Bhagat Singh strikes again
BHAGAT Singh, ever the guerrilla fighter, keeps cropping up at places, as if trying to ambush the prigs who today inhabit the area he took by storm almost nine decades ago. Until recently, some patriots were successfully stalling an attempt to name a square in Lahore after him. But it seems that the attempt to deny history and deny its heroes their due has not been able to sufficiently dampen the spirits of those incorrigible souls looking to set the perspective right. A lawyer in Lahore has sought a reopening of the 1928 John Saunders’ case that led to the execution of Bhagat Singh and his comrades. The lawyer last week achieved what has been called by some as a mini victory. After some nudging, the police have provided him with a copy of the FIR of the case, which does not identify those who had attacked the British police officer. This could just mean the complainants did not know who the assailants were at the time the FIR was lodged, and that the names of the suspects might have been added later. This was not, nor is, an unusual practice, but the production of the FIR here is significant: the Lahore High Court had deemed its availability necessary for considering a reopening of the Bhagat Singh case. The trials and mistrials of the freedom fighters are the latter’s medals, a proof of their gallantry and of the oppressive colonial treatment they were subjected to. From that angle, it is difficult to see what additional honours a retrial could confer on these heroes. But a reinvestigation would expose the facts and satisfy the urge to recreate a picture as close to reality as possible. It will help to better understand the system as it worked then, and maybe offer comparisons with the practices of today. To that end — the enriching of historical accounts with factual detail — it is worthwhile to revisit the case of Bhagat Singh and other persecuted freedom fighters.
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