Hanged by the British Empire for Fighting Colonialism and Demanding Freedom da Barbara Bonanno BNNRRB Tramite Flickr: Bhagat Singh (28/09/1907, Banga, Punjab, British India – 23/03/1931, Lahore, Punjab, British India) was an Indian revolutionary, political thinker and socialist, and one of the most iconic figures of the anti-colonial struggle against British rule in India. He was born into a Sikh family deeply involved in the independence movement. His father Kishan Singh and his uncle Ajit Singh were active nationalists who had already faced imprisonment and exile for their political activities. From childhood, Bhagat Singh grew up surrounded by discussions about freedom, resistance and sacrifice, absorbing the idea that liberation was a moral duty. As a boy he was profoundly shaken by the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919, when British troops opened fire on unarmed civilians in Amritsar, killing hundreds. This event marked him for life and strengthened his resolve to fight colonial oppression. He studied in Lahore, first at the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic School and later at the National College, founded by Lala Lajpat Rai, where he immersed himself in revolutionary literature, Marxist thought, anarchism and anti-imperialist philosophy. He became convinced that political independence without social justice would be meaningless, and that true freedom required the overthrow of both colonial rule and systems of exploitation. In his youth he joined and helped organize revolutionary groups, including the Naujawan Bharat Sabha and later the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, aiming to mobilize young people for radical change. In 1928, after Lala Lajpat Rai died from injuries inflicted by British police during a protest against the Simon Commission, Bhagat Singh and his comrades decided to avenge the killing. Together with Rajguru and Sukhdev, he took part in the assassination of British officer J.P. Saunders, whom they believed responsible for the assault on Rai. In 1929 Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw low-intensity bombs inside the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi. The bombs were deliberately non-lethal; their purpose was symbolic: to protest repressive colonial laws and to use the courtroom as a platform to speak directly to the people. They courted arrest and used the trial to expose the violence and hypocrisy of British rule. While in prison, Bhagat Singh led a prolonged hunger strike demanding equal rights and humane treatment for political prisoners, further increasing his popularity among the Indian masses. He openly identified as a socialist and wrote extensively on revolution, atheism, and the need for mass political consciousness. The British colonial government charged him with the murder of Saunders and sentenced him to death. On 23 March 1931, at the age of 23, Bhagat Singh was hanged in Lahore together with Rajguru and Sukhdev. His execution was widely seen as a political act intended to crush revolutionary momentum. Instead, it turned Bhagat Singh into a legend. He became a symbol of fearless resistance, intellectual courage and uncompromising struggle for freedom. To this day, he is remembered as Shaheed-e-Azam, the Great Martyr, and as a global icon of anti-imperialist resistance.
