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'''Bhagat Singh''' (27 September 1907<ref name=combined-birth-date-27-9 /> – 23 March 1931) was a [[charismatic]] Indian | '''Bhagat Singh''' (27 September 1907<ref name=combined-birth-date-27-9 /> – 23 March 1931) was a [[charismatic]] Indian revolutionary<ref>{{citation|last=Jeffrey|first=Craig|title=Modern India: A Very Short Introduction|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=30|year=2017|isbn=978-0-19-876934-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R3w7DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA30|quote=Congress was often split on the question of the extent to which all protests should be non-violent. Gandhi, though highly influential, had opponents. It is particularly important to recognize the existence of a socialist, radical wing within the nationalist movement. Historians often discuss this wing with reference to Bhagat Singh, a charismatic Indian revolutionary executed by the British with two other revolutionaries in 1931 for murdering a British police officer.}}</ref> who participated in the mistaken murder of a junior British police officer<ref name=assassination-cimbined> | ||
*{{citation|last=Raza|first=Ali|title=Revolutionary Pasts: Communist Internationalism in Colonial India|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2020|isbn=978-1-108-48184-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=snzUDwAAQBAJ|pages=106–107|quote=Bhagat Singh's life epitomized the political journeys of many disaffected youths who took to revolutionary and militant activism. Involved in a (mistaken) high-profile assassination of John Saunders, ...}} | *{{citation|last=Raza|first=Ali|title=Revolutionary Pasts: Communist Internationalism in Colonial India|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2020|isbn=978-1-108-48184-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=snzUDwAAQBAJ|pages=106–107|quote=Bhagat Singh's life epitomized the political journeys of many disaffected youths who took to revolutionary and militant activism. Involved in a (mistaken) high-profile assassination of John Saunders, ...}} | ||
*{{citation|last=Moffat|first=Chris|title=India's Revolutionary Inheritance: Politics and the Promise of Bhagat Singh|publisher =Cambridge University Press|year = 2019|pages=78–79|isbn=978-1-108-75005-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9sqCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA78|quote=One month after Lajpat Rai's death, at 4:30 pm on 17 December 1928, members of the HSRA ambushed Assistant Superintendent of Police J. P. Saunders as he was leaving the police station on Lahore's College Road. He was shot once by Shivaram Rajguru, and then again by Bhagat Singh." As the two fled through the gates of the DAV College located opposite the station, their comrade Chandrashekhar Azad fired at the pursuing officer, Constable Chanan Singh. Both Singh and Saunders died from their wounds. Amid the chaos, there was some room for farce. Saunders was not the primary target; the HSRA's Jaigopal mistook the assistant for his boss, Mr. Scott, the man who had ordered police to charge the Simon Commission protestors two months earlier. Once it was clear this was a subordinate and not Scott, the revolutionaries scrambled to amend posters prepared in advance to announce the act.}}</ref> in what was to be retaliation for the death of an Indian nationalist.<ref name=combined-misplaced> | *{{citation|last=Moffat|first=Chris|title=India's Revolutionary Inheritance: Politics and the Promise of Bhagat Singh|publisher =Cambridge University Press|year = 2019|pages=78–79|isbn=978-1-108-75005-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9sqCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA78|quote=One month after Lajpat Rai's death, at 4:30 pm on 17 December 1928, members of the HSRA ambushed Assistant Superintendent of Police J. P. Saunders as he was leaving the police station on Lahore's College Road. He was shot once by Shivaram Rajguru, and then again by Bhagat Singh." As the two fled through the gates of the DAV College located opposite the station, their comrade Chandrashekhar Azad fired at the pursuing officer, Constable Chanan Singh. Both Singh and Saunders died from their wounds. Amid the chaos, there was some room for farce. Saunders was not the primary target; the HSRA's Jaigopal mistook the assistant for his boss, Mr. Scott, the man who had ordered police to charge the Simon Commission protestors two months earlier. Once it was clear this was a subordinate and not Scott, the revolutionaries scrambled to amend posters prepared in advance to announce the act.}}</ref> in what was to be retaliation for the death of an Indian nationalist.<ref name=combined-misplaced> | ||
