Sacrifice of Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru, Sukhdev Thapar

• Martyrs’ Day or Shaheed Divas is also commemorated on March 23 to remember the sacrifice of three extraordinary revolutionaries of India – Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru, Sukhdev Thapar.
• Every year, this day is observed to pay homage to the unsung heroes of our nation and the freedom fighters who laid their lives for independent, sovereign and liberal India.
• Revolutionary nationalists such as Bhagat Singh and his comrades wanted to fight colonial rule and the rich exploiting classes through a revolution of workers and peasants. 

Hindustan Socialist Republican Association in 1928 at Ferozeshah Kotla, Delhi

• For this purpose, they founded the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in 1928 at Ferozeshah Kotla in Delhi.  

Death of Lala Lajpat Rai

Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were deeply affected by the death of Lala Lajpat Rai in a non-violent protest against the Simon Commission on October 30, 1928.

Assassinated Saunders

• Members of the HSRA assassinated Saunders, a police officer who had led a lathi charge that caused the death of Lala Lajpat Rai.

Bomb in Central Legislative Assembly, on 8th April 1929

Along with his fellow nationalist B.K. Dutt, Bhagat Singh threw a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly on 8 April 1929.  The aim, as their leaflet explained, was not to kill but, “to make the deaf hear”, to remind the foreign government of its callous exploitation.  The trio – Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru, Sukhdev Thapar lost their lives on March 23 in 1931 during the struggle for India’s independence and that day in history is celebrated as Martyrs’ Day.  The trio of heroes was hanged to death by the British on the charges of assassinating British officer John Saunders in 1928 and were cremated on the banks of the Sutlej River. Bhagat Singh was tried and executed at the age of 23. The revolutionary ideas and spirit of these three were an inspiration to the youth during the freedom struggle. 

February 2026

The forgotten Sukhdev's House

A memorial exists at Hussainiwala, where the ashes of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev were secretly disposed of by the colonial state.

Sukhdev was born on May 15, 1907, in Nouggara Mahalla in the old city of Ludhiana. The Mahalla derived its name from the nine houses built in a cluster by Thapar families near the city's commercial hub. Many migrated to Riyalpur, now in Pakistan.

Lala Chintram, a cousin of Sukhdev's father Ram Lal, established a business and called Ram Lal to join him. They set up a commission agency in the grain market.

Ram Lal died in 1910. Sukhdev's younger brother, Matra Das, was born three months later. Sukhdev was raised by his Tayaji, Lala Chint Ram, with his cousins, Parkash Chand, Gowran Devi, Krishna, Jaydev, and Krishanlal.

Gowran Devi, older than Sukhdev, virtually brought him up. Sukhdev's birthplace required a public interest litigation to rescue it.

In 1922 he passed matriculation from SP High School-Layalpur and enrolled at National College, Lahore, against his guardian's wishes.

He met Bhagat Singh, Yashpal, and Bhagwati Charan Vohra in the college.

Justice G.C. Hilton, pronouncing the sentence of death, described Sukhdev as the central figure of the revolutionary movement in Punjab. He recruited members between 1927 and 1928, served on a central committee, headed the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association in Punjab, provided two plans (from the Punjab National Bank raid to the assassination of J.P. Saunders), participated in bomb-making at Agra and Lahore, and was fully aware of the decision regarding the assembly bomb.

Stated that Sukhdev was the brain of the conspiracy while Bhagat Singh was his right arm, and sentenced to be hanged by the neck till death.

Sukhdev was the organizational linchpin of the movement in Punjab.

After the Saunders assassination the problem of the funds largely disappeared, as noted by Sukhdev.

Revolutionary Shiv Verma remembered how Sukhdev clothed others before clothing himself.

Once, fearing that the tattoos on his arm, his name and om, could endanger the group, he applied nitric acid to burn them away, badly injuring himself. When asked about this he said he wanted to test the threshold of his capacity to bear the pain. On another occasion he drank half a bottle of brandy to understand why people liked it so much.

Bhagat Singh was not the first choice for the assembly action but it was Sukhdev who insisted that he be sent because he understood that the bomb itself was not the climax; the courtroom would be. Sukhdev believed only Bhagat Singh was fully equipped.

In 2007 advocate SC Arora filed a PIL in the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking protection of Sukhdev's ancestral house. PIL stated that the house had been declared a protected monument under the Panjab Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1964 but the court disposed of the petition on July 17, 2007.

Shaheed Sukhdev Yadgar Committee, Ludhiana, placed a statue of the martyr outside the house and reconstructed its front portion, thereby saving it from collapse.

Who were the relatives allegedly opposing the protection mentioned in the state affidavit and recorded in the judgement? Sukhdev and Matra Das were Ramlal's only sons. Matra Das, who later settled in Hapur, died issue-less though he and his wife had an adopted daughter.

In May 2008, the Tribune reported that the house had finally been notified as protected but the Shahid Sukhdev Thapar Memorial Trust objected, claiming it had vacated the tenant and spent money on restoration. The trust president expressed anger at the government's move even though he did not legally own the property.

Initially only the ground floor, which contains two small rooms and a narrow passage where Sukhdev was born, was protected. Full protection came only in November 2014 when the entire building was notified as a protected monument. For years a proposal to acquire a narrow strip of land to create access from Chaura Bazar remained trapped in the administrative limbo. Only in 2021 did the process finally move forward.

Sukhdev's birth place survives not because we were vigilant but because someone intervened in time. It is a deep cultural failing. Preserving such places is not an act of piety but of historical honesty.