See Comment
Sort by:
Best
Open comment sort options
Best
Top
New
Controversial
Old
Q&A
![r/Gshockexchange - [WTS] Casio G-Shock Gorillaz NOW NOW Collaboration GW-B5600GZ-1 Bluetooth Tough Solar Digital Watch GWB5600 w/Full Kit](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/2BrieyorZpcO4isUq4DcJYYNNsSoeOOFb3rYKpBs98Q.jpg)
![r/MoviePosterPorn - The Holdovers (2023) [800x1200] by Edgar Ascensão [OC]](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/s34bL5uiql-QJOO4OCSKuFOguwF7zogKGcXbTC4XQDo.jpg)
SCB too
he's great too but I think the HSRA (of which Bhagat Singh was a member) is the best of the best
His collaboration with Japan damaged his legacy tho
Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend. His only goal was freedom from the British; the INA didnt participate in any Japanese war crimes.
Infact; when Japan devolved limited power of the Andamans to SCB in 1943; SCB promptly started the process of fair trials, something unseen in India for centuries.
A hero and freedom fighter.
Yup.
Bhagat Singh (28th September 1907- 23rd March 1931) was an Revolutionary Indian Freedom Fighter. He is widely revered across India, by the youth and the old, all political ideologies, was voted “Greatest Indian” in the magazine India Today in 2008 (ahead of both Mahatma Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose) and is lionzed as in art and literature as “Shaheed-e-Azam” (Great Martyr) in both Urdu and Punjabi. Statues of him exist everywhere in India, even the Parliament. The Shaheedi Mela (Martyrdom Fair) is observed across the state of Puinjab and is celebrated nationwide when on 23rd March people pay homage at the Hussainiwala National Martyrs Memorial (which is made in memory of him and his fellow freedom fighters Sukhdev and Rajguru). So in short, he's a pretty popular person in India
Singh was born into a Punjabi-Sikh family on the 28th September 1907. His father, Kishan Singh and uncle Sardar Ajit Singh were already established freedom fighters, being key figures in the 1906-07 unrest surrounding the unfair Colonisation Bill and later the revolutionary expat Indian Ghadar Party in 1914-15.Bhagat Singh was already Anti-British from a young age. In 1910, Kishan Singh and a friend were chilling and strolling in the fields when they came upon a three year old Bhagat digging into the soil. His father asked him what he was planting, and Bhagat responded with “I am sowing guns, so that we’ll be able to get rid of the British''. On 13th April 1919, the infamous Jallianwala Bagh Massacre occurred after General Reginald Dyer ordered his troops to fire on innocent men, women and children, some doing a peaceful protest after the deportation of their leaders,and some celebrating the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi. Upto 1,500 were killed and a further 1,000 were wounded. Singh was determined by this incident and “collected, in one telling, ‘a thimbleful of soil which was coloured with the blood of martyrs.’ Applying a touch to his forehead, he kept the rest in a vial at home as a reminder.’
In 1920, he joined Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movement and burned government sponsored books in his school.However, one such incident happened in 1921 which shook him to the core. During this time, the Gurdwara (Sikh place of worship) Reform Movement was happening; essentially wanted to reclaim Gurdwara from government appointed and sponsored “mahant” (religious superior) control. One day, on 20th Feb, a mahant named Narain Das, who was known for his missapportion of funds, allowing licentiousness activities and even raped a thirteen year old, was met with 100+ Sikhs making an unscheduled trip. Guess what Das did?Yup, his mercenaries opened fire on them; killing 130. After this Bhagat Singh left the non-violent Non-Cooperation Movement and wanted to do revolutionary actions.
In 1924, Bhagat Sing joined the radical violent left-wing “Hindustan Socialist Republican Association”In 1926, Bhagat Singh attended and gave lectures in
Naujawan Bharat Sabha for encouraging workers and peasants to fight for freedom and independence against the British . The British were scared, and under the false pretext of a bombing in Lahore, arrested him. Singh was treated like an animal in jail, but was released under surety of 60,000 rupees 5 weeks after. During this time, Singh left his Sikh religion and became an Atheist “By the end of 1926, I was convinced that the belief in an Almighty, Supreme Being who created, guided and controlled the universe had become a hindrance in the way of human progress."”He wrote for, and edited, Urdu and Punjabi newspapers, published in Amritsar and also contributed to low-priced pamphlets published by the Naujawan Bharat Sabha that excoriated the British. He also wrote for Kirti, the journal of the Kirti Kisan Party ("Workers and Peasants Party") and briefly for the Veer Arjun newspaper, published in Delhi. He often used pseudonyms, including names such as Balwant, Ranjit and Vidhrohi.
(1/5)
In 1928, the British set up the “Simon Commision” to report on the political situation in India. One little problem. There was not a single Indian on the Commision. Some political parties boycotted the Commission ; protests around the country with the slogan and chant “Simon Go Back!”
One such protest was led by one of the most senior leaders of the Congress, Lala Rajpat Rai, on 30th October 1938.
