Dreams of Youth 81Singh and his comrades. There had been widespread expectation that
their death sentence would be commuted. Once it became clear to the
viceroy that Gandhi would not break the pact on this question, Bhagat
Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev were sent to the gallows.
The annual session of the Congress met at Karachi under the dark
shadow of this tragedy. In 1931, as Jawaharlal Nehru noted, Bhagat
Singh’s amazing popularity rivaled that of Gandhi. He was seen to have
defended Lala Lajpat Rai’s honor, and songs written about his exploits
soon turned him into a folk legend.^71 Subhas Chandra Bose found that
the twenty- three- year- old revolutionary had, upon his death, become
the symbol of the new awakening among India’s youth. The people
were not prepared to consider whether he was really guilty of the mur-
der charge brought against him; it was his fearless demeanor as a pris-
oner and his ability to rise above Punjab’s religious con flicts that im-
pressed them. The Karachi Congress passed a resolution praising the
courage and sac ri fice of Bhagat Singh and his comrades, while decrying
all acts of violence. It was similar to the Gopinath Saha resolution of
1924, which Gandhi had disapproved of; but in the atmosphere pre-
vailing in the country in 1931, it had to be swallowed by the votaries of
nonviolence.^72 The left wing within the party did not oppose the rati fi-
ca tion of the Gandhi- Irwin pact, though they were not happy with it
and won a commitment from the Congress to strive for the fundamen-
tal rights of the Indian people.
While in Karachi for the Congress meeting, Subhas Chandra Bose
was invited to preside over the second annual session of the All- India
Naujawan Bharat Sabha, a militant youth or ga ni za tion inspired by
Bhagat Singh. Bose clearly felt more at home in this radical com-
pany than among the Congress stalwarts, and enunciated his po lit i cal
philosophy in a forthright manner. He articulated the meanings of
five principles—justice, equality, freedom, discipline, and love—which
ought to “form the basis of our collective life.” Bolshevism he felt had
“many useful lessons for humanity,” but he did “not believe that ab-
stract principles could be applied in the same manner, form or degree
to different nations and countries.” He wanted the Indian variant to be
“a new form or type of socialism.” “While seeking light and inspiration
from abroad,” he told the radical youth, “we cannot afford to forget