Shaheed Bhagat Singh:
An Immortal Revolutionary - (28.09.1907- 23.03.1931) - Ashok Dhawale
Human history from the times of Charvaka and Spartacus is illuminated with a galaxy of shining martyrs who have died for noble and progressive causes dearer to them than their own lives. In the modern age, the greatest martyrs have been those who laid down their lives fighting the barbaric scourge of imperialism.
On a world scale, the life and work of Che Guevara, who along with Fidel Castro led the Cuban Revolution and his death at the hands of American imperialism in the jungles of Bolivia on October 9, 1967 while he was spreading the call of revolution in Latin America, has become a powerful beacon in the anti-imperialist struggle.
On a sub-continental scale, the life and work of Bhagat Singh and his death by hanging at Lahore at the hands of British imperialism on March 23, 1931, has been a great saga of inspiration to all those who cherish sovereignty, secularism and socialism – ideals for which Bhagat Singh and his comrades fought valiantly to the end.
BORN : 28th September 1907 at Lyallpur, Punjab, British India
MARTYRDOM :23rd March1931 at Lahore, Punjab, British India
Bhagat Singh was born into a Jatt Sandhu family to Sardar Kishan Singh Sandhu and Vidyavati in the Khatkar Kalan village near Banga in the Lyallpur district of Punjab. Singh's given name of Bhagat means "devotee". He came from a patriotic Sikh family, some of whom had participated in movements supporting the independence of India and others who had served in Maharaja Ranjit Singh's army. His grandfather, Arjun Singh, was a follower of Swami Dayananda Saraswati's Hindu reformist movement, Arya Samaj, which would carry a heavy influence on Singh. His uncles, Ajit Singh and Swaran Singh, as well as his father were members of the Ghadar Party, led by Kartar Singh Sarabha Grewal and Har Dayal. Ajit Singh was forced to flee to Persia because of pending cases against him while Swaran Singh was hanged on December 19, 1927 for his involvement in the Kakori train robbery of 1925.
MAIN CURRENTS IN THE NATIONAL MOVEMENT
The freedom of India from nearly two centuries of oppressive and exploitative British colonial rule was the cumulative result of a complex mosaic of four different currents that coexisted, often confronted and sometimes coordinated with one another. These were:
1. The current of armed struggles and peasant revolts that began with the Sannyasi-Fakir rebellion of 1760, encompassed the First War of Indian Independence of 1857, included the several groups of valiant armed freedom fighters throughout the country and ended with the revolt of the Royal Indian Navy ratings in 1946. All these armed struggles and peasant revolts were brutally crushed by the British, but some of them succeeded in shaking the British Raj to its roots.
2. The Indian National Congress, led by Mahatma Gandhi, which managed to establish its hegemony over the national movement after 1920. While the Congress succeeded in mobilizing millions of the Indian people in non-violent upsurges against British rule, its bourgeois-landlord class leadership saw to it that these upsurges never crossed the boundary line to a radical agrarian revolution. Class struggle was, of course, anathema to the Congress, but it did adopt a broadly secular approach.
3. The Communist Party of India, which was formed in 1920, was the first to advocate the goal of complete independence in the Ahmedabad Congress session in 1921. Braving ban orders and massive repression of the British, the Communists plunged into the freedom movement and also organized workers and peasants for heroic class struggles, the pinnacle of which was the Telangana armed peasant revolt. Staunchly secular, the Communists were also the first to put forth the goal of socialism.
4. The social reform movement against caste and gender oppression that was led in various parts of the country by stalwarts like Raja Rammohan Roy, Mahatma Jotirao Phule, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, Narayan Guru, E V Ramaswamy Naicker (Periyar) and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. The social reformers fought for freedom with social justice as one of its cardinal planks, an end to centuries of inhuman social oppression and the annihilation of the caste system itself.
There was a fifth current as well, but it was ranged directly against the national movement. This was the current of communalism. Not only did it never oppose the colonial rulers, but on the contrary it consistently helped British imperialism to execute its ‘Divide and Rule’ policy. It was represented by the Muslim League on the one hand, and by the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha on the other. This current was socially reactionary, it led to constant communal clashes and it eventually resulted in the violent partition of India on the one hand, and in the dastardly assassination of Mahatma Gandhi on the other.
