The nation celebrates March 23 as Pakistan Day as the two major events pivotal to Pakistani identity. Not only is it the day the Pakistan Resolution was passed but also the day Pakistan was declared a republic for the first time.

However, in the larger context of Indian independence, the day carries significance for another reason as well.

Indian revolutionary Bhagat Singh was hanged in Lahore’s central jail on March 23, 1931. Singh was only 23 years old at the time.

After being arrested for the murder of police officer J.P. Saunders and hurling bombs at the legislative assembly, Singh was hanged in Lahore. However, his legacy stands for more than just the slogan of ‘inquilaab zindabad’.

Although Indian independence from British rule would take another 16 years of tumultuous changes, Singh’s work had a huge impact on the shape that the struggle took.

Indian historians, such as Syed Irfan Habib, have argued that Singh and his organisation were one of the first to call for an India completely independent of British rule, while the larger Indian parties tried to negotiate a limited transfer of power.

Although, Singh’s idea of ‘independent republic labourers and peasants of the whole of India’ was not materialised as he envisioned, the country did eventually throw of the shackles of colonialism.

Later works have also revealed that Singh was more than just a firebrand nationalist who did not shy away from violence to make the deaf hear. In jail Bhagat Singh, was known to have read as much as he could. A friend would later say that Singh ‘was always seen with a book in English in his hands and a dictionary in his pocket’.

His writings espouse a worldview of pluralism, inclusion and socialism that he thought would cure the world of its ills. The ideas that he elaborated still carry the weight of his convictions.

Today, his house in Faisalabad’s Bhangay village, has been restored as a place of national heritage by the Pakistan government.