Gandhi - Gandhi and Bhagat Singh

Did Gandhi try his best to save Bhagat Singh from the gallows? Or was Bhagat Singh just another pawn in the complex and intricate web of imperial power politics?

The aim of this study is to understand and explain why Mahatma Gandhi, the most influential political leader of his time in India, could not save Bhagat Singh, when he was negotiating a settlement of political questions with the Viceroy Lord Irwin during February-March 1931. Gandhi's critics accuse him of failing, mainly owing to his stern commitment to non-violence, while his party men and followers defend him, and attribute his failure to the events that took place beyond his reckoning.

Generally, scholars assume that the issue of the commutation of Bhagat Singh's death sentence could have been settled by Irwin and Gandhi if they had acted with prudence and some compassion. This assumption, so stridently bruited in historical works, is challenged in this study. Using a wide range of historical materials, V.N. Datta examines with sensitivity and critical discernment, the tragic episode of Bhagat Singh's death sentence from a new perspective by analysing it against the background of the political climate of the times, the role of Irwin and Gandhi, the pressure of public opinion, and the working of the British imperial system. This work further provides insights into the manner of political thought of the period, on the nature of political activity and the state of society that lay captive under foreign rule.

Copyright V.N. Datta 2008

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Twenty days before he was hanged in Central Jail, Lahore on 23 March 1931, Bhagat Singh, then twenty-three years, quoted the following Urdu verse to his younger brother Kultar Singh:

Khush raho ahle watan hum to safar karte hain

Farewell, my countrymen, we are at journey's end.

WAJID ALI SHAH

This work is a revised and enlarged version of the keynote address delivered at the International conference held on 'Bhagat Singh and His Times' at the ICCSR complex in Punjab University, Chandigarh, from 27 to 30 September 2007. The conference was organised under the auspices of the Indian Council of Historical Research and the Institute of Punjab Studies.

This year marks the birth centenary of Bhagat Singh and the seventy-fifth year of his execution. Bhagat Singh was hanged in the Central Jail in Lahore on 23 March 1931 at 7.30 pm. A number of books have been published in 2007 relating to his role in the national movement. His own writings and what his contemporaries and others wrote on him have also been published. The present study belongs to a different categoryit focuses on a single issue: Mahatma Gandhi's attitude to Bhagat Singh's trial and execution. Most historical narratives discuss or refer to Gandhi's reactions on Bhagat Singh's trial and execution. When Bhagat Singh and his comrades were tried and hanged, Gandhi by then had emerged as the most influential political leader with a mass following in the country. He was loved and respected for his moral integrity and practical sagacity.