THE DISTINCTIVENESS OF BHAGAT SINGH AND HIS COMRADES
Bhagat Singh and his comrades belonged to the first current of armed anti-imperialist fighters. Their glorious struggle against British imperialism assumed legendary proportions. But their truly distinctive feature was that, amongst the large galaxy of thousands of armed freedom fighters spread over two centuries of the freedom struggle, it was Bhagat Singh and his comrades alone who were inexorably moving ideologically towards the third current – of Marxian socialism and the Communist Party. It is therefore no accident that comrades of Bhagat Singh like Shiv Verma, Kishori Lal, Ajoy Ghosh, Bejoy Kumar Sinha and Jaidev Kapur became leaders of the Communist movement after their release from British jails.
Bhagat Singh and his colleagues were also conscious of the need for social justice and the overthrow of the caste system. They were bitter and uncompromising enemies of communalism in all its forms. And they were inveterate opponents of the bourgeois-landlord class strategy and tactics of the Congress Party and its leadership that were exhibited in ample measure throughout the course of the national movement.
The distinctiveness of Bhagat Singh in the revolutionary firmament of the national movement has been well captured by B.T. Ranadive in his Foreword to the Selected Writings of Shaheed Bhagat Singh edited by Shiv Verma. He writes:
The name of Bhagat Singh and his comrades has secured a permanent place in the minds of the Indian people. No other revolutionary of those days struck such a deep feeling of sympathy, solidarity and oneness among the people. Bhagat Singh and his comrades became part of the people’s consciousness, the symbol of their aspirations and prestige, the symbol of the fight to put an end to enslavement. . . .
Punjab, Bengal and to some extent Maharashtra had earlier seen a large number of revolutionaries with unparalleled courage and capacity for self-sacrifice. They walked to the gallows with their head erect; they braved the horrors of the Andamans for years with unbending spirit. Their memory is no doubt cherished.
But they were challenging the empire at a time when the Indian masses had yet to move into political action. Their sacrifices did not become part of the common consciousness of the vast multitude that faced British lathis and rifles during the national movement in the succeeding years. On the other hand, Bhagat Singh and his comrades were in action when the masses were on the move, when every anti-British action drew their approbation. Their ultimate sacrifice, therefore, put a permanent impress on the consciousness of the Indian people…
Bhagat Singh went on churning his thoughts and preceded more and more towards a better understanding of the Marxist stand on the issues facing the country. It may be stated without contradiction that his opinion on many national issues, his estimation of the national leadership and its weaknesses, were more or less in conformity with the views and opinions of the leaders of the Communist movement who were building their strength among the workers. His writings on various topics and his letters to his colleagues reveal his growing reliance on the Marxist outlook. It is no surprise that he declared himself an atheist and poured ridicule on the concept of a world created by a Supreme Being. His writings show a remarkable ability to merge with the subject under discussion and grasp the essence of points of dispute. They are permeated with an unfathomable sense of dedication to the cause of independence and freedom, to the cause of socialism. His study of Communist literature, of Lenin, led him to understand that India’s struggle for freedom was part of the international working class struggle for socialism.
Pattabhi Sitaramayya, the official historian of the Congress, wrote that “it is no exaggeration to say that at that moment Bhagat Singh’s name was as widely known all over India and was as popular as Gandhi’s.” In the same vein, a confidential Intelligence Bureau report of the British government, Terrorism in India (1917-1936) declared about Bhagat Singh that “for a time, he bade fair to oust Mr. Gandhi as the foremost political figure of the day.”
A.G. Noorani concludes his book The Trial of Bhagat Singh – Politics of Justice with the words: “What distinguished Bhagat Singh from all others, besides his courage, patriotism and commitment to moral values, was his intellectual strength. A voracious reader, he was also willing to rethink. He had the capacity to brood and to torment his soul over the past. That led him to renounce terrorism, and to advise the young to follow suit; indeed, to counsel moderation and readiness to compromise. He was only 23 when he was hanged. On his death, Indian leaders vied with one another in lavishing praise on him. One wonders how many of them knew then that they had lost a man who, had he lived, might have had an incalculable impact on the course of India’s politics.”
EARLY INFLUENCES: GHADAR MARTYRS AND JALLIANWALA BAGH
Bhagat Singh was born to Vidyavati and Kishan Singh on September 28, 1907, in the village Banga in Lyallpur district, now in Pakistan. His original village Khatkar Kalan is in Jalandhar district. He hailed from a patriotic family. His uncle Ajit Singh, along with Lala Lajpat Rai, was exiled to Mandalay jail in Burma by the British for leading a powerful peasant agitation against the hike in land revenue and canal taxes. At the time of Bhagat Singh’s birth, his father Kishan Singh and his other uncle Swarn Singh, were also in jail due to their nationalist activities, and were released soon after. In such an atmosphere, Bhagat Singh naturally imbibed patriotic sentiments. He especially adored his exiled uncle Ajit Singh.
