[The year 2007 is the 75th year of the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh and also his 
birth centenary. - ZESTAlternative Desk] 


Bhagat  Singh and His Comrades 
A Page From Our Revolutionary History
 
by Ajoy Ghosh
http://www.shahidbhagatsingh.org

[Ajay Ghosh (1909-1962) was a close comrade of Bhagat Singh and was co-accused 
in the Lahore conspiracy case.]
 
 
(First  Published in 1945)
 
Few cases in this country have attracted such 
attention as the Lahore conspiracy case of 
1929-30. From the day bombs exploded in the 
Central Assembly till the time curtain was 
rung down with the execution of Bhagat Singh, 
Rajguru, and Sukhdev, the floodlight of public 
attention was focussed on the case, on the 
prisoners, on the countless struggles they 
waged for the cause of political prisoners and 
for the principles they cherished. Bhagat 
Singh and his comrades became the heroes of 
many legends - some of them were true, some 
were fond creations of the popular mind. Songs 
and poems about them could be heard wherever 
one went.
 
Who were these people that overnight became so 
popular? What was it they stood for? Why did 
they evoke such sympathy and admiration? These 
questions I shall try to answer in the 
following pages.
 
I believe it was sometime in 1923 that I met 
Bhagat Singh for the first time. A young boy 
of about my age - I was fifteen at that time - 
he was introduced to me by B.K. Dutt in 
Cawnpore. Tall and thin, rather shabbily 
dressed, very quiet, he seemed a typical 
village lad racking smartness and 
self-confidence. I did not think very highly 
of him at that time and told Dutt so when he 
was gone.
 
A few days later I saw him again. We had a long 
talk. Those were days when we used to dream 
boyish dreams of revolution. It seemed round 
the comer -a question of a few years at most. 
Bhagat Singh did not seem so confident about it. 
I have forgotten his words but I remember his 
speaking about the torpor and apathy that 
prevailed in the land, the difficulty in 
rousing the people, the heavy odds against us. 
My first impressions about him seemed confirmed.
 
Our talks drifted to past attempts at revolution 
and a change came over Bhagat Singh as he spoke 
of the martyrs of 1915-16 and especially of 
Sardar Kartar Singh, the central figure of the 
first Lahore conspiracy case. Neither of us had 
met Kartar Singh. He had already been hanged 
when we were yet kids but we knew how he, then a 
mere youth of 18 and a comrade of Baba Sohan 
Singh Bhakna, Baba Rur Singh and Prithvi Singh 
Azad, had become the undisputed leader of the 
Ghadr Party. He came to India in 1915-16 with 
the aim of organising armed revolt against 
British rule. A fearless fighter and a superb 
organiser, Kartar Singh was a man admired even 
by his enemies. I literally worshipped him and 
to hear one talk inspiringly of my hero was a 
great pleasure. I began to feel a liking for 
Bhagat Singh. Before he left Cawnpore we were 
close friends though I never ceased to make fun 
of what appeared to me his pessimistic outlook.
 
Kakori Arrests and After
 
In 1925 like a bolt from the blue came the 
Kakori arrests most of our leaders were in 
prison within a few weeks. More round-ups 
followed: searches and arrests, harassment of 
suspects became the order of the day. but what 
really shattered my dreams was the effect of 
these arrests. Men who had professed sympathy 
with our cause would now avoid us. Boys who 
had talked now began to leave the gymnasium we 
had started in Cawnpore for physical culture 
and as a recruiting centre. The whole province 
was in the grip of panic.
 
In January 1926, I went to Allahabad to join 
the university. We tried to rebuild the party 
out of the shattered remnants of the Kakori 
round-ups. It was an uphill task. Revolution, 
it seemed now, was far, very far off.
 
This sense of frustration, which prevailed in 
the ranks of the revolutionary minded youth of 
that period and inevitably drew them towards 
terrorism was the outcome of the general 
political situation then prevailing. Following 
the failure of the great mass movement of 
1921-22, the Congress had split into two 
factions—no-changers and pro-changers-and now 
the Swaraj Party with Gandhiji's blessing held 
the field. Of political activities outside the 
legislatures there were none, mass meetings 
were rarely held and scantily attended. 
Stillness hung over the land, the stillness of 
a stagnant pool.
 
