At the age of 23, when most of us are looking for stable and high paying jobs and others are settling down after marriage, he stood out from the crowd and happily accepted the gallows for his country.
Bhagat Singh, along Rajguru and Sukhdev was hanged on that fateful day of 23rd March, 1931. Although his hanging was scheduled for 24th March but British were too afraid of his popularity. They thought that Bhagat Singh's followers would break the jail and set them free. So they conspired to hang them on the night of 23rd March itself.
Such was the fate of these 3 heroes of our motherland that their bodies couldn't receive proper last rites. Their bodies were smuggled from jail and were cremated on the banks of Beas by British itself.
Bhagat Singh was not only a revolutionary but a writer also. He wrote many articles while he was in Lahore Jail. In his college time also he used to spend most if his time in his college library reading books related to Russian Revolution and Marxism.
He was so influenced by Russian Revolution that he wanted to die so that his death would inspire the youth of India which in turn will unite them to fight the British Empire. While in prison, Singh and two others had written a letter to Lord Irwin, wherein they asked to be treated as prisoners of war and consequently to be executed by firing squad and not by hanging. Prannath Mehta, Singh's friend, visited him in the jail on 20 March, four days before his execution, with a draft letter for clemency, but he declined to sign it.
Bhagat Singh gave India what it needed the most, an idea. An Idea of freedom, revolution, hope and united India. In the leaflet he threw in the Central Assembly (after the bombing along with Batukeshwar Dutt aka BK Dutt) on 9 April 1929, he stated: "It is easy to kill individuals but you cannot kill the ideas. Great empires crumbled, while the ideas survived."
Today, most of us are forgetting our heroes. Some of us do remember them but forgetting the ideas for which they fought and sacrificed their life. People are creating controversies relating to their religion or their way of fighting with British. Some idiots are calling them terrorists, some are calling them immature. But they are forgetting that the freedom they got, the ability to speak openly, the freedom to live their life according to their wish is much attributed to these heroes.
It is our duty, the youth of India to keep their legacy alive not only on papers or books but in our hearts. In hearts of each and every individual of this country, their ideas should live and guide us.
