Books of Bhagat Singh Shaheed are rottening in Lahore

Dawn, September 29, 2007

By Jawed Naqvi

NEW DELHI, Sept 28: Scores of books belonging to the great revolutionary Bhagat Singh that were confiscated and used as evidence to award capital punishment to the freedom fighter in the 1929 Lahore Conspiracy case, are currently lying in a state of neglect in Lahore, his nephew has claimed.

“This heritage of our great freedom struggle is still lying as‘malkhana record’ in a lower trial court of Lahore,” Prof Jagmohan Singh, nephew of the revolutionary icon, said on Thursday as celebrations began to observe his 100th birthday on Friday.

Bhagat Singh was hanged in Lahore in March 75 years ago and Quaid-i-Azam was one of the few Indian leaders at the time to have defended him publicly.

Efforts are being made to ensure that the books are preserved and are made available to Indians, Prof Singh said.

“Shaheed-i-Azam had a library of 175 books by around 70 authors in his office located at Nai Ki Mandi in Agra. These were confiscated by the British police to be used as evidence in the case for murdering police officer Saunders,” Press Trust of India quoted Prof Singh as saying.

He was speaking at the release of the book ‘To Make The Deaf Hear’ written by S Irfan Habib, here on Wednesday.

Bhagat Singh, according to Prof Jagmohan Singh, was a serious reader.

He made an exhaustive study of history, politics, science, anddifferent religious texts.

“In fact his full-throated cry for ‘Long live the Revolution’ during India’s struggle for independence was derived from his serious and scientific reading of diverse subjects,” Prof Singh said, adding that Bhagat Singh was never in favour of violence, contrary to the general notion spread by his ideological opponents.