Prolonged discussions took place in our ranks 
about what to do to break this stagnant calm. 
Socialist literature was trickling in, the 
triumph of the November revolution, the 
consolidation of the socialist regime in Russia 
and more than anything else, the aid given by 
the Soviet Union to Asian countries like Turkey 
and China against imperialist powers attracted 
us towards the new socialist state and towards 
the ideas and principles it embodied.
 
Simultaneously another phenomenon whose 
significance we could only vaguely grasp then 
was being witnessed in our own country. At a 
time when the whole country seemed quiet and 
sunk in the morass of apathy the great strike 
of the Bombay workers led by the Gimi Kamgar 
Union, strike struggles in Calcutta and 
Cawanpore, were attracting universal attention.
 
Terrorism, armed action against the enemies of 
the people, we were convinced, was indispensable 
to rouse the nation. But, clearly, terrorism by 
itself could not lead to freedom. In what 
channels and by what means was the mass movement 
unleashed by terror to be directed, what sort of 
government would replace British rule? These 
questions, vaguely formulated were beginning to 
be asked in our ranks.
 
Bhagat Singh was in the meantime active in the 
Punjab. He and his comrades had formed the 
Naujawan Bharat Sabha, a militant youth 
organisation which was to propagate socialist 
ideas, preach the necessity of direct action 
against British rule and serve as a recruiting 
centre for the Terrorist Party. The Sabha became 
tremendously popular in the years that followed 
and played a leading part in the radicalisation 
of the youth of the Punjab.
 
Bhagat Singh also worked for some time on the 
editorial staff of the Kirti - a socialist 
journal edited by Sohan Singh Josh.
 
One day in 1928, I was surprised when a young 
man walked into my room and greeted me. It was 
Bhagat Singh but not the Bhagat Singh that I 
had met two years before. Tall and 
magnificently proportioned, with a keen, 
intelligent face and gleaming eyes, he looked a 
different man altogether. And as he talked I 
realised that he had grown non-merely in years.
 
He was now, together with Chandra Shekhar Azad - 
the sole remaining absconder of the Kakori 
conspiracy case, the leader of our party. He 
explained to me the changes that had been made 
in our program and organisational structure.
 
We were henceforth the Hindustan Socialist 
Republican Association with a socialist state in 
India as our avowed objective. Also the party 
had been reorganised with a central committee 
and with provincial and district committees 
under it. All decisions were to be taken in 
these committees, majority decisions were to be 
binding on all.
 
As for the most important question, however, the 
question in what manner the fight for freedom 
and socialism was to be waged, armed action by 
individuals and groups was to remain our 
immediate task. Nothing else, we held, could 
smash constitutionalist illusions, nothing else 
could free the country from the grip in which it 
was held. When the stagnant calm was broken by a 
series of hammer blows delivered by us at 
selected points and on suitable occasions, 
against the most hated officials of the 
government, and mass movement unleashed, we 
would link ourselves with that movement act as 
its armed detachment and give it a socialist 
direction.
 
Our very contribution towards ensuring the 
success of the movement would ensure that free 
India became socialist India. All those who met 
Bhagat Singh then and afterwards have testified 
to his remarkable intelligence and to the 
powerful impression he made when talking. Not 
that he was a brilliant speaker, but he spoke 
with such force, passion and earnestness that 
one could not help being impressed. We talked 
the whole night and as we went out for a stroll 
when the first streaks of red were appearing in 
the grey sky, it seemed to me that a new era was 
dawning for our party. We knew what we wanted 
and we knew how to reach our goal.
 
Such was our socialism in those days. We had 
lost faith in the existing national leadership, 
its constitutionalism, its slogan of boring from 
within disgusted us. And we looked upon 
ourselves as men who by their example would 
create the basis for the rise of a new 
leadership. Socialism for us was an ideal, the 
principle to guide us to rebuild society after 
the capture of power.
 
