23rd March is martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, they were martyred by hanging by British colonialism on 23rd March 1931. Since then this day is marked by seminars, memorial functions ,lectures and even cultural programmes like plays and singing of revolutionary and resistance songs. For the last few years, the number of functions have considerably increased. Functions are now held almost all over India and even abroad by different sections of people, but mostly by mass organisations struggling for democratic rights of the Indian people.
This 23rd March marked the first anniversary of Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource centre, set up in Delhi archives. The function was held to mark the occasion. Along with that I attended six more functions in March itself to mark the martyrdom day of three martyrs.
The first function was in Dineshpur near Rudarpur in Uttrakhand on 10th March, which was held in memory of local journalist and people's issues of democratic rights were discussed, apart from releasing collection of editorials of Dinehpur journal.
Second function was of course to mark the first anniversary of Bhagat Singh archives, which was attended by Sheonan Singh and Abhey Sandhu, two nephews of Bhagat Singh, apart from officials of Delhi Government. On 23rd March itself IIT Alumni association held a function to mark the martyrdom day. Swaraj TV invited me to participate on discussion on Bhagat Singh's ideas on same evening.
Kisan Sabha organised a lecture on Bhagat Singh'd ideas contemporary relevance on 24th March at Palwal in Haryana. On 26th March a function was held in Jamia Milia Islamia Delhi to mark the occasion, where Gauhar Raza, Kavita Kihnan and myself spoke to the students of Jamia. On 27th March, students of Dyal Singh college organised lecture to mark the day, where Sucheta Dey, Gauhar and myself spoke. Lawyers Union organised a lecture by me on Bhagat Singh's interaction with legal fraternity and his views on jurisprudence on 27th March itself at Rohini court complex. Participating in seven programmes in March gave me great satisfaction.
Over and above HarperCollins India released the advertisement of advance sale of The Bhagat Singh Reader, to be given to readers from 25th April or so. Sasta Sahitya Mandal Delhi and Publiction Bureau Delhi are also briging out new edition of complete writings of Bhagat Singh in Hindi in three volumes, hopefully this very month. With these publications, complete writings of Bhagat Singh will now be available at least in four languages-Hindi, English, Urdu and Marathi in single volumes or in single edition. I feel my life long mission to spread Bhagat Singh's ideas through his own writings is now nearing completion and I can feel satisfied with that.
Some photographs of these programmes are posted in this album. .
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