Skip to main content

This revolutionary sacrificed his life while planning to rescue Bhagat Singh from jail

By Bharat Dogra*

May 28 was the 92nd death anniversary of Bhagwati Charan Vohra who sacrificed his life in 1930 at the age of only 25 while making preparations for rescuing Bhagat Singh from jail. As he was preparing for his own martyrdom in jail, Bhagat Singh paid very rich tributes to the great sacrifices of Bhagwati Charan Vohra in the course of his numerous activities relating to the freedom movement.
Bhagwati came from a very rich family, in fact he was perhaps the wealthiest among his many comrades in the revolutionary movement as a result of his family background. Yet right from his teen years he did not show any interest in enjoying this wealth and instead was always inclined towards the freedom movement. At the age of only 16 he was an enthusiastic participant in the non-cooperation movement started by Mahatma Gandhi.
Due to the wide prevalence of child marriage in those times, even before this he was married to Durga at the insistence of the two families. With rare maturity, even as a teenager he shared the real mission with his even younger wife . Fortunately she was very receptive and henceforth the two started planning their life in terms of the real aims of their life. They named their son Shachi, after the legendary revolutionary Shachindranath Sanyal.
At an early stage he formed a close friendship with the two other most prominent revolutionaries from Lahore—Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev. As he had much better circumstances at that time his house in Lahore used to be a place where many revolutionaries could meet and were well looked after. He contributed at an intellectual level as well as at action level.
His wife Durga increasingly shared his willingness for sacrificing everything for the freedom movement. She became famous in the freedom movement as Durga Bhabhi and is identified with many daring activities. With passing days both Bhagwati and Durga were drawn more and more into the freedom movement.
Bhagwati Charan was soon known in the circle of revolutionary freedom fighters as a selfless person who was willing to take up any hazardous or difficult work for the sake of his party and the freedom movement.
His encouragement was a strong motivating force which led Durga also to take up many difficult and daring activities.
There was an exceptionally difficult time when partly due to some misunderstandings and partly due to some persons acting in bad faith, Bhagwati was very unjustly suspected by some revolutionaries to have betrayed the movement. After some time it became clear to all that these suspicions were baseless and the relationship of great trust was soon restored. As later events were to show soon, the trust in the courage and integrity of Bhagwati was more than justified.
Bhagwati was a very studious person and when he was not on the action lines he was more than busy in the world of books. He had an important role in preparing many documents of his party which were widely discussed in his own lifetime and are still remembered and read. However the fact that he was a scholarly person never made him reluctant to accept the more risky assignments and in fact he was more than ahead of several others in opting for high risk assignments.
Even after several revolutionaries had been arrested, Bhagwati Charan had managed to evade arrest. He was involved in making a daring plan for arranging the escape of Bhagat Singh and some other revolutionaries from prison. However this plan could not succeed.
One of the hazardous acts in which Bhagwati Charan was involved was the testing of some bombs. It was in the course of this work in Punjab that Bhagwati Charan met a serious accident and died. Thus this brave freedom fighter died very suddenly at a very young age which also proved to a big setback for the plans for the prison-escape of other freedom fighters. His many-sided contributions to the freedom movement need to be known and recognised at a much wider level.
He and Durga provide a rare example of a couple taking up many high risk assignments and being equally determined in terms of making any great sacrifice for the freedom movement.
---
The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth NOW, His recent books on freedom movement include ‘When the Two Streams Met’ and ‘Azadi ke Deewanon Kee Daastaan'

Comments

TRENDING

Crucial to revisit roots, embrace core Hindu principles: love, compassion, harmony

A note on religious leaders'  Satya Dharam Samvad in Haridwar: *** In a groundbreaking gathering, more than 25 religious leaders including Swamis, Acharyas, Pujaris, Gurus, and Sadhvis from all over India convened to discuss the tenets of Hinduism on September 16th, 2023, in Haridwar, to discuss and discern the current trajectory of Hinduism. This brand new initiative, the Satya Dharam Samvad, was inspired to organize its first assembly in response to the December 2021 Dharma Sansad, where hate speech and calls for violence against the Muslim community contravened the essential principles of Hinduism. Religion is being used to incite riots among Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, etc. In the face of such hatred, Swami Raghavendra felt that something meaningful should be done in the present climate. 

Maoist tendency of mechanically adhering to Chinese path ignores Indian conditions

By Harsh Thakor  The C.P.I. (Maoist) formed in 2004 with merger of the C.P.I. (M.L) Peoples War and the Maoist Communist Centre has demonstrated courage in intensity compared to any great revolutionary struggle in the history of the world. It leads the largest armed movement of a Peoples Guerrilla Army in the world today and proved themselves as the true torch bearers of the Indian Communist movement.

