Bhagat Singh (1907 - 1931)

Fri Sep 27, 1907

Image: Photograph of Bhagat Singh taken in 1929, when he was 21 years old [Wikipedia]

✱Singh's birthday is disputed. Although Encyclopedia Britannica lists his birth date as Sept. 27th, other sources say Sept. 28th, and various biographers have suggested Oct. 19th of the same year

Bhagat Singh, born on this day in 1907, was an Indian socialist revolutionary whose acts of violence resistance against the British and execution at 23 years old made him a folk hero of the Indian independence movement.

Singh was an avid reader of Bakunin, Marx, Lenin, and Trotsky. He was also openly critical of Mahatma Gandhi, having become disillusioned with his non-violent tactics after Gandhi called off the non-cooperation movement.

In December 1928, Bhagat Singh and an associate fatally shot a 21-year-old British police officer, John Saunders, in retaliation for the death of Lala Lajpat Rai, a popular Indian nationalist leader who died after being attacked by police. On the run from the police, Singh was arrested when he, along with Batukeshwar Dutt, exploded two improvised bombs inside the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi, showered leaflets onto the legislators below, and allowed the authorities to arrest them.

Awaiting trial, Singh gained public sympathy after he joined fellow defendant Jatin Das in a hunger strike, demanding better prison conditions for Indian prisoners. Das died from starvation in September 1929. Singh was convicted and hanged in March, 1931. Four days before his execution, Singh refused to sign a letter drafted for him that would appeal for clemency.

"Non-violence is backed by the theory of soul-force in which suffering is courted in the hope of ultimately winning over the opponent. But what happens when such an attempt fail to achieve the object? It is here that soul-force has to be combined with physical force so as not to remain at the mercy of tyrannical and ruthless enemy."

- Bhagat Singh

• Date: 1907-09-27
• Learn More: www.britannica.com, en.wikipedia.org, www.marxists.org.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org