Memorable Visit to Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha’s Ancestral Home after AIKS Punjab State Council Meeting

On 4 October 2024, an AIKS Punjab State Council meeting held at Ludhiana took several important decisions about both the movement and the organisation. The immediate decision was to convene a joint meeting of the CITU, AIKS, and AIAWU state leadership on 8 November to plan the maximum mobilisation in the SKM-CTU joint call for nationwide district level actions on 26 November.

After this meeting, an AIKS delegation visited the historic village of Sarabha in Ludhiana district, which has the ancestral house and memorial of immortal Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha of the Ghadar Party. Kartar Singh was born here on 24 May 1896 and was hanged by the British in Lahore jail at the tender age of 19 on 16 November 1915. Bhagat Singh considered Kartar Singh as his hero and carried his photo in his pocket.

Hanged along with Kartar Singh Sarabha in Lahore jail on the same day was another Ghadar Party hero Vishnu Ganesh Pingle, a 27-year old youth who hailed from Maharashtra.

It may be recalled that 16 years later on 23 March 1931, Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev Thapar, both from Punjab, were also joined on the gallows by another youth from Maharashtra, Shivram Hari Rajguru, all of them belonging to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association.

Those who visited Sarabha included AIKS president Dr Ashok Dhawale, finance secretary P Krishnaprasad, state vice president Sukhwinder Singh Sekhon, state general secretary Baljit Singh Grewal, state joint secretary Satnam Singh Braich, state council member Teja Singh Braich.

This was indeed a memorable visit. Kartar Singh’s ancestral house has the photos of, and brief information about, several inspiring martyrs of India’s freedom struggle. A statue of, and memorial to, Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha stands at the village crossroads.