India’s fight against the British rule has given us some brave revolutionaries. One such revolutionary is Bhagat Singh who was born on September 28, 1907, and died at such a young age of 23.
Bhagat Singh, along with Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar, were sentenced to death for conspiring to kill John P Saunders, a British police officer, who had ordered brutal police action on independence movement leader Lala Lajpat Rai. Both India and Pakistan celebrate his birth anniversary, as a tribute to his bravery and courage for liberating the colonial subcontinent from British rule.
From a fairly young age, he had decided to dedicate his life to the country. When his parents pressured him to get married, he left home for Kanpur and joined the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association.
Singh and his associates threw low-grade explosives in the Central Legislative Assembly, not intending to injure anyone, but for them to be arrested, so they could go public with their cause. Following this incident, he was sentenced to be hanged. His hanging, however, was brought forward by 11 hours. On March 23, 1931, he was hanged at 7.30 pm, and secretly cremated on the banks of the Sutlej river by the jail authorities.
On the occasion of Bhagat Singh’s 113th birth anniversary, here are some inspiring quotes by the Indian revolutionary:
- “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.”
- “If the deaf is to hear the sound has to be very loud.”
- “Lovers, Lunatics, and poets are made of the same stuff.”
- “Every tiny molecule of Ash is in motion with my heat I am such a Lunatic that I am free even in Jail.”
- “Merciless criticism and independent thinking are the two necessary traits of revolutionary thinking.”
- “I emphasize that I am full of ambition and hope and the full charm of life. But I can renounce all at the time of need, and that is the real sacrifice.”
- “Any man who stands for progress has to criticize, disbelieve and challenge every item of the old faith.”