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After having escaped, Bhagat Singh and his associates used pseudonyms to publicly announce avenging Lajpat Rai's death, putting up prepared posters that they had altered to show John Saunders as their intended target instead of James Scott.{{sfn|Moffat|2016|p=83}} Singh was thereafter on the run for many months, and no convictions resulted at the time. Surfacing again in April 1929, he and another associate, [[Batukeshwar Dutt]], set off two low-intensity homemade bombs among some unoccupied benches of the [[Central Legislative Assembly]] in [[Old Delhi|Delhi]]. They showered leaflets from the gallery on the legislators below, shouted slogans, and allowed the authorities to arrest them.{{sfn|Moffat|2016|p=84}} The arrest, and the resulting publicity, brought to light Singh's complicity in the John Saunders case. Awaiting trial, Singh gained public sympathy after he joined fellow defendant [[Jatindra Nath Das|Jatin Das]] in a [[hunger strike]], demanding better prison conditions for Indian prisoners, the strike ending in Das's death from starvation in September 1929. | After having escaped, Bhagat Singh and his associates used pseudonyms to publicly announce avenging Lajpat Rai's death, putting up prepared posters that they had altered to show John Saunders as their intended target instead of James Scott.{{sfn|Moffat|2016|p=83}} Singh was thereafter on the run for many months, and no convictions resulted at the time. Surfacing again in April 1929, he and another associate, [[Batukeshwar Dutt]], set off two low-intensity homemade bombs among some unoccupied benches of the [[Central Legislative Assembly]] in [[Old Delhi|Delhi]]. They showered leaflets from the gallery on the legislators below, shouted slogans, and allowed the authorities to arrest them.{{sfn|Moffat|2016|p=84}} The arrest, and the resulting publicity, brought to light Singh's complicity in the John Saunders case. Awaiting trial, Singh gained public sympathy after he joined fellow defendant [[Jatindra Nath Das|Jatin Das]] in a [[hunger strike]], demanding better prison conditions for Indian prisoners, the strike ending in Das's death from starvation in September 1929. | ||
Bhagat Singh was convicted of the murder of John Saunders and Channan Singh, and hanged in March 1931, aged 23. He became a popular folk hero after his death. [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] wrote about him: "Bhagat Singh did not become popular because of his act of terrorism but because he seemed to vindicate, for the moment, the honour of Lala Lajpat Rai, and through him of the nation. He became a symbol; the act was forgotten, the symbol remained, and within a few months each town and village of the Punjab, and to a lesser extent in the rest of northern India, resounded with his name."{{sfnp|Mittal|Habib|1982|ps=}} In still later years, Singh, an [[Atheism|atheist]] and [[Socialism|socialist]] in adulthood, won admirers in India from among a political spectrum that included both [[Communism in India|communists]] and right-wing [[Hindu nationalism|Hindu nationalists]]. Although many of Singh's associates, as well as many Indian anti-colonial revolutionaries, were also involved in daring acts and were either executed or died violent deaths, few came to be lionised in popular art and literature as did Singh, who is sometimes referred to as the | Bhagat Singh was convicted of the murder of John Saunders and Channan Singh, and hanged in March 1931, aged 23. He became a popular folk hero after his death. [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] wrote about him: "Bhagat Singh did not become popular because of his act of terrorism but because he seemed to vindicate, for the moment, the honour of Lala Lajpat Rai, and through him of the nation. He became a symbol; the act was forgotten, the symbol remained, and within a few months each town and village of the Punjab, and to a lesser extent in the rest of northern India, resounded with his name."{{sfnp|Mittal|Habib|1982|ps=}} In still later years, Singh, an [[Atheism|atheist]] and [[Socialism|socialist]] in adulthood, won admirers in India from among a political spectrum that included both [[Communism in India|communists]] and right-wing [[Hindu nationalism|Hindu nationalists]]. Although many of Singh's associates, as well as many Indian anti-colonial revolutionaries, were also involved in daring acts and were either executed or died violent deaths, few came to be lionised in popular art and literature as did Singh, who is sometimes referred to as the ''Shaheed-e-Azam'' ("Great martyr" in [[Urdu]] and [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]]).<ref name=raza-lead-2>{{citation|last=Raza|first=Ali|title=Revolutionary Pasts: Communist Internationalism in Colonial India|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2020|page=107|isbn=978-1-108-48184-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=snzUDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA107|quote=His trial became the stuff of popular legend, as did his hanging — and those of his comrades Raj Guru and Sukhdev – in Lahore in March 1931. Bhagat Singh's death earned him the title of Shaheed-e-Azam (Great Martyr). He was not the only Shaheed who went to the gallows for his or her revolutionary activities, nor was he the only Shaheed-e-Azam.}}</ref> | ||
== Early life == | == Early life == | ||
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* [[Harnam Singh Saini]] | * [[Harnam Singh Saini]] | ||
* [[Dharam Singh Hayatpur]] | * [[Dharam Singh Hayatpur]] | ||
* [[ | * [[Lala Ram Saran Das Talwar]] | ||
== Legacy and memorials == | == Legacy and memorials == | ||
