• Amandeep Singh Sekhon

Last rites, of a human dead body, carry special significance in every society. Individualistic phase of the body ends with the death of individual, and the body become a social obligation. Every society has some set norms to dispose off the human dead bodies in a dignified manner. It is a kind of social and religious duty incumbent upon the members of the community to which the individual belonged to before his death. Even those who would have paid no heed to the needs of an individual while he was living, would feel concern for his last rites. Social beliefs like ‘after life’ and ‘rebirth’ make the non-performance of these rights loaded with many repercussions. Moreover the desire of a family to bid last adieu to their departed member has a genuine emotional aspect which goes beyond social and religious ones, and falls into the universal category of human rights. A society, a community and a family feels betrayed when any of its members is deprived of last rites by the state power, especially when the state power is alien one. Similar was the reaction of Indian public towards the manner in which the corpses of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were treated after their hangings on 23rd March 1931. The pain was more acute as the hangings were carried out in utter disregard of thousands of memorials sent to Viceroy and consistent efforts of many national leaders for commutation of sentences to an imprisonment for life. Disregarding, all legal and human conventions the revolutionaries were hanged in the evening, a day before the hanging was legally scheduled. The bodies were not handed over to the families. They were stealthily carried to the banks of Sutlej and burnt. The secret manner in which the act was conducted gave rise to wild claims that bodies were cut to pieces and thrown to the river in half burnt condition. Earlier, in the day, on 23rd March 1931, the High Court of Lahore had disposed off two writ petitions against carrying out the executions on 24th March. The families of three youths were in the city of Lahore, awaiting for the customary last meeting in the Jail which was fixed on 11 a.m. on that day. Rai Bahadur Badri Das, who appeared on behalf of Kultar Singh, the younger brother of Bhagat Singh, while moving writ petition on 21st March 1931 to High Court, mentioned the apprehension that three condemned prisoners would be executed on 23rd March as the last interview allowed to their relatives was fixed at 11 a.m. on that day.

Public resentment over the last rites of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev

"Public resentment over the last rites of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 1, page no.1656-1664, January-2018, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1801288.pdf

"Public resentment over the last rites of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.5, Issue 1, page no. pp1656-1664, January-2018, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1801288.pdf