March 23 is celebrated each year as Shaheed Diwas (Martyr’s Day) in India. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hung on this day in the wee hours in 1931. 80 years have passed. We, the current generation, are miserably unaware of what these bright young men sacrificed their lives for and hence, Shaheed Diwas is just another day of governmental action for us. There can be debate about the methods they used to forward their cause and as to what extent they helped in pushing the British to the wall. Yet, there can be no two opinions about their purpose of living and subsequently immortalizing their lives through a famous death.
Books and articles have been written, functions and seminaries have been organized and popular movies have been made. They all do their bit to bring to concept what these Heroes wanted to preach and achieve. Born on 27 September, 1907 in a small Punjab village, Bhagat Singh was moved irrevocably by the images of the 1919 Jalianwalla Bagh tragedy. His mind hardened towards the British. On call of Gandhi jee, he left school to actively participate in the Non-Cooperation movement. He had resolved to devote the rest of his life to drive away the foreign Occupants of Mother India. To avoid early marriage that might have stalled all his plans, he left his house one night and never returned.
Sukhdev Thapar was born in Ludhiana in Punjab on May 15, 1907. Like Bhagat, he too was christened in Revolutionary Life very early in his childhood. Shiv Ram Hari Rajguru was the third of the famous trio. Pune was the place where he was born on 24 August, 1908. He was Shivaji fan and loved physical exercising. He moved to Varanasi while he was a child and learnt Sanskrit by heart. He too was into the Freedom Struggle stream quite early in his life.
These men of action had a thinking of their own. They were not satisfied with the complete non-violence approach of the Leaders led by Gandhi jee. All three were members of different organizations with a solo aim of achieving Independence for India. They chose the military way of going about the business of asking Britishers to leave. They conspired and killed Assistant Superintendent Saunders. Later, Bhagat and Batukeshwar Dutt threw bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly. This led British to treat the whole gang of activists as terrorists and sentence those 3 to death.
You may know all this history. Even then this short summary above shall help. There are many significant lessons to be learnt, preserved and preached from the lives of these young men. I am going to focus this talk on the most important learning of all – the meaning of martyrdom.
Dictionary entry says a martyr is “One who makes great sacrifices or suffers much in order to further a belief, cause, or principle.” So you should devise a belief, cause or principle to devote your complete attention to. Bhagat and company were not martyrs because they died but because they chose to espouse the cause of freedom of their motherland through their lifetimes. They thought about the various ways available to them to try and accomplish their task and decided that some armed action was the most appropriate method. How did they reach this decision and how far it was correct cannot be measured by the yardstick of today. Those were times when the mode of non-violent appeals was not yielding fruits as one would have liked. Gandhi jee and others chose to be more patient and relenting. These folks disagreed.
To kill is never correct and avenging a kill by another kill is equally despicable. But this ideology holds good when there is a rule of Law. Bhagat and friends were wrong in killing Saunders, mistaken to be General Scott who ordered lathicharge that led to the death of Lala Lajpat Rai while he was protesting against the Simon Commission. The British used defectors, loopholes in Law and corrupt judges to form a strong case which led to the death sentence. Hence, the 3 died in order to prevent the sabotage of their thinking. They wanted other youths to take up the case of Independence after them. And they succeeded. This is called martyrdom.
How can we be martyrs without picking up guns and actually ending up in gallows? The first step is to plan. The second is to execute. And the third step is to leave an impression and a legacy to follow. Easier said than done. Our daily life presents us many burning issues – from Religion to Science, from History to Geography, from Psychology to Reality. We have to choose one or more of them and work endlessly to make some progress. Yes, we may not grab headlines but we will have the pleasure and satisfaction of acting and making a mark. The country needs many more Bhagat Singhs and we all can fulfill that requirement.
Living a life of comfort and devoid of direct action will only record us in the History books as “Unknowns” and “Non-doers”. And 99% of all of us choose to live this way. But if we continue to do so, to talk and think about Bhagat and brigade would be utter nonsense and a huge disrespect to these Martyrs. Let us do something out of the ordinary day-to-day business to challenge ourselves and get something moving in the right direction.
That’s the only fitting tribute we can pay to these legends.
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