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Bhagat Singh remains a significant figure in Indian iconography to the present day.<ref name=Pinney /> His memory, however, defies categorisation and presents problems for various groups that might try to appropriate it. Pritam Singh, a professor who has specialised in the study of federalism, nationalism and development in India, notes that {{blockquote|Bhagat Singh represents a challenge to almost every tendency in Indian politics. Gandhi-inspired Indian nationalists, Hindu nationalists, Sikh nationalists, the parliamentary Left and the pro-armed struggle Naxalite Left compete with each other to appropriate the legacy of Bhagat Singh, and yet each one of them is faced with a contradiction in making a claim to his legacy. Gandhi-inspired Indian nationalists find Bhagat Singh's resort to violence problematic, the Hindu and Sikh nationalists find his atheism troubling, the parliamentary Left finds his ideas and actions as more close to the perspective of the Naxalites and the Naxalites find Bhagat Singh's critique of individual terrorism in his later life an uncomfortable historical fact.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sacw.net/article22.html |title=Book review: Why the Story of Bhagat Singh Remains on the Margins? |access-date=2011-10-29|last=Singh |first=Pritam |date=24 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001151416/http://www.sacw.net/article22.html|archive-date=1 October 2015}}</ref>}} | Bhagat Singh remains a significant figure in Indian iconography to the present day.<ref name=Pinney /> His memory, however, defies categorisation and presents problems for various groups that might try to appropriate it. Pritam Singh, a professor who has specialised in the study of federalism, nationalism and development in India, notes that {{blockquote|Bhagat Singh represents a challenge to almost every tendency in Indian politics. Gandhi-inspired Indian nationalists, Hindu nationalists, Sikh nationalists, the parliamentary Left and the pro-armed struggle Naxalite Left compete with each other to appropriate the legacy of Bhagat Singh, and yet each one of them is faced with a contradiction in making a claim to his legacy. Gandhi-inspired Indian nationalists find Bhagat Singh's resort to violence problematic, the Hindu and Sikh nationalists find his atheism troubling, the parliamentary Left finds his ideas and actions as more close to the perspective of the Naxalites and the Naxalites find Bhagat Singh's critique of individual terrorism in his later life an uncomfortable historical fact.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sacw.net/article22.html |title=Book review: Why the Story of Bhagat Singh Remains on the Margins? |access-date=2011-10-29|last=Singh |first=Pritam |date=24 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001151416/http://www.sacw.net/article22.html|archive-date=1 October 2015}}</ref>}} | ||
* On 15 August 2008, an 18-foot tall bronze statue of Singh was installed in the [[Parliament of India]], next to the statues of [[Indira Gandhi]] and [[Subhas Chandra Bose]].<ref>{{cite news |first=Aditi |last=Tandon |title=Prez to unveil martyr's 'turbaned' statue |date=8 August 2008 |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080808/nation.htm#16 |work=The Tribune |location=India |access-date=29 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001152945/http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080808/nation.htm|archive-date=1 October 2015}}</ref> A portrait of Singh and Dutt also adorns the walls of the [[Parliament of India|Parliament House]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rajyasabhahindi.nic.in/rshindi/picture_gallery/bk_dutt_1.asp |title=Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt|access-date=3 December 2011 |publisher=[[Rajya Sabha]], [[Parliament of India]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001151310/http://rajyasabhahindi.nic.in/rshindi/picture_gallery/bk_dutt_1.asp|archive-date=1 October 2015}}</ref> | * On 15 August 2008, an 18-foot tall bronze statue of Singh was installed in the [[Parliament of India]], next to the statues of [[Indira Gandhi]] and [[Subhas Chandra Bose]].<ref>{{cite news |first=Aditi |last=Tandon |title=Prez to unveil martyr's 'turbaned' statue |date=8 August 2008 |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080808/nation.htm#16 |work=The Tribune |location=India |access-date=29 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001152945/http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080808/nation.htm|archive-date=1 October 2015}}</ref> A portrait of Singh and Dutt also adorns the walls of the [[Parliament of India|Parliament House]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rajyasabhahindi.nic.in/rshindi/picture_gallery/bk_dutt_1.asp |title=Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt|access-date=3 December 2011 |publisher=[[Rajya Sabha]], [[Parliament of India]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001151310/http://rajyasabhahindi.nic.in/rshindi/picture_gallery/bk_dutt_1.asp|archive-date=1 October 2015}}</ref> | ||
[[File:National Martyrs Memorial Hussainiwala closeup.jpg|thumb|The National Martyrs Memorial, built at Hussainiwala in memory of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru]] | [[File:National Martyrs Memorial Hussainiwala closeup.jpg|thumb|The National Martyrs Memorial, built at Hussainiwala in memory of Bhagat Singh, [[Sukhdev Thapar|Sukhdev]], and [[Shivaram Rajguru|Rajguru]] ]] | ||
