Bhagat was an Indian nationalist and one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian Independence movement. He was only 23 when executed on the charge of murder, having already received a life sentence for bombing the Central Legislative Assembly. Pre-independence India had two rival approaches to the quest for freedom: one based on non-violent Gandhism, the other a Marxist revolutionary movement championed by Bhagat Singh. Had he lived, the history of the Indian sub-continent would have been very different. The British made use of a legislative power to make an Ordinance on the basis of "peace, order and good government" to try, convict, and hang, yet the Ordinance was never approved by the Central Assembly or the British Parliament, the three-judge Special Tribunal had to complete the hearing within a fixed period, and the 457 prosecution witnesses were not allowed to be cross-examined. There are now moves afoot to grant him an official pardon.