The legend lives on in Lahore

CHANDIGARH: For several years, social activists in Lahore have been gathering at the Shadman Chowk where once stood the Central Jail — the place where Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged to death. The activists demand that the chowk be named after Bhagat Singh. Last year, the demand came for declaring him a national hero and a chapter on his life be included in the school text books of Pakistan.

The jail was long ago demolished to make room for a colony but the memory of Singh’s fight against British imperialism still lives on in the hearts of the people. This movement has a strong backing of writers, intellectuals, painters and women activists.

A columnist in Pakistan Today points out: “Much of Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s remarkable and dramatic life unfolded in Lahore. However, Bhagat Singh thrives in the folklore of Pakistan and people of the older generations still seek to commemorate him for his services to the cause of Indian freedom. Singh’s birth and death anniversaries are celebrated every year.”

The Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation (BSMF) continues with the struggle and writer Haroon Khalid, who has been writing on inclusive and composite culture of the subcontinent, says: “Bhagat Singh is the least likely Pakistani hero – born into a Sikh family, an avowed communist, sympathetic of the Russian Revolution. And yet, Bhagat Singh somehow continues to live on. It seems as if every year the demand to acknowledge him as a state hero has increased.”

Such is the legacy and life of Bhagat Singh that he is equally loved and admired on both sides of the barbed wire between India and Pakistan.