Martyrs’ Day or Shaheed Diwas are days declared in India to honour recognised martyrs of the nation.
About Shaheed Diwas / Martyr’s Day
Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar, the three freedom fighters, who believed in the ideology of making some noise to wake up the British rulers, were hanged on March 23, 1931in Lahore Jail. March 23 is celebrated as Shaheed Diwas or Martyrs’ Day in India in remembrance of these three freedom fighters. The day is also famous for being a dark chapter in the history of India.
Leader of the trio and one of the most revered young voices from Punjab was Bhagat Singh who together with his companions Rajguru, Sukhdev, Azad, and Gopal, Singh fought against the British.
The group was deeply affected by the assassination of Lala Lajpat Rai. A lawyer by profession, Rai led a non-violent protest against the Simon Commission when it visited Lahore on October 30, 1928. The British Raj police reverted with lethal force, carrying out a lathi-charge. It was during this lathi charge that Singh witnessed a brutal attack on Rai, who suffered serious injuries in the police assault and eventually died on November 17, 1928, of a heart attack.
Wishing on the occasion of Shaheed Diwas, PM Narendra Modi tweeted in Hindi, ”I pay respect to the immortal sons of Mother India, Veer Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru on Martyrs’ Day.”
”Their sacrifice for the motherland will always be inspirational for the countrymen. Long Live India!,” PM Modi added.
Besides, Shaheed Diwas is also celebrated on January 30. On this date, Father of India Mahatama Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse.
History, Significance of Shaheed Diwas / Martyr’s Day
- When national leader Lala Lajpat Rai died of a heart attack in November 1928 after he was brutally lathi-charged on the orders of the Superintendent of Police James A. Scott, Bhagat Singh and his associates vowed to avenge his death.
- Singh and Rajguru shot and killed an Assistant Superintendent of Police of Lahore, John Saunders in a case of mistaken identity. Nevertheless, they proclaimed that Lala Lajpat Rai’s death had been avenged.
- As Singh and Rajguru fled, Chandrashekhar Azad shot a police constable Chanan Singh who was pursuing the revolutionaries.
- The young revolutionaries were on the run for many months.
- They were all members of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association which were an organisation involved in revolutionary activities. They believed that only an armed revolution could bring about freedom from colonial rule.
- In April 1929, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw two bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly at Delhi to protest an unjust bill. Their intentions were not to harm anyone but only to publicise their struggle.
- The two did not flee from the scene after the chaos and courted arrest shouting, ‘Inquilab Zindabad’. Singh and Dutt were given life imprisonments.
- Other revolutionaries including Rajguru were arrested from a bomb factory at Lahore. The police were then able to link the revolutionaries to the Saunders murder case. They charged Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev and others in this case.
- In prison, the revolutionaries started a hunger strike demanding better treatment and facilities. They wanted to be considered political prisoners.
- Jatin Das died after more than 60 days of hunger strike. The strike gained huge publicity and the revolutionaries got a lot of support and sympathy from the public.
- Even the Viceroy Lord Irwin returned from his vacation in Shimla to discuss the matter with the prison authorities.
- The revolutionaries were met with political leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru. He had remarked, “I was very much pained to see the distress of the heroes. They have staked their lives in this struggle. They want that political prisoners should be treated as political prisoners. I am quite hopeful that their sacrifice would be crowned with success.”
- Bhagat Singh finally ended his fast after 116 days.
- The trial of the young men drew widespread attention in the country. On 7 October 1930, Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were sentenced to death while others were sentenced to imprisonment and deportation.
- The death sentence was widely protested by various people. National leaders appealed to the government to reduce the sentence to life imprisonment. Even the Communist Party of Great Britain expressed disapproval of the sentence.
- The trio was ordered to be hanged on 24 March 1931 but the sentence was carried out a day earlier at the Lahore Jail. After the hanging, their mortal remains were cremated in secret.
- There was a huge backlash against the government for the execution of the heroes. The three young men were true martyrs who did not fear even death and really seemed to welcome it.
- Their courage and ultimate sacrifice for the motherland’s cause should never be forgotten.
- March 23rd is observed as ‘Martyrs’ Day’ or ‘Shaheed Diwas’ or ‘Sarvodaya Day’ in India in honour of the eternal heroes.
Some Facts
Their bodies were secretly cremated in the banks of the Sutlej river.
Bhagat Singh’s acts of dramatic violence against the British in India and execution made him a folk hero of the Indian Independence movement. He was born on September 28, 1907 in Banga village of Punjab province of pre-partition India.
