Shaheed Bhagat Singh, in a new light

As city based journalist Jupinderjit Singh, fortunately got to lay his hand upon the pistol, things were never the same. Not just several intense emotions but even ideas came rushing to his mind. “The idea of this book developed soon after I discovered the lost pistol of the great martyr in November 2016. Bhagat Singh had used it to kill a British Police Officer J. P. Saunders at Lahore in 1928. The last written record of the pistol was in 1931 when a Lahore court handed over it to police for safe keeping. As I held the gun before the BSF officers in Indore, I felt goosebumps and a lump in my throat. I was touching something which the great hero of India’s freedom struggle had carried with him,” he shares, while in the city, as he introduces his second book Discovery of Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s Pistol and his Ahisma. “I sat down to write about my journey in tracing the pistol. But the narrative soon became the journey to understand how he is more relevant in today’s India: an India, where religion, caste, and communal sentiments have become the basis of vote-bank politics.”

Prof. Jagmohan Singh, nephew of Shaheed Bhagat Singh released Discovery of Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s Pistol and his Ahisma.  In the book, Jupinderjit chronicles the 86 years of journey of the US made 32 Colt pistol, which was used to kill British Police Officer JP Saunders on December 17, 1928; and how Shaheed Bhagat Singh was perhaps a stronger preacher of non-violence than Mahatma Gandhi.  “I have tried to put into words my understanding of the mind of the martyr. It is based on the available material on him, and I would like to insist that the aim of this book is a glorification not of his violent act, but of the intellect and wisdom of a young 23-year-old,” concluded Jupinderjit. —TNS