While Bhagat Singh was in school, Punjab was rocked by the hanging of seven Ghadar martyrs by the British on November 16 and 17, 1915, in the First Lahore Conspiracy Case. Prominent among them were Kartar Singh Sarabha from Punjab and Vishnu Ganesh Pingle from Maharashtra. The young Bhagat Singh was deeply moved by the heroic saga and sacrifice of Kartar Singh Sarabha, who was just 20 years old when he was hanged. Bhagat Singh always carried a photo of Sarabha in his pocket and was carrying one when he was arrested in 1929. In March 1926, when Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Bhagwati Charan Vohra founded the Naujawan Bharat Sabha in Lahore, its inaugural session began with the unveiling of Sarabha’s portrait, in open defiance of the British authorities. Bhagat Singh also wrote moving articles on Kartar Singh Sarabha and some other Ghadar heroes.
The Ghadar (meaning Revolt) Party was formed in 1913 in the USA by a group of Indian, mainly Punjabi Sikh, émigré freedom fighters under the leadership of Sohan Singh Bhakna and Lala Hardayal. The formation of the Ghadar Party was a big step forward. Unlike some of the earlier armed freedom fighters from Maharashtra and Bengal, who had a marked Hindu religious bias, the Ghadar Party was completely secular, declared religion to be a private affair and opposed the poison of communalism and also untouchability. Unlike the earlier armed freedom fighters, most of whom came from the lower middle class, most Ghadar members were peasants turned workers. Its main stress was not so much on armed individual actions; rather it called upon peasants and soldiers to rise in revolt against British rule. Since most of its members were based in Canada and the USA before they came to India, it had an international outlook. The Ghadar Party made tremendous sacrifices for Indian freedom.
Another event that was to leave a deep impression on the young Bhagat Singh was, of course, the horrific Jallianwala Bagh massacre at Amritsar on April 13, 1919. The butcher of Amritsar, General Dyer fired 1600 rounds of ammunition on the unarmed crowd of around 10,000 that had gathered for a public meeting, killing 379 according to official figures; unofficially, it was put at over 1000; and leaving over 1200 wounded.
Bhagat Singh was then just 12 years old and was studying at the D A V School in Lahore. He was deeply enraged by the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. It has been recorded that he immediately went to the Bagh, collected its soil in a bottle and kept it as a constant reminder of the hurt and humiliation that that the Indian people had suffered.
In his work A History of Indian Freedom Struggle, E.M.S. Namboodiripad summed up Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership of the freedom struggle: “Thus, it became clear that Gandhi was a leader who could mobilize people for struggle on such a scale that not a single political leader, including Tilak, could so far do, and at the same time, suspend the struggle in the name of ‘violence on the part of people’ which no other leader dared to do. These two aspects of the Gandhian form of struggle were evident at every subsequent stage of the freedom struggle. It is needless to state whom or which class these two aspects of the Gandhian form of struggle served.”
Bhagat Singh, in his last testament To Young Political Workers written in February 1931, crystallizes his conclusions from the events of the early 1920s, “The real revolutionary armies are in the villages and in factories, the peasantry and the labourers. But our bourgeois leaders do not and cannot dare to tackle them. The sleeping lion once awakened from its slumber shall become irresistible even after the achievement of what our leaders aim at. After his first experience with the Ahmedabad labourers in 1920 Mahatma Gandhi declared: ‘We must not tamper with the labourers. It is dangerous to make political use of the factory proletariat’ (The Times, May 1921). Since then, they never dared to approach them. There remains the peasantry. The Bardoli resolution of 1922 clearly defines the horrors the leaders felt when they saw the gigantic peasant class rising to shake off not only the domination of an alien nation but also the yoke of the landlords. It is there that our leaders prefer surrender to the British than to the peasantry.”
THE ASSASSINATION OF SAUNDERS:
AVENGING A NATIONAL INSULT
In 1928, the all-white Simon Commission came to India to probe the question of further constitutional reforms. The Congress decided to boycott the Commission and to hold protest demonstrations against it. The HSRA decided to actively participate in these actions. The Commission came to Lahore on October 30, 1928, less than two months after the formation of the HSRA. A huge demonstration, led by Lala Lajpat Rai, was held. Bhagat Singh and his comrades were part of it. The police ordered a lathi charge and the Superintendent of Police named Scott rained lathi blows on Lajpat Rai’s head. He died on November 17. The nation was stunned and infuriated.
