Rare documents on Bhagat Singh's trial and life in jail
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The Hindu The photograph of Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt was taken by Sham Lal in Delhi on April 4, 1929 and sent for publication to newspapers by Bhagat Singh's comrades. Photo Courtesy: Chaman Lal -
The Hindu A letter in Bhagat Singh's own handwriting. Photo Courtesy: Chaman Lal
Digitalised records with the Supreme Court reveal some inspiring facets of the revolutionary. Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt offered themselves for arrest after throwing harmless bombs in the Central Assembly to 'make the deaf hear.' Their case drew worldwide attention.
When the Supreme Court of India established a museum to
display landmarks in the history of India's judicial system, it also put
on display records of some historic trials. The first exhibition that
was organised was the ‘Trial of Bhagat Singh.' It was opened on
September 28, 2007, on the occasion of the birth centenary celebrations
of one of the most significant among martyrs and popular heroes. Noorul
Hooda, Curator of the Museum, and Rajmani Srivastava of the National
Archives worked to collect documents, items like bomb shell remains,
pictures and publications. Not all of what was collected could be
displayed in the exhibition. In 2008, the Supreme Court digitalised the
exhibits. Some of Bhagat Singh's rare writings thus came to light for
the first time since he was executed on March 23, 1931 at the Lahore
Central Jail along with Rajguru and Sukhdev. How the three young
patriots were put to judicial murder, is brought out by the eminent
legal scholar, A.G. Noorani, in his book, The Trial of Bhagat Singh — Politics of Justice.
The
most significant part of Bhagat Singh's life is that spent in jail
since his arrest on April 8, 1929 from the Central Assembly in Delhi,
where he and B.K. Dutt offered themselves to be arrested after throwing
harmless bombs in the Assembly to ‘make the deaf hear.' They faced two
trials. The first was in the Delhi bomb case. It started on May 7, 1929
in Delhi and was committed to the Sessions Judge, on charges under
Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code and the Explosives Act. That trial
started in June. Bhagat Singh and Dutt made a historic statement on June
6. Dutt was represented by the nationalist counsel Asaf Ali. Bhagat
Singh fought his own case with the help of a legal adviser.
On
June 12, in less than a week, both were convicted and transported for
life. From the June 6 statement to his last letter to his comrades
written on March 22, 1931, a day before his execution, Bhagat Singh read
and wrote so much: one can only marvel at the explosion of talent at
the age of 21 years-plus. He wrote letters to family members and
friends, jail and court officials, and penned major articles including Why I am an Atheist, Letter to Young Political Workers, and Jail Notebook.
On
June 14, after the conviction, Bhagat Singh was transferred to Mianwali
and Dutt to the Lahore jail. That was the start of a chain of struggles
throughout the period they were in jail. It began with a hunger strike
from June 15 by both Bhagat Singh and Dutt, demanding the status of
political prisoners. Bhagat Singh was also shifted to Lahore jail after
some time. He and Dutt were kept away from the other accused in the
Lahore conspiracy case, such as Sukhdev. The trial in that case, related
to the murder of Saunders, began on July 10, 1929. Bhagat Singh, who
was on hunger strike since June 15 along with Dutt, was brought to the
court on a stretcher. The other accused in the case came to know about
this hunger strike on that day, and almost all of them joined the
strike.
This historic hunger strike by Bhagat Singh
and his comrades resulted in the martyrdom of Jitender Das on September
13, 1929. Bhagat Singh and the other comrades ended their hunger strike
on September 2 after receiving assurances from a Congress party team and
British officials on the acceptance of their demands, but they resumed
it on September 4 as the British officials went back on their word. It
finally ended on October 4 after 112 days, though the status of
“political prisoner” was still not given; some other demands were
acceded to.
During the Lahore conspiracy case trial
conducted by Special Magistrate Rai Sahib Pandit Kishan Chand, an
incident occurred on October 21, 1929. Provoked by an approver named Jai
Gopal, Prem Dutt, the youngest among the accused persons, threw a
slipper at him. Despite the other accused dissociating themselves from
the act, the magistrate ordered the handcuffing of all of them. Bhagat
Singh, Shiv Verma, B.K. Dutt, Bejoy Kumar Sinha, Ajoy Ghosh, Prem Dutt
and others were beaten after they refused to be handcuffed. They were
treated brutally inside the jail and at the court gate in front of the
magistrate. Ajoy Ghosh and Shiv Verma fell unconscious following the
police brutality. Bhagat Singh was targeted by a British officer by name
Roberts.
The details of the brutalities were
recorded by Bejoy Kumar Sinha. In February 1930, Bhagat Singh resumed
his hunger strike for 15 days, as the British officials did not fulfil
the promises they had made earlier with respect to demands.
Meanwhile,
the fame of revolutionaries, arising from their hunger strikes and
court statements, soared, while the image of the British was at its
lowest ebb. The case drew attention the world over. While dismissing
appeals from Bhagat Singh and Dutt against the Delhi bomb case judgment,
the Punjab High Court in Lahore acknowledged Bhagat Singh to be a
‘Sincere Revolutionary.'
