Considered to be one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement, Bhagat Singh gave his life for this cause. Shaheed Diwas is observed on 23 March to mark the occasion when freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar were hanged to death by the British in 1931 (for assassinating police officer John Saunders).
Contributions of Bhagath Singh
- In 1926, Bhagat Singh founded the ‘Naujavan Bharat Sabha (Youth Society of India) and joined the Hindustan Republican Association (later known as Hindustan Socialist Republican Association), where he met several prominent revolutionaries.
- Bhagat Singh’s objection to faith and God seemed to be both philosophical as well as springing from the severe religious unrest that he observed around him which marred regular life in 1920s India.
- By this time, Bhagat Singh had become a person of interest to the police, and in May 1927, he was arrested for allegedly being involved in a bombing the previous October. He was released several weeks later and began to write for various revolutionary newspapers.
- To avenge Lala Lajpat Rai’s death, Bhagat Singh and two others plotted to kill the police superintendent, but instead shot and killed police officer John P. Saunders.
- In April 1929, Bhagat Singh and an associate bombed the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi to protest implementation of the Public Safety Bill. The bombs they carried allegedly were not intended to kill but to scare. The bombers planned to get arrested and stand trial so they could further promote their cause.
- He offered no defense during the trial but disrupted the proceedings and was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
- Bhagat Singh was deeply influenced by the experiment of ‘scientific socialism’ in the Soviet Union. He is perhaps one of the few leaders of India’s independence struggle who framed the dialectic between the concepts of ‘imperialism’ and ‘revolution’ through the slogans of “Down with Imperialism” and “Long Live Revolution”.
