Bhagat Singh- The Jewel of Indian Freedom Fighters- Story, Revolutionary Activities, and Death

Updated October 10, 2022

Bhagat Singh was a great revolutionary and freedom fighter of India. His great determination and passion to free India from the British not only gave us freedom but also showed the whole world that you can’t achieve your rights by begging, you’ll have to fight.

We all know that he was a true warrior who fought for his motherland valiantly till his last breath. From a very young age, the feeling of patriotism sparked inside him. He was one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian Nationalist Movement.

Bhagat Singh carried out many revolutionary activities and played a key role in the Independence of India. He was just 23 years old when he died a martyr with a smile on his face. His life story is not a part of history only, it’s a great source of inspiration and motivation for all the youths of the country.

Bhagat Singh Story- [Childhood and Early Life]

Bhagat Singh was born on September 28, 1907, in the village of Banga in the Lyallpur district of Punjab. He was the second child of his parents. He had six siblings- three brothers and three sisters.

During his birthtime, his father and Uncle were serving jail due to their involvement in the agitation around the Canal Colonization Bill in 1907. Later they were involved in the Ghadar Movement of 1914–1915 following their release from jail.

Bhagat Singh started his initial education in the village school of Banga but was later sent to DAV (Dayanand Anglo-Vedic) school in Lahore. For higher education, he enrolled in the national college in Lahore, which was founded by Lala Lajpat Rai 2 years earlier.

The college was started in response to Mahatma Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement, in which Indian students were requested to boycott the schools and colleges run by the British Indian government.

Bhagat Singh’s influence was so much on the youths that Britishers arrested him due to fear of revolutionary activities. Five weeks later, he was released after being charged 60,000 rupees.

He used to write and edit for Hindi and Urdu newspapers, published in Amritsar. And also, contributed to low-priced pamphlets published by the Naujawan Bharat Sabha which criticized the British.

He also contributed to the Kirti and Veer Arjun newspapers, published in Delhi. Balwant, Ranjit, and Vidhrohi were some of the names that were used by him as Pseudonyms in newspapers.

How Did the Feeling of Patriotism Sparked Inside Bhagat Singh?

His uncle, Sardar Ajit Singh established a group, the Indian Patriots’ Association, which was led by himself. Syed Haidar Raza, a friend, provided him with strong assistance in rallying the peasants to oppose the Chenab Canal Colony Bill. Ajit Singh was facing 22 cases at that time and was forced to flee to Iran.

Bhagat’s family was a staunch oppressor of the British Raj. Almost, every member of his family was like-minded in case fighting for freedom.

Being raised in a politically conscious family where everyone supported the Ghadar party, young Bhagat Singh developed a sense of patriotism. At a very young age, he started following the non-cooperative movement, led by Mahatma Gandhi.

Bhagat Singh openly resisted the British and carried out Gandhi’s order to destroy government-sponsored books.

His strong patriotic view was moulded by two events that occurred when he was a teenager: the Nankana Sahib massacre in 1921 and the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, which saw unarmed Akali demonstrators killed.

His family was a staunch follower of the Gandhian ideology of getting freedom without any violence. For a period of time, he also supported the Indian National Congress and the Non-Cooperation Movement of Gandhiji.

Gandhi demanded that the Non-Cooperation movement be abandoned in the wake of the Chauri Chaura Incident. This decision of Gandhi broke Bhagat Singh from the inside and became sad.

After the incident, he decide to isolate himself from Gandhi’s nonviolent action and joined the Young Revolutionary Movement. Thus began his rise to prominence as the staunch advocate of a bloody uprising against the British Raj.

National Movement & Revolutionary Activities of Bhagat Singh

After leaving Gandhiji’s path, Bhagat became an Extremist. Initially, his actions consisted primarily of penning critical articles against the British government and printing and distributing leaflets explaining the fundamentals of a violent insurrection with the goal of overthrowing the government.

To protest the Simon Commission’s arrival, Lala Lajpat Rai led an all-parties parade that marched toward the Lahore train station on October 30, 1928.

To stop the protesters from moving forward, the police used a devastating lathi charge. In the incident, ala Lajpat Rai suffered severe wounds, which resulted in his death on November 17, 1928.

After hearing the news, Bhagat Singh became very angry and decided to kill James A. Scott, the Superintendent of Police, who was thought to have authorized the use of a lathi charge.

Mistakenly, J.P. Saunders, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, was assassinated by the revolutionaries instead of James A. Scott.