The First Blow
 
The visit of the Simon Commission in 1928 was 
the occasion for countrywide strikes and 
demonstrations. The Bombay workers came out in a 
gigantic one-day protest strike. "Simon go back" 
was the slogan that rose from the seething sea 
of humanity wherever the commission went. Such 
scenes had not been witnessed since the 
non-cooperation days.
 
A wave of indignation swept over the country 
when news came that at Lahore the protest 
demonstration had been broken up by the police 
and Lala Lajpat Rai, who was leading the 
procession, had himself been seriously injured. 
A few weeks afterwards he died. The country was 
plunged in mourning.
 
Even more than sorrow the common feeling was 
one of hatred and anger and also of frustration. 
Here in broad day light in full view of tens of 
thousands, an aged and universally respected 
leader had been done to death and nothing could 
be done to meet out justice to the cowardly 
perpetrators of the crime.
 
Our party decided to strike a blow. In November 
1928 Saunders, the assistant superintendent of 
police, the man who had led the lathi charge, 
was shot dead in front of the police 
headquarters in Lahore. Well-timed and daringly  
executed, it was an action that was acclaimed 
by the public with joy. The first of the blows 
by means of which we expected to stir the 
country had been struck.
 
Bombs in the Assembly
 
Things seemed to be moving apace. At its 
Calcutta session in December 1928 the Congress 
resolved to unfurl the banner of independence if 
dominion status was not conceded within a year. 
Torpor that had hung over the land like a black 
cloud for years was slowly lifting. Youth 
Leagues were springing up everywhere, another 
gigantic strike was impending in Bombay.
 
We felt a big fight was ahead, an upheaval like 
that which had convulsed the country in 1921-22. 
We were feverishly busy preparing to play our 
part in it -collecting arms and money, training 
our cadres in the use of arms. Jatin Das was 
brought from Calcutta to teach us how to make 
bombs.
 
In April 1929, streamer headlines announced the 
arrest of communist and trade union leaders all 
over the country P.C. Joshi then a student in 
the Allahabad University and a Youth League 
Leader, was arrested his arrest being followed 
by a huge protest demonstration of students.
 
Bhagat Singh and some others among us had 
already met a number of communist leaders. We 
felt sympathetic towards them and at one time 
even contemplated some sort of a working 
alliance with them - communists to organise the 
masses and conduct the mass movement, we of the 
Hindustan Socialist Republican Association to 
act as its armed section. But when we learned 
that communists considered armed action by 
individuals to be harmful to the movement, we 
dropped the idea. While we did not look upon 
communists as revolutionists - revolution for 
us meant primarily armed action - we felt one 
with them in many respects: in their hatred for 
imperialism, in their opposition to 
constitutionalism and insistence on direct 
action, in their striving for socialism.
 
And so the countrywide arrests of communists 
were felt by us to be a matter of vital concern 
for the revolutionary movement. It was 
imperialist attack against a cause, which was 
our own, against a movement which had our love 
and sympathy. We resolved to protest not merely 
against the arrests but against the whole 
imperialist policy of fostering the growth of 
constitutionalist illusions on the one hand and 
unleashing terror against the people on the 
other.
 
A few days later bombs exploded on the official 
benches in the Central Assembly just after the 
Trades Dispute Bill - a measure directed against 
the working class movement-had been passed. 
Bhagat Singh and Dutt were arrested on the spot.
 
In a ringing statement that revealed the powerful 
pen that Bhagat Singh wielded they admitted 
their responsibility and explained what had led 
them to it. They were sentenced to transportation 
for life.
 
Soon followed the accidental discovery of our 
bomb factory in Lahore and the arrests of 
Sukhdev, Kishori Lal and others. Jai Gopal 
confessed, then Hansraj Vohra, and the result was 
more round-ups, more confessions and within a few 
weeks most of our active workers and leaders of 
Bihar, United Provinces and the Punjab were in 
the hands of; the police. Others went underground. 
My arrest came just when I was preparing to go 
underground.
 
