A three-year-old boy ran unsteadily into the fields. He was dressed in a shirt and khaki shorts, and his long, silky hair was tied up in a tiny bun. He threw himself to the ground and started digging with his bare hands. What fun this was! His father, Kishan Singh, watched him fondly from a distance.
The tracts of lush fields were at Banga village, Lyallpur, Punjab, and the time was 1910. This tranquil and serene village was in western Punjab, 150 kilometres from Lahore.
But no place was really peaceful anywhere in the country.
The British had been in India for over a hundred years now. A few years earlier – in 1905 – the first partition of Bengal had taken place. A new province of Eastern Bengal was created with its capital at Dacca. Indians had protested against this, and at mass rallies, the rebellious cry of “Vande Mataram” (Hail to Thee, Mother) had rent the air. The boycotting and burning of British-made goods had started in different parts of the country. In 1906, in the Calcutta session of the Congress, a demand for Swaraj, or self-rule, had been made. Indians were awakening to the idea of freedom – that the country had to be governed by Indians, not the British. But how would Indians achieve this?
By militant, violent means, or through dialogue and discussions? Which path would the country choose eventually?
Kishan Singh, the little boy’s father, was walking with Mehta Anand Kishore. As the two men came closer to the boy, they saw the three-year-old was engrossed in something. His clothes were grubby and his face smeared with dirt and mud. He was digging the ground, and had made several holes already.
“What are you doing?” asked Kishan Singh lovingly of his son, Bhagat. There was no answer from the busy little boy. Kishan Singh lowered his head, held his cheek against little Bhagat’s, and asked him again
Now the boy spoke, with a resolve that was nothing like that of a three-year-old: “I am sowing guns, so that when they sprout, we will be able to get rid of the British.”
Kishan Singh and Mehta Anand Kishore exchanged glances. At that moment they knew that it would be impossible to keep the child away from the passion and intensity of nationalism. After all, everyone in the family always discussed how to achieve freedom from British rule. How could little Bhagat not be a part of it?
Little did they know that Bhagat Singh would go on to be one of the country’s greatest freedom fighters. His distinctive thoughts, ideology, strength of character, resolve and fearlessness would set him apart and he would be remembered fondly and with great respect forever.
The family’s ancestral home was in Khatkar Kalan near Jalandhar. In the 1840s, Bhagat’s great-grandfather Fateh Singh had fought against the British in Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s army in the Anglo-Sikh war.
As a fallout, a part of the family’s land and property was seized by the British East India Company. In the early 1900s, the family moved from Khatkar Kalan to Lyallpur when they were allotted land there. The British had dug canals in this region for the formation of colonies where agriculture could be commercialised. Singh’s family got their land in Chak No 105 in Lyallpur.
Fateh Singh’s son, Sardar Arjan Singh, was an Arya Samajist – a follower of the Arya Samaj. The Samaj promoted values based on the belief in and the authority of the Vedas. Arjan Singh always lent a helping hand to those in need, especially during natural disasters.
Arjan Singh had three sons – Kishan, Ajit and Swaran. Ajit Singh was a revolutionary thinker. He studied at Anglo-Sanskrit High School in Jalandhar, the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic College, Lahore, and while studying at Bareilly College, he started working for the poor and against the British regime. During famines, he and his elder brother Kishan worked among the poor in various parts of the country, including in Barar, Ahmedabad, Srinagar and Kangla.
In 1907, Ajit Singh was arrested for leading a peasants’ agitation and deported to Myanmar’s Mandalay Jail. After his release, he attended the Surat session of the Congress and in 1907, formed a revolutionary organisation called the Bharat Mata Society, in which freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai was also involved. Later, Singh launched the Bharat Mata Book Agency, which published anti-government literature. He worked closely with many revolutionaries. In 1909, Ajit Singh along with freedom fighter Sufi Amba Prasad fled to Iran.
Bhagat Singh was born on September 28, 1907, to Kishan Singh and Vidyawati. He spent most of his childhood in the company of his grandfather Arjan Singh, and as a result, Bhagat was greatly influenced by his spirit of generosity. Though Bhagat was only two years old when his uncle Ajit Singh left the country, he knew the stories of how his uncle had fought against the British and worked for the poor. All this had a huge influence on the young mind.
Bhagat’s father Kishan Singh was a Congress leader and had been in jail several times. Swarn Singh, Kishan Singh’s other brother, had been in jail too, where he had contracted tuberculosis and died shortly after his release. Every day, the little boy heard conversations in the family on India’s freedom movement.
Bhagat was the second of Kishan Singh and Vidyawati’s nine children. The other five sons were Jagat, Kulbir, Kultar, Ranbir, and Rajinder. The girls were Amar, Prakash, and Shakuntla.
In such a family, how could Bhagat stay away from the spirit of nationalism?
Excerpted with permission from The Incredible Life of Bhagat Singh: The Indomitable Freedom Fighter, Swati Sengupta, Talking Cub.