Shahid Diwas

Bihar Chief Minister recently said February 15 would henceforth be commemorated as “Shahid Diwas” in memory of the 34 freedom fighters who were killed by police in Tarapur town (now subdivision) of Bihar’s Munger district 90 years ago.

About the incident

On February 15, 1932, a group of young freedom fighters planned to hoist an Indian national flag at Thana Bhavan in Tarapur. Police were aware of the plan, and several officers were present at the spot. Around 2 pm, even as the police carried out a brutal lathicharge, one Gopal Singh succeeded in raising the flag at Thana Bhavan. A 4,000-strong crowd pelted the police with stones, injuring an officer of the civil administration.

The police responded by opening indiscriminate fire on the crowd. After about 75 rounds were fired, 34 bodies were found at the spot, even though there were claims of an even larger number of deaths.

Trigger for protest: The hanging of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru in Lahore on March 23, 1931, sent a wave of grief and anger around the country. Following the collapse of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, the Mahatma was arrested in early 1932. The Congress was declared an illegal organisation, and Nehru, Patel, and Rajendra Prasad were also thrown in jail.

The recognition: In 1967, during Bihar’s first non-Congress government led by Mahamaya Prasad Sinha, the Samyukta Socialist Party MLA from Tarapur, B N Prashant, first sought recognition for the freedom fighters. But it was only in 1984 that the government of Chandrashekhar Singh earmarked 100 square feet of land for a memorial in front of Thana Bhavan, and installed a marble plaque with the names of the 13 dead who are identified.