The HSRA decided to avenge the death of Lajpat Rai and the insult to the nation by killing Scott. On December 17, 1928, exactly a month after Lajpat Rai’s death, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Rajguru and Sukhdev shot dead J P Saunders, another police officer who was also involved in the lathi charge, mistaking him for Scott.
After the assassination of Saunders, Bhagat Singh immediately escaped to Calcutta along with Rajguru and Bhagwati Charan’s wife Durga Bhabhi, who was a dedicated revolutionary in her own right. All three were in disguise. In Calcutta, Bhagat Singh met the Bengal revolutionaries Trailokya Chakravarty and Pratul Ganguly who had by that time come out of jail. He reported to them about the HSRA decisions taken in the September meeting in Delhi and obtained their assent on all the points. They agreed to send Jatin Das to train the HSRA revolutionaries in manufacturing bombs.
Bhagat Singh attended in secret the first All India Conference of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Parties which was held at Calcutta from December 21-24, 1928. Sohan Singh Josh and others from Punjab attended the conference as delegates. Bhagat Singh was also present during the Calcutta session of the Congress which was held from December 29, 1928 to January 1, 1929. Here, on the first day, the Communist Party made a historic intervention when it led a huge demonstration of over 50,000 workers which occupied the Congress pandal and demanded that the Congress accept the goal of complete independence instead of dominion status at this session itself. That did not happen. This long-standing demand of the Indian people, which was first raised by the Communist Party, was finally accepted one year later, at the Lahore session of the Congress on December 31, 1929.
For four months, from December 1928 to April 1929, the British regime, in spite of desperate efforts, could not trace those responsible for the assassination of Saunders. It was the next episode in the struggle that was to provide them with the clues.
BOMBS IN THE CENTRAL ASSEMBLY:
TO MAKE THE DEAF HEAR
To crack down on the rising working class movement and the increasing influence of the Communists, the British government brought the repressive Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Bill in the Central Legislative Assembly at Delhi. Already, on March 20, 1929, the British regime had arrested 31 prominent Communist and labour leaders from different parts of the country in the famous Meerut Conspiracy Case.
The HSRA leadership decided to throw bombs in the Central Assembly to protest against the passage of the above two draconian Bills and also against the arrests of the Communist and labour leaders. The bombs were not meant to kill anybody; they were to serve as a warning. Those throwing the bombs would not escape, but would deliberately get arrested and then use the trial in court for propaganda so that the programme and ideology of the HSRA would become widely known throughout the country.
On April 8, 1929, as planned, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw two bombs in the Assembly, immediately after the passage of the Trade Disputes Bill. No one was seriously injured. They also threw leaflets in the Assembly proclaiming why they had thrown the bombs. They did not try to run away and calmly courted arrest.
The leaflet thrown in the Assembly, in the name of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, began thus: “It takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear. With these immortal words uttered on a similar occasion by Valliant, a French anarchist martyr, do we strongly justify this action of ours…The Government is thrusting upon us new repressive measures like the Public Safety and the Trade Disputes Bill, while reserving the Press Sedition Bill for the next session. The indiscriminate arrests of labour leaders working in the open field clearly indicate whither the wind blows…”
“Let the representatives of the people return to their constituencies and prepare the masses for the coming revolution, and let the Government know that while protesting against the Public Safety and Trade Disputes Bills and the callous murder of Lala Lajpat Rai, on behalf of the helpless Indian masses, we want to emphasize the lesson often repeated by history, that it is easy to kill individuals but you cannot kill the ideas. Great empires crumbled while the ideas survived. Bourbons and Czars fell.
“We are sorry to admit that we who attach so great a sanctity to human life, we who dream of a glorious future, when man will be enjoying perfect peace and full liberty, have been forced to shed human blood. But the sacrifice of individuals at the altar of the ‘Great Revolution’ that will bring freedom to all, rendering the exploitation of man by man impossible, is inevitable. Long Live Revolution! “
Both the above actions – the assassination of Saunders and the hurling of bombs in the Central Assembly – made Bhagat Singh and his comrades legendary heroes. The whole country acclaimed them with admiration and adulation. The acclamation was to increase even more after seeing their fearless defiance in British jails and before British courts.
