• Early Life
  • Birth: In September 1907, in Banga, Punjab (now in Pakistan).
  • Parents: He was the second child of Kishan Singh Sandhu and Vidya Vati.
  • Education: He attended the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic School in Lahore and in 1923, joined Lala Lajpat Rai’s National College.
  • Political Family: His father and uncle were involved in the 1907 Canal Colonisation Bill agitation and the Ghadar Movement.
  • Inspiration: The British oppression, especially the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, had a lasting impact on Bhagat Singh’s revolutionary ideals.
• Role in Freedom Struggle
  • In 1924 in Kanpur, he became a member of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), started by Sachindranath Sanyal a year earlier.
    • The main organiser of the HRA was Chandra Shekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh became very close to him.
  • In 1925, Bhagat Singh returned to Lahore and within a year he and his colleagues started a militant youth organisation called the Naujawan Bharat Sabha.
  • In April 1926, Bhagat Singh established contact with Sohan Singh Josh and through him the 'Workers and Peasants Party' which brought out the monthly magazine Kirti in Punjabi.
  • In 1927, he was first arrested on charges of association with the Kakori Case, accused of an article written under the pseudonym Vidrohi (Rebel).
  • In 1928, Bhagat Singh changed the name of the Hindustan Republican Association to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA).
    • In 1930, when Azad was shot, the HSRA collapsed.
    • Naujawan Bharat Sabha replaced HSRA in Punjab.
  • To take revenge for the death of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bhagat Singh and his associates plotted the assassination of James A. Scott, the Superintendent of Police. However, the revolutionaries mistakenly killed J.P. Saunders. The incident is famously known as Lahore Conspiracy case (1929).
    • In 1928, Lala Lajpat Rai had led a procession to protest the arrival of the Simon Commission. The police resorted to a brutal lathi charge, in which Lala Lajpat Rai was severely injured and later succumbed to his injuries.
  • Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt threw a bomb on 8th April 1929 in the Central Legislative Assembly, in protest against the passing of two repressive bills, the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Dispute Bill.
  • However, Bhagat Singh was re-arrested for the murder of J.P. Saunders and bomb manufacturing in the Lahore Conspiracy case. He was found guilty in this case and was hanged on 23^rd March 1931 in Lahore along with Sukhdev and Rajguru.
  • Every year, 23^rd March is observed as Martyrs’ Day as a tribute to freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru.
• His Publications and Other Writings
  • Communal Riots and their Solution (1928)
  • The Problem of Punjab’s Language and Script (1923)
  • Vishwa Prem (1924)
  • Religion and Freedom Struggle (April 1928)
  • The Problem of Untouchability (June 1928)
  • Students and Politics (July 1928)
  • What is Anarchism? (1928)
  • What is Revolution? (December 1929)
  • Letter to Young Political Workers (1931)
  • Why I am an Atheist

Bhagat Singh (file photo)