On this day, 23 March 1931, Indian revolutionary socialists Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar (pictured, L-R) were executed by British colonial authorities in what is now Punjab, Pakistan. They had been sentenced to death for assassinating a senior British police officer in 1928, to avenge the police killing of Lala Lajpat Rai during an anti-colonial demonstration.
While they opposed British colonialism, rather than narrow nationalism they advocated working class revolution against both British and Indian capitalists. They were all just 22-23 years old. Singh commented: “They may kill me, but they cannot kill my ideas. They can crush my body, but they will not be able to crush my spirit”.
In the wake of their conviction, Mohandas Gandhi appealed to the Viceroy of India to commute their sentences, but he also appealed to huge crowds not to take action to secure their release, as he had signed a truce agreement with authorities. After they were executed, Gandhi was greeted by a crowd he described as “incensed” flying black flags and shouting “Gandhi go back”, “Down with Gandhism”, “Gandhi’s truce has sent Bhagat Singh to gallows” and “Long live Bhagat Singh”. After their deaths, Bhagat Singh in particular became a national hero.
Learn more about resistance to the British Empire in this book: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/insurgent-empire-anticolonial-resistance-and-british-dissent-priyamvada-gopalhttps://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1947974275387713/?type=3