WHAT IS REVOLUTION?’
The hearing of the Assembly Bomb Case began on May 7, 1929. Entering the court, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt raised slogans of ‘Long Live Revolution’, ‘Long Live the Proletariat’ and ‘Down With Imperialism’. These three slogans were to be repeatedly raised by the HSRA revolutionaries in British courts and jails over the next two years. They were to be repeated by millions across the land and were to become an integral part of the heritage of the freedom movement. Through these three slogans, Bhagat Singh and his comrades succinctly summed up their entire programme.
In their historic statement before the court on June 6, 1929, Bhagat Singh and B K Dutt, while defending their action of throwing bombs in the Central Assembly, also gave a lucid and inspiring account of what they meant by the word ‘Revolution’. It clearly revealed the growing influence of Marxism and is quoted here in full:
Revolution does not necessarily involve sanguinary strife, nor is there any place in it for individual vendetta. It is not the cult of the bomb and the pistol. By ‘Revolution’ we mean that the present order of things, which is based on manifest injustice must change. Producers or labourers, in spite of being the most necessary element of society, are robbed by their exploiters of their labour and deprived of their elementary rights. The peasant who grows corn for all, starves with his family; the weaver who supplies the world market with textile fabrics, has not enough to cover his and his children’s bodies; masons, smiths and carpenters who raise magnificent places, live like pariahs in the slums. The capitalists and exploiters, the parasites of society, squander millions on their whims. These terrible inequalities and forced disparity of chances are bound to lead to chaos. This state of affairs cannot last long, and it is obvious that the present order of society in merry-making is on the brink of a volcano.
The whole edifice of this civilization, if not saved in time, shall crumble. A radical change, therefore, is necessary and it is the duty of those who realize it to reorganize society on the socialistic basis. Unless this thing is done and the exploitation of man by man and of nations by nations is brought to an end, suffering and carnage with which humanity is threatened today, cannot be prevented. All talk of ending war and ushering in an era of universal peace is undisguised hypocrisy.
By ‘Revolution’, we mean the ultimate establishment of an order of society which may not be threatened by such breakdown, and in which the sovereignty of the proletariat should be recognized and a world federation should redeem humanity from the bondage of capitalism and misery of imperial wars. This is our ideal and, with this ideology as our inspiration, we have given a fair and loud enough warning.
If, however, it goes unheeded and the present system of government continues to be an impediment in the way of the natural forces that are swelling up, a grim struggle will ensue involving the overthrow of all obstacles and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat to pave the way for the consummation of the ideal of revolution. Revolution is an inalienable right of mankind. Freedom is an imperishable birthright of all. Labour is the real sustainer of society. The sovereignty of the people is the ultimate destiny of the workers.
For these ideals, and for this faith, we shall welcome any suffering to which we may be condemned. At the altar of this revolution we have brought our youth as an incense, for no sacrifice is too great for so magnificent a cause. We are content, we await the advent of Revolution. Long Live Revolution!
REVOLUTIONARY BATTLES IN COURT AND JAIL
On June 12, 1929, the court sentenced Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt in the Assembly Bomb Case to transportation for life in the Andamans. But in the meanwhile the police had uncovered the details of Saunders’ assassination. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev and several others were tried in the historic second Lahore Conspiracy Case. The trial started on July 10, 1929 and continued for over a year up to October 7, 1930.
Bhagat Singh and his comrades turned the court into a forum for revolutionary propaganda, just as the Communist undertrials were doing in the Meerut Conspiracy Case, which, significantly, was proceeding simultaneously with the Lahore Conspiracy Case. Both cases drew nationwide attention, but the Lahore Case was more in the limelight.
The revolutionaries began a prolonged hunger strike in jail to protest against the terrible jail conditions, to demand that they be treated not as ordinary criminals but as political prisoners, for necessities like proper diet, supply of books and newspapers and against forced labour.
The jail authorities did not relent and on September 13, 1929, on the 64th day of the hunger strike, Jatin Das died a martyr. A huge procession with his body was taken through the main roads of Lahore, culminating in a massive public meeting. His body was taken by train by Durga Bhabhi from Lahore to Calcutta and all along the route, thousands gathered at every station to pay him homage. In Calcutta itself, an unprecedented procession of more than six lakhs carried Jatin Das’ coffin to the cremation ground.