Following Saunders’s murder, the group fled by the D.A.V. College door, which is located across from the District Police Headquarters. Chandrashekhar Azad shot and killed Chanan Singh, a head constable who was chasing them.

After this incident, the police started a massive search operation to catch them. Bhagat Singh and Rajguru hurriedly departed Lahore with a loaded revolver to avoid being apprehended.

The Hindustan Socialist Republican Association had planned to detonate a bomb inside the assembly hall where the ordinance was scheduled to be voted in protest of the Defense of India Act’s formation.

On April 8, 1929, as per the plan, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt explode a bomb inside the assembly hall and shouted “Inquilab Zindabad!”.

Although the mission was not to kill or hurt anyone, that’s why they threw the bomb away from the crowded place. But, unfortunately, some of the council members got injured.

1929 Assembly Incident Trial

The dramatic protest was met with harsh criticism from the political community. Gandhi once more strongly condemned their action in his public remarks. Singh and Dutt eventually wrote the Assembly Bomb Statement in response to the criticism:

We hold human life sacred beyond words. We are neither perpetrators of dastardly outrages … nor are we ‘lunatics’ as the Tribune of Lahore and some others would have it believed … Force when aggressively applied is ‘violence’ and is, therefore, morally unjustifiable, but when it is used in the furtherance of a legitimate cause, it has its moral justification.

Trial proceedings began in May, and Singh attempted to represent himself, while Afsar Ali represented Batukeshwar Dutt. The court decided in favour of a life sentence, citing the explosions’ malicious and illegal aim.

The Hunger Strike by Bhagat Singh

Soon after the sentencing, the HSRA bomb factories in Lahore were raided by the police. During the raid, they found several well-known revolutionaries there. Three people—Hans Raj Vohra, Jai Gopal, and Phanindra Nath Ghosh—turned government approvers, and as a result, 21 people were detained, including Sukhdev, Jatindra Nath Das, and Rajguru.

Based on strong evidence against him, including confessions from Hans Raj Vohra and Jai Gopal, two of his colleagues, Singh was re-arrested for the murders of Saunders and Chanan Singh. Until Saunders’s case was resolved, his life sentence in the Assembly Bomb case was suspended.

He was sent from the jail in Delhi to Central Jail Mianwali. In jail, he saw prejudice between European and Indian Prisoners. He also noticed that he was getting an enhanced diet in Delhi as compared to Minawali.

He started a hunger strike on behalf of fellow political prisoners from India who he believed were being treated like normal criminals. They wanted access to literature and a daily newspaper, as well as equality in access to food standards, clothing, toiletries, and other hygiene essentials.

The administration tried to end the strike by putting various foods in their cells. Water pitchers were stocked with milk so that neither the convicts’ thirst nor their strike would be broken; as a result, the standoff lasted without a hiccup.

The prisoners then rejected the authorities’ attempts to force feed them. The hunger strike was getting immense public support, and becoming popular day by day, that’s why the government resumed the Saunders murder trial, now known as the Lahore Conspiracy Case.

Bhagat was transferred to Bostral Jail, Lahore and the trial began there on 10 July 1929.

Lahore Conspiracy Case and Trial

On May 1, 1930, at the Viceroy’s request, Lord Irwin, a special tribunal made up of Justices J. Coldstream, Agha Hyder, and G. C. Hilton was established since the legal proceedings were moving too slowly.

The tribunal had the authority to proceed without the presence of the accused. As result, the trial became one-sided and hardly followed the general rules of legal procedure.

On October 7, 1930, the tribunal delivered its 300-page judgment. It declared that the involvement of Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru in the murder of Saunders has been shown beyond a reasonable doubt, according to the investigation.

In the course of the trial, Singh confessed to the murder and spoke out against British rule. They were sentenced to be hanged till death.

Along with his companions Rajguru and Sukhdev, Bhagat Singh was hung in the Lahore Jail at 7:30 am on March 23, 1931. The trio allegedly marched cheerfully to the execution site while yelling their favourite catchphrases, including “Inquilab Zindabad” and “Down with British Imperialism.” On the banks of the Sutlej River, at Hussainiwala, Singh and his contemporaries were cremated.

Most Frequently Asked Questions

Q. When was Bhagat Singh Born?

Ans: He was born on September 28, 1907

Q. What are the Pennames of Bhagat Singh?

Ans: Balwant, Ranjit, and Vidrohi were his Pennames

Q. What religion was Bhagat Singh?

Ans: He was born in a Sikh family.

Q. What is the Famous Slogan of Bhagat Singh?

Ans: ‘Inquilab Zindabad’

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