The superintendent of police, James A. Scott, ordered a needlessly brutal Lathi (worse than standard police batons) Charge, and personally assaulted Rai.. Despite being severely injured, Rai subsequently addressed the crowd and said "I declare that the blows struck at me today will be the last nails in the coffin of British Rule in India”.
Sadly Rai didn't fully recover from his injuries and lost his life to a heart attack on 17th November 1928.
The HSRA vowed to avenge his death. On 17th December 1928, Bhagat Singh and some of his HSRA comrades, Shivaram Rajguru, Sukhdev Thapar and Chandrashekar Azad went to shoot Scott . However in a case of mistaken identity, they killed an Assistant Superintendent of the Police, John.P Saunders, as he was leaving the District Police Headquarters in Lahore. “He was felled by a single bullet fired from across the street by Rajguru, a marksman.As he lay injured, he was shot at close range several times by Singh, the postmortem report showing eight bullet wounds”
The murder was condemned as a retrograde action by Mahatma Gandhi.
After killing Saunders, the group escaped through the D.A.V. College entrance, across the road from the District Police Headquarters. Chanan Singh, a Head Constable who was chasing them, was shot dead by Chandrashekhar Azad. They then fled on bicycles to pre-arranged safe houses. The police launched a massive search operation to catch them, blocking all entrances and exits to and from the city; the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) kept a watch on all young men leaving Lahore. The fugitives hid for the next two days.
On 19 December 1928, Sukhdev called on Durgawati Devi, sometimes known as Durga Bhabhi, wife of another HSRA member, Bhagwati Charan Vohra, for help, which she agreed to provide. They decided to catch the train departing from Lahore to Bathinda en route to Howrah (Calcutta) early the next morning.
Bhagat Singh and Rajguru, both carrying loaded revolvers, left the house early the next day. Dressed in western attire (Bhagat Singh cut his hair, shaved his beard and wore a hat over cropped hair), and carrying Devi's sleeping child, Singh and Devi passed as a young couple, while Rajguru carried their luggage as their servant. At the station, Singh managed to conceal his identity while buying tickets, and the three boarded the train heading to Cawnpore (now Kanpur). There they boarded a train for Lucknow since the CID at Howrah railway station usually scrutinized passengers on the direct train from Lahore. At Lucknow, Rajguru left separately for Benares while Singh, Devi and the infant went to Howrah, with all except Singh returning to Lahore a few days later.
(2/5)
In 1929, he proposed a dramatic act to the HSRA intended to gain massive publicity for their aims.
Influenced by Auguste Vaillant, a French anarchist who had bombed the Chamber of Deputies in Paris Singh's plan was to explode a bomb inside the Central Legislative Assembly (lower house of the legislature with limited powers)
The nominal intention was to protest against the Public Safety Bill, and the Trade Dispute Act, which had been rejected by the Assembly but were being enacted by the Viceroy Lord Irwin anyway.
The actual intention was for the perpetrators to allow themselves to be arrested so that they could use court appearances as a stage to publicize their cause.
Fellow revolutionary Jatindranath Das was chosen to help them in bomb making. So as planned the bomb making process took place in a hideout in Agra. The art was taught by J Das to the young members of HSRA. The young revolutionaries had shown so much interest that they learnt it fast and so many bomb factories were set up in two months. Azad who learnt the art was able to manufacture bombs of military standards.
On 8 April 1929, Singh, accompanied by fellow HSRA member Batukeshwar Dutt, threw two bombs into the Assembly chamber from its public gallery while the President, on orders of Lord Irwin, passed the Trade Disputes and Public Safety bills. Singh and Dutt intentionally threw the bombs in the empty spaces. ] The bombs had been designed not to kill,but unintentionally injured 6 members. The smoke from the bombs filled the Assembly so that Singh and Dutt could probably have escaped in the confusion had they wished. Singh then fired 2-3 shots in the air to stop the panicked members of the assembly. Then, they stayed shouting the slogan "Inquilab Zindabad!" ("Long Live the Revolution") and threw leaflets, explaining their cause. Singh then voluntarily turned in his gun to the police officer, and was arrested, and moved through a series of jails in Delhi.Nonetheless, the jailed Bhagat was reported to be elated, and referred to the subsequent legal proceedings as a "drama".Singh and Dutt eventually responded to the criticism by writing the Assembly Bomb Statement:
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
The trial began in the first week of June, following a preliminary hearing in May. On 12 June, both men were sentenced to life imprisonment for: "causing explosions of a nature likely to endanger life, unlawfully and maliciously."Dutt had been defended by Asaf Ali, while Singh defended himself. Doubts have been raised about the accuracy of testimony offered at the trial. One key discrepancy concerns the automatic pistol that Singh had been carrying when he was arrested. Some witnesses said that he had fired two or three shots while the police sergeant who arrested him testified that the gun was pointed downward when he took it from him and that Singh "was playing with it." According to an article in the India Law Journal, the prosecution witnesses were coached, their accounts were incorrect, and Singh had turned over the pistol himself. Singh was given a life sentence.