Rajguru was born in Khed in present-day Maharashtra’s Pune district. The town was renamed Rajgurunagar in his honour.
Sukhdev was born in Punjab’s Ludhiana. A prominent member of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), he took part in numerous revolutionary activities and events.
Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were sentenced to death in the Lahore conspiracy case and ordered to be hanged on 24 March 1931. The schedule was moved forward by 11 hours and the three were hanged on 23 March 1931 at 7:30 pm in the Lahore jail.
The decision to hang Bhagat Singh one day earlier was taken by the British administration in a state of urgency. They had panicked seeing the amount of public support this set of revolutionaries had gathered and knew that their hanging would greatly agitate the masses. One only has to read the records of their back and forth communication to see the extent of their worry about the breakdown in the law and order situation that could arise after his hanging.
Lahore Central Jail had unprecedented amount of armed police guarding it as if they feared that the angry mob would break the jail in their fury. In such as situation, the sight of his dead body would make matters worse and hence they decided to secretly dispose it rather than hand it over to the family which would naturally lead to a mass funeral and increase the public outrage. A secret disposal could not be done in broad daylight and hence they has to resort to another unprecedented measure- execution in the evening.
Also by preponing the event they introduced an element of surprise and the people were confused, resulting in a diffusion of agitarory forces. However, the measure did not really work and the people were further outraged when they found out that the bodies were given a disrespectful cremeation.
In 1928, the British government set up a commission headed by John Simon to report about the political situation in India. The political parties of India boycotted the Commission and many places protests erupted because Commission did not include a single Indian as a member. When the Commission visited Lahore on 30 October 1928, Lala Lajpat Rai led a non-violent march in protest and the protesters uttered “Simon go-back”.
Then the superintendent of police, James A. Scott, ordered the police (most of the police personnel were Indian) to lathi (baton) charge among the protesters and it is believed that Scott personally assaulted Lala Lajpat and later on Lajpat died. This incident created severe resentment among Indians. To take avenge, Bhagat Singh and Shivaram Rajguru shot and killed assistant superintendent of police John Saunders on 17 December 1927. They were supported in this act by Sukhdev Thapar and Chandrashekhar Azad. However, their original target was not Saunders but James Scott who ordered lathi-charge.
Anyway, because of slow pace of the legal proceedings, a special tribunal, consisting of Justice J Coldstream, Justice Agha Hyder and Justice G.C. Hilton, was set up on the directives of the Viceroy, Lord Irwin on May 1, 1930. The tribunal delivered its 300-page judgement on October 7, 1930. The tribunal confirmed the involvement of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru in the Saunders murder and on 23 March 1931.
Before their death, they chanted, ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ and ‘Down with British Imperialism’. And famous quote of Bhagat Singh is, “They may kill me, but they cannot kill my ideas. They can crush my body, but they will not be able to crush my spirit”. At the time of execution, Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev Thapar were just 23 years old and Shivaram Rajguru was only 22.
During the hanging, when Bhagat Singh was advised to pray for the last time to “wahe guru”, Bhagat Singh repied
“Sardarji, I did not take His name all my life. In fact, when I saw how the poor and the oppressed were being treated, I even rebuked Him. Now if I pray to Him, when death stares me in the face, He will say this man is a hypocrite and a coward. So, what effect will my prayer possibly have on Him? If I don’t change my opinion, at least He will concede this man was honest.”
Such was his popularity that even after his death, he continued to make waves in the country, which was stunned after his passing. In fact, Jawaharlal Nehru even wrote about him: “Bhagat Singh did not become popular because of his act of terrorism, but because he seemed to vindicate, for the moment, the honour of Lala Lajpat Rai, and through him, of the nation. He became a symbol; the act was forgotten, the symbol remained, and within a few months each town and village of the Punjab, and to a lesser extent in the rest of northern India, resounded with his name.”
Bollywood movies inspired by the life of Bhagat Singh
1 – Rang De Basanti, 2006
2 – Shaheed-E-Azam, 2002
3 – 23rd March 1931: Shaheed, 2002
4 – The legend of Bhagat Singh, 2002
5 – Shaheed, 1965
6 – Shaheed Bhagat Singh, 1963
7 – Shaheed-E-Azam Bhagat Singh, 1965
Slogan of Bhagat Singh : “They may kill me, but they cannot kill my ideas. They can crush my body, but they will not be able to crush my spirit.”
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