The Tricolour was nowhere to be seen in Nalgara on the eve of Independence Day. In fact, there were no displays of patriotism in the village which was a hideout and bomb-making centre for Bhagat Singh during India’s freedom movement.
Today the village is part of Sector 145 here, halfway on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, with swanky residential towers looming in the vicinity and cars zooming past. Once the area was a thick forest land where Bhagat Singh would plan his attacks. Residents still remember the old tales passed down from fathers and grandfathers.
Sixty-five-year Manjeet Kaur has lived in the village since 1963. She recalled her father-in-law Karnail Singh’s stories of how he fought alongside Bhagat Singh and was even forced to flee when discovered by the British.
Among her treasured possessions is a bundle of photographs of Karnail Singh with Subhas Chandra Bose and members of the Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj), and a conical bomb mould, which the family later turned into an incense stand.
“Unfortunately, the photos with Bhagat Singh got lost. These pictures are all we have of those days. They were found buried in the ground by my father-in-law when he returned after a decade,” she explained.
In the nearby gurdwara, another memory of the freedom struggle rests under the shade of a tree. The large rock, with a spherical hole carved in the middle, was used by Bhagat Singh and company to mix gunpowder, which then went into the bomb mould.
The granthi (priest) at the gurdwara, Dilbag Singh, says he found the rock covered in mud two years ago. “It was in a house on the land of Kalicharan Sharma, Bhagat Singh’s cook. He fled with Bhagat Singh, but never returned,” he explained.
A resident of the village, Nirmal Singh, said though his family moved to the area in 1946, tales of its past have been shared with all. “My neighbours would tell me about how Bhagat Singh threw his weapons and coin-making machine into the Hindon river as the British approached,” he said.
The area offered the perfect hideout for the freedom fighters. “With the Hindon and the Yamuna on either side, it offered security to Bhagat Singh. He would have had to swim to get here from Delhi as there were no bridges,” said another local, Bijender Arya.
A legend that everyone in the village believes to be true is that the bombs thrown in the Central Legislative Assembly by Bhagat Singh in 1929 were made in Nalgara. “My father-in-law also told me that all the plots for Delhi and U.P. were planned here,” said Manjeet Kaur.
Unfortunately, the villagers said, successive governments have forgotten history of the area. Multi-storeyed houses have come up on the spot where Bhagat Singh’s hut was. The Noida Authority has recently allocated 10 acres of land for a park and a museum in Bhagat Singh’s honour, but it seems too little too late.
“The file has been pending for years, though the authority has sanctioned Rs.25 crore. The land use has to be changed since it was earmarked for a special economic zone,” said Vinod Pradhan, the headman of five villages, including Nalgara.
Though younger generations don’t have memories of the days when Nalgara hosted Bhagat Singh, his legacy lives on. His secular ideals are on show in the village which has a mix of different religions and castes.
“Even during Partition the communities worked together to make sure no one was affected. The government may have forgotten us, but we have peaceful lives,” said Manjeet Kaur.
Published - August 16, 2014 08:24 am IST
