused of the assassination of Saunders, planning
to kill Scott and combat the British rule in India. Bhagat Singh, who was at that
time on self-starvation, had to be transported to the courtroom handcuffed lying on
a stretcher. He had lost 14 pounds during his phase of self-starvation.
By this time the condition of a prisoner Jatindra Nath Das had become
serious due to hunger strike for several days so jail committee recommended his
release on bail but the government denied it. Meanwhile Das died after sixty three
days of hunger strike and this sparked an outrage in the country especially
Punjab.
Since British Government did nothing to entertain or discuss the demands
of strikers, these hunger strikers became too weak and were unable to attend their
hearings in court. Therefore, the Government decided to amend the law which
was popularly known as Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill.
48 This
Bill stirred a vigorous debate in the Executive Council of Governor-General.
During the session all nationalist leaders49 paid tribute to these revolutionary men
and condemned government for inhuman treatment of Indian prisoners.50 In the
session Mohammed Ali Jinnah defended Bhagat Singh and his comrades51 though
their political ideology varied greatly. He sympathized with their demands 52
though he did not support their actions. 53 Though the Hunger Strike Bill was
passed a bit later54 but the Government‟s attitude remained biased towards these
political prisoners. Later, Bhagat Singh on his father‟s request broke his hunger
strike but by this time Bhagat Singh‟s popularity and ideology had extended well
beyond Punjab.
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