On 15 April 1929, the Lahore bomb factory was discovered by the police, leading to the arrest of other members of HSRA, including Sukhdev, Kishori Lal, and Jai Gopal. Not long after this, the Saharanpur factory was also raided and some of the conspirators became informants. With the new information available, the police were able to connect the three strands of the Saunders murder, Assembly bombing, and bomb manufacture. Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru, and 21 others were charged with the Saunders murder
Singh was re-arrested for murdering Saunders and Chanan Singh based on substantial evidence against him, including statements by his associates, Hans Raj Vohra and Jai Gopal. His life sentence in the Assembly Bomb case was deferred until the Saunders case was decided. He was sent to Central Jail Mianwali from the Delhi jail. There he witnessed discrimination between European and Indian prisoners. He considered himself, along with others, to be a political prisoner.
He was being tortured inhumanely and doing forced labor. He led other Indian, self-identified political prisoners he felt were being treated as common criminals in a hunger strike. They demanded equality in food standards, clothing, toiletries, and other hygienic necessities, as well as access to books and a daily newspaper.
(3/5)
Comment removed by moderator
Carden-Noad presented the government's charges of conducting robberies, and the illegal acquisition of arms and ammunition among others. The evidence of G. T. H. Hamilton Harding, the Lahore superintendent of police, shocked the court. He stated that he had filed the first information report against the accused under specific orders from the chief secretary to the governor of Punjab and that he was unaware of the details of the case. The prosecution depended mainly on the evidence of P. N. Ghosh, Hans Raj Vohra, and Jai Gopal who had been Singh's associates in the HSRA. On 10 July 1930, the tribunal decided to press charges against only 15 of the 18 accused and allowed their petitions to be taken up for hearing the next day. The trial ended on 30 September 1930 The three accused, whose charges were withdrawn, included Dutt who had already been given a life sentence in the Assembly bomb case.
A plan to rescue Singh and fellow HSRA inmates from the jail failed. HSRA member Durga Devi's husband, Bhagwati Charan Vohra, attempted to manufacture bombs for the purpose, but died when they exploded accidentally.
On 5th and 6th October 1930, Singh wrote his revolutionary essay “Why I am an Atheist '' in response to his religious friends believing he only became atheist due to vanity.
The ordinance (and the tribunal) would lapse on 31 October 1930 as it had not been passed by the Central Assembly or the British Parliament. On 7 October 1930, the tribunal delivered its 300-page judgment based on all the evidence and concluded that the participation of Singh, Sukhdev , and Shivaram Rajguru in Saunders murder was proven. They were sentenced to death by hanging.Of the other accused, three were acquitted (Ajoy Ghosh, Jatindra Nath Sanyal and Des Raj) Kundan Lal received seven years' rigorous imprisonment, Prem Dutt received five years of the same, and the remaining seven Kishori Lal, Mahavir Singh, Bijoy Kumar Sinha, Shiv Verma, Gaya Prasad, Jaidev Kapoor and Kamal Nath Tewari were all sentenced to transportation for life
In Punjab province, a defense committee drew up a plan to appeal to the Privy Council. Singh was initially against the appeal but later agreed to it in the hope that the appeal would popularize the HSRA in Britain. The appellants claimed that the ordinance which created the tribunal was invalid while the government countered that the Viceroy was completely empowered to create such a tribunal. The appeal was dismissed by Judge Viscount Dunedin.After the rejection of the appeal to the Privy Council, Congress party president Madan Mohan Malaviya filed a mercy appeal before Irwin on 14 February 1931. Some prisoners sent Mahatma Gandhi an appeal to intervene. In his notes dated 19 March 1931, the Viceroy recorded:
While returning Gandhiji asked me if he could talk about the case of Bhagat Singh because newspapers had come out with the news of his slated hanging on March 24th. It would be a very unfortunate day because on that day the new president of the Congress had to reach Karachi and there would be a lot of hot discussion. I explained to him that I had given a very careful thought to it but I did not find any basis to convince myself to commute the sentence. It appeared he found my reasoning weighty.
The Communist Party of Great Britain expressed its reaction to the case:
“The history of this case, of which we do not come across any example in relation to the political cases, reflects the symptoms of callousness and cruelty which is the outcome of bloated desire of the imperialist government of Britain so that fear can be instilled in the hearts of the repressed people.”On 23 March, Gandhi had written a letter to Lord Irwin appealing for commutation for the death sentences against Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, but the Viceroy refused.
Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were sentenced to death in the Lahore conspiracy case and ordered to be hanged on 24 March 1931.The schedule was moved forward by 11 hours and the three were hanged on 23 March 1931 at 7:30 pm in the Lahore jail. It is reported that no magistrate at the time was willing to supervise Singh's hanging as was required by law. The execution was supervised instead by an honorary judge named Nawab Muhammad Ahmed Khan Kasuri, who also signed the three death warrants, as their original warrants had expired. The jail authorities then broke a hole in the rear wall of the jail, removed the bodies, and secretly cremated the three men under cover of darkness outside Ganda Singh Wala village, and then threw the ashes into the Sutlej river, about 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) from Ferozepore
(5/5)
Rest in power, comrade 🫡