* The place where Singh was cremated, at [[Hussainiwala]] on the banks of the Sutlej river, became Pakistani territory during the [[Partition of India|partition]]. On 17 January 1961, it was transferred to India in exchange for 12 villages near the [[Sulemanki Headworks]].<ref name="ferozepur.nic.in" /> Batukeshwar Dutt was cremated there on 19 July 1965 in accordance with his last wishes, as was Singh's mother, Vidyawati.<ref name="tribuneindia.com" /> The National Martyrs Memorial was built on the cremation spot in 1968<ref>{{cite news |first=K.S. |last=Bains |title=Making of a memorial |date=23 September 2007 |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070923/spectrum/main2.htm |work=The Tribune |location=India |access-date=21 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001151150/http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070923/spectrum/main2.htm|archive-date=1 October 2015}}</ref> and has memorials of Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. During the [[1971 Indo-Pakistani War|1971 India–Pakistan war]], the memorial was damaged and the statues of the martyrs were removed by the Pakistani Army. They have not been returned<ref name="ferozepur.nic.in" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://ferozepur.nic.in/html/indopakborder.html |title=Retreat ceremony at Hussainiwala (Indo-Pak Border) |access-date=21 October 2011|publisher=District Administration Ferozepur, Government of Punjab}}</ref> but the memorial was rebuilt in 1973.<ref name="tribuneindia.com">{{cite news |title=Shaheedon ki dharti |date=3 July 1999 |work=The Tribune |location=India |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99jul03/saturday/regional.htm#3 |access-date=11 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001150708/http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99jul03/saturday/regional.htm|archive-date=1 October 2015}}</ref> | * The place where Singh was cremated, at [[Hussainiwala]] on the banks of the Sutlej river, became Pakistani territory during the [[Partition of India|partition]]. On 17 January 1961, it was transferred to India in exchange for 12 villages near the [[Sulemanki Headworks]].<ref name="ferozepur.nic.in" /> Batukeshwar Dutt was cremated there on 19 July 1965 in accordance with his last wishes, as was Singh's mother, Vidyawati.<ref name="tribuneindia.com" /> The National Martyrs Memorial was built on the cremation spot in 1968<ref>{{cite news |first=K.S. |last=Bains |title=Making of a memorial |date=23 September 2007 |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070923/spectrum/main2.htm |work=The Tribune |location=India |access-date=21 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001151150/http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070923/spectrum/main2.htm|archive-date=1 October 2015}}</ref> and has memorials of Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. During the [[1971 Indo-Pakistani War|1971 India–Pakistan war]], the memorial was damaged and the statues of the martyrs were removed by the Pakistani Army. They have not been returned<ref name="ferozepur.nic.in" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://ferozepur.nic.in/html/indopakborder.html |title=Retreat ceremony at Hussainiwala (Indo-Pak Border) |access-date=21 October 2011|publisher=District Administration Ferozepur, Government of Punjab}}</ref> but the memorial was rebuilt in 1973.<ref name="tribuneindia.com">{{cite news |title=Shaheedon ki dharti |date=3 July 1999 |work=The Tribune |location=India |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99jul03/saturday/regional.htm#3 |access-date=11 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001150708/http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99jul03/saturday/regional.htm|archive-date=1 October 2015}}</ref> | ||
* The ''Shaheedi Mela'' (Punjabi: Martyrdom Fair) is an event held annually on 23 March when people pay homage at the National Martyrs Memorial.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://punjabrevenue.nic.in/gazfzpr5.htm |title=Dress and Ornaments |access-date=21 October 2011|work=Gazetteer of India, Punjab, Firozpur (First Edition) |year=1983 |publisher=Department of Revenue, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management, Government of Punjab|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001150557/http://punjabrevenue.nic.in/gazfzpr5.htm|archive-date=1 October 2015}}</ref> The day is also observed across the Indian state of [[Punjab, India|Punjab]].<ref>{{cite news |first=Chander |last=Parkash |title=National Monument Status Eludes Building |date=23 March 2011 |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110323/punjab.htm#9 |work=The Tribune |location=India |access-date=29 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001150359/http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110323/punjab.htm|archive-date=1 October 2015}}</ref> | * The ''Shaheedi Mela'' (Punjabi: Martyrdom Fair) is an event held annually on 23 March when people pay homage at the National Martyrs Memorial.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://punjabrevenue.nic.in/gazfzpr5.htm |title=Dress and Ornaments |access-date=21 October 2011|work=Gazetteer of India, Punjab, Firozpur (First Edition) |year=1983 |publisher=Department of Revenue, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management, Government of Punjab|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001150557/http://punjabrevenue.nic.in/gazfzpr5.htm|archive-date=1 October 2015}}</ref> The day is also observed across the Indian state of [[Punjab, India|Punjab]].<ref>{{cite news |first=Chander |last=Parkash |title=National Monument Status Eludes Building |date=23 March 2011 |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110323/punjab.htm#9 |work=The Tribune |location=India |access-date=29 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001150359/http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110323/punjab.htm|archive-date=1 October 2015}}</ref> | ||