The general public perception about the revolutionaries was a negative one at the time of the Delhi Assembly bombing (in 1929). They were being seen as misguided youth whose ‘heinous offence’ could endanger India’s march towards freedom. Annie Besant described the Assembly bombing as a criminal attempt, ‘a mad act’ to derail the granting of dominion status to India. Even the Delhi Assembly Bomb Case’s defence lawyer, Asaf Ali, opined that although the bombing was not malicious ‘it was an act of idealists, you may call them impatient or misguided’…. Gandhi, in a speech in Bezwada on 11 April, condemned the Assembly bombing because in his view: ‘each act of violence renders the vision of swaraj more and more distant. The mad act of the two youngsters in the Assembly has made the accomplishment of Swaraj more difficult and we have distinctly gone a step backward in our striving for it.’
The Tribune was also in agreement that the use of the bomb was being done by those who ‘do not want India to make progress towards responsible government’ as such outrages can have ‘no other effect except of strengthening forces of reaction and making the task of constitutional independence more difficult.’… However, once the trial started, the public began to see a different side of the young men. The Tribune praised the duo’s (Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt) ‘exemplary attitude’ and the fact they observed the trial arguments with ‘intelligent interest’.
The tide of public opinion suddenly shifted when the defence lawyer, Asaf Ali read out a statement on behalf of Bhagat and Batukeshwar on 6 June 1929. The statement gave the duo’s reasons for bombing the Delhi Assembly. They argued that the bombs were not directed at individuals present there but the Assembly as a colonial institution. It stated that they were ‘next to none’ in their ‘love for humanity’, and that they held all ‘human life sacred beyond words’. In their view, British rule was ‘worthless’, ‘irresponsible’, and ‘autocratic’, and it demonstrated nothing but ‘India’s humiliation and helplessness’. Despite claiming to be representative, institutions such as the Legislative Assembly overrode the Indian aspirations and demands with impunity. Instead of coming to the aid of the labouring poor, the legislature was contemptuous of them and passed repressive and arbitrary measures in the form of the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Bill. The bomb aimed ‘to make the deaf hear’ and it reflected the ‘heart-rending agony’ of the ‘starving and struggling millions’. Their bomb, the statement claimed, heralded a new era that ended one of ‘utopian non-violence’….
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This ‘sensational statement’ electrified the public opinion and evinced a wave of collective emotion. It was the first of its kind public declaration in support of militant political action and one that challenged Gandhian non-violence as the bedrock of Indian civilization. Militant nationalists such as Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Sachindranath Sanyal had exchanged letters and participated in debates with Gandhi but no one so far had characterized his philosophy of non-violence as utopian. The statement’s open endorsement of radical political action proved propitious for the mill workers’ strike raging in Bombay that was ‘threatening to dislocate the commercial and industrial life of the city’ and the undertrials of the ongoing Meerut Conspiracy Case who, following the statement, appealed to Ramsay MacDonald, the British prime minister, to repeal the anti-working class legislation, i.e., the Public Safety Bill.
The impact of their statement was also visible in the response of the Indian newspapers. … Masavat believed ‘whether Sardar Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt are offenders or not, their statement is worthy of being written in letters of gold in the history of India.’ These were examples amongst several local newspapers in Lahore such as The People, Bande Mataram, Pratap and Milap that lauded the duo for their courage.
‘Revolutionaries On Trial: Sedition, Betrayal and Martyrdom’, by Aparna Vaidik, Aleph Book Company, 442 pages, ₹999
After the issuing of the statement in the Delhi Assembly Bombing, the judgement of the case (announced on 12 June 1929) sentencing the duo to transportation served as the next significant moment in the turning of the tide of public opinion in favour of Bhagat and Batukeshwar. While the British press joyously hailed the verdict as a victory against ‘communist conspiracy’ and one that had prevented India from ‘playing into Moscow’s hands’ and saved ‘India from relapsing into hideous revolutionary violence’, The Tribune adopted the position that the sentence was ‘disproportionately heavy’ and The People called it ‘grotesque’ and ‘vindictive’…. Even the Congress leaders who had initially condemned the bombing came out in support of the young men. The very next day in a massive public rally in Meerut, Jawaharlal Nehru openly declared that Bhagat and Batukeshwar ‘could not be called cowards’. His speech was rounded off with cries of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’. Hereafter, Naujawan Bharat Sabha began organizing public meetings in Lahore to garner support for them.
At the first meeting, Bhagat Singh’s father, Sardar Kishan Singh, was invited to speak. He spoke about his conversation with Bhagat right after his sentencing where the latter had ‘told him that even if he was hanged, he (his father) should not be sorry or shed tears’. At the end of his speech, Sardar Kishan Singh ‘received an ovation from the audience’. Amidst loud shouts of ‘Bande Mataram’ the meeting passed a resolution in support of Bhagat and Batukeshwar (who was now being addressed publicly as Dutt) and before the people dispersed ‘several hundred copies of the statement made by Bhagat Singh and Dutt were distributed to the audience’. …
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On 30 June, about 10,000 residents of Lahore gathered to celebrate the Bhagat Singh-Dutt Day several of whom were fasting in solidarity with the young men. The meeting called out the Delhi Assembly Bomb verdict for being erroneous and too severe. … The volunteers distributed pictures of Bhagat and Batukeshwar as keepsakes and collected money from the audience. The pictures carried quotes from the duo’s statement: ‘From under the seeming stillness of the sea of Indian humanity a veritable story is about to break out. We have given out loud enough warning’ and ‘By crushing two insignificant units the nation cannot be crushed.’ …
Across India, a period of public meetings, demonstrations and processions in support of the revolutionaries followed the successful celebration of the Bhagat Singh-Dutt day. This was especially evident in Lahore. The public gatherings had the flavour of political rallies and brought together people of all ideological shades. Even the meetings held for canvassing Gandhian principles began to invite the family members of the revolutionaries or raising slogans in their favour. ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ was now being shouted out in the same breath as ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘Vande Mataram’. …
Hereafter public demonstrations in support of the hunger strikers became a daily affair in Lahore. The disapproval that people had expressed at the bombing of the Assembly had become a cursory memory by this time. … No longer were the HSRA (Hindustan Socialist Republican Association) men thought of as hare-brained youth but as committed patriots willing to lay down their lives for the cause of India’s independence.
Excerpted with permission from Revolutionaries On Trial: Sedition, Betrayal and Martyrdom, by Aparna Vaidik, published by Aleph Book Company
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