Kishan Singh
+ Vidyawati
- Jagat Singh
- Bhagat Singh
- Amar Kaur
- Kulbir Singh
- Kultar Singh
- Sumitra (Prakash Kaur)
- Shakuntla
- Ranbir Singh
- Rajendra Singh
BILINGUAL EDITION
A family shaped by Punjab's social and freedom movements
This document traces Bhagat Singh's known paternal line, his parents and siblings, his revolutionary life, and the publicly documented continuation of his family legacy.
28 Sep 1907Birth
23 Mar 1931Martyrdom
Banga / LyallpurBirthplace in British India
01
Family Tree
The principal family line documented in published biographies.
Sardar Fateh Singh
Great-great-grandfather in the commonly reproduced family tree
Khem Singh
Son of Fateh Singh
Arjan Singh
Married Sardarni Jai Kaur
Ajit Singh
+ Harnam Kaur
Paternal uncle of Bhagat Singh
Swaran Singh
+ Hukam Kaur
Paternal uncle of Bhagat Singh
Genealogy note
The nine-child list above follows the family tree reproduced in M. M. Juneja's biography and other biographies based on family sources. Some modern web biographies give shorter or inconsistent lists.
02
Bhagat Singh: Full Biography
From childhood and education to revolutionary organisation, trial and martyrdom.
1907
Birth and family environment
Bhagat Singh was born in Banga village, Jaranwala tehsil, Lyallpur district, in British India, now in Pakistan. His parents were Kishan Singh and Vidyawati. The family had already been involved in social and anti-colonial activity.
1919
Jallianwala Bagh and political awakening
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre and the political atmosphere of Punjab became important influences on his generation. Accounts of his youth describe a growing interest in India's freedom struggle.
1923
National College, Lahore
He joined National College in Lahore, where he encountered political ideas, history, literature and theatre. He became increasingly involved in revolutionary circles.
1926
Naujawan Bharat Sabha
Bhagat Singh helped build youth political organisation in Punjab. The Naujawan Bharat Sabha promoted anti-colonial mobilisation and public education among young people.
1928
Lala Lajpat Rai and the Saunders case
After a police action during a protest against the Simon Commission, Lala Lajpat Rai died from injuries. Bhagat Singh and associates later participated in a plan aimed at killing the police officer believed responsible; J. P. Saunders was killed in Lahore in December 1928.
1929
Central Legislative Assembly bombing
On 8 April 1929, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw low-intensity bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi and deliberately stayed to be arrested. Their action was accompanied by slogans and leaflets.
1929
Jail hunger strike
Bhagat Singh and fellow prisoners protested prison conditions and demanded equal treatment for political prisoners. The hunger strike became a major part of the public campaign around the Lahore cases.
1930
Writings and political thought
His prison writings discussed revolution, socialism, religion, atheism, youth, imperialism and the future of society. His essay 'Why I Am an Atheist' is among his best-known writings.
1931
Trial and martyrdom
Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar were sentenced to death in the Lahore Conspiracy Case. They were executed in Lahore Jail on 23 March 1931.
03
Immediate Family
Short profiles of the principal members of the household and paternal branch.
Kishan Singh
Bhagat Singh's father. He belonged to a family involved in social reform and anti-colonial political activity and was imprisoned during the British period.
Vidyawati
His mother, remembered in family histories for raising her children through years of political repression, imprisonment and hardship.
Arjan Singh
Bhagat Singh's grandfather. Published biographies describe him as a respected village figure, practitioner of traditional medicine and supporter of social and political causes.
Jai Kaur
His grandmother. Family accounts describe her as active in community welfare and supportive of people involved in the freedom movement.
Ajit Singh
A prominent anti-colonial activist and Bhagat Singh's paternal uncle. He was involved in the 1907 agrarian agitation and later spent years outside India.
Swaran Singh
Bhagat Singh's other paternal uncle. He was imprisoned for anti-colonial activity and died young after suffering from tuberculosis.
04
Brothers and Sisters
The nine-child list used in the principal family-tree source.
1Jagat SinghElder brother; died young.
2Bhagat SinghRevolutionary; executed in 1931.
3Amar KaurYounger sister; later remembered for social and political activity.
4Kulbir SinghYounger brother.
5Kultar SinghYounger brother.
6Sumitra (Prakash Kaur)Younger sister; names vary across sources.
7ShakuntlaYounger sister.
8Ranbir SinghYounger brother.
9Rajendra SinghYounger brother.
05
Living Family: What Can Be Documented Publicly
A careful distinction between historical genealogy and current personal information.
Prof. Jagmohan Singh
Prof. Jagmohan Singh is publicly identified by SBS Punjabi and other media as Bhagat Singh's nephew, the son of his younger sister Amar Kaur. He has worked as a historian, writer and researcher on Bhagat Singh and his writings. SBS documented an interview with him in Melbourne in 2025.
