Revolutionary activities

Killing of John Saunders

In 1928, the British government set up the Simon Commission to report on the political situation in India. Some Indian
political parties boycotted the Commission because there were no Indians in its membership, [c] and there were
protests across the country. When the Commission visited Lahore on 30 October 1928, Lala Lajpat Rai led a march
in protest against it. Police attempts to disperse the large crowd resulted in violence. The superintendent of police,
James A. Scott, ordered the police to lathi charge (use batons against) the protesters and personally assaulted Rai,
who was injured. Rai died of a heart attack on 17 November 1928. Doctors thought that his death might have been
hastened by the injuries he had received. When the matter was raised in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the
British Government denied any role in Rai's death.[31][32][33]
Singh was a prominent member of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) and was probably responsible, in
large part, for its change of name to Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in 1928.[34] The HSRA
vowed to avenge Rai's death.[24] Singh conspired with revolutionaries like Shivaram Rajguru, Sukhdev Thapar,
and Chandrashekhar Azad to kill Scott.[27] However, in a case of mistaken identity, the plotters shot John P.
Saunders, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, as he was leaving the District Police Headquarters in Lahore on 17
December 1928.[35]

HSRA pamphlet after Saunders' murder, signed by Balraj, a pseudonym of Chandrashekhar Azad

Contemporary reaction to the killing differs substantially from the adulation that later surfaced. The Naujawan Bharat
Sabha, which had organised the Lahore protest march along with the HSRA, found that attendance at its subsequent
public meetings dropped sharply. Politicians, activists, and newspapers, including The People, which Rai had
founded in 1925, stressed that non-co-operation was preferable to violence. [30] The murder was condemned as a
retrograde action by Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress leader, but Jawaharlal Nehru later wrote that:
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. Innumerable songs grew about him and the popularity that the man achieved was
something amazing.[36]

Killing of Channan Singh

After killing Saunders, the group escaped through the D.A.V. College entrance, across the road from the District
Police Headquarters. Chanan Singh, a Head Constable who was chasing them, was shot dead by Chandrashekhar
Azad.[37] They then fled on bicycles to pre-arranged safe houses. The police launched a massive search operation to
catch them, blocking all entrances and exits to and from the city; the CID kept a watch on all young men leaving
Lahore. The fugitives hid for the next two days. On 19 December 1928, Sukhdev called on Durgawati Devi,
sometimes known as Durga Bhabhi, wife of another HSRA member, Bhagwati Charan Vohra, for help, which she
agreed to provide. They decided to catch the train departing from Lahore to Bathinda en route to Howrah (Calcutta)
early the next morning.[38]

Escape from Lahore

Bhagat Singh and Rajguru, both carrying loaded revolvers, left the house early the next day. [38] Dressed in western
attire (Bhagat Singh cut his hair, shaved his beard and wore a hat over cropped hair), and carrying Devi's sleeping
child, Singh and Devi passed as a young couple, while Rajguru carried their luggage as their servant. At the station,
Singh managed to conceal his identity while buying tickets, and the three boarded the train heading to Cawnpore
(now Kanpur). There they boarded a train for Lucknow since the CID at Howrah railway station usually scrutinised
passengers on the direct train from Lahore. [38] At Lucknow, Rajguru left separately for Benares while Singh, Devi and
the infant went to Howrah, with all except Singh returning to Lahore a few days later. [39][38]

Delhi Assembly bombing and arrest

For some time, Bhagat Singh had been exploiting the power of drama as a means to inspire the revolt against the
British, purchasing a magic lantern to show slides that enlivened his talks about revolutionaries such as Ram Prasad
Bismil who had died as a result of the Kakori conspiracy. In 1929, he proposed a dramatic act to the HSRA intended
to gain massive publicity for their aims.[26] Influenced by Auguste Vaillant, a French anarchist who had bombed
the Chamber of Deputies in Paris,[40] Singh's plan was to explode a bomb inside the Central Legislative Assembly.
The nominal intention was to protest against the Public Safety Bill, and the Trade Dispute Act, which had been
rejected by the Assembly but were being enacted by the Viceroy using his special powers; the actual intention was
for the perpetrators to allow themselves to be arrested so that they could use court appearances as a stage to
publicise their cause.[29]
The HSRA leadership was initially opposed to Bhagat's participation in the bombing because they were certain that
his prior involvement in the Saunders shooting meant that his arrest would ultimately result in his execution.
However, they eventually decided that he was their most suitable candidate. On 8 April 1929, Singh, accompanied by
Batukeshwar Dutt, threw two bombs into the Assembly chamber from its public gallery while it was in session. [41] The
bombs had been designed not to kill,[30] but some members, including George Ernest Schuster, the finance member
of the Viceroy's Executive Council, were injured.[42] The smoke from the bombs filled the Assembly so that Singh and
Dutt could probably have escaped in the confusion had they wished. Instead, they stayed shouting the slogan
"Inquilab Zindabad!" ("Long Live the Revolution") and threw leaflets. The two men were arrested and subsequently
moved through a series of jails in Delhi.[43]