Significant step towards empowering and particularly engaging with informal workers

ActionAid note on drive to empower informal sector workers Odisha with the support of District Labour Department: *** The Odisha Unorganised Workers Social Security Board (OUWSSB) facilitated an Unorganized Workers Awareness Camp at the Red Cross Bhawan in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The event took place in collaboration with the District Labour Department at Khordha, Centre for Child and Women Development and ActionAid Association. This informative event aimed at empowering informal sector workers by disseminating crucial information regarding their eligibility for various social security schemes provided by the Government of Odisha.

We need to resurrect Neruda, give birth to poets of his kind amidst neofascist rampage

By Harsh Thakor  On 23rd September we commemorate the 50th death anniversary of Pablo Neruda, whose contribution to revolutionary poetry was path breaking. Pablo Neruda’s poetry manifested the spiritual essence of revolutionary poetry and how poetry was a weapon for a revolutionary struggle. The story of his life illustrated the spiritual transformation undergone a human being to transform him into a revolutionary and how environment shapes the lie of revolutionary.

Dev Anand ably acted as westernised, urban educated, modern hero, as also anti-hero

By Harsh Thakor  On September 26th we celebrated the birth centenary of legendary actor Dev Anand. Dev Saab carved out a new epoch or made a path breaking contribution in portraying romanticism and action in Bollywood cinema, giving his style or mannerisms a new colour. Arguably no Bollywood star manifested glamour in such a dignified or serene manner or struck the core of an audience’s soul in romantic melodies. Possibly we missed this evergreen star being cast in a Hollywood film. Dev Anand is like an inextinguishable soul of Bollywood. Although not as artistic or intense as Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor or Ashok Kumar ,Dev Anand surpassed them all for liveliness or flamboyance, with his performances radiating g energy on the screen, in realms rarely transcended. In his own right, Dev Saab, was a craftsman, like his classical contemporaries, with a characteristic composure. Perhaps never was a Bollywood star so suave, bubbling or charming as Dev Anand, who often looked like an Indian versi

Grassroots NGO enlightens people of Kupwara with intricacies of Right to Information

J&K RTI Foundation and Founder Civil Rights Movement Kupwara note on how RTI Pend is empowering Kupwara with insights on Right to Information Act: *** RTI Pend, the grassroots initiative aimed at democratizing access to information, hosted its 2nd event in Kupwara. On the request of the Civil Rights Movement Kupwara, this event was tailored to enlighten the people of Kupwara with the intricacies of the Right to Information Act, presented in their local language and dialects. The event successfully bridged both offline and online participation, addressing queries on the spot and offering applicants practical solutions.

Abrogation of Art 370: Increasing alienation, relentless repression, simmering conflict

One year after the abrogation by the Central Government of Art. 370 in Kashmir, what is the situation in the Valley. Have the promises of peace, normalcy and development been realised? What is the current status in the Valley? Here is a detailed note by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties , “Jammu & Kashmir: One Year after Abrogation of Art. 370: Increasing Alienation, Relentless Repression, Simmering Conflict”:

Agro-biodiversity through seed identification, conservation, replication, crop selection

By Kuntal Mukherjee, Basant Yadav, Shivnath Yadav* This article is mainly based on a journey of the three of us since 2010 based on field experience, study of different articles, reflective journeys with local community based organisations, villagers and practitioners in Chhattisgarh. The slow growth of Agriculture in India with near stagnation in productivity since mid ‘80s in contrast to the remarkable growth during the green revolution period has come to the front as a great concern. In post WTO era Indian Agriculture has been witnessing structural changes, uncontrolled influx of agriculture goods and commodities from foreign countries due to open market nature. The gradual reduction in subsidies from internal production leads to increasing cost of production of agriculture produces at the farm gate. It causes gradual decrease in internal production as well as productivity and posing threats to small farm and stakeholders. 

Indian youth can choose political career which offers tremendous opportunities

By Sudhansu R Das  The Indian political sector is growing faster than any other sector in the world. This sector has been fully liberalised. Political career in India is open to any age group starting from 25 plus to 90 plus; people with any educational background, even an illiterate person can contest election in India. An old man or woman with multiple organ failure can become leader of a political party; they can control party workers from the hospital bed also. Social status, physical and mental ability seldom stand in the way of a political leader. Advanced age is not an issue which can be reversed with effortless ease. 

Commodification of road accident deaths: The hidden health hazard of motonormativity

By Chandra Vikash*  Jahnavi Kandula, an Indian student from Andhra Pradesh, studying in America was killed in a road accident by a police motor car in January 2023. Now, 8 months after the accident, a bodycam video of Daniel Orderer, who is the vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, has gone viral on social media. He was laughing at her death and saying that “she was 26 years old, anyway… she had limited value… just give her $11,000 (ie Rs 9.13 lakh)”.