Bhagat Singh (IPA: [pə̀ɡət̪ sɪ́ŋɡ] (
listen); 28 September 1907 – 23 March 1931) was an Indian nationalist considered to be one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement. He is often referred to as Shaheed Bhagat Singh, the word Shaheed meaning "martyr" in a number of Indian languages.[8][2][3]
Born into a Sikh family which had earlier been involved in revolutionary activities against the British Raj, as a teenager Singh studied European revolutionary movements and was attracted to anarchist and marxist ideologies. He became involved in numerous revolutionary organisations, and quickly rose through the ranks of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) to become one of its main leaders, eventually changing its name to theHindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in 1928.[9][10][11]
Seeking revenge for the death of Lala Lajpat Rai at the hands of the police, Singh was involved in the assassination of British police officer John Saunders. He eluded efforts by the police to capture him. Together with Batukeshwar Dutt, he undertook a successful effort to throw two bombs and leaflets inside the Central Legislative Assembly while shouting slogans of Inquilab Zindabad. Subsequently they volunteered to surrender and be arrested. Held on this charge, he gained widespread national support when he underwent a 116 day fast in jail, demanding equal rights for British and Indian political prisoners.[12] During this time, sufficient evidence was brought against him for a conviction in the Saunders case, after trial by a Special Tribunal and appeal at the Privy Council in England. He was convicted and subsequently hanged for his participation in the murder, aged 23. His legacy prompted youth in India to begin fighting for Indian independence and he continues to be a youth idol in modern India, as well as the inspiration for several films.[13][14][15][16] He is commemorated with a large bronze statue in the Parliament of India, as well as a range of other memorials.
Early life
The house where Bhagat Singh was born to Kishan Singh and Vidyavati is in present-day Pakistan known as Chak No. 105, GB, Banga village, Jaranwala Tehsil in the Lyallpur district of the Punjab Province of British India.[1][17] He belonged to a patriotic Sikh family, some of whose members had participated in Indian Independence movements, and others had served in Maharaja Ranjit Singh's army.[18] His ancestors hailed from the village ofKhatkar Kalan near the town of Banga in Nawanshahr district (now renamed Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar) of Punjab.[19][20] The family originally belonged to a village by the name of Narli in erstwhile Lahore district and which is now part of Tarn Taran district in India. There is an interesting account of how one of the ancestors moved to Khatkar Kalan given in the autobiography of Singh's uncle and famous freedom fighter, Ajit Singh in his autobiography Buried Alive. [21] Singh's given name of "Bhagat" means 'devotee' and he was nicknamed "Bhaganwala" ('the lucky one') by his grandmother, since the news of the release of his uncle Ajit Singh from Mandalay jail and that of his father from Lahore jail both coincided with his birth.[19][22] His grandfather, Arjun Singh, was a follower of Swami Dayananda Saraswati's Hindu reformist movement, Arya Samaj,[23] which had a considerable influence on the young Bhagat.[24] His father, and uncles Ajit Singh and Swaran Singh, were members of the Ghadar Party, led by Kartar Singh Sarabha and Har Dayal.[25] Ajit Singh was forced to flee to Persia due to pending court cases against him, while Swaran Singh died at home in 1910 following his release from Borstal Jail in Lahore.[25]
Unlike many Sikhs of his age, Singh did not attend the Khalsa High School in Lahore, because his grandfather did not approve of the school officials' loyalism to the British authorities.[26] Instead, his grandfather, enrolled him in the Dayanand Anglo Vedic High School, an Arya Samaji institution.[27][28]Singh was influenced by a number of incidents during his childhood which instilled in him a deep sense of patriotism to eventually take up the struggle for India's independence.[29] In 1919, at the age of 12, Bhagat Singh visited the site of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, where non-violent people gathered at a public meeting were fired upon without warning, killing hundreds and wounding thousands. Bhagat Singh participated ardently in Mahatma Gandhi's Non-Cooperation Movement in 1920,[5] and openly defied the British by following Gandhi's wishes of burning his government school books and any imported British clothing he could find.[30] At the age of 14, he welcomed in his village, protestors against theGurudwara Nankana Sahib firing of 20 February 1921 which killed a large number of unarmed protesters.[1][31] Disillusioned with Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence, after Gandhi called off the non-cooperation movement, following the violent murders of policemen by villagers, which were a reaction to the police's killing of three villagers by firing at Chauri Chaura in the United Provinces in 1922, he joined the Young Revolutionary Movement. Henceforth, he began advocating the violent overthrow of the British in India.[30]
