Sri Aurobindo,yoga,Selected on line books and articles on India, Freedom movement, Bhagat singh,Surya sen

The Punjab has played a great role in the history of the freedom movement of India. One of the great figures in this movement was Lala Lajpat Rai. In the early part of the century from 1906 to 1909, he was closely associated with Sri Aurobindo, Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal.

On the 13th April 1919, the Jalliawanla Bagh massacre was perpetrated. Thousands of unarmed men, women and children were fired upon at a peaceful meeting. The outrage exasperated the nation, and infuriated the people. Punjab was in a state of open rebellion. This one act of the British gave a tremendous impetus to the freedom struggle. The freedom movement had acquired a national character.

A few years later in 1928 the Simon Commission was sent to India by the British Government. It was to enquire into the working of the system of government. However it faced a boycott from the people of India. When the Simon Commission reached Lahore, a procession was taken out on October 30th to demonstrate against it. In the front row was Lala Lajpat Rai. The procession was perfectly non-violent and peaceful. But it was attacked on the order of some high police officials. Lalaji was struck and a blow landed on his chest. As a result Lala Lajpat Rai died on November 17 1928.

The reprisal of Lalaji's death was not long in coming. A band of young men took upon themselves the task of creating a revolution and overthrow the British Government. Bhagat Singh and his comrades numbering about fifty formed a party, Hindustan Socialist Republican Party. Bhagat Singh and his friend Sukhdev were placed in charge of Punjab. As a first step it was decided to assassinate Scott, the man who was responsible for assaulting Lalaji. On Dec 11, one of the party workers was deputed to watch the movements of the police officer. It was first decided to attack him on the 14th but it was postponed to the 17th. On that day, Rajguru, Bhagat Singh and Chandra Sekhar Azad assembled together near the office of the Senior Superintendent of Police, situated on the main road near the D.A.V. College and the District Courts. Rajguru advanced towards the place from where he could attack his victim. However, Saunders came out of the office, instead of Scott. Rajguru fired at him on the head. He fell to the ground and Bhagat Singh who was waiting nearby fired six shots into the body of Saunders. After that the three walked away quietly. Soon a European officer chased them but he was fired upon; in trying to avoid the bullets he slipped and fell down. The assailants ran on and picked up cycles that they had kept and escaped.

The police began a frantic hunt for the assailants. The police with the hope of discovering revolvers or any other articles combed the forests on the banks of the river Ravi. Arrests of certain suspects followed but they got no clue of the revolutionaries.

In the meanwhile the Legislative Assembly was on; the Government decided to introduce a Bill, which was aimed at curbing Indian Nationalism and the Congress. On April 8, 1929, just as the President of the Assembly was about to give his ruling on the bill, two bombs exploded in the chamber. They were followed by two revolver shots. The impact of the explosion of the bombs was so great that the floor was torn and two benches were ripped. These bombs were thrown by two men, Bhagat Singh and Batukeswar Datta, who began throwing some pamphlets and one of them shouted: "I have done my duty to the country". They then threw away the revolver and allowed themselves to be arrested. Bhagat Singh told the police officers that insults had been heaped upon the Indian nation through the so-called Indian Parliament and it was disgraceful to allow such things to pass without serious protest. They had, therefore, decided to sacrifice their lives to stop the farce and present the bureaucracy in its true colours.

The trial began on May 7 1929 in Delhi; the accused when brought to court shouted: "Long live Revolution! Down with Imperialism!" whereupon they were handcuffed. On 12th of June the judgement was pronounced - transportation for life.

After their conviction, Bhagat Singh and Batukeswar Datta were subjected to serious physical hardships and humiliating treatment in jail. Although they were political prisoners, they were treated like the worst of hardened criminals. All their appeals were treated with contempt. As a last resort they decided to give up taking any food and go on hunger strike. After ten days, the jail authorities applied force for making the prisoners take their diet. The prisoner was thrown on the ground and his hands, legs and the head were held fast to prevent all chances of movement. Then milk was poured through a tube down the nostril. The prisoners suffered greatly but they adopted means to vomit all the food they had been forced to consume.

In the meanwhile another prisoner Jatin Das who had joined the hunger strike died on September 12th. Jatin Das's death spread a deep wave of consternation throughout the land of India. The Tribune wrote: "If ever a man died a hero and martyr to a noble cause, that man is Jatindra Nath Das and the blood of the martyr has in all ages and countries been the seed of higher and nobler life, better social and political order."

Bhagat Singh and Batukewsar Datta abandoned their hunger strike on October 24, 1929, in deference to the resolution of the All India Congress Committee. In the meanwhile another case was instituted against Bhagat Singh and some others including Sukhdev.

The trial lasted for almost 8 months and during this period the prisoners were tortured and treated very cruelly. The trial came to an end on October 7 1930. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were found guilty and all three were sentenced to death. On the 23rd of March 1931 they were executed in the evening in the Lahore Central Jail. The spirit in which these young men sacrificed their lives may be summed up in the following words:

"Our motives and our objects are lofty and noble. The restoration of our country to her separate existence as a nation among the nations, her exaltation to a greatness, splendour, strength, magnificence equalling and surpassing her ancient glories, is the goal of our endeavours; and we have undertaken this arduous task in which we as individuals risk everything, ease, wealth, liberty, life itself it may be, not out of hatred and hostility to other nations but in the firm conviction that we are working in the interests of all humanity, including England herself as in those of our own posterity and nation. "

Surya Sen, more endearingly known as Masterda, represents in the freedom struggle of India the symbol of the nation's urge for freedom and the resolve to make the supreme sacrifice for the motherland. Apparently in life he was so ordinary and common-place, yet in actual life he was a colossus who occupies a unique position in the history of the Indian freedom movement.