The British colonial regime
led by Viceroy Irwin took the unprecedented step of issuing the Lahore
conspiracy case ordinance on May 1, 1930. Under this, the proceedings
that were being conducted by a Special Magistrate in Lahore were
transferred to a three-judge Special Tribunal established to complete
them within a fixed period. The Tribunal's judgment was not to be
challenged in the superior courts; only the Privy Council could hear any
appeal. This ordinance was never approved by the Central Assembly or
the British Parliament, and it lapsed later without any legal or
constitutional sanctity. Its only purpose was to hang Bhagat Singh in
the shortest possible time. That judgment sentencing Bhagat Singh,
Sukhdev and Rajguru to the gallows was delivered on October 7, 1930.
The
Tribunal began its proceedings on May 5, 1930. The accused in the
Lahore conspiracy case refused to attend the proceedings after May 12.
On that day they raised slogans and sung revolutionary songs.
Brutalities were repeated on them, as in October 1929, in front of the
Special Magistrate. This time Ajoy Ghosh, Kundan Lal and Prem Dutt fell
unconscious. The accused remained absent during the whole proceedings
and remained unrepresented by counsel. Advocates engaged to defend them
were insulted by the Tribunal. Subsequently, the accused themselves
directed them not to defend them in their absence. These details are in
A.G. Noorani's book, The Trial of Bhagat Singh.
What
remained out of view all these years were the many letters that Bhagat
Singh wrote and the petitions he sent to either the jail authorities or
to the Special Tribunal or to the Punjab High Court, during the period
1929-1930. In these letters and petitions, Bhagat Singh sought to expose
the British colonial regime's determined efforts to get him hanged by
denying the accused any defence during the trial. Even though the
accused were choosing not to be present in the court, they were
participating in the legal proceedings through counsel. The Tribunal
refused the revolutionaries' counsel, Amolak Ram Kapoor, permission to
cross-examine 457 prosecution witnesses and allowed the
cross-examination of only five approvers. This was a farce.
The
letters reveal another hunger strike by Bhagat Singh from July 28,
1930, on which he himself informed the High Court it was against the
jail rules. He was joined in the hunger strike by Kundan Lal, Prem Dutt
Verma, Sukhdev and Bejoy Kumar Sinha. This hunger strike continued till
at least August 22. With this, the total period of hunger strikes
observed during his nearly two-year incarceration becomes about five
months. Probably this is more than the total period of Mahatma Gandhi's
hunger strikes during his prolonged political career starting from South
Africa.
When the court finally allowed interviews as
sought by Bhagat Singh to prepare his defence, and when he asked for an
adjournment of the case, the court closed the proceedings without
giving any chance to defence counsel to cross-examine prosecution
witnesses or present defence witnesses. Then it reserved judgment, which
was delivered on October 7, 1930.
More such
documents might emerge. The compilation of the complete proceedings of
the Delhi Assembly bomb case and the Special Magistrate Court's
proceedings could bring more facts to light. The Punjab Archives in
Lahore has 135 files of the Bhagat Singh case. These are not accessible
even to Pakistani scholars; Kuldip Nayar is now trying to get access to
them. In 2006, at the time of the 75th anniversary of the martyrdom of
Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, the Acting Chief Justice of the
Pakistan Supreme Court, Rana Bhagwan Dass, handed over to the Punjab and
Haryana High Court in Chandigarh four volumes of exhibits of the Lahore
conspiracy case. These included some new documents.
While
the source of the documents in the Supreme Court records is not clearly
mentioned, undoubtedly these are part of the trial proceedings at both
levels. The letters, self-explanatory in the context of the freedom
struggle, show the amazing command Bhagat Singh had over the English
language, apart from Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi, his knowledge of legal
terminology and his beautiful handwriting. In the book, Gandhi and Bhagat Singh,
historian V.N. Dutta expressed doubts about Bhagat Singh's command over
English as he was an under-graduate. He sought to ascribe the language
to Jawaharlal Nehru or Asaf Ali. For legal professionals, scholars and
students, the letters present a wonderful experience of how Bhagat Singh
had such maturity in complex matters of legal defence.
But
Bhagat Singh's very talent and competence scared the British colonial
regime and it became even more determined to get rid of him.
The
Supreme Court's digitalised records include nearly 20 written Bhagat
Singh documents. Some of these, such as the June 6, 1929 statement,
‘Ideal of Indian Revolution,' have been published. Only 12 letters or
petitions remain unpublished. This writer acknowledges the permission
granted by the Supreme Court to do so. Ten of the documents are in
complete form. Only the first page remains of two letters/documents, one
relating to the October 21, 1929 incident in court and another petition
from early-1930; the second and likely final page in these two are not
in the digital records. Also available now is a photograph of Bhagat
Singh and Dutt, published in ‘Bande Matram', Lahore (on April 12, 1929)
and Hindustan Times (April 18, 1929). This was taken by
photographer Sham Lal of Kashmere Gate in Delhi on April 4, 1929 and
sent to newspapers for publication by Bhagat Singh's comrades. The
writer is grateful to the National Archives, New Delhi, for providing
the rare newspaper photographs.
[Chaman Lal, the editor of the Bhagat Singh Documents (Hindi: Publications Division) and the Jail Notebook and Other Writings (LeftWord), is
a Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, now on deputation to The
University of the West Indies, Trinidad &Tobago, as Visiting
Professor.]
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