Later, on May 17, 1933, Mahavir Singh, another comrade of Bhagat Singh who was transported for life in the Lahore Conspiracy Case, was martyred in the indefinite hunger strike in the Andaman Cellular Jail.
On October 19, 1929, the second Punjab Students’ Conference was held at Lahore under the presidentship of Subhash Chandra Bose. From jail, Bhagat Singh sent a short message to the Conference which was read out and received thunderous response. In this message Bhagat Singh said, “Comrades, Today, we cannot ask the youth to take to pistols and bombs. Today, students are confronted with a far more important assignment. In the coming Lahore Session the Congress is to give a call for a fierce fight for the independence of the country. The youth will have to bear a great burden in this difficult time in the history of the nation…The youth will have to spread this revolutionary message to the far corners of the country. They have to awaken the crores of slum-dwellers of the industrial areas and villagers living in worn-out cottages, so that we can become independent and the exploitation of man by man will become an impossibility.” Students and Politics and Youth were two other articles written by Bhagat Singh, who always set great store by the youth.
The HSRA revolutionaries observed memorable days in the court itself. On December 19, 1929, they observed ‘Kakori Day’ and paid homage to their hanged comrades. On January 21, 1930, they appeared in the court wearing red scarves to celebrate Lenin Day. Bhagat Singh read out a telegram and asked the magistrate to send it to the Third International. The text was: “On Lenin Day we send hearty greetings to all who are doing something for carrying forward the ideas of the great Lenin. We wish success to the great experiment Russia is carrying out. We join our voice to that of the international working class movement. The proletariat will win. Capitalism will be defeated. Death to Imperialism.” On May 1, 1930, they celebrated May Day and on November 7, 1930, they sent greetings to the Soviet Union on the anniversary of the Revolution.
The year 1930 saw several historic events in the freedom struggle. At the call of the Lahore Congress in December 1929, that for the first time belatedly adopted the goal of complete independence, January 26, 1930 was celebrated throughout the country as Independence Day by raising the national flag. The mass civil disobedience movement began with the Dandi March and Salt Satyagraha of Mahatma Gandhi from March 12 to April 6, 1930. Millions participated in spontaneous demonstrations all over the country. This time, again, the movement did not always follow the Gandhian guideline of non-violence. More than 50 cases of ‘terrorist’ activities were registered in 1930. Some were extremely prominent.
When the case was in its final stage, on September 20, 1930, Bhagat Singh’s father Kishan Singh made a written request to the Tribunal, saying that there were many facts to prove his son was innocent of Saunder’s murder and that his son be given an opportunity to prove his innocence. Bhagat Singh was infuriated and wrote an open letter to his father on October 4, 1930, which was printed in the Tribune. The letter is historic and throws light on Bhagat Singh’s revolutionary character:
My life is not so precious, at least to me, as you may probably think it to be. It is not at all worth buying at the cost of my principles. There are other comrades of mine whose case is as serious as that of mine. We had adopted a common policy and we shall stand to the last, no matter how dearly we have to pay individually for it. Father, I am quite perplexed. I fear I might overlook the ordinary principles of etiquette and my language may become a little bit harsh while criticizing or censuring this move on your part. Let me be candid. I feel as though I have been stabbed in the back. Had any other person done it, I would have considered it to be nothing short of treachery. But in your case, let me say that it has been a weakness – a weakness of the worst type. This was the time when everybody’s mettle was being tested. Let me say, father, that you have failed. I know you are as sincere a patriot as one can be. I know you have devoted your life to the cause of Indian independence, but why, at this moment, have you displayed such a weakness? I cannot understand. In the end, I would like to inform you and my other friends and all the people interested in my case, that I have not approved of your move. I want that the public should know all the details about this complication, and therefore, I request you to publish this letter. Your loving son, Bhagat Singh.
On October 7, 1930, the Special Tribunal in the Lahore Conspiracy Case delivered judgement convicting all the accused except three who were acquitted – Ajoy Kumar Ghosh, Jatindra Nath Sanyal and Des Raj. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were sentenced to death. Kishori Lal, Mahavir Singh, Bejoy Kumar Sinha, Shiv Verma, Gaya Prasad, Jaidev Kapur and Kamalnath Tewari were sentenced to transportation for life. Kundan Lal Gupta was sentenced to seven years; Prem Dutt, to five. Almost all these revolutionaries were in their twenties. The nation was stunned. It reverberated with the demand for the commutation of the death sentences on the heroic youth.
