Bhagat Singh - Lesser known facts

Bhagat Singh a great martyr of Punjab, popularly referred as Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagt Singh, was born on 28 September 1907 at the village of Banga, Lyallpur district (now in Pakistan). Considered to be one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement. He had a spirit of martyrdom since his childhood.

In the leaflet he threw in the Central Assembly on 9 April 1929, he stated that It is easy to kill individuals but you cannot kill the ideas. Great empires crumbled while the ideas survived.

Less known facts about Bhagat Singh

• Bhagat Singh was a great actor in college and took part in several plays. Most notable plays he was praised in were ‘Rana Pratap’, ‘Samrat Chandragupta’ and ‘Bharata-durdasha’.
• At the age of 12, right after the Jalianwala Bagh incident, Bhagat Singh bunked school and went straight to the place of the tragedy. He collected a bottle of mud wet with blood of Indians and worship the bottle every day.
• As a child, Bhagat Singh often talked and wanted to grow guns in the fields, so that he could fight the British.
• At the age of 8, he talked about driving out Britishers from India and not about the games or toys.
• At an early age he was attracted towards socialism and socialist revolutions led by Lenin Soon he started to reading about them.
• Singh said: “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.” This was to be quoted many times over by revolutionaries after Singh’s death.
• The bombs Bhagat Singh and his associates threw in the Central Assembly in Delhi were made from low grade explosives. They were lobbed away from people in the corridors of the building and were meant only to startle and not harm. The British investigation into the incident and forensics report also confirmed this.
• During his stay in prison in 1930, Bhagat Singh coined the word “political prisoner” and demanded he and his comrades be given basic amenities that even British looters and goons in the jail were entitled to.
• He coined the phrase ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ that became the slogan of the India’s armed freedom struggle.
• Singh was hanged an hour ahead of the official time when the death sentence was to be commuted and was secretly cremated on the banks of the river Sutlej by jail authorities. However, thousands of people on hearing the news gathered at the spot and took out a procession with his ashes.

20 Hidden Facts that You Must Know About Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

20 Hidden Facts that You Must Know About Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

“Freedom is not given; it is taken”
Can a Hero who had died, slapping the face of colonialism, ever be forgotten!? The man who was actually ‘one man army’, has been left alone all these years, in search of justice and respect! There was no question regarding the indomitable qualities of Subhas Chandra Bose as a leader and rightfully he created means to earn India’s its Independence. He gave speeches on unity and solidarity which are hair raising and truly inspiring.

One silver lining that came to limelight was the release of 100 declassified files on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose last year by PM Narendra Modi which had some striking revelations made about the late leader. Despite many mysterious appearences and dissappearences Bose united the minds of Indians to fight valiantly to attain ‘Poorna Swaraj’. Let’s recapitulate the karma of this wise man who had truly denied the crown of golden designation and sacrificed his life for humanity.

Presenting some hidden/lesser known facts about India’s brave son.
1 )  Netaji was born on 23rd January 1897 in Cuttack, Orissa (now Odisha) to Janakinath Bose, an affluent barrister and Prabhavati Devi. He was 9th of the 14 children.
2 ) Bose is an alumnus of the reputed Scottish Church College under the Calcutta University with a degree in B.A. Philosophy.
3 )  After being matriculated in England, he appeared in ICS (Indian Civil Services Examination) and came 4th, but he did not want to work under an alien and dominating government. Allegedly revolving in frustrations, he, at last, wrote to his elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose (also a barrister) “Only on the soil of sacrifice and suffering can we raise our national edifice”.
4 )  Bose was appointed twice as the President of INC during consecutive years in 1938 and 1939. He was elected from the Haripura and Tripura sessions. After such bombardment of actions, British Government was totally in shock and due to the same, the only thing left is– Imprisoning the voice!

5 ) That mysterious year of 1941, Netaji escaped from the house arrest and this was the time when he travelled by foot, car and train! From Kolkata, he went to Gomoh, then headed to Peshawar, from there directed to Pakistan and ultimately went to Kabul for his last voyage to Germany, to meet Adolf Hitler.
6 ) November 1941, German radio broadcast sent fearsome waves among British government and Indian hearts. They got to realise that Mr Bose was all along the time working on a master plan for freedom.
7 ) He met German dictator and the orchestrator of the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler on 29 May 1942.

9 ) During the remarkable period of 1921-1941, he was taken into 11 various jails across India due to his protest against slavery. God can count on his passion for freedom and love for humanity!
10 ) “No real change in History has ever been achieved by Discuss”- Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. The quote itself ignites the spirit of true citizen and lover of freedom. Imagine the magic it had done that time!

11 ) Netaji was total in denial of the fact of ‘path of ahimsa to gain freedom’. Besides of knowing the fact, the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi called him the “patriot of patriots” which is actually an honour by someone for someone who opposed his ideologies.
12 ) During 1920 – 1930 era, Bose had been a radical and younger leader of INC.
13 ) As reported by The Indian Express: Bose proposed to a Czech lady and they were married in January 1942. Emilie Schenkl returned to Vienna from Berlin in September so as to avoid talk.

14 ) With Emilie, Bose had a daughter called Anita Bose Pfaff who was born on on the 29th of November 1942 and currently works as a economist in Germany.
15 ) 17 May 2006, Justice Mukherjee Commission Report stated that “The ashes at Renkoji Temple are not Netaji’s, because he did not die in the plane crash”. The Government of India had rejected the report.
16 ) Netaji’s renegrade nature was quite evident as he openly revolted against Gandhi which was quite evident during 1931 when he opposed the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and the hanging of martyrs Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru.
17 ) The backbone of Indian National Army (INA) or Azad Hind Fauj was none other than Netaji. When it was formed under Mohan Singh in the 1942 it was almost finished by the year end, but Netaji the following year influenced and pooled in a huge bnd of ex-prisoners from Southeast Asian countries and strengthened the army to a massive 43,000 in size.
18 ) Through scholarly opinion, it had been notified that Netaji’s death occurred on 18th August 1945, due to his overloaded Japanese plane crash in Taiwan.
19 ) There have been rumours and specualtions of his death as many have voiced that Netaji didn’t die in the plane crash, in fact, he wasn’t even aboard in the plane.

20 ) Rumours have spred like Bose shed his original identity and led the life of a reclusive Sadhu called ‘Gumnami Baba’ or ‘Bhagwanji’ who lived as a renunciant in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh. The suspicious saint met his demise on September 16, 1985.

Conclusion
Some truths are better to be covered! Because sometimes, bitter truths are hard to face.
Though late by 72 years, Indian Government has taken a step towards disclosing the hidden facts of Netaji’s death/murder so that people can have a vis-à-vis with the truth. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s leadership qualities were always upfront and dynamic. Despite that, many conspiracy theories and questions remain unsolved/unanswered. Nevertheless, inspiring millions of Indians, Bose was a revolutionary politician who dexterity and oeuvre was and is appreciated by many nations even today.