Jagmohan Singh Barhok
India achieved Independence on this Day in 1947 after a struggle of nearly 100-years starting with Rani Laxmi Bai & revolutionary Mangal Pandey in 1857. Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev, Chandrasekhar and others carried the torch of revolution & rebellion against the British Rule in the years that followed sacrificing their lives in their quest of achieving freedom.Bhagat Singh, Rajguru & Sukhdev were subsequently hanged on 23 March 1931, a day earlier than scheduled ,at Lahore on the basis of an FIR registered against them for mistakenly killing assistant superintendent of police John Saunders instead of James Scott, to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai, on December 17, 1927. My father attended the funeral of Bhagat Singh. He was then Ten-year-old. A Lahore based lawyer Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi could lay his hands on an FIR ,written in Urdu relating to the murder, claiming the FIR does not mention names of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru & Sukhdev. He has also filed a petition in Lahore High Court seeking reopening of Saunders murder case to prove three martyrs as innocents.
Ramesh Sehgal had directed a film titled “Shaheed” (1948) starring Dilip Kumar, Kamini Kaushal and Chandra Mohan depicting the struggle for independence. The film had some of the loveliest songs like- “Badnaam Na Ho Jaaye” & “Hum Kahan Aur Tum Kahan”, ( by noted Punjabi singer Surinder Kaur ), “Aana Hai To Aa Jao”, & “Watan Ki Raah Mein” under the music score Ghulam Haider. Shaheed was the highest grossing Bollywood movie of 1948. I watched the movie in 1963 at Kumar cinema in Delhi. In 1965 another film titled “Shaheed’ was released featuring Manoj Kumar & Kamini Kaushal in the lead. In one particular scene of the film, Pran, who plays a crimnial & unaware of the freedom struggle, asks his fellow prisoner Manoj Kumar in innocence :” Eh Bharat Mata Kee Cheez Hundi Hai”. The film was based on the life of Bhagat Singh. The music was composed by Prem Dhawan, with several songs being penned by freedom fighter Ram Prasad Bismil. Mnoj Kumar did full justice with his role playing the great freedom fightr.Years ago Kavi Pradeep had penned another patriot song in Gyan Mukherjee’s 1943 blockbuster “Kismet” starring Ashok Kumar & Mumtaz Shanti “Door Hato O Duniya Walon, Hindustan Hamara Hay” (“Step away, People of the World, Hindustan is ours”) . Many other Hindi films, too, showed patriotic themes and flavour like “The Legend of Bhagat Singh” (2002), “Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero” (2004)& “Mangal Pandey: The
Rising” (2005).
.It would be injustice if we did not mention Kartar Singh Sarabha and Shaheed Udham Singh and many others who laid their lives for the freedom of the country. Udham Singh killed O’Dyer in London to avenge the ‘Jalianwala Bagh’ Massacre. Let us pledge we are united and like our freedom and sovereignty.
