Monday, September 20, 2010

A Pakistan Salam to Bhagatsingh


A movement has begun in Pakistan to rejuvinate the Bradlow Hall School, Lahor, the alma mater of Bhagatsingh . It will be named after him when it restarts.

The school was at one time the main educational institution in Lahore but has fallen on evil days what with madarsas sprouting all over. Some ex-students did noit like it and took initiative in rejuvenating the institution again. Miss Saida Deep, Head of the Institute of Secular Studies is among them. It is also proposed to have a meseum of things devoted to the Indian Freedom Struggle, which shows that the young Pakistan considers the Indian Freedom Struggle as part of their own struggle also. Bhagatsing will be at the center of this rejuvenation. There is a proposal also of renaming the Shadman Chowk where Bhagatsing was hoisted on the gallows as Bhagatsing Chowk.

Bhagatsing and his colleagues had shot down Deputy Superintendent of Police as a revenge for his manhandling of Lala Lajpat Rai and others by the Police then.

Saida has been proud of Bhagatsing from her school days. She has approached the Pakistan Court for restarting the school and change in the name of the Chowk.

Other martyrs who had participated in the Freedom Struggle are also proudly presented gratefully in Pakistan School Books irrespective of their caste, colour or creed. These are welcome signs of slow but sure reassertion of the joint struggle of even this part which was once a part of India in breaking of the shackles of slavery.

Earlier during the reign of President Ayyub Khan and others there have been attempts at interpreting the Partition movement as a part of historic struggle of that part of India for retaining its separate identity eulogizing the role of the invaders in the process. In fact, there was a palpable attempt to take this part of India to the Middle East.

But the panIndian identity is slowly but surely establishing itself. It may not be long before pictures of Bhagatsing and other revolutionaries will adorn the Pakistan Parliament walls!

 
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