It all seemed over, our dreams and our hopes. 
More depressing than anything else was the 
shocking fact that, unable to stand police 
torture, no less than seven, two of them members 
of our central committee had turned approvers.
 
The Trial Begins
 
In July 1929 we were produced in court - 13 of 
us - and there we met Bhagat Singh and Dutt 
again. No longer was he the Bhagat Singh of the 
magnificent physique whose strength had been a 
byword in our party. A shadow of his former self, 
weak and emaciated, he was carried into the court 
on a stretcher.
 
     For months he and Dutt had been tortured by 
the police and now they were on hunger strike 
demanding human treatment for all political 
prisoners. Our eyes filled with tears as we 
greeted them.
 
Though sentenced already to transportation for 
life Bhagat Singh and Dutt were our co-accused in 
the new case that now began - the Lahore 
conspiracy case of 1929. For three days we paid 
no attention to the proceedings but held 
prolonged discussion which Bhagat Singh, though 
so weak that he had to recline in an easy chair 
all the time, took the leading part.
 
The first thing, he emphasised, was the need to 
get rid of the idea that all was over. Ours was 
not to be a defence in the legal sense of the 
word. While every effort must be made to save 
those who could be saved, the case as a whole was 
to be conducted with a definite political purpose. 
Revolutionary use was to be made of the trial, of 
every opportunity to expose the sham justice of 
the British government and to demonstrate the 
unconquerable will of revolutionists. Not merely 
by our statements when the time came but even 
more by our actions inside the court and prisons 
we were to fight for the cause of all political 
prisoners hurl defiance at the government and 
show the contempt we had for its courts and its 
police. Thus we were to continue the work we had 
begun outside the work of rousing our people by 
our actions.
 
These talks had a galvanising effect on us. As a 
first step we resolved to join the hunger strike 
that Bhagat Singh and Dutt had already had 
already begun. Our central demand was the placing 
of all political prisoners in a single class, 
better diet for them, newspapers and reading 
material and writing facilities.
 
The Hunger Strike
 
Thus began the great Lahore conspiracy case 
hunger strike that continued for 63 days resulting 
in the self-immolation of Jatin Das and stirring 
the country to its very depths.
 
In the beginning the government and the jail 
authorities did not take the strike seriously. 
They believed it would peter out in a few days and 
this belief on their part was strengthened when 
two of the prisoners gave up the strike after a 
few days. Some of us were none too confident 
either and I for one wondered how long it would be 
possible for me to remain without food. All of us 
had undergone hardships before physical conflict 
with the police now did not frighten us, but the 
prospect of starving ourselves for days, weeks and 
even months - this was a chilling prospect indeed.
 
For ten days nothing big happened. Hunger grew and 
with it physical weakness. Some had to take to bed 
after a week and, as the trial continued, it was a
'real strain for them to sit in the courtroom. But 
our first terror had gone. Hunger strike did not 
seem such a hard job after all. But we did not 
know that the real fight was yet to come.
 
After ten days forcible feeding was started. We 
were all in separate cells at that time. 
Accompanied by a number of tough and strong 
nambardars (convict overseers) the doctors came 
to each cell, the hunger striker was thrown on a 
mattress, a rubber tube was forcibly pushed into 
his nostril and the milk poured into it.
 
Violent resistance was offered by everyone but 
with little effect at first. It almost seemed as 
if they had already beaten us.
 
In the night on the thirteenth day of the strike 
news reached me in my cell that Jatin Dass was in 
a bad state and had been removed to the jail 
hospital. At first I could not make out what had 
happened for Das had appeared quite fit only a 
few hours ago. Then the man who had brought the 
news - he was a subordinate jail official - 
hesitatingly told me that something had gone 
wrong during forcible feeding and Das was now 
lying unconscious.
 
This was shocking news indeed. I like most 
others amongst us, had never met Das before
my arrest. But during the few days that we had
 come to know him in prison he had won
 everyone's affection. Though quiet and
 unassuming, he had a keen sense of humour
 and a fund of stories and anecdotes, which
he used to narrate to us and make everyone
 laugh.
 
