March 23, 1931 is the day when one of India's greatest revolutionary freedom fighter, Bhagat Singh, was given the death penalty by the British colonizers. He died at the very young age of 23 but his actions inspired the youth of the nation to fight for the nation's freedom. His executions encouraged many to take up the revolutionary path, playing an important role in India's freedom struggle.
In spite of the fact that the life span of Bhagat Singh was very short ( 29 September 1907 – 23 March 1931) but he keeps an importance of high niche in the history from his ideology and broad vision.
Bhagat Singh was very young, say only 20 years, when he spent about two years jail on his first arrest in 1927. He was not a know figure before going to jail despite his interesting revolutionary activities. But after his introspection during the jail tenure, he made the revolutionary youths a known ideologists. By revolution he meant that the present order of things, which is based on manifest injustice, must change
In fact, right from the childhood, Gaddar Lehar has left an indelible impact on his life. Apart from this, he had inherited the education of national spirit and he was moved from the incident of Jallianwala Bagh in 1919 which further ignited in him the spirit of revolutionary and he becomes active in association with the youths of revolutionary thoughts.
He remained busy while working in Partap newspaper, helping in Jaito morcha and flood affected in Kanpur and try to learn the motive behind the revolutionary movements. He also started writing around 1924 when he was only 17 years old. After the Kakori incident, he deeply involved himself in the important work. He emerged as the only alternative to Gandhi and the Indian National Congress, especially for the youth. He was a veracious reader and inculcated this habit of reading and thinking among his associates.
Bhagat Singh wanted to take revenge of the death of Lala Lajpat Rai while opposing the Simon Commission and to take this message to the common man. He gave a surprise when he threw a bomb in the Assembly from the Visitors Gallery by raising three slogans – Inquilab Zindabad, Down with Imperialism and Workers of the World Unite, followed any another explosion took place few minutes later and hurriedly the Hall was emptied.
On December 17, 1927, the revolutionaries Bhagat Singh and Shivaram Rajguru shot and killed assistant superintendent of police John Saunders. They were supported in this act by their compatriots Sukhdev Thapar and Chandrashekhar Azad. However, their original target was not Saunders but superintendent of police James Scott who had ordered his men to lathi-charge protesters leading to the death of the nationalist leader Lala Lajpat Rai.
His death sentence was pronounced on 7 October 1930, which he heard with defiant courage.
Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were later hanged to death on March 23, 1931. Their trial and execution, however, made them martyrs in the eyes of millions of Indians.
Frankly speaking, the graph of patriotism, moral values, dedication and devotion is on downward trend even after more than seven decades of our independence. No doubt, the revolutionary souls produce ideology of martyrs, but it is seen that barring few youths attached with the martyrs from the core of their heart, majority of them are more attached with show off on the social media when the need of the hour is social change.
Nowhere else in the world has someone achieved such fame, following and veneration in such a short life? The best way to keep their sacrifices alive is to commemorate the memory of such icons of yesteryears.
From my experience, I would say that every generation has a significant minority that defies and redefines the system and today’s youth is no different and the present generation has no death of idealist youths who seek something bigger than personal career, who are willing to take risks in pursuit of their values. But the problem with the present youths is that they are easy going now, more career oriented, and fun-loving creatures, more interested in social media than in social change.
The youths have to come out of their four-wall aura of social media. Only the practical change in our system, working and behavior can fulfill the dreams of our martyrs’ who sacrificed their life for the freedom of India.
It’s a big question before us, to put a check on our youths to see the Shining India. Had Bhagat Singh been around us today, he would definitely asked this question to maintain the freedom of India given with the sacrifices of martyrs.
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HARISH MONGA, Feature Writer
harishmongadido@gmail.com
Phone No. : 9815087107
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