‘OUR UNDISPUTED IDEOLOGICAL LEADER’
Before and after the judgement, Bhagat Singh’s reading and writing in jail continued unabated. As he declared before the Lahore Court, “The sword of revolution is sharpened on the whetstone of ideas.” Shiv Verma, in an interview given to the present writer in Mumbai on March 5, 1991, replied to a question as to what set Bhagat Singh apart from the others, as follows, “I can tell you that in just one sentence: Bhagat Singh was our undisputed ideological leader. I do not remember a single moment when Bhagat Singh did not have a book in his pocket. The other virtues of Bhagat Singh like tremendous courage and so on were there in the other revolutionaries amongst us also. But his uniqueness lay in his great studiousness. The degree of clarity and integrity that he had about the aims of our movement, was not there in any one of us at that time.” Bipan Chandra wrote that, “Bhagat Singh was already at a young age a giant of an intellectual and thinker.” Chaman Lal wrote that, “Bhagat Singh had command of four languages, without much formal training or education. He wrote in Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu and English. His jail notebooks collect excerpts from 108 authors and 43 books including prominently Marx, Engels and Lenin, but also many others.”
There are various volumes of the writings of Bhagat Singh compiled by Shiv Verma, Chaman Lal and Bhagat Singh’s nephew Jagmohan Singh and his niece Virender Sindhu. They are a treasure house. There are also several meaningful letters written by him. For instance, he wrote a letter reprimanding Sukhdev who had said that if he did not get the death sentence, he would rather commit suicide than face life imprisonment. A month after he was given the death sentence, in November 1930 he wrote a letter to Batukeshwar Dutt in which he gave an idea of what he expected from comrades who had escaped capital punishment. ‘Why I Am An Atheist’ and ‘Introduction to Dreamland’ were two seminal tracts written by him in jail. It is the greatest of misfortunes that four other books written by Bhagat Singh in jail, viz. The Ideal of Socialism, Autobiography, History of Revolutionary Movement in India and At the Door of Death, although they were smuggled out of jail, were later destroyed.
The Statement of the Undefended Accused, drafted by Bhagat Singh, launched this scathing attack on imperialism, which can well apply even to the present situation in the world: “We believe that imperialism is nothing but a vast conspiracy organized with predatory motives. Imperialism is the last stage of development of insidious exploitation of man by man and of nation by nation. The imperialists, with a view to further their piratical designs, not only commit judicial murders through their law courts but also organize general massacres, devastations and other horrible crimes like war. They feel no hesitation in shooting down innocent and unarmed people who refuse to yield to their depredatory demands or to acquiesce in their ruinous and abominable designs. Under the garb of custodians of ‘law and order’, they break peace, create disorder, kill people and commit all conceivable crimes.”
Summing up his political thought, Bhagat Singh said in a message sent from prison in October 1930: “We mean by revolution the uprooting of the present social order. For this capture of state power is necessary. The state apparatus is now in the hands of the privileged class. The protection of the interests of the masses, the translation of our ideal into reality, that is, laying the foundation of society in accordance with the principles of Karl Marx, demand our seizure of this apparatus.”
On February 2, 1931, less than two months before his martyrdom, Bhagat Singh wrote the remarkable appeal To Young Political Workers, which is his last testament. After analyzing the prevailing conditions and the tactics of the Congress, he advised youth to adopt Marxism as their ideology, work among the people, organize workers and peasants and join the Communist Party. He wrote: “We require – to use the term so dear to Lenin – the ‘professional revolutionaries’. The whole time workers who have no other ambition or life-work except the revolution. The greater the number of such workers organized into the Party, the greater the chances of your success…The name of the Party should be the Communist Party. This Party of political workers, bound by strict discipline, should handle all other movements. It shall have to organize the peasants’ and workers’ parties, labour unions, and may even venture to capture the Congress and kindred political bodies. And in order to create political consciousness, not only of national politics but class politics as well, the Party should organize a big publishing campaign.”
In the same appeal, renouncing terrorism, he wrote, “Apparently I have acted like a terrorist. But I am not a terrorist. I am a revolutionary who has got such definite ideas of a lengthy programme as is being discussed here…Let me announce with all the strength at my command, that I am not a terrorist and I never was, except perhaps in the beginning of my revolutionary career. And I am convinced that we cannot gain anything through those methods.”
