Bhagat Singh's Martyrdom Day

 Friends,

Here is the momentous news from The Tribune of 25 March 1931 on the three revolutionaries who were executed on 23 March 1931.This priceless cutting has been sent to me by Dr (Prof) Ramakant Agnihotri. I thankfully reproduce it here. With one addition after it.

Very interestingly, Pash  (Avatar Singh Sandhu) (1950-88) a revolutionary poet emerging out of the Naxalite movement in Punjab in the seventies of the last century, a great admirer of Bhagat Singh, was shot dead along with his friend Hans Raj by Khalistani militants on 23 March1988, the day of Bhagat Singh's martyrdom. Here is my translation of a Punjabi poem by Pash which appeared in his first collection of poetry Loh Katha (1970).

BHARAT                                           

 Bharat –

So deserving of my highest reverence!

Whenever this name is uttered

all other names become meaningless.

This name owes its essence

to those who toil in the fields,

and still measure time

by the length of shadows.

They have no other concerns

except their bellies,

and when they are hungry

they can chew their own limbs.

For them life is an empty ritual

and death a release.

Whenever someone talks

of the oneness of India

I feel like tossing up his cap,

and telling him:

The spirit of Bharat resides

not in some Dushyant

but in the fields

where peasants grow food

and robbers break in…

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 T C Ghai