In 1923, Singh joined the National College in Lahore, where he not only excelled in academics but also in extra-curricular activities.[1] He was a participant of the dramatics society in the college.[1] By this time, he was fluent in Hindi, English, Urdu, Punjabi and Sanskrit languages.[1][32][33] In 1923, Singh won an essay competition set by the Punjab Hindi Sahitya Sammelan. In his essay on Punjab's Language and Script, he quoted Punjabi literature and showed a deep understanding of the problems of afflicting Punjab.[1] He joined the Indian nationalist youth organisation Naujawan Bharat Sabha (Hindi: "Youth Society of India") along with his fellow revolutionaries, and became popular in the organisation.[9] He also joined the Hindustan Republican Association,[31] which had prominent leaders, such as Ram Prasad Bismil, Chandrashekhar Azad and Ashfaqulla Khan. The name of the organisation was changed to Hindustan Socialist Republican Association at Singh's insistence.[10] A year later, to avoid getting married by his family, Singh ran away from his house to Cawnpore.[1] In a letter he left behind, he stated:
Later revolutionary activities
Lala Lajpat Rai's death and murder of Saunders
The British government created a Commission under Sir John Simon to report on the then current political situation in India in 1928.[38] The Indian political parties boycotted the Commission, because it did not include a single Indian in its membership, and the Commission was met with country-wide protests.[38] When the Commission visited Lahore on 30 October 1928, Lala Lajpat Rai led a non-violent protest against the commission in a silent march, but the police responded with violence.[38] The superintendent of police, James A. Scott, ordered the police to lathi chargethe protesters and personally assaulted Rai, who was grievously injured.[38] When Rai died on 17 November 1928, it was widely assumed that Scott's blows had hastened his demise.[38] However, when the matter was raised in the British Parliament, the British Government denied any role in Rai's death.[39] Although some sources mention that Singh witnessed the event,[40] while others dispute this,[36] he vowed to take revenge,[39] and joined other revolutionaries, Shivaram Rajguru, Sukhdev Thapar, Jai Gopal and Chandrashekhar Azad, in a plot to kill Scott.[40] Jai Gopal was supposed to identify the chief and signal for Singh to shoot. However, in a case of mistaken identity, Gopal signalled Singh on the appearance of John P. Saunders, an Assistant Superintendent of Police.[41][42] He was shot by Rajguru and Singh while leaving the District Police Headquarters in Lahore at about 4:15 pm on 17 December 1928.[41][42] Head Constable Chanan Singh was also killed when he came to Saunders' aid.[41][42]
Special Tribunal
To speed up the slow trial,[56] the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, declared an emergency on 1 May 1930, and promulgated an ordinance setting up a special tribunal composed of three high court judges for this case. The ordinance cut short the normal process of justice as the only appeal after the tribunal was at the Privy Council located in England[56] The Tribunal was authorised to function without the presence of any of the accused in court, and to accept death of the persons giving evidence as a concession to the defence.[41] Consequent to Lahore Conspiracy Case Ordinance No.3 of 1930, the trial was transferred from Rai Sahib Pandit Sri Kishan's court to the tribunal composed of Justice J. Coldstream (president), Justice G. C. Hilton and Justice Agha Hyder (members).[85]
The case commenced on 5 May 1930 in the Poonch House, Lahore against 18 accused.[86] On 20 June 1930, the constitution of the Special Tribunal was changed to Justice G.C. Hilton (president), Justice J.K. Tapp and Justice Sir Abdul Qadir.[86] On 2 July 1930, a habeas corpus petition was filed in the High Court challenging the ordinance and said that it was ultra vires and therefore illegal,[56] stating that the Viceroy had no powers to shorten the customary process of determining justice.[56] The petition argued that the Act, allowed the Viceroy to introduce an ordinance and set up such a tribunal only under conditions of break down of law-and-order, whereas there had been no such breakdown. However, the petition was dismissed as 'premature'.[87] Carden-Noad presented the government's grievous charges of conducting dacoities, bank-robbery, and illegal acquisition of arms and ammunition amongst others.[56] The evidence of G.T.H. Hamilton Harding, the Lahore superintendent of police, shocked the court, when he stated that he had filed the First Information Report against the accused under specific orders from the chief secretary (D.J. Boyd[88]) to the governor of Punjab (Sir Geoffrey Montmorency[88]) and that he was unaware of the details of the case.[56] The prosecution mainly depended upon the evidence of P.N. Ghosh, Hans Raj Vohra and Jai Gopal who had been Singh's associates in the HRSA.[56] On 10 July 1930, the tribunal decided to press charges against only 15 of the 18 accused, and allowed their petitions to be taken up for hearing the next day.[56] The tribunal conducted the trial from 5 May 1930 to 10 September 1930.[56] The three accused against whom the case was withdrawn included Dutt, who had already been awarded a life sentence in the Assembly bomb case.[41][89]
The ordinance (and the tribunal) would lapse on 31 October 1930 as it had not been passed in the Central Assembly or the British Parliament. On 7 October 1930, the tribunal delivered its 300-page judgement based on all the evidence and concluded that participation of Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru was proved beyond reasonable doubt in Saunders' murder, and sentenced them to death by hanging.[56][90] The remaining 12 accused were all sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment.[91] The warrants for the three had a black border.[41][56][91]
No comments:
Post a Comment