Bhagat Singh Hindu Champion

Champions of Hinduism: Bhagat Singh

Bhagat Singh Sandhu (1907 - 1931)

Born into a Sikh family in Punjab, Bhagat Singh, as a child, was deeply affected by the Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre of more than 400 innocent lives and thousands injured. At a young age of fourteen he went there to collect the soil now purified by blood of the innocent, and kept it in his lunch box for his tragically short life.

When Mahatma Gandhi started the Non-cooperation movement in 1920, he became an active participant at the age of 13. He had great hopes that Gandhi would bring freedom in India. But he got disappointed when Gandhi called off the movement after the Chauri Chaura riot. Bhagat Singh, a student at the National College was against individual acts of terrorism. In 1928 he came in contact with other revolutionaries such as Bhagwati Charan, Sukhdev, Chandrashekhar Azad and others. Bhagat Singh, an eyewitness to the beating death of Lala Lajapatrai killed brutally after a peaceful march, vowed revenge, but mistakenly killed another junior officer, with the help of Azad, Rajguru and Sukhdev, also in the struggle. He went into hiding but continued his activities, notably the bomb blast meant to get the government’s attention without harming the innocent. Treacherously, these three brave young men were sold out by “friends” and sentenced to hang, with the ‘proceedings’ – a sham – carried out without their presence! Bhagat Singh refused clemency, and is said to have actually had a smile at the time of hanging. He did not have a death wish – just a burning desire to free his beloved Hindustaan.

Thus the most beloved son of India, a true patriotic revolutionary and a staunch defender for Hindustaan, became a martyr at the tender age of 23.

Jai Hind!

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