No private home address, phone number, email or other sensitive personal details are included.
Why other living relatives are not listed as "current facts"
A family tree can contain many descendants, but current living status, residence and occupation require recent, reliable public documentation. Older websites and biographies contain conflicting names and relationships. This page therefore does not guess or publish unverified current details.
06
Important Family-History Points
Context that helps prevent common misunderstandings.
Bhagat Singh had no children
He was unmarried and left no direct descendants. People described as his "descendants" are descendants of his brothers or sisters.
Khatkar Kalan connection
The family is strongly associated with Khatkar Kalan in present-day Punjab, India, while Bhagat Singh was born in Banga in the Lyallpur area, now in Pakistan.
Names differ in sources
Spellings and forms such as Swaran/Swaran Singh, Rajendra/Rajinder Singh and Sumitra/Prakash Kaur appear in different publications. This page preserves variants where useful.
Living-person privacy
Only non-sensitive, publicly documented information is included about living family members. Exact addresses and private contact details are deliberately excluded.
07
Early Life, Education and Reading
How a politically-minded household and wide reading shaped a revolutionary thinker.
Schooling and Non-Cooperation
He first studied in his village and later at the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (D.A.V.) School in Lahore. During Gandhi's Non-Cooperation Movement he left the government school, and after the 1922 Chauri Chaura suspension he grew disillusioned with moderate politics.
National College, Lahore
In 1923 he joined National College, founded by Lala Lajpat Rai and Bhai Parmanand as an alternative to government education. There he met lifelong comrades such as Sukhdev Thapar and Bhagwati Charan Vohra and took part in debates and the college dramatic society.
A Voracious Reader
He read the histories of the French and Russian revolutions and the lives of Mazzini and Garibaldi, then the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Bakunin and Trotsky. The Dwarka Das Library in Lahore was a favourite haunt, and his reading moved him from general nationalism to a socialist critique of colonial rule.
Formative Influences
The Ghadar martyrs hanged in 1915, especially the young Kartar Singh Sarabha, became his heroes. The 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre left a deep mark; family accounts tell of him keeping vials of its blood-soaked earth. When his family arranged a marriage, he left home for Kanpur and wrote for the newspaper Pratap under names such as Balwant, Ranjit and Vidrohi.
08
The Road to Revolution
Organisation, action and deliberate self-sacrifice, step by step.
1926
Naujawan Bharat Sabha
In March 1926 he helped found the Naujawan Bharat Sabha in Lahore and became its general secretary. The youth organisation promoted revolutionary and socialist ideas, secularism and Hindu-Muslim unity, asking members to place the nation above religion and caste.
1927
First Arrest
In May 1927 he was arrested for the first time on suspicion of involvement in a bomb explosion in Lahore and released about five weeks later on a heavy security bond. The experience sharpened rather than weakened his resolve.
1928
The HSRA is Born
At a meeting at Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi in September 1928, the Hindustan Republican Association was reorganised as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, with Chandra Shekhar Azad as commander-in-chief. The word “Socialist” was added deliberately: the goal was not only the end of British rule but the end of the exploitation of man by man.
1928
Saunders and the Escape
After the lathi charge that led to Lala Lajpat Rai's death, the HSRA planned to kill Superintendent Scott but shot his assistant, J. P. Saunders, on 17 December 1928 by a case of mistaken identity. Bhagat Singh then cut his hair and beard and left Lahore in disguise, with Durgawati Devi (“Durga Bhabhi”) posing as his wife.
1929
Into the Assembly
On 8 April 1929, with Batukeshwar Dutt, he threw harmless bombs into the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi to protest the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Bill. They shouted “Inquilab Zindabad”, scattered leaflets and courted arrest, intending to turn the courtroom into a platform for their ideas. On 12 June 1929 both were sentenced to transportation for life.
1929
The 116-Day Hunger Strike
In jail they found Indian political prisoners were given worse food, clothing and facilities than European prisoners. From June 1929 Bhagat Singh fasted for 116 days demanding equal rights. Jatindra Nath (Jatin) Das died on 13 September 1929 after 63 days on the fast, drawing nationwide sympathy.
09
Comrades in the Struggle
The people who stood beside Bhagat Singh in the HSRA and shared his trial and fate.
Sukhdev Thapar
Born 15 May 1907 in Ludhiana and raised in Lyallpur, he studied at National College, helped found the Naujawan Bharat Sabha and was a key organiser of the HSRA in Punjab. He was hanged with Bhagat Singh on 23 March 1931.