The Chittagong Uprising is a landmark in the history of India's national struggle for freedom. It was on April 18, 1930, a red-letter day in the revolutionary struggle that a plan was chalked out with meticulous care and secrecy. It consisted of a programme for the setting up of Provisional Government with Masterda - Surya Sen - at its head by paralysing and destroying the British administrative system and emancipating Chittagong from the bondage of foreign subjection. The main object was not to attempt to free Bengal or even the whole of India but to set an example before the countrymen, particularly the youths and students to demoralise the British imperialists. The main plan was as follows:

2) To destroy the Central Telephone Office which linked Chittagong with the rest of the country.

3) To destroy the railway system linking Chittagong with the rest of Bengal and India.

4) To take into custody as many English officers as possible so that they could be used as hostages.

Trained workers to carry out the different sections of the plan were selected with great care. Two groups of 4 persons were given the task of dislocating the telegraph lines and the railway lines respectively. Thirty revolutionaries were divided into six groups and assembled at night some 200 yards from the Police Armoury. The Police Armoury was situated at the northwest of the town on a small hillock; and more than 500 constables were always kept in readiness here for any emergency within the district or outside.

Exactly at 10 in the night, the assault group arrived in a car to the bottom of the stairs, which led to the hillock. Dressed in Khaki uniform, they completely deceived the sentry who thought that they were senior army officers. Then they shot the sentries who were guarding and after a few shots in the air marched into the Armoury. The 500 constables got panicky and fled for their lives. Soon a large number of revolutionaries who were hiding nearby came and occupied the Armoury. With hammers they broke open the doors of the Armoury and captured over 500 rifles, several dozen revolvers and a large quantity of ammunition.

Similarly another car with a group of revolutionaries came to the Auxiliary Armoury situated near Pahartali; here too the sentry was deceived and was killed along with the other sentries. Sergeant-Major Farrel who was in charge of the Armoury lived in a house within a few yards from the building. He was having dinner at that time and hearing the shots at this unusual time, he rushed out. As soon as he came out he was shot and killed. The revolutionaries would have killed the family members of Farrel also; but Masterda did not allow them to kill innocent persons. Thus the Auxiliary Armoury also fell into the hands of the revolutionaries. Here they got 300 Army rifles, a few Lewis guns and some revolvers.

Although they got hold of a large number of guns and army vehicles, they could not find a single bullet or ammunition. This was a disastrous setback in the plan and was the signal cause for the defeat of the military strategy of the revolutionaries. Had they got the ammunition for the four hundred rifles and the seven Luis guns, the history of the Chittagong Uprising would have been a different one.

In the meanwhile the other groups disrupted the telephone lines and the railway lines. Later in the night all the revolutionary groups assembled at the Police Armoury; Masterda arrived there and took the salute of the Revolutionary Force, named as the "Chittagong Brigade" of "The Indian Republic Army"; he then hoisted the National flag of Independence and declared the formation of the Independent Provisional Revolutionary Government in Chittagong. Pamphlets were distributed appealing for help to the new government to face the imminent attack by the British.

The District Magistrate had by then got the news of the raid on the Armouries; he found that the telephone system was disrupted, so he got in touch with a ship that was in the Chittagong port. He then sent through the ship's wireless system a message to Calcutta.

Masterda was fully aware of the battle that was to follow; under his instructions, all his troops moved to a safer place before dawn. Each person carried with him as many guns, revolvers and ammunition as he could carry and destroyed all the rest. The moved to a hilly area near the town and waited on the top of a hill known as the Jalalabad Hill. On the 22nd of April, a few thousand troops came and surrounded the Jalalabad Hill on all sides. They tried to get to the top but they were foiled by the fierce attack from the revolutionaries. By evening the troops had lost 83 lives and left for the safety of the town before darkness set in. The revolutionaries had lost in the battle 12 of their own men.

After dark, Masterda decided that with inferior arms, it would be unwise to go in for a direct confrontation with the enemy, which was far better equipped. So they decided to take to guerrilla warfare. Accordingly, the revolutionaries dispersed and went to nearby villages and lived with sympathetic families. Here they lived in hiding and fought the British for the next three years. They made surprise attacks on enemy pickets and killed hated administrative officers. But life was difficult and slowly the British military machine arrested them in small numbers. The First Armoury Raid Case was started and judgement was delivered on March 1 1932. Out of 32 persons on trial 12 were given transportation for life, two others were given three years imprisonment and the others were acquitted.

On February 16, 1933 Masterda himself was arrested in a village. A petty landlord who revealed his whereabouts to the British betrayed him. He was put in jail and mercilessly beaten and finally put to death in jail on January 12 1934. His body was not handed over to his relatives; it was given to a British cruiser "The Renown" and thrown into the Bay of Bengal, a few hundred miles from the Indian coast.

Masterda was a born leader of men. He led a simple life and was hardly known, for he always remained in the background. The secret of his leadership was his transparent sincerity, which attracted the spontaneous respect of his followers. He hated all sorts of artificiality and never posed an air of superiority. He had the modesty, which comes from real strength and confidence in himself and God. In one of the interviews he stated:

"Ours is not an easy life; our primary emphasis is on quality. The role of maximum sacrifice and dedication must not be underrated. The fight for freedom is going to be a long and very exacting struggle. There is only one way. A dedicated band of youths must show the path of organised armed struggle in place of individual terrorism. Most of us will have to die in the process but our sacrifice will not go in vain. Whoever will dream of a push button revolution which will change our country in one day by countrywide concerted action - in a vast country like ours, with varied culture and languages, is a worthless dreamer. "