A Tribute to Bhagat Singh

On 23rd March, 1931, we all know, Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru and Sukhdev were hanged to death. They were given the death sentence in the Lahore conspiracy case. The British Governor-General promulgated an ordinance to establish a special tribunal to try the Lahore conspiracy case, while denying the accused the right to appeal. "By all accounts, it was farcical Trial".
            Lala Lajpat Rai was brutally beaten up by the Superintendent of Police, J.S. Scott, while leading a demonstration against the Simon Commission. He died of fatal injuries on November 17, 1928. Enraged by this brutality, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev and Chandra Shekhar Azad decided to avenge Lala Lajpat Rai's death by killing Scott.
              In the event, it was another police officer, Saunders, who was shot dead by them in a case of mistaken identity.
            The British were left clueless about this killing and, in all probability, Bhagat Singh would never have been arrested and executed if he had not decided to throw a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly on 8thApril, 1929, to protest against two draconian Bills. Ironically, it was a poster proclaiming why the British police officer was killed, hand-written by Bhagat Singh, which enabled the British to pin Saunders' killing on Bhagat Singh and his comrades.
History tells us that the three young men showed neither remorse nor fear while they were being taken to the gallows at Lahore Central Jail, but happily embraced death, shouting 'Inquilab Zindabad'.
In fact the song Mera Rang De Basanti Chola, meaning "O Mother! Dye My Robe The Colour of Spring gave birth to one of the greatest and glorious freedom myths. It became Bhagat Singh's song of the gallows. He was said to have marched to the hangman's chamber with this song on his lips. For him death in the cause of freedom was like a celebration.  Bhagat Singh was born on 27 September 1907 at the village of Banga, Lyallpur district (now in Pakistan) the second son of Kishan Singh and Vidya Vati. Bhagat Singh was imbued from childhood with the family's spirit of patriotism. At the time of his birth, his father was in jail for his connection with the Canal Colonization Bill agitation, in which his brother, Ajit Singh (Bhagat Singh's uncle), took a leading part. Through his father, who was a sympathizer and supporter of the Ghadr campaign of 1914-15, Bhagat Singh became an admirer of the leaders of the movement. The execution of Kartar Singh Sarabha made a deep impression on the mind of the young man who vowed to dedicate his life to the country.
Having passed the fifth class from his village school, Bhagat Singh joined Dayanand Anglo-Vedic School in Lahore. In response to the call of Mahatma Gandhi and other nationalist leaders, to boycott government aided institutions, he left his school and enrolled in the National College at Lahore. He was successful in passing a special examination preparatory to entering college. He was reading for his B.A. examination when his parents planned to have him married. He vehemently rejected the suggestion and said that, if his marriage was to take place in Slave-India, my bride shall be only death. Bhagat Singh left home and went to Kanpur where he took up a job in the Pratap Press. When Bhagat Singh was assured that he would not be compelled to marry and violate his vows sworn to his motherland, he returned to his home in Lahore. This was in 1925 when a morcha had been going on at Jaito .
In March 1926 was formed the Naujawan Bharat Sabha. Bhagat Singh, one of the principal organizers became its secretary. After Bhagat Singh was hanged to death, his body was secretly cremated at Husainivala by police and the remains thrown into the River Sutlej. The next day, however, his comrades collected the bodily remains from the cremation site and a procession was taken out in Lahore.
In 1950, after Independence, the land where Bhagat Singh and his companions were cremated was procured from Pakistan and a memorial built. In March 1961, a Shahidi Mela was held there. Every year, on 23 March, the martyr's memory is similarly honoured. The old memorial, destroyed in the 1971 Indo-Pak war, has been rebuilt Bhagat Singh is remembered by the endearing title of Shahid-e-Azam, the greatest of martyrs.