Bhagat Singh – Anecdotes of Greatness

It is often said that those who excel brilliantly at a very young age or else make big sacrifices at such an age are inspired by close family members or relatives. This can be very clearly seen in the inspirational impact of several members of the extended family or joint family on Bhagat singh. However there was an additional factor at work here. Some of these members of his family also suffered much at the hands of colonial rulers.

This left a void in the family and as a sensitive child Bhagat Singh could clearly feel the sadness caused by colonial excesses right within his family. This made a deep imprint on him and there are several indications that even as a child he had decided that he was going to do something big so that people do not have to suffer in this way.

In this context it is both important and interesting to look at the life of some of his extended family members and his relationship with them as a sensitive, growing child who thought a lot and tried to draw his own conclusions from the conversations he overheard in the family which was visited regularly by freedom fighters and social activists.

Bhagat Singh’s grandfather Arjun Singh was a man of strong feelings for social reforms as well as freedom of India. In his family he often told stories of his own grandfather Fateh Singh who had helped Muslim tenants to get land rights and later unlike other big landowners, refused an offer to get more land by entering into a deal with the British. This happened at the time of the great struggle for independence in 1857. Refusing the offer Fateh Singh said that the teaching of Guru Gobind is that as a principle we should stand with the struggle for justice.