Lala Ganpat Rai General Secretary Nau Jawan Bharat Sabha and close compatriot of Revolutionary Bhagat Singh gives us an intimate view.

A Class-Fellow's Tribute

   Ganpat Rai B .A.  (National)

 Many things crowd my memory when I reflect upon the events    of 50 years    back that culminated in the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh , Sukh Dev and Raj Guru on the evening of March 23   1931.  No body could have ever   thought that the Government of the day  will stoop  so low as to dispose of after executionthe bodies of these martyrs in such a shabby way it did .

        Bhagat Singh represented the spirit of the resurgent youth. He wanted the Country to wake, arise and fight with a resolute heart. Personal pain and physical persecution could not deter him from the path he had chosen when he was rather raw and young. He wanted to fight the alien rulers with all the might he could muster. 

 He was no believer in the tricks of worldly casuistry. He felt rather stifling the atmosphere prevailing at the time. Communal riots coupled with arson and murders and their aftermath had plagued the political life of the land he love so much. With view to start a relentless battle against the reactionary forces of communalism. He along with the students and the teachers of the National High School and the National College founded at Lahore a truly secular and revolutionary organisation Which came to be known as Nau Jawan Bharat Sabha The Sabha was non-communal.Its members were forbidden to join any organisation which smacked of communalism.

  (The    writer    was General Secretary when he was arrested on June 14,1930 and convicted under section 124 A).

 

  With view to bringing together members of different communities that inhabit this land , Sabha used to arrange inter communal dinners which were joined by all alike. Besides this , dramatic performances were arranged to awaken the dormant feelings of people. I vividly remember the scene when a drama most probably ''Mewar Patan' (the fall of Mewar) was enacted at Gujranwala at the time of Punjab Provincial Political Conference presided over by S.Sardul Singh Caveesher. Mrs Sarojini Naidu was present at that time. She appreciated the superb acting of Bhagat Singh-as Rana Pratap-so much that when the play ended she got down from the stage and not only patted Bhagat Singh on the back , but gave him a warm , motherly embrace.

  After      undergoing   through   many   prolonged  hardships  he  had come  to     realise that    his  revolt   agalnst   the   Government   of   the   day   was   destined   to   get  momentum    because  a  strong   and  honest     conscience ,   having   courage  to  assert  itself   is  a thing  which   cannot  be  suppressed .   The  public  opinion  and  even   the  opposing  forces  shall  have  to reckon    with  the  views he  had  expressed  so  daringly  with  all the courage and  emphasis   at   the   command.

          The    three    years    that    he    spent    in    the    National   College   were   a   formative   period   in   the   life   of   Bhagat  Singh.   Acharya  Jugal  Kishore, Bhai  Parmanand,   Prof . A .C   Mehta  and        other  professors  were  instrumental    in shaping his  life .  He  was a keen  student of  history    particularly the French Revolution  and the  Russian  Revolution    Lives  of  Garibaldi , Mazzini  and Lenin    as  also the struggle for  freedom   launched  by  Irish Republican Army  had  their  impact  on him.  He somehow  got hold of Savarkar's  War of  Indian  Independence which  was   banned  at  the  time .

    During the .annual session of the Congress at Lahore  in 1929 the book  was  published  in  2  parts .        He  read  many  times    "My    Fight    for    Irish   Freedom"    written    by  Dar.    Breen .        Perhaps       very     few     people    know     that    in  1924 or  1925  he  wrote an essay  on  ' The    Future  of  Hindi in Punjab ·      This   essay   was   adjudged    the best   at the Simla session of Sahitya Sammelan and he was  awarded    a    prize    for    it .       Incidentally,     I    may    add  that    some    years    back,     an    editor    of    a    Hindi    Daily  declined   to    publish    this    essay    in    his   paper    on    the  round     that     it     could     not     have     been written by Bhagat Singh about 65 years back .   So prophetic were the views< expressed therein.

       With  a   view  to  avenging ,  Lala Lajpat   Rai ' s  death , the Hidustant  Socialist   Republican   Party  organised  meticulously  and  shot  dead  the  police officer   responsible   for   giving   lathi   blows   to the   great leader .     At   that   time   and   even   some  time   after   for   the purpose of discrediting the   party   and   its   enthusiastic young workers , it was    given   out   that   Saunders   was shot    dead   by    mistake    because    the    person    who    gave lathi  blows   was   another  police  officer   named   Scott .

     To   remove   the   wrong   impression,    I ,   in   December, 1930   enquired   from   B .K . Dutt   who   had   been   all along with   Bhagat   Singh   and   was   at   that   time   in   the   old Central    Jail    Multan,    where    I  had   been transferred    , from  Attock  Camp jail.   He told me in no uncertain words that it was Saunders who gave fatal lathi  blows   to   Lala   Lajpat   Rai    and   we   being   certain   shot  him     dead .        There     could     be     no     question     of     our mistaking the identity of the police officer concerned ' .

     In   the   words   of   a famous French Philosopher   and thinker   Romain Rolland,. Bhagat  Singh    beckoned    his countrymen:

  "He cannot know the delight of being free.  It is   worthwhile   paying    for    it    with    so    much danger, and suffering and even death.  To be free, to feel   that every   mind about    you-yes, even    the   knave's  is free, is a delicious pleasure which  it is impossible to express: it is as though your soul   were   soaring   the   infinite   air .  It   could   not    live otherwise''.       (Joan Christophe In Paris page 274 : Editor)  

                     BRITISH INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS   ( In    their  report , dated  the 26th of  March , 1931)                 

                "Bhagat Singh and his companions are bound to provide the   test   for   many   fiery  sermons  in   the  days to come''.                                   :