Book: The Trial of Bhagat Singh, Politics of Justice

Author: A.G. Noorani
Publisher:

This remarkable book is an investigation into the trial of the freedom fighter and marxist revolutionary Bhagat Singh, who was tried and hanged in the Lahore conspiracy case. Bhagat Singh, the young militant, was accused amongst other things of attacking the central assembly of India which was in session at the time. On 23rd March 1931, Bhagat Singh and his two comrades were hanged at the Lahore central jail.

A.G. Noorani, an advocate of the Supreme court of India and a versatile journalist, makes plain the facts of this case and how the courts of time were used as political weapons by the colonial rulers. He also castigates the leadership of the Congress led Independence movement for their indifference towards Bhagat Singh. Gandhi`s role is discussed at length and it is concluded that had he wanted Gandhi could have gotten Lord Irwin to commute Singh`s sentence. How much truth there is in that statement can be debated, but it is quite possible that had Gandhi attached the condition of Bhagat Singh`s pardon to the signing of the famous `Gandhi-Irwin` Pact, the British Government would have submitted.

There is also a chapter on Mohammed Ali Jinnah`s role. Jinnah emerges as a shining figure in the whole episode. The stirring fiery anti-British and pro-Bhagat Singh speech he made in the Central Assembly is appended in detail. In this speech Jinnah accuses the Government of bad faith, and declares Bhagat Singh to be a political prisoner instead of a terrorist. He attacks the British Government for having double standards and accuses them of keeping Bhagat Singh and his associates in the most inhumane of conditions. It is here that Jinnah is at his finest, a committed libertarian fighting for the basic rights of his fellow countrymen fighting for the independence of the country. One of the said objectives according to the author of this book is to do away with the `strange revisionism in stalinist style` which would have us believe that `Mohammed Ali Jinnah was born politically in 1939` when he started espousing the two nation theory.

This very important book documents the immense injustice done to a true hero of South Asia by the British Government, and clarifies the various positions taken by the famous politicians of the time. For this and more it deserves 5 stars from me.