Shaheedi Diwas

In News: Punjabi University students on March 23 held a flag march to commemorate the execution of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru.

About Shaheed Diwas or Sarvodaya Day

Also known as Sarvodaya Day.
Bhagat Singh together with his companions Rajguru, Sukhdev, Azad, and Gopal fought for the assassination of Lala Lajpat Rai.
They were hanged for their involvement in the assassination of the ASP of Lahore, John Saunders.
Bhagat Singh with his companions on 8th April, 1929 threw bombs over the Central Legislative Assembly by reading the slogan “Inquilab Zindabad”.
23rd March is the day when revolutionary freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged to death by the British government in 1931 at the Lahore Jail.
Their body was cremated at the banks of the Sutlej River.

Note:Shaheed Diwas should not be confused with the Martyrs’ Day observed on January 30, the day Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated.

Bhagat Singh

Born as Bhaganwala on the 26th September, 1907.
In 1923, Bhagat Singh joined the National College, Lahore which was founded and managed by Lala Lajpat Rai and Bhai Parmanand.
In 1924 in Kanpur, he became a member of the Hindustan Republican Association, started by Sachindranath Sanyal a year earlier.
In 1925, Bhagat Singh returned to Lahore and within the next year he and his colleagues started a militant youth organisation called the Naujawan Bharat Sabha.
In April 1926, Bhagat Singh established contact with Sohan Singh Josh and through him the ‘Workers and Peasants Party’ which brought out the monthly magazine Kirti in Punjabi.
In 1927, he was first arrested on charges of association with the Kakori Case accused for an article written under the pseudonym Vidrohi (Rebel).
In 1928, Bhagat Singh changed the name of Hindustan Republican Association to Hindustan Socialist Republic Association (HSRA). In 1930, when Azad was shot, the HSRA collapsed.
Naujawan Bharat Sabha replaced HSRA in Punjab.