I called the jailor and by bullying him got the
 permission to visit the jail hospital.
 
Das was lying there on a cot, unconscious,
 with doctors attending on him. They feared he 
might die that very night. He recovered but
 developed pneumonia and that weakened
 him so much - he refused all medicines and
 nourishment – that forcible feeding was now
 out of question.
 
>From now on the strike became grim and
 determined. Das was followed by Shiv Varma
 and others. Soon the hospital was full. Court 
proceedings were now adjourned.
 
It was a veritable race for death that now
 began. Who would be the first to die - this
 became the subject of competition.
 
Many were the methods we devised to defeat
 the doctors.  Kishori swallowed red pepper 
and boiling water to cause sore throat so that
 the passage of the tube led to such coughing
 that it had to be taken out lest he might die of
 suffocation. I swallowed flies immediately
 after forced feeding to induce vomiting. These 
devices came to be known to the doctors and 
guards were kept on us.
 
Determined to break us the jail officials
 removed all water from our cells and placed
 milk instead in the pitchers. This was the
 worst ordeal imaginable. After a day thirst
 grew unbearably. I would drag myself towards
 the pitcher, hoping every time to find water
 but drew back at the sight of milk. It was
 maddening. If the man who had hit upon this
 device had been there before me, I would
 have killed him.
 
Outside the guard sat - watching every
 movement -mute, impassive.
 
I could not trust myself much longer. I knew
 that a few hours more and I was bound to
 give way and drink the milk. My throat was
 parched, my tongue swollen.
 
I called the guard. As he stood outside the
 barred door I asked him to get me a few
 drops of water at least. His reply was: "I
 cannot do it. I have no permission".
 
Fury took possession of me. I snatched the
 pitcher and hurled at against the door,
 breaking it to pieces, spilling the milk on the
 guard. He recoiled back in horror. He thought
 I had gone mad. He was not far from right.
 
The same torture was being undergone by
 Kishori and others who were then in cells.
 And everyone, as I leamt later, had done the
 same thing -broke their pitchers before their
 guards.
 
The jailor gave away. Water was brought to
 our cells. I drank and drank. Then I fell sick
 and vomitted out every drop.
 
In the meantime sympathetic hunger strikes
 were taking place wherever there were
 political prisoners. A powerful mass
 movement had grown to back our demands.
 Mass meetings and demonstrations were
 taking place in every part of the country.
 
The Meerut conspiracy case prisoners went
 on hunger strike after a few days. The news
 was flashed across the seas. It created a stir
 in England. World attention was now focused
 on conditions in Indian prisons.
 
Several times during the hunger strike Bhagat
 Singh came to our jail on the plea of
 consultation but really to meet us and know
 how we were faring. Though himself weak 
and emaciated he would sit by the side of Das 
and other comrades  and cheer them up. His 
very presence infused new life in us and we 
looked forward eagerly to these visits.
 
At last when Jatin Das was on the point of 
death and the conditions of Shiv and others
 were very serious, the government yielded. A 
committee with a non-official majority was 
appointed to recommend changes in jail rules. 
The committee met us in prison, assured us 
that most of our demands would be conceded 
and on the basis of its assurances we 
resolved to end the strike.
 
Jatin Das was now beyond any hope of
recovery. He could no longer talk or even 
hear. Victory, so it seemed at that time, had 
been won but the man who had more than 
anyone else contributed towards it was not to 
live to share its fruits.
 
There he lay, with all of us sitting round him,
 and a lump rose in my throat. As he passed
 away and I lifted my head, I saw tears even in 
the eyes of hardened jail officials. When his 
body was borne out of the jail gate, to be 
hauled over to the huge crowd that was 
waiting outside, Hamilton Harding, 
superintendent of police Lahore, bared his 
head, bowing in reverence before the man 
whom all the might of the British empire had 
failed to defeat.
 
