Chapter 12

THE JUDGEMENT AND AFTER

On the morning of 7th October, 1930,.  a special messenger came to the jails from the court of the Special Tribunal. As the accused did not attend the court, the. court order regarding sentences were sent through this special messenger. Three of these orders were" marked with black border; these were the warrants of execution of Sukhdeva, Shivaram Rajguru and Sardar Bhagat Singh.

The day of the announcement of judgment was kept a dead secret. Three days ago there had been a last dinner in the jail in which even some of the jail officials were present,  and farewell addresses were delivered. Three more days passed—days of tension and excitement.  The prisoners inside the jail learnt that special armed forces had been posted around the jail, perhaps as a precautionary measure against emergency. No sooner had the judgments been pronounced than the news of the death sentence on Bhagat Singh and others spread in the city like wild fire. Sec. 144 had atonce been proclaimed and without any notice or effort, a big meeting was held on Municipal grounds outside the city gate, speeches were delivered, criticizing the ex-parte trial and the heavy sentences. Special editions of influencial newspapers had been published, in which photos of all the prisoners in the Lahore Conspiracy Case were printed. The publi­cation of these photos was a bit startling both to the police and the jail authorities, as they could not understand how these photos could be obtained.

Next day, Wednesday, 8th October, the enthusiasm of the people of Lahore and other big towns in India, specially youngmen and women and students, reached a high pitch. At Lahore the lead was taken by the Lahore Students Union which proclaimed a complete hartal and nonattendance at schools and colleges. Most of the educational institutions were closed, and a few that were hot closed were picketed.  Seventeen young ladies, including a venerable lady of so called Mataji, and a good number of men students were arrested in this connexion ; a professor and 80 students in the D. A. V. College, Lahore were assaulted by a sergeant and a number of constables with  lathis.   Several lathi charges were made on the crowd of students and the general public assembled near the Government College for picketing purposes.

In the evening a big procession was organized which  frequently shouted ' "Long Live Bhagat Singh", "Long Live Sukhdeva", "Long Live Rajguru". At Bradlaugh Hall a huge meeting exclusively of students and youngmen took place, in which resolution congratulating Bhagat Singh and others .for their brave sacrifice was passed. In the same evening and at the same time, another big meeting organized ;by the Congressmen took place at municipal grounds outside Morigate in which 12,000 people had collected, which was presided over by Shrimati Parbati Devi, daughter of late Lala Lajpat Rai.

Spontaneous hartals took place in many district towns of Punjab, and other big towns all over India. At Amritsar, the enthusiasm was as high as at Lahore. A complete hartal was obser­ved, and even tongas and other vehicles' did not ply. Delhi, Bombay, Cawnpore, Allahabad, Benares, Calcutta and many other cities showed their respect to' Sardar Bhagat Singh and others in publicly organized meetings.

Soon after the sentences were pronounced by the Special Tribunal, the Defence Committee set about to file an appeal in the Privy Council on the ultra vires point for the promulgation of the ordinance. A few words are necessary here about the Defence Committee.

As soon as it was discovered that the police wanted to launch a big conspiracy case at Lahore, many nationalist leaders,. Hindu, Mohamedan and Sikh, began to show their interest in the case and their sympathy for the accused. Sometime in June 1929 a strong "Defence Committee" was formed at Lahore, which began to collect money for defence purposes and to render help to the suffering families' of the accused. It did not take much time to collect together a decent fund. It is significant that the fund was almost exclusively contributed by the poorer class. As the contribution in most cases was quite small, it is probable that-some twenty to thirty thousand peo­ple must have contributed towards the fund.

The Defence Committee not only , looked towards the legal defence, which was the smallest part of their duty as there was never any idea of putting up a legal defence, it also arranged to supply books to the undertrials who were voracious readers, to find lodging and boarding for the relatives who came to interview the prisoners from distant parts of the country, to supply the needs of the undertrials, and when possible, to render monetary help to the needy re­latives of the accused.

After the judgment was delivered, the Defence Committee began to plan for filing an appeal to the Privy Council. This had been settled by Bhagat Singh and others from before. As there may have been some misconceptions in the mind of some regarding this appeal in the Privy Council, it "is necessary that Bhagat Singh's idea about it should be .frankly stated.

The foremost idea, of course, was that it would serve the purpose of propaganda in foreign countries. The Viceroy, in a preamble to the ordinance, stated many facts concerning the conduct of the ac­cused during the trial which necessitated the promulgation of the ordinance. This provided an opportunity to controvert those facts. Among the facts were .the prolonged hunger strike to which the accused resorted, and which prevented the continuation of the trial. By an appeal to the Privy Council Bhagat Singh wanted to show to the civilized world what inhumanities the political prisoners in India were subjected to, and also to hold before the world the selfless sacrifice of brave Jatindra Nath Das.

 Another idea was to draw the attention of the enemies of England to the existence of a socialist revolutionary party in India. In his instructions to the counsel, Bhagat Singh emphasized that it should never be tried to show that  they were no revolutionaries in India, nor should any attempt be made to take the help of British-made laws to get a reduction in the sentences.

The third idea was not less important-than the first two, but from a political point of view, much more brilliant. It should be stated that in this idea Bhagat Singh was greatly influenced by Bijoy Kumar Sinha who had a keen political sense. The idea was to postpone the hanging till that time when it should have maximum effect. At that time, i.e., October, 1930, the whole country was greatly agitated over the numerous lathi charges, prosecutions and imprisonments all over the country. The hangings at that time would not have produced much impression in the country. Bhagat Singh and others had an apprehension that the Congress might come to a dishonorable settlement with the Government ; so he wished that the Government should hang him and his comrades at such a time when the hangings would strengthen the hands of the extremists and the younger party, and would reveal the weakness of the Congress.

The hangings on 23rd March, 1931 were so splendidly fitted with the inner most desires of Sardar Bhagat Singh that we can not but admire the strategy by which he was able to score over the Government even in the matter of his death. The subsequent events also fully justified the keen political judgment of .the young revolutionaries.

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