During 1920, Akali Sikhs had launched an agitation to reform the working of Sikh Gurudwaras. The Gurudwaras were being treated as private properties by their priests who were mostly British proteges. They were protected and supported by the colonial administration.
Gurudwaras used to collect crores of rupees through the daily offerings of the devotees which was being spent on private luxuries, merry making and extravaganza of the priests. Most of the Sikhs wanted that money to be spent on public welfare schemes. For that purpose Akalis had launched an agitation.
To make the agitation fiercer Akalis decided to shift their headquarter from Nankana Sahib to Jaiton. It worried the British. They wanted to put a fanner in the Akali works.
One of the Akali bands of agitators was to pass through Banga village on way to Jaiton. The task of according reception to this band was given to Sardar Kishan Singh. He passed on the responsibility to Bhagat Singh as he had to go to Bombay on some urgent business.
Bhagat Singh accepted the challenge.
Meanwhile, the administration asked one of its stooges of Banga village named Dilbagh Singh to see to it that the band did not get any support in his village. He announced to the villagers that anyone welcoming Akalis into the village would be in deep trouble and banishment would be his fate. A police batch was also there to help him.
Bhagat Singh arrived in the village. He met people and asked them to send food and all other things required to honour Akalis to his house quietly. And he told everyone to come out to receive the Akali band when it arrived. The people were with him.
The Akali band arrived. It was the month of March, 1924. Bhagat Singh was there to receive it with some of his friends inspite of the police presence and Dilbagh Singh’s threats.
As the Akali slogans rant the air, the people came out of their homes to give a rousing reception to the band. Akalis were so pleased and enthused that they stayed in Banga for three days. A meeting was also organised in which Bhagat Singh gave the first speech of his life in which he roundly condemned the foreign rule and called upon the people to fight for the liberation of the country and socialism. He was lustily cheered.
The success of Bhagat Singh was a slap on the face of Dilbagh Singh who incidentally happened to be kin of Bhagat. To settle scores he got a warrant issued against Bhagat on trumped up charges.
Later, one of the friends of Bhagat found him shedding tears at night on the roof top. It was revealed that he felt like weeping at the disunity among his countrymen where a brother was at the throat of his own brother. The incident had so affected him.
To evade the arrest Bhagat slipped away to Delhi where he found a job with daily ‘Veer Arjun’ on the strength of his stint with ‘Pratap’ of Kanpur. He used the earlier pen name ‘Balwant Singh’. On the side, he maintained contact with Kanpur revolutionaries and was planning a militant network in Punjab.
Then, Kanpur area got flooded with Ganga water. Thousands were rendered homeless. Bhagat Singh ran to Kanpur to undertake flood relief works which he did with single minded devotion. During this period he suspended all his revolutionary activities.
The flood relief work over, he found the revolutionary outfit in bad shape. There was no money. To raise funds the revolutionaries committed decoities. In some raids Bhagat also took part. He was very shattered to see some of his comrades indulge in gruesome acts and terror tactics. It pinched his conscience.
Meanwhile the warrant against him got cancelled. He decided to return to Lahore. Back on his home ground he gathered up his friends and like minded people.
With the cooperation of his comrades Bhagat Singh founded ‘Young India Forum’ which became popular in a short time. The country was in throes of communal riots. The Central Assembly elections were on. Sardar Kishan Singh was fighting the election on Congress ticket. He was being opposed by Lala Lajpat Rai who was from newly formed party ‘Independent Congress’. Bhagat Singh managed the election campaign of his father.
Meanwhile, ‘Young India Forum’ was going from strength to strength. A number of well known revolutionaries were swelling its ranks. It opened up branches in other parts of the country.
The forum was dead set against the British. The young revolutionaries and stormy petrels of the forum were worrying the administration. Then, the forum decide to celebrate Kartar Singh Sarabha’s day of hanging as ‘Martyr Day’.
In an open ground a huge portrait of Sarabha was displayed. A white sheet of Khaddar was draped over it. Some prominent female activists of the Forum applied Tilak to Sarabha with the blood, oozing from their slit little fingers. The symbolic act sent the patriotic feelings of the crowd surging skyhigh.
The news unsettled the British authorities. Young India Forum was becoming a thorn in their flesh.
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