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    They Fought for Freedom and Nation Building

    (Friends, I take the opportunity to start a new thread on the above mentioned topic. Under this head the references will be put at the end of the articles. I am going to submit the first part of an article in the series entitled: MARTYR BHAGAT SINGH AS AN INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTIONARY).

    Martyr Bhagat Singh was one of the greatest prophets of National Revolutionary Freedom Movement of early 20th century India, whose name stands out by himself with the peculiar and distinctness unique in his type as he was unique in his work. He has left indelible imprint of his versatile contribution on various aspects of life both in India and other parts of the world.
    It is practically impossible to write about such a multi-dimensional personality as Bhagat Singh was, in just a few pages. You will have to bear with me when I proceed to share with you some of my ideas on the growth of Bhagat Singh as a promising intellectual and thinker of the first half of the 20th Century. His life was cut short due to the British Judicial Murder over eighty years ago when he was just 23 years and a few months old. Through this paper an attempt has been made to present an objective picture of the man and his ideology in historical perspective mainly based on his own writings and speeches on various issues contained in contemporary sources.
    Historical personalities and freedom fighters remain no longer individuals as they become symbols of ideas and movements. Martyr Bhagat Singh, lovingly hailed as Shaheed-e-Azam, represents the highest ideals of Indian revolutionary movement against imperialism, colonialism, communalism and exploitation of all types. But unfortunately of late, it has become fashionable to compartmentalize him as only the Marxist or the humanist internationalist or individual terrorist or rightist nationalist and revivalist or the follower of Gandhian concept of non-violence and so on. In fact for a long time his doctoring is continuing and his ideas have remained shadowed by various fishy and shady interpretations as a result of it; many distorted versions about his personality and ideology have come up. Now when a huge quantity of data has been thrown open, it is right time to take corrective steps on the basis of his own writings and the literature produced by his comrades in arms and contemporaries to put Shaheed-i-Azam on his rightful pedestal and present original personage of him as he was, nothing more and nothing less.
    Bhagat Singh was born in a patriotic family of S. Kishan Singh at Banga in the Punjab on 27th September, 1907. His father had served various terms in imprisonment for his revolutionary activities and in his later life was one of the prominent leaders of the Indian National Congress. His uncle S. Swaran Singh was jailed for his patriotic fervour and another uncle, S. Ajit Singh, who was a revolutionary and had been imprisoned in Mandalay Jail with Lala Lajpat Rai in 1907, was banished from India till 1947. His grandfather, Arjun Singh did not like to toe the line but was an adherent of Arya Samaj, which had a revolutionary image at that time. Thus his home was an ideal blend of Sikhism and Hinduism. This auspicious non communal nationalist atmosphere of the family gave Bhagat Singh ample opportunity to grow as a revolutionary par excellence. He received his early education in the local school and then moved to Lahore for further education.
    At the time of horrific massacre in Jallianwala Bagh on April 13, 1919, Bhagat Singh was only 12 years old and was a student of DAV School Lahore. The sordid act of the British left a deep imprint on his young mind as narrated by his sister, Bibi Amar Kaur: “The next day, Veera i.e. brother went early in the morning… he came back late in the evening with a bottle in the pocket of his shirt. On being asked what it was, he extracted it and said, “Amro, look at this, this is not mere dust, but is the blood of martyrs.” Thereafter, everyday he started putting ‘Tilak’ on his forehead with that dust. 1
    While tracing the ideological growth of Bhagat Singh, one cannot overlook his appetite for knowledge about the fast changing socio-political scenario in the country. This is testified by the fact that as a student at 4th Standard at School he had studied at least 50 books and booklets written by S. Ajit Singh, Soofi Amba Prasad, Lala Har Dayal, Lala Lajpat Rai and others in addition to scanning columns of various newspapers. While still in school he had read the biography of Tipu Sultan which ignited in him a desire to fight for the liberty of his homeland from the clutches of the foreigners.2

    To be contd./p2.

  2. The Following 8 Users Say Thank You to DrRajpalSingh For This Useful Post:

    deependra (June 17th, 2012), lrburdak (June 17th, 2012), narvir (June 29th, 2012), prashantacmet (October 5th, 2013), rajpaldular (November 25th, 2013), rakeshdhaka (June 7th, 2014), satyenderdeswal (September 10th, 2012)

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