The promise made by the government on the
 basis of which we abandoned the strike were 
not kept forcing»,us to resort to two more 
hunger strikes and even afterwards the new 
rules were interpreted in such manner as to 
exclude the vast majority of political prisoners 
from any benefit. But public attention was 
focussed on the terrible conditions prevailing 
in the jails-conditions far worse than today. 
The sham pretensions of the government 
stood exposed.
 
One event during the hunger strike moved us 
deeply. Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna, the 
founder of the Ghadr Party and a hero of the 
Lahore conspiracy case of 1915-16, who was 
then in the Lahore central jail, joined the 
strike; he had already served 14 years in the 
Andamans and in Indian prisons and was 
about to be released. We were informed by 
the superintendent that if he persisted, he 
would  lose his remissions and would have to 
remain in prison much longer. Moreover,
 Babaji was old and in ill health, 14 years of
 hell had shattered his body and the hunger
 strike might end disastrously for him.
 
In vain, however, Bhagat Singh saw Babaji
 and pleaded with him - he was in tears when
 he reported the interview to us - to desist. 
Babaji continued the strike as long as we did. 
He lost a good part of his remissions and had 
to remain in jail for a year more.
 
The Man and His Ideas.
 
Bhagat Singh had none of the characteristics
 of the traditional terrorist leader. We had
 differences amongst us on many occasions, 
several of the meetings we held were stormy 
and more than once Bhagat Singh had to 
follow a course of action with which he did not 
agree. Impetuous and strong willed, he lacked 
the coolness and imperturbability of Azad and 
would at times fret and fume and lash at those
 who seemed to vacillate. But only seldom did
 he give offence and whenever he did so he 
felt mortified and begged forgiveness with 
such candour and sincerity that one could not 
bear any grudge against him. Of affectionate 
nature, tender towards ailing comrades, frank
 and open hearted, with no trace of pettiness 
in his make-up, he was a man who claimed 
the love of all who were even acquainted with
 him.
 
Always passionately fond of studying Bhagat
 Singh spent most of his time in prison reading
 socialist literature. Perhaps the first among us
 to be drawn towards socialist ideas, he was 
an avowed atheist and had none of the 
religious beliefs of earlier terrorists. It would be 
an exaggeration to say that he became a 
Marxist, but more and more as a result of his 
studies, of discussions which we held 
frequently and under the impact of events 
outside - stirring events took place while we 
were in prison: the Sholapur uprising, the 
Peshwar upheaval, the heroic stand of 
Garhwali soldiers led by Chandra Singh - he 
began to stress the need for armed  action 
only in coordination with and as an integral 
part of the mass movement, subordinated to 
its needs and requirements.
 
Studies in prison deepened the love that we
 already cherished for the Soviety Union and
 on the occasion of the 1930 anniversary of 
the November revolution, we sent greetings to 
the Soviet Union, hailing its victories and 
pledging support to the Soviet State against all 
enemies.
 
Ex-Parte Justice
 
Throughout the trial we strove to carry out the 
policy we had chalked out in the very 
beginning, the policy of propaganda by action. 
The success of that policy and the 
tremendous publicity that our case received 
made the government furious. Every 
opportunity was seized to break us. We were 
equally determined never to give into 
humiliating orders, never to bow before the 
court and the police. And the result was 
frequent struggles, physical clashes with the 
police, prolonged adjournments.
 
The effect of each of these was better 
exposure of the government more publicity 
and more popular sympathy for us.
 
After nine months of trial before the magistrate
 and long before even a small number of 
prosecution witnesses had been examined, 
the proceedings were abruptly ended and "in
 view of the emergency" that had arisen 
threatening "peace and tranquillity" a special 
ordinance was promulgated by the viceroy to 
try us known as the Lahore conspiracy case 
ordinance of 1930, its provisions were of an 
unheard of character. We were to be tried 
before a special tribunal that could, if it 
deemed it necessary, dispense with our 
presence. There need be no lawyers, no 
defence witnesses, no accused in the court. 
Any sentence, including the sentence of 
death, could be passed by the tribunal. And to 
crown it all, against its judgement there was 
no right of appeal. Never had any government
 calling itself civilised adopted such measures.
 
