Remembering Batukeshwar Dutt - Unsung Hero

 Today in History

Death Anniversary | July 20, 1965

While India celebrates the revolutionary Bhagat Singh, his comrade was somehow forgotten despite being part of the legendary smoke-bombing of Legislative Assembly.

Batukeshwar Dutt and Bhagat Singh, both stayed after the bombings and accepted imprisonment to get their voices heard. In fact, Dutt did not even throw the bomb but stayed to be with Singh till the end.

Chaman Lal in his compilation of ‘The Jail Notebook and Other Writings”, writes -
“It was clear from the beginning that these bombs were to be harmless, not designed to kill or injure anyone, but to create an explosion that would make the deaf hear...Bhagat Singh and BK Dutta threw the bombs over the empty seats in the Central Assembly, threw the historic pamphlets ‘To Make the Deaf Hear’ and shouted slogans: ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ and ‘Samrajyavaad ka naash ho’ (down with imperialism).”

Furious with the unfair treatment of Indian prisoners in British jails, these two revolutionaries sat on a hunger strike to demand basic rights from the authorities and succeeded in securing some of them.

Bhagat Singh was hanged for shooting a british officer while BK Dutt was released but he soon joined the Quit India movement started by Mahatma Gandhi. Once again he was imprisoned.

Many freedom fighters were honoured after independence but Dutt did not get his due. Forced to live in poverty, he passed away in 1965. 

Let's keep his memory alive and remember him as a loyal friend and a fierce freedom fighter.