Bhagat Singh was hanged to death by the British government on 23 rd March 1931 at the age of 23 for having shot John Saunders, an assistant superintendent of British police. Saunders had injured the revered freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai by caning him during a protest march which resulted in his death after a few days. It infuriated Bhagat Singh to such an extent that he shot down Saunders. After that he went underground but resurfaced in the national assembly and threw pamphlets for freedom and raised slogans against the British rule.
Aakar Books came out with a book in 2015 Understanding Bhagat Singh by a former linguist professor at the SL in the JNU. Aakar has been coming out numerous books on leftist revolutionaries. It is a well produced and documents treatise on Bhagat Singh.
Bhagat Singh was an atheist and a Marxist. Before going to the gallows he was reading Lenin. He has written a convincing piece ' Why I am an atheist'. He was a thinking person, well read and a true nationalists. He is clubbed with Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara, who was also shot dead by the Bolivian armed forces for killing an army officer a war against the state the similar death in Bolivia many decades on 9th October 1967.
Bhagat Singh generated a nationalist fervor in the whole country by killing Saunders and his execution raised a furor. The top Congress barring Mahatma Gandhi, expressed their anguish against the execution but Gandhi opined that both hurling boms and killing a police officer were unacceptable crimes by two 'wayward youth'. He didn't approve of that.
The country was shocked at Gandhi's reaction. Many thought, if he had prevailed upon the then Governor General Lord Irwin, may be Bhagat Singh's execution could have been commuted to life imprisonment. Gandhi did meet Irwin and this issued cropped up in the conversation but Gandhi only asked, could the top boss waive execution. But Irwin felt that Gandhi was playing to the galleries. Bhagat Singh was hanged.
Now comes the million dollar question. Bhagat Singh did break the law of the land. Yes Saunders committed a crime by blowing lathis at Tilak but one can't kill an officer for doing his s-called duty. Every one condemned what Saunders did. There could have been a mass movement against him. Gandhi did use his best weapon of fast unto death to force the British to punish Saunders.
In a similar situation Udham Singh went to England and shot General Michel Dyer who had ordered mass killing at a peaceful freedom rally at jalianwala Bagh in Amritsar. He was also hanged and like on Bhagat SWingh, films were made on him, books written and both were hailed as martyrs. It takes steel courage to shoot a person and be hanged for it. It a willful invitation to death. Both Bhagat and Udham chose that path. The country is more than grateful for their ultimate sacrifice but their action can't be condoned as an act of national interest.
The world history is full of such martyrs. Danton of French revolution on 5th April 1794. He is a glorified in the world history. So are Bhagat Singh and Udham singh along withother martyrs like Ramprasad Bismil, Jatin Das, Chandra Shekhar Azad. The list is endless. It even includes authors, artists and war heroes like Lakshmi Bai, Tatya Tope, fiolk hero Mangal pandey and even Bhagat Singh who suffred a long and sustained torture from Delhi to Rangoon.
It is a critical debate. Indian establishment had remained lukewarm towards the legacy of Bhagat Singh. Though people like Kuldeep Nayyar, Chaman Lal and many others have written more than books on him. No other national hero got such a reception by authors and publishers. Plays have been staged, films have been made. Punjab government conducted an extravaganza in the birth anniversary year of Bhagat Singh by earmarking crores of rupees. It was spent in seminars, books etc.
We are a country who creates gods from animal figures like Hanuman, Ganesh. These monkey and elephantine figures arouse the setiments of multitudes unlike human figures like Ram and lakshman. In fact there are few stand lone temples for Ram, Lakshman and Sita but every nook and corner has a Hanuman temple. It gives us a larger than life feeling. What would TV channels do, if there was no Ganesh or Hanuman.,
Coming back to the rationality against Bhagat Singh's execution is redoubtable. Chaman lal has quoted the example of an Irish prime minister Eamon da Valera who had was sentenced to be shot dead a week before swearing in. His sentence was pardoned and he introduced the constitution. But India is India and Ireland.is Ireland.
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