A commemorative postage stamp on Shahid Vagat Singh, an Indian revolutionary, founder of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) :

Issued by India

Issued on Oct 19, 1968

Issued for : Bhagat Singh is dead but his martyrdom in the cause of the country’s liberation will be ever remembered. The Posts and Telegraphs Department feels privileged to issue a special postage stamp in honour of this great patriot.

Description of Design : The design of the stamp is horizontal and depicts portrait of Bhagat Singh in the silhouette background of procession of freedom fighters.

Type : Stamp, Mint Condition

Colour : Mineral Red

Denomination : 20 Paise

Overall Size : 3.91 X 2.90 cms.

Printing Size : 3.56 X 2.54 cms.

Perforation : 13 x 13

Watermark : Printed on unwatermarked paper

Number Printed : 20,00,000

Number per issue Sheet : 35

Printing Process : Photogravure

Designed and Printed at : India Security Press

Name : Bhagat Singh

Born on Sep 27, 1907 at Jaranwala Tehsil, Faisalabad, Punjab, British India [now in Pakistan]

Died on Mar 23, 1931 at Lahore, Punjab, British India [now in Pakistan]

About : 

• Long Live Revolution
  Down with Imperialism !
  As two bombs hurtled down from the visitors’ gallery to the floor of the Assembly Hall in Delhi on an April day of 1929, two youths started shouting their protests against the humiliation of their country by a foreign government. They declared that their object was to secure equal freedom for all and to end all exploitation. The two young men were Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Datta, members of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army. Their daring action took the country by storm and shook the prestige of the mighty British Empire. 
• Bhagat Singh was born in 1907 in a Sikh family. His father and uncles had participated in the freedom movement and suffered for it. Bhagat Singh’s revolutionary career may be said to have begun when he was still in his teens. While in college, he came under the influence of Bhai Paramananda and Jaychandra Vidyalankar made an exhaustive study of history, economics and politics. Works on the French Revolution, the American Revolution and the Italian Revolution were studied by him with passion. His imagination was thus fired with a longing to strive for the liberation of his motherland. Along with a few daring comrades from the Punjab, U.P., Bihar and Bengal, Bhagat Singh formed in 1928 the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army, which would devote itself to revolutionary acts against the foreign bureaucracy.
• An All-British Commission had been appointed about this time to study the constitutional problem of India. The exclusion of Indians from the Commission was much resented all over the country and wherever it went, it was boycotted and received with black flags. One such demonstration occurred at Lahore on 30^th October, 1928. Lala Lajpat Rai, the respected leader of the Punjab was leading a peaceful demonstration. The Government was however determined to make a show of strength. The magistrate ordered a lathi charge to disperse the crowd. A police officer struck Lala Lajpat Rai on the chest and as a result of the shock, the old lion of the Punjab died within a month (17^th November, 1928).
• Such a dastardly act was bound to lead to retaliation. The Hindustan Socialist Republican Army group took it upon itself to avenge the death of their revered leader. On the 17^th December, 1928, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, Saunders, was attacked in broad day light as he was leaving his office and killed on the spot. The attackers, chief among whom was Bhagat Singh, made good their escape. On the next day all over the city of Lahore appeared posters explaining why the attack was made.
• The group struck next on 8^th April, 1929 at Delhi. Bhagat Singh and his comrade Datta threw bombs in the Assembly Hall. They allowed themselves to be arrested and when arraigned before the Magistrate told him
  “Our sole purpose was to make the deaf hear and to give the headless a timely warning as we keenly feel that from under the seeming stillness of the sea of Indian humanity a veritable storm is about to break out. We have only hoisted the danger signal to warn those who are speeding along without heeding the grave danger ahead”.
• Bhagat Singh and his comrades of the Socialist Republican Army were put on trial on 10^th July, 1930 and after protracted hearings, were sentenced to punishments varying from death to imprisonment. Bhagat Singh was hanged on the 23^rd March, 1931.

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