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and joined the National School at Lahore. This school was
a centre of revolutionary activities. Here he came in contact
with revolutionaries such as Bhagwati Charan, Sukhdev and
others. He became a member of the Hindustan Republican
Not to be republished
Association formed by the revolutionaries of Uttar Pradesh.
There he was initiated into their firebrand activities.

3. The revolutionaries were branded as terrorists by the British
©KTBS
government. They believed that the British rule was unjust
and oppressive. Therefore, it was legitimate on their part to
use violence as a weapon to overthrow the foreigners. They
used bombs and guns against the British and robbed their
establishments. Their ideas differed from the Gandhian idea
of a freedom movement based on non-violence or ahimsa.

4. Bhagat Singh is remembered today not only as a bold
revolutionary figure but also as a great thinker. He was
steeped in the best traditions of socialistic thought. That
theory advocated collective or state ownership of the means
of production, i.e., land, labour and capital. This is borne
out in the numerous letters, pamphlets and articles that he
wrote in the course of a short but turbulent life in prison. He
wrote that revolution does not mean violence but “the spirit
of freedom, the longing for a change for the better.”

5. The incident that brought a total change in the life of Bhagat
Singh was the brutal attack by the police on veteran freedom
fighter Lala Lajpat Rai at an anti-British procession. It
resulted in the death of Lajpat Rai on November 17, 1928,
in Lahore. Bhagat Singh determined to avenge Lajpat’s
Rai’s death by shooting the British official responsible for
the killing, Deputy Inspector General Scott. He shot down
Assistant Superintendent Saunders instead, mistaking him
for Scott. He threw bombs in the Central Assembly Hall
while the Assembly was in session. The bombs did not hurt
anyone, but the noise they made was loud enough to wake

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