The Martyr Of The Soil

چرخ سے کیوں گِلا کریں

سارا جہاں عدو سہی

آؤ مقابلہ کریں

Why should we remain annoyed with the world? Why should we complain against God (Ruler of the Skies). Let us face the opposing world bravely.

(Bhagat Singh wrote this verse to his brother Kultar in his last letter from Lahore Central Jail in 1913)

The British throughout their 100 years rule (1849-1947) over Punjab did never enjoy a smooth sail. To annex Punjab, Raj had to have two bloody wars and after annexation, the memory of those bloody wars echoed throughout the century in the form of poetic and physical resistance of the sons of the soil, who were never ready to yield against the foreign tyrannic forces. A long list of the sons of the soil who sacrificed their lives for the cause of freedom can be mentioned. Rai Ahmad kharral, Murad Fatihana, Nizam Lohar, Fazal Machhi, Jeevana Mor, Jabroo Nai, Malangi, Bhagat Singh, Madan Lal Dhingra, Kartar Singh Sarabha, Sukhdev, B.C. Vohra, Ram Krishan, Rajguru, and Chandra Shekhar Azad are the few to name.

This March would mark the 91st martyrdom anniversary of Bhagat Singh – the martyr of the soil. He was born on Sep 28, 1907. His father and uncle were also very active in all the revolutionary movements which were struggling for the cause of freedom of the masses. He was just 23 years old when he embraced death for the sake of his motherland on March 23, 1913, at the hands of the British. He breathed for a short period of time but in that short span of life he lived to the fill. He gave way to his lofty ideas of Nationalism, spent a clean and spotless life, and honored his passionate commitment to the cause of freedom from the British Raj. He cherished dauntless courage, unweaving fortitude, and self-sacrificing heroism.

 He had a scholarly bent of mind and was a deep thinker, a keen reader of books (someone who had always had a book in his pocket), and a poet. He committed to the cause of freedom for his people since his teens.  In 1924, when his father tried to force him to marry, he left home while leaving a letter to his father and explained. “He had devoted his life for the cause of liberation of the Indian masses and had no time for a peaceful married life.”

He formed the Naujawan Sabha in Mrch, 1926, along with the Sukhdev, B.C Vohra and Ram Krishan and played a leading role in the formation of the Hindustani Socialist Republican Association in Sep, 1928; took part along with Sukhdev, Rajguru and Chandra Shekhar Azad, in killing of British Police officer, J.P.S Saunders on Dec, 17, 1928 and on April 8, 1929 he and Butukeshwar Dutt threw two Bombs in the Central Assembly Hall.

In the Second Lahore Conspiracy case, which lasted from July 10, 1929 to Oct 7, 1930, Bhagat Singh and his fellow accused formed, as had been their intention all along, the court room into an arena for trying the crimes of British Imperialism against the Indian people, for propagating their revolutionary programme and rousing the Indian masses to revolt against the alien rulers who had so abused their subjects.

In result of this proceeding the verdict given by the court was a forgone conclusion with Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev receiving the death sentence, while seven others were transported for life and the remaining four never given prison sentences for seven and five years.

Compelled by the paternal feelings, Bhagat Singh’s father Kishen Singh petitioned the Tribunal in a last desperate effort to save his son. On hearing this Bhagat Singh became incandescent with rage and wrote to his father in protest;

“Father, I am quite perplexed. I fear I might overlook the ordinary principle of etiquette and my language may become a little bit harsh while criticizing or censoring this move on your part. Let me candid, I feel as though I have been stabbed in the back. Had any other person done it, I would have considered it to be nothing short of treachery. But in your case let me say that it has been a weakness.”

Bhagat Singh seems a staunch adherent to the philosophy that life is not to die rather it is to die with the difference. Napoleon once said, “It is not death but the cause that makes a martyr.” Bhagat Singh wanted to die for the cause of freedom because he knew his sacrifice would accelerate the very cause even for the lay youngman.

On the evening of March 23, 1931, with the shouts of “Inquilab Zindabad” and “Down with Imperialism”, the three great revolutionaries forced the hangman’s noose. They were hanged while singing the following couplet, which has become a symbol of the revolutionary immortality of Bhagat Singh and his comrades.

دل سے نکلے گی نہ مر کے وطن کی الفت

میری مٹی سے بھی خوشبوءِ وطن آئے گی

Love for the motherland will not leave my heart even after death / its fragrance will still be there in my dusty remains.