A biography for Bhagat Singhhasn’t been written yet.
“I am still not at all in favour of offering any defence. Even if the court had accepted that petition submitted by some of my co-accused regarding defence, etc., I would not have defended myself.”
“Our entire family is replete with sentiments of patriotism. Uncle Swarna Singh left for his heavenly abode in jail in 1910, two or three years after my birth. Uncle Ajit Singh is leading the life of an exile in foreign countries.”
“L. Ram Saran Das was sentenced to death in 1915, and the sentence was later commuted to life transportation. Today myself, sitting in the condemned cell, I can let the readers know as authoritatively that the life-imprisonment is comparatively a far harder lot than that of death.”
“Every tiny molecule of Ash is in motion with my heat I am such a Lunatic that I am free even in Jail.”
“In the statement accompanying the text of Lahore Conspiracy Case Ordinance, the Viceroy had stated that the accused in this case were trying to bring both law and justice into contempt. The situation afforded us an opportunity to show to the public whether we were trying to bring law into contempt or whether others were doing so.”
“Those revolutionaries who have, by chance, escaped the gallows should live and show to the world that they cannot only embrace gallows for the ideal but also bear the worst type of tortures in the dark, dingy prison cells.”
“Let me announce, with all the strength at my command, that I am not a terrorist and I never was, expect perhaps in the beginning of my revolutionary career. And I am convinced that we cannot gain anything through those methods.”
“L. Ram Saran Das was a member of the revolutionary party which was held responsible for many a violent deed. But this by no means proves that revolutionaries are bloodthirsty monsters, seeking pleasure in destruction.”
“This is not the time to marry. My country is calling me. I have taken a vow to serve the country with my heart and soul.”
“Revolution did not necessarily involve sanguinary strife. It was not a cult of bomb and pistol. They may sometimes be mere means for its achievement.”
“'Study' was the cry that reverberated in the corridors of my mind. Study to enable yourself to face the arguments advanced by opposition. Study to arm yourself with arguments in favor of your cult. I began to study.”
“My applications submitted to the Tribunal regarding my interview during the hunger strike were misinterpreted, and it was published in the press that I was going to offer defence, though in reality I was never willing to offer any defence.”
“I have altogether failed to comprehend as to how undue pride or vain-gloriousness could ever stand in the way of a man believing in God.”
“There is tension all over the country. The party in Bengal has done substantial work. They have eliminated a few officers. The Englishmen are terrified. As a result, they have started sending their families to Britain. After some time, they will realise that they cannot exercise authority over India.”
“I never had any desire to defend myself, and never did I seriously think about it.”
“Compromise is not such ignoble and deplorable a thing as we generally think. It is rather an indispensable factor in the political strategy. Any nation that rises against the oppressors is bound to fail in the beginning and to gain partial reforms during the medieval period of its struggle through compromises.”
“In the future society, i.e. the communist society that we want to build, we are not going to establish charity institution, as there shall be no needy or poor, and no alms-giving and alms-taking.”
“I will climb the gallows gladly and show to the world as to how bravely the revolutionaries can sacrifice themselves for the cause.”
“The martyrdom of Lalaji has shaken the Congressmen. Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru is planning something solid to be presented for adoption in the coming session of the Congress, but I am not sure if he would be able to do something.”
“I have always been of opinion that all the political workers should be indifferent and should never bother about the legal fight in the law courts and should boldly bear the heaviest possible sentences inflicted upon them. They may defend themselves but always from purely political considerations and never from a personal point of view.”