Bhagat Singh: Execution at 23 made him a folk hero

Singh popularised the slogan ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ which became the slogan of India’s armed struggle.

Born in 1907 in Punjab, India (now Pakistan), Bhagat Singh was a brave freedom fighter and socialist revolutionary of the Indian Independence movement.

Popularly known as Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, he quit school at thirteen to devote his life to Indian Independence.

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After Jallianwala Bagh’s incident at the age of 12, he bunked school and went to collect a bottle of mud, wet with the blood of Indians and worshipped it every day.

In his childhood, he spoke about guns. He wanted to grow guns in the fields using which he can fight with the British.

He was attracted to socialism and socialist revolutions led by Lenin at an early age and started reading about them.

He was a great actor in college and acted in several plays like Rana Pratap, Samrat Chandragupta and Bharat Durdasha.

When his parents asked him to marry, he ran away to Kanpur.

Singh popularised the slogan ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ which became the slogan of India’s armed struggle.

In 1929, Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt, threw two bombs into the Central Assembly, which were not to kill. He was arrested for this action.

During his stay in prison, Bhagat Singh coined the word “political prisoner”. He also had fasted for 116 days in jail.

When in Lahore Jail, he kept a diary with him in which he penned down his fervent thoughts about freedom and revolution. He also wrote an essay titled ‘Why I am an Atheist’.

Singh was hanged to death, along with Sukhdev and Rajguru, an hour ahead of the official time on March 23, 1931. It is said that he was smiling when he was hanged.

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