What the government intended, above all, was 
to defeat our policy of using the trial for 
revolutionary propaganda. Another thing, it 
seemed, was worrying them. Mr. Frane, the 
only police official present at the spot when 
assistant superintendent Saunders was killed, 
had failed to identify Bhagat Singh. Due to the 
tremendous popular enthusiasm that the case 
had evoked, a number of key witnesses had 
turned hostile, more were likely to follow suit
 and two of the approvers had retracted their 
confessions.
 
The whole case was in danger of ending in a 
fiasco if ordinary legal procedure were 
followed and ordinary legal facilities allowed 
us.
 
Before the trial had proceeded in the court of
 the special tribunal for a fortnight the 
expected clash came. Orders were passed by 
the president of the tribunal to handcuff us for 
raising slogans when entering the court. On 
our pointing out that this had never been 
objected to in the magistrate's court or even in 
the High Court where we had been taken once 
the police were ordered to use force.
 
There, in the presence of lawyers and visitors,
 scores of policemen armed with lathis and 
batons pounced upon us. This was the order 
they had been waiting for. We fought back 
with bare firsts but the odds against us were 
too heavy. Blows rained on our chests, on 
our,.arms. Thrown on the ground we were 
kicked and beaten with lathis. We were 
removed from the court by force, bloodstained 
and severely injured. The injuries were so 
serious that several comrades could not move 
for days together.
 
We demanded withdrawal of the order and
 assurance that such things would not be 
repeated. This was not forthcoming. Justice 
Agha Haider, the only Indian member of the 
tribunal, was so moved by the scene he had
 witnessed that he issued a statement that he 
had been no party to the order to handcuff us 
and to use force. A few days later the tribunal
 was reconstituted. His name was missing 
from the reconstituted tribunal.
 
And so the trial proceeded, without defense
 lawyers, without defense witness, before a
 court from which the one judge whose sense 
of justice would into permit illegal beating-ups 
and who therefore might take an independent 
stand on the question of sentences also had 
been removed. What the judgment would be 
was a foregone conclusion.
 
In October 1930, after a farcical trial lasting 
five months, the judgment was announced. 
Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were 
sentenced to death, seven to transportation 
for life, others to long terms of imprisonment. I 
was among those acquitted because the only 
evidence against me was that of two approvers, 
the third approver who had deposed against me 
having retracted his confession. As the jail gates 
closed behind me and I stood on the street 
outside, I felt like a man who had deserted his 
comrades.
 
What Bhagat Singh had come to mean to our
 countrymen I realised only when I was out. 
"Bhagat Singh Zindabadh" was the slogan that 
rent the air' wherever a meeting was held. 
"Inquilab Zindab" -the slogan he had been the 
first to raise-had replaced "Bande Mataram" 
as the slogan of the national movement. His 
name was on lips of the millions, his image in 
every young man's heart. My chest swelled with 
pride as I thought of my long association with 
such a man.
 
Hopes there were still of saving Bhagat Singh and 
his comrades. Everyone expected that the release 
of the Lahore case prisoners or at least the 
commutation of their death sentences would be one 
of the terms of any agreement between the Congress 
and the government. That expectation was belied. 
We had been guilty of violence and so while the 
congress leaders desired to save Bhagat Singh that 
could not be made one of the conditions of the 
Gandhi-Irwin pact.
 
In April 1931, just on the eve of the Karachi 
session of the Congress, the death sentences were 
carried out. Bhagat Singh was barely 24 at that 
time.
 
I was then on my way to Karachi. Men who heard the 
news wept like children. As for me I was too 
stunned even to think.
 
Like a meteor, Bhagat Singh appeared in the 
political sky for a brief period. Before he passed 
away, he had become the cynosure of millions of 
eyes and the symbol of the spirit and aspirations 
of a new India, dauntless in the face of death, 
determined to smash imperialist rule and raise on 
its ruins the edifice of a free people's state in 
this great land of ours.
 
 


«€»¥«€»§«€»¥«€»§«€»¥«€»§«€»¥«€»§«€»¥«€»§«€»¥««€»¥«€»§«€»
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