The editor who refused to testify against Bhagat Singh, his associates

Vishav Bharti
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 20

“I consider it revolting to my conscience to answer any question or make any statement as a witness so long as the accused are not here to cross-examine me and scrutinise my statement,” replied prosecution witness No. 347 to the Special Tribunal constituted to try Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru in the Saunders murder case (later known as the Second Lahore Conspiracy Case).

About Rana Jang Bahadur Singh

Hailing from UP, at the young age of 16 he joined Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement. He was initiated into journalism in 1924-25 by Maulana Mohd Ali. During 1925-27, he edited Nation, a weekly from Lahore. Later, he joined The Tribune and served the newspaper for 21 years. Taking over as Editor in 1946 during the turbulent days of Partition, he boldly stood against communal forces.

The court wanted to know if revolutionary Bhagwati Charan Vohra had got the constitution of Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA) printed by The Tribune. The prosecution witness was shown draconian provisions of the Indian Penal Code, but he remained unfazed: “I am sorry I cannot answer the question. I cannot disobey my conscience.” The brave witness was The Tribune Assistant Editor Rana Jang Bahadur Singh. He, like the legendary Kalinath Ray, later served as Editor of The Tribune.

The tribunal wanted to know whether the newspaper had helped in printing the HSRA constitution. The document was later hailed as a vital intellectual contribution of the revolutionary movement to the freedom struggle. Later, Singh recalled that his stand was in consonance with the demand of justice. In an interview to The Cambridge University’s South Asian Archive in 1975, which was put in public domain recently, he said, “I appeared before the tribunal as a witness on behalf of The Tribune. I had decided not to give evidence because I had learnt that Sardar Bhagat Singh and his comrades had, for certain very convincing reasons of their own, refused to appear before that tribunal.”

He said he had gone prepared to undergo whatever penalty the tribunal prescribed for contempt of court. “Came back home happy that I had been able to respect the dictates of my conscience.” The simple episode, he said, was illustrative of the fact that everybody was then inspired by the wave triggered by the political action of these revolutionaries. “Even if I didn’t like the murder of the policeman, I could not reconcile myself to giving evidence against those who were on trial.”

Recounting his association with the revolutionaries, Rana Jang Bahadur Singh said many of them were frequent visitors to his house in Lahore’s Krishna Nagar. “Since I was a bachelor and my house was a very convenient place, they used to assemble there quite often. And I also remember that they had left a box. I never knew what it contained but it was after years, when I was married, that it was revealed to me that the box had explosives.”

Sharing his bond with martyr Bhagwati Charan Vohra, he said, “These young men, among whom Bhagat Singh towered, had set their heart on propagating their views.” Following her husband Bhagwati Charan Vohra’s death, Durga bhabhi stayed at Rana Jang Bahadur Singh’s house for three weeks, writes Kama Maclean, Associate Professor of South Asian and World History at University of New South Wales, Sydney. Shortly after, Durga Devi left Lahore, disguised in a burqa. When Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were executed on March 23, 1931, there were mass protests across India. “I feel the stellar role of Jang Bahadur Singh vis-a-vis martyr Vohra has gone unsung in history,” says Chandigarh-based chronicler of freedom movement Malwinderjit Singh Waraich.

“Vohra first took the manuscript to the editor of The Tribune for the purpose of being printed, but the editor concerned, having read its contents, declined to do so. Thereupon, it was taken to Lala Salig Ram, proprietor of Arorbans Press, Lahore, who printed it. The manifesto was one among the incriminating documents recovered from various houses occupied by the revolutionaries,” says Waraich.