Shivaram Rajguru
Born 24 August 1908 at Khed near Pune in Maharashtra, a Sanskrit student and skilled marksman, he fired the first shot in the Saunders operation. He was hanged alongside Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev at just twenty-three.
Chandra Shekhar Azad
Commander-in-chief of the HSRA and a leader of the earlier Kakori tradition, Azad helped cover the retreat during the Saunders action. He remained a symbol of defiance and died in a police encounter in Alfred Park, Allahabad, in 1931.
Batukeshwar Dutt
Bhagat Singh's partner in the Assembly bombing, Dutt threw the second bomb, joined the long hunger strike and co-signed the famous bomb statement in court. Sentenced to life, he survived the prisons and lived independent India.
10
Thought, Writings and Ideas
What made him more than a fighter: the revolutionary who wrote and reasoned.
Why I Am an Atheist
Written in prison, this essay answered a fellow prisoner who said his courage came from vanity. He argued that belief in God had often been used to justify inequality and that a revolutionary must stand on reason and conscience.
The Assembly Bomb Statement
Defending the Assembly action in the Delhi trial, he argued that force used for a just cause can be morally right and that revolution is not the cult of the bomb and pistol but the complete change of an unjust social order.
Letter to Young Political Workers
Addressed to the youth, it urged them to educate and organise workers and peasants rather than rely on isolated individual violence, marking his shift toward mass, socialist politics.
The Jail Notebook
Kept in Lahore Jail, it holds extracts from the books he read — Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Bakunin and others — along with reflections that reveal how seriously he studied political theory.
Articles in Kirti and Pratap
Writing in Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and English under pseudonyms, he wrote on anarchism, communalism, untouchability and revolution, warning against dividing Indians on religious lines.
The Last Letter
Days before the hanging he asked the Governor of Punjab to treat the accused as prisoners of war and to have them shot rather than hanged, saying that death did not frighten them but a rope did. He refused any mercy petition and rebuked even his own father for filing one.
11
Martyrdom, Memorials and Legacy
How a 23-year-old's death became a permanent symbol, and where he is remembered today.
The Execution
The hanging was fixed for 24 March but was brought forward by about eleven hours out of fear of unrest. On the evening of 23 March 1931 Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were hanged in Lahore Central Jail, reportedly calm and reading, Bhagat Singh pausing only to finish a chapter of a book on Lenin.
The authorities secretly cremated the three on the banks of the Sutlej near Ganda Singh Wala and scattered the ashes, so the families could not hold public rites.
Why “the great martyr”
Bhagat Singh is honoured as Shaheed-e-Azam not only for how he died but for how he lived and thought. He combined courage with study, faced death without asking for mercy, and left writings on socialism, secularism and reason that continue to shape political imagination across South Asia.
Shaheed Diwas, 23 March
23 March is observed in India as Martyrs' Day in memory of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, with an annual fair at Hussainiwala.
Hussainiwala Memorial
The National Martyrs Memorial stands on the Sutlej near Ferozepur, at the site of the secret cremation, and today lies close to the India-Pakistan border.
Khatkar Kalan Museum
The family's ancestral village in Nawanshahr district, Punjab, holds the Shaheed-e-Azam Sardar Bhagat Singh Memorial and Museum.
Honours and Remembrance
A bronze statue was unveiled in India's Parliament in 2008, the Chandigarh airport was named after him in 2015, and a 2008 India Today poll ranked him the greatest Indian. A famous 1929 film and later movies kept his story alive.
“Inquilab Zindabad”
The slogan “Long live the revolution”, coined by Hasrat Mohani and carried across India by Bhagat Singh and the HSRA, is still raised at protests and rallies — perhaps his most living legacy.
12
Sources and Research Notes
Sources used to establish the genealogy and current publicly documented family information.
- M. M. Juneja, Biography of Bhagat Singh - includes the reproduced family tree and nine-child list.
- SBS Punjabi, interview with Prof. Jagmohan Singh - identifies him as Bhagat Singh's nephew and discusses his historical research and work.
- Punjabijagran, interview with Prof. Jagmohan Singh, March 2026 - recent public documentation of his continuing work and public commentary.
- Scroll.in, biography feature on Bhagat Singh - background on the family and revolutionary period.
- Encyclopædia Britannica, "Bhagat Singh" - life, the Saunders case, the Lahore Conspiracy Case and execution.
- Press Information Bureau, Government of India - official profile of Bhagat Singh as a national freedom fighter.
- Wikipedia, "Bhagat Singh" - overview of the Naujawan Bharat Sabha, HSRA, hunger strike and writings.
- Marxists Internet Archive, collected writings of Bhagat Singh - primary texts including 'Why I Am an Atheist' and prison correspondence.
Research date: September 2026. Historical details may vary between sources; where a discrepancy exists, it is identified rather than silently resolved.