LAHORE CONSPIRACY CASE

WHY IN NEWS?

The recent parliamentary attacks call to mind the attack on central legistature by Bhagat Singh and others during British Raj.

BACKGROUND

• Over 94 years ago, on April 8, 1929, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw feeble bombs and pamphlets in Delhi’s Central Assembly (now referred to asthe Indian Parliament) to protest against the oppressive British rule.
• The revolutionary act aimed to expose the ineffectiveness of the Indian Parliament, which lacked autonomy and failed to address nationalist demands.
• The Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, led by Chandrashekhar Azad, orchestrated the action to “make the deaf hear” and draw attention to the repressive measures imposed by the British government.
• The well-planned event resulted in Bhagat Singh and Dutt’s arrest, and they were later sentenced to life in prison.
• While in prison, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev along with other political prisoners went on a hunger strike to demand better conditions of prisoners in the jails.
• After the trial, all three were sentenced and executed by hanging in March 1931. Azad was martyred the same year in February in a gun battle with the police in a park in Allahabad.