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Journalism of Courage
The martyr who donned the sahib8217;s hat
One photograph which has retained its popularity across the length and breadth of the country for some 70 years is that of a young man in a hat. There is no count to the number of times it has been reproduced. It has found a pride of place in educational institutions, homes, restaurants, teashops and street walls. It went into calendars and pamphlets and sadly on hoardings advertising aerated water in the celebrations of the country8217;s 50th year of freedom. For this is the picture of someone who was truly a people8217;s hero. His name, of course, is Bhagat Singh.
Punjab was quick to respond to the call of the revolutionaries of Bengal and Bhagat Singh joined the Naujawan Bharat Sabha with Sukhdev, Bhagwaticharan and Yashpal. His comrades were Chandrashekhar Azad, Rajguru, Batukeshwar Dutt, Jatindranath Das and Kamalnath Tiwari.
Following the protest led by Lala Lajpat Rai against the Simon Commission in Lahore, in which the Lala received severe injuries at the hands of the police, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru shot a young British ASI J.B. Saunders. And the three were hanged in Ferozepur Jail on March 20, 1931, three days before the appointed date to this day, it is March 23 which is observed as Martyr8217;s Day in Punjab. The bodies were cremated secretly to avoid an uprising, but the country was outraged nevertheless. Even women came out on the streets singing wedding songs8217; as dirges to these youths who chose to die for the country.
AfterSaunders8217; assassination, Bhagat Singh escaped to Delhi to explode a bomb in the Assembly and court arrest. For disguise he wore the clothes of the rulers and cut his hair. The picture with the hat dates to those times. This photograph was taken at a studio in Delhi8217;s Kashmiri Gate on April 9, 1929. It was to go on to become the most cherished photograph of the nation.Amarjit Chandan, a London-based poet of Punjabi, writes, 8220;We have just four pictures of Bhagat Singh. One of his childhood, one a group photograph of the National College Lahore Drama Club, another sitting on a string cot in the jail and the last one with a hat. The last one remains the most popular.8221; Chandan goes on to say that the picture is a symbol of the martyr8217;s liveliness, determination and simplicity. Simplicity because there was no jacket to go along with the sahib8217;s hat!
In another essay on the Malaise of Martyrdom8217; in Punjab, Chandan wrote that Bhagat Singh alive may have been more meaningful than Bhagat Singh martyred. For ayouth but 23 when he died, Bhagat Singh left behind an amazing body of writings including his famous essay, Why I Am An Atheist8217;. He would have been a poet, a scholar, a thinker. But the brave do not write poetry. They die but are not dead. Here is a youth with a dream who passed from history into legend. The season that is associated with him is spring for his favourite song was a revolutionary number: Mera rang de Basanti chola dye my robes in the colours of spring.
As the century comes to a close, bright posters of this young man with a hat spill over to the pavements of the great Indian bazaar.
