द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

SIGNS OF COMING UPHEAVAL 185
Bharat Sabha) in the Punjab, and the fearless and defiant
attitude adopted by him and his comrades, after their arrest
and during their trial, made a deep impression on the public.
Moreover, Sardar Bhagat Singh came from a well-known
patriotic family—being a nephew of Sardar Ajit Singh, who
had been deported to Burma in 1909 along with Lala Lajpat
Rai. The Naujawan Bharat Sabha was first started as a
thorough-going nationalist movement, in order to fight com-
munalism and religious fanaticism in the Punjab. If the
official allegations are to be believed, the Sabha developed
into a revolutionary organisation and some members of the
Sabha also went in for terrorist activities. Whatever the truth
or otherwise of the allegations may be, there is no doubt that
the Sabha developed a frankly Socialistic tendency. And
incidentally it may be remarked that all youth organisations
in the Punjab have a strong Socialist bent. In March 1931,
when a session of the All-India Naujawan Bharat Sabha was
held at Karachi, members of the Punjab Naujawan Bharat
Sabha openly declared that they were against terrorism and
that they believed in mass action on Socialist lines.
Soon after their arrest, the Lahore Conspiracy Case prisoners,
headed by Sardar Bhagat Singh, made a demand that they
should be accorded better treatment than ordinary criminals
on the ground that they were political prisoners and under
trial, who should be deemed to be innocent until they were
actually convicted. After trying the usual constitutional
methods, when they found that no remedy was forthcoming,
they resorted to hunger-strike. Among the prisoners was a
young man from Calcutta Mr. Jatindra Nath Das, who was at
first rather averse to hunger-strike because he regarded it as
a dangerous game to play. The enthusiasm of the rest forced
him to join the strike but before doing so, he warned them
that come what may, he would not turn back until their
demands were fully conceded. There was an intense agitation
throughout the country over the hunger-strike and there was
a public demand that the Government should remedy their
just grievances and thereby save their lives. When the
condition of the prisoners grew serious, the Government
made half-hearted attempts at compromise. For instance,