Formation and activities of Naujawan Bharat Sabha - II
Chaman Lal
THE second provincial conference of Naujawan Bharat Sabha was held in Lahore from February 22 to 24, in 1929. Sohan Singh was elected its president. S R Bakshi has mentioned that Naujawan Bharat Sabha had held Bhagat Singh Remembrance Day in July 1930 in Amritsar, for which action was taken against Babu Singh, Bishan Singh, Kuldeep Saigal and Sunder Das by the British government. NBS held many protest meetings against the British government on the martyrdom of Jatin Das in 1929 as well. During the hunger strike by Lahore Conspiracy Case prisoners, NBS had protested throughout. On July 13, 1929, Hakim Sikandar Khan, the chairman of the reception committee of an upcoming conference of NBS, was arrested on sedition charges. Dhanwantri, Ram Kishan, Mangal Das, Abdul Malik and several othar NBS activists were sentenced to imprisonment.
The third provincial conference of Naujawan Bharat Sabha was to be held from August 9 to 11, 1929 in Amritsar. Master Mota Singh was to preside over, but he was arrested, so the responsibility fell upon Amir Alam Awan, a member of NBS Rawalpindi branch. The president-elect reached Amritsar on 9th August morning and was taken in a procession from the railway station by more than 3,000 people. The attendance in the conference was more than 5,000, Jawaharlal Nehru had attended it. One delegate, Avinash Chander Bali, resented Moti Lal Nehru’s action at a party meeting in Allahabad of disallowing a motion sympathising with Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt in their hunger strike. In his speech, Jawahar Lal Nehru highly commended the sacrifices of these heroes. Sardul Singh Caveeshar and Saifuddin Kitchlew had also attended the conference. A portrait of Madan Lal Dhingra, who was hanged in London for assassinating Curzon Wylie in 1909 and who belonged to Amritsar, was unveiled at the meet. An Indian leftist member of British Parliament, Shapurji Saklatvala, was in touch with NBS and used to send a lot of reading material to its members.
After Viceroy Lord Irwin’s train was bombed near Delhi on December 23, 1929, NBS activists Ram Kishan BA, Dhanwantri, Virender, Ahsan Elahi and Milkhi Ram were arrested from a Congress camp in Lahore. The NBS conference held on December 26 and 27, 1929 in Lahore under the presidentship of Suhasini Nambiar, sister of Sarojini Naidu, passed a number of resolutions including one congratulating Dhanwantri and others on their arrest! Another resolution was for expanding Naujawan Bharat Sabha to all-India level. Barbaric treatment given to Bhagat Singh and others in jail was strongly condemned. NBS conferences were generally held alongside Congress sessions and radical Congress leaders or delegates used to preside over NBS conferences as well.
On June 23, 1930, the government banned Naujawan Bharat Sabha, along with many other leftist organisations like the Kirti Kisan Party. As NBS was banned, a new alternative organisation in a slightly different name -- Hind Naujawan Sabha -- was formed with Babu Singh as president. The government arrested many activists as members of the new organisation, but courts acquitted them. Even when NBS was declared unlawful, it continued its activities under different names. The Bhagat Singh Appeal Committee was formed in early 1931. Its activities were spread across at least 15 cities of Punjab. Bhagat Singh Day was observed on February 17, throughout Punjab. Classes were disrupted in Lahore colleges. A procession of more than 15,000 people, largely students, was taken out in Lahore.
NBS, through the Bhagat Singh Appeal Committee, was also collecting signatures from all over Punjab and over one lakh signatures were collected opposing the death sentence to Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. Munshi Ahmad Din was elected president and Pindi Sodhi Das as general secretary of the Bhagat Singh Appeal Committee. After the Gandhi-Irwin Pact in March 1931, the ban on Naujawan Bharat Sabha and other organisations was lifted. As the day for the execution of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev approached, NBS stepped up its activities. On March 21, it organised a huge procession in Lahore and a public meeting was held outside Mori Gate.
