Forgotten Memoirs of Bhagat Singh's Brother Uncovered After Decades

In a remarkable discovery, a trove of handwritten notes by Bhagat Singh's brother Ranbir Singh has been uncovered in the town of Rampura Phul, Bathinda, some 200 kilometers west of Chandigarh. The yellowed papers, written mostly in Urdu, were collected from Bhagat Singh's nephew, Major General Sheonan Singh (retd), and are now part of the treasured collection of the local public library.

Ranbir Singh, who was just 6-7 years old when Bhagat Singh was executed in 1931, began chronicling his brother's life in the early 1940s. The notes trace Bhagat Singh's journey from his childhood in Chak 105 Bangay to the events leading up to his sacrifice. Ranbir also collected documents related to Bhagat Singh's trial.

After Ranbir's death in 1988, the papers were passed on to his son, the renowned Para Commando officer Major General Sheonan Singh. Now, a professor has decided to have the documents translated and published in English, Punjabi, and Hindi, offering a rare glimpse into the family's perspective on this iconic freedom fighter.

Bhagat Singh's niece, Gurjit Kaur, was overwhelmed with emotion as she leafed through the documents for the first time, saying, "Even though my maternal uncle had jotted down these a long time ago and these remained with my cousin, I am seeing these for the first time."