The 23rd of March is designated as ‘Shahid Diwas,’ in honor of the three men who were executed for the murder of British police officer J P Saunders.
Bhagat Singh was born on September 27 in 1907 in Lyallpur, western Punjab now Punjab province of Pakistan and was hung by the Britishes on this day in 1931 for avenging the murder of Lala Lajpat Rai.
Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru were hanged by the British authorities on this day.
The 23rd of March is designated as ‘Shahid Diwas,’ in honor of the three men who were executed for the murder of British police officer J P Saunders. The trio sought to revenge Lala Lajpat Rai’s death.
Bhagat started protesting against British authority in India while he was still teenager and later fought for national independence. In Amritsar, he also worked as a writer and editor for Marxist-leaning Punjabi and Urdu-language periodicals. He is credited for making the slogan “Inquilab zindabad” (“Long live the revolution”) popular.
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Bhagat Singh attended Dayanand Anglo Vedic High School, which was run by the Arya Samaj (a reform sect of Hinduism), and afterwards National College established by Lala Lajpat Rai.
Bhagat Singh conspired with others to kill the police officer responsible for the killing of Indian writer and politician Lala Lajpat Rai during a protest denouncing the Simon Commission in 1928. Instead of superintendent of police James Scott who was involved in murder of Rai, subordinate officer J.P. Saunders was shot in a case of mistaken identity, and Bhagat Singh was forced to escape Lahore to avoid the death penalty.
Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw a bomb at the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi in 1929 and surrendered to protest the implementation of the Defence of India Act. Singh was hung at the Lahore Central Jail at 23 for murdering Saunder.
The central and state governments have held a number of events to honour the revolutionary leaders of India’s freedom movement. On March 23, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann proclaimed a holiday, stating that the decision was made to allow as many people as possible from throughout the state to pay their respects to the noble martyrs at Khatkar Kalan and Hussainiwala.
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