Assembly case trial

According to Neeti Nair, associate professor of history, "public criticism of this terrorist action was
unequivocal."[30] Gandhi, once again, issued strong words of disapproval of their deed. [21] Nonetheless, the jailed
Bhagat was reported to be elated, and referred to the subsequent legal proceedings as a "drama". [43] Singh and Dutt
eventually responded to the criticism by writing the Assembly Bomb Statement:
We hold human life sacred beyond words. We are neither perpetrators of dastardly outrages ...
nor are we 'lunatics' as the Tribune of Lahore and some others would have it believed ... Force
when aggressively applied is 'violence' and is, therefore, morally unjustifiable, but when it is used
in the furtherance of a legitimate cause, it has its moral justification. [30]
The trial began in the first week of June, following a preliminary hearing in May. On 12 June, both men were
sentenced to life imprisonment for: "causing explosions of a nature likely to endanger life, unlawfully and
maliciously."[43][44] Dutt had been defended by Asaf Ali, while Singh defended himself.[45] Doubts have been raised
about the accuracy of testimony offered at the trial. One key discrepancy concerns the automatic pistol that Singh
had been carrying when he was arrested. Some witnesses said that he had fired two or three shots while the police
sergeant who arrested him testified that the gun was pointed downward when he took it from him and that Singh "was
playing with it."[46] According to an article in the India Law Journal, the prosecution witnesses were coached, their
accounts were incorrect, and Singh had turned over the pistol himself.[47] Singh was given a life sentence.[48]
Arrest of associates
In 1929, the HSRA had set up bomb factories in Lahore and Saharanpur. On 15 April 1929, the Lahore bomb factory
was discovered by the police, leading to the arrest of other members of HSRA, including Sukhdev, Kishori Lal, and
Jai Gopal. Not long after this, the Saharanpur factory was also raided and some of the conspirators became
informants. With the new information available, the police were able to connect the three strands of the Saunders
murder, Assembly bombing, and bomb manufacture. [33] Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru, and 21 others were charged with
the Saunders murder.[49]
Hunger strike and Lahore conspiracy case
Singh was re-arrested for murdering Saunders and Chanan Singh based on substantial evidence against him,
including statements by his associates, Hans Raj Vohra and Jai Gopal.[47] His life sentence in the Assembly Bomb
case was deferred until the Saunders case was decided. [48] He was sent to Central Jail Mianwali from the Delhi jail.
[45] There he witnessed discrimination between European and Indian prisoners. He considered himself, along with
others, to be a political prisoner. He noted that he had received an enhanced diet at Delhi which was not being
provided at Mianwali. He led other Indian, self-identified political prisoners he felt were being treated as common
criminals in a hunger strike. They demanded equality in food standards, clothing, toiletries, and other hygienic
necessities, as well as access to books and a daily newspaper. They argued that they should not be forced to do
manual labour or any undignified work in the jail.[50][30]
 Hunger strike poster of Bhagat Singh and Batukeshswar Dutt

The hunger strike inspired a rise in public support for Singh and his colleagues from around June 1929. The
Tribune newspaper was particularly prominent in this movement and reported on mass meetings in places such as
Lahore and Amritsar. The government had to apply Section 144 of the criminal code in an attempt to limit gatherings.
[30]

Daily milap poster of the Lahore conspiracy case 1930.Death sentence of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru.

Jawaharlal Nehru met Singh and the other strikers in Central Jail Mianwali. After the meeting, he stated:
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.[51]