On March 23, another huge procession was taken out and a hartal in Lahore was observed. About 15,000 people, including nearly 2,000 women, took part in a protest meeting outside Mori Gate on that day. Kishan Singh, father of Bhagat Singh, received a standing ovation from the gathering. By late evening, the procession reached the Ravi Banks in Lahore, where Mehta Anand Kishore presided over a meeting. By that time the news of the execution of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev reached and Kishan Singh addressed the meeting. Next Day, three pyres were built with the remains brought from the Sutlej River bank near Ferozepur and were properly cremated on the Ravi Banks. A 10,000-strong student procession led by Manmohini Zutshi, Sardul Singh and Ladha Ram Khwahish paraded in bazaars of Lahore, shouting slogans against the British. The Punjab Provincial Naujawan Bharat Sabha issued an appeal to build a memorial to three martyrs on the Ravi Bank Lahore. A committee of all eminent leaders of Punjab was formed for the purpose, but as Mahatma Gandhi refused to associate with the memorial, Congress leaders dragged their feet and the plans for the memorial were thwarted. In Karachi, NBS activists showed and handed over black roses to Mahatma Gandhi, which he accepted sheepishly. Naujawan Bharat Sabha had its own parallel session in Karachi, which was addressed by Subhas Chandra Bose.
Naujawan Bharat Sabha was subjected to massive government attack after the executions. Between April and August 1931, more than 100 NBS activists were arrested. After a year of severe repression, NBS was revived again in May 1932 when 17 representatives of the Sabha met and formed a seven-member organisation committee. The Sabha held its conference on 16TH July 1933 and demanded that political prisoners not be sent to Andamans and condemned repression on prisoners.
In 1934, the government banned Naujawan Bharat Sabha along with many other leftist organisations including the Communist Party of India. Many activists of NBS were arrested. That was the end of the Sabha after its one-decade glorious existence. Some activists formed the Punjab Socialist Party and some others joined other socialist platforms like Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) at the all-India level. However, in post-Independence India, a number of organisations with name as Naujawan Bharat Sabha, all having Bhagat Singh as the icon, cropped up in various parts of the country, though there is no one central organisation with units in all states. Naujawan Bharat Sabha, in its decade-old glorious existence, also encouraged and helped form Punjab Students Union, Bal Bharat Sabha and Bal Students Union as its sister organisations, which also played a seminal role in India’s freedom struggle.
Serious efforts were made to organise students, as Bhagat Singh had thought about the significance of student unions in educational institutions. First such union was formed under the leadership of Abdul Majid in 1928. In an interview to NMML, Abdul Majid told Dr. Haridev Sharma that he was the first president of Lahore Students’ Union. The conference was held in Lahore in October 1928 and he delivered the presidential address. At the suggestion of Lala Lajpat Rai, Mohammad Alam had presided over the conference, which was addressed by Subhas Chandra Bose as well as Jawaharlal Nehru. Mohammad Alam had delivered his famous address here with the phrase: Students should Live and Act Dangerously!
As the union later spread to other cities of Punjab, it was called Punjab Students’ Union also. The famous 1929 conference of Punjab Students’ Union was held in October again, in which Manmohini Zutshi was elected president. This conference was presided over by Subhas Chandra Bose and the message from Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt was read here. Punjab Students’ Union played a key role in awakening the youth. Even today some of the organisations in Punjab carry the name of PSU and Bhagat Singh as their icon.
Apart from Punjab Students Union, there was Bal Students’ Union. Dyanat Rai was its president. He was a Class 8 student of DAV School. Lala Lajpat Rai’s grandson Baldev Raj was his classmate. Baldev Raj was made secretary of Bal Students’ Union. Next year Brij Bhushan was elected its secretary. Dyanat Rai and Jai Prakash, another BSU activist were later arrested in the second Punjab Conspiracy Case and were sentenced to imprisonment.
Bal Bharat Sabha was formed in 1929 for those between the ages of 12 and 16 years. Kahn Chand was president and Yash its secretary. A total of 1,100-plus youngsters were convicted by the British government for participating in the freedom struggle, of whom nearly two hundreds belonged to Punjab.
Such was the fervour of 1930s in Punjab and the impact of Bhagat Singh and his associates. Children to youth were up in arms and the fear of the British government disappeared. (Concluded)