A few days before his execution, in a letter written in March 1931 to the Punjab Governor, Bhagat Singh wrote, “Let us declare that the state of war does exist and shall exist so long as the Indian toiling masses and their natural resources are being exploited by a handful of parasites. They may be purely British capitalists, or mixed British and Indian, or even purely Indian. They may be carrying on their insidious exploitation through mixed or even purely Indian bureaucratic apparatus. All these things make no difference…This war shall continue…It shall be waged with new vigour, greater audacity and unflinching determination till the socialist republic is established.”
Referring to the unparalleled sacrifices of Jatin Das, Bhagwati Charan Vohra and Chandrashekhar Azad, he ended his letter pointing out to the Punjab Governor that since the verdict of the court was that they had waged war against the British empire, they were war prisoners; therefore “we claim to be shot dead instead of being hanged.”
On March 22, the day before Bhagat Singh’s execution, his comrades in jail sent him a slip asking if he would like to live. He wrote back: “The desire to live is natural. It is in me also. I do not want to conceal it. But it is conditional. I don’t want to live as a prisoner or under restrictions. My name has become a symbol of the Indian revolution. The ideals and the sacrifices of the revolutionary party have elevated me to a height beyond which I will never to be able to rise if I live…Yes, one thing pricks me even today. My heart nurtured some ambitions for doing something for humanity and for my country. I have not been able to fulfil even one thousandth part of those ambitions. If I live I might perhaps get a chance to fulfil them. If ever it came to my mind that I should not die, it came from this end only. I am proud of myself these days and I am anxiously waiting for the final test. I wish the day may come nearer soon. Your comrade, Bhagat Singh.”
Manmathnath Gupta, who was sentenced in the Kakori case, has reconstructed the events of March 23, 1931, the last day in the life of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. The Chief Warder of the jail, one Chatar Singh, got the order in the afternoon that the hanging was to take place the same evening. The God-fearing man approached Bhagat Singh and pleaded with him to pray and read a holy book that he had brought along. Bhagat Singh politely refused, saying that he had been an atheist all his life and would remain so even on this last day. The whole day, Bhagat Singh was reading a biography of Lenin that had been sent to him at his express wish. When, at around seven in the evening, a jail official came to take him to the gallows, Bhagat Singh, still engrossed in reading Lenin’s biography, said, “Wait a minute, one revolutionary is busy meeting another.” After reading for a while, he got up and embarked on his final journey. Amidst slogans of ‘Down With Imperialism’ and ‘Long Live Revolution’, the three martyrs – Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev - attained revolutionary immortality. The final song on their lips was:
Dil se niklegi na markar bhi watan ki ulfat,
Meri mitti se bhi khushbue watan aaegi.
(Love for the motherland will not leave my heart even after death,
Its fragrance will still be there in my dusty remains.)
Drawing lessons from the massive crowds that had gathered for Jatin Das’ funeral earlier, and apprehending an immeasurably greater uproar this time, the British authorities secretly took away all three bodies. Without handing them over to the relatives of the martyrs, the jail authorities hurriedly cremated them near Ferozepur on the banks of the Sutlej.
Bipan Chandra recounts: “The entire country went into mourning on hearing the news of their martyrdom. Angry condolence meetings and demonstrations were held in cities and towns, in which many who had earlier stood aside participated. In many places, demonstrators clashed with the police and faced firing and lathi charges in which over a hundred people died. Hundreds of schools and colleges observed hartals; lakhs fasted on that day.”
Soon after the martyrdom of these three heroes, in the last week of March 1931 a serious communal riot broke out in Kanpur. The senior Congress leader Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, who was one of the mentors of Bhagat Singh and his comrades, was killed by fanatics while he was boldly trying to save the lives of innocents from communal wrath. This tragedy underlined Bhagat Singh’s constant warnings against the grave danger of communalism.
Noorani concludes the chapter with: “Gandhi alone could have intervened effectively to save Bhagat Singh’s life. He did not, till the very last. Later claims such as that ‘I brought all the persuasion at my command to bear on him’ (the Viceroy) are belied by the record that came to light four decades later. In this tragic episode, Gandhi was not candid either to the nation or even to his closest colleagues about his talks with the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, on saving Bhagat Singh’s life.”
A week after the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh and his comrades, the Congress session was held at Karachi. For the first and only time during the freedom struggle, Mahatma Gandhi was greeted by black flag demonstrations at all railway stations from Lahore to Karachi when he came to attend the session. The Congress session itself was enveloped by gloom. It ratified the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. After much tension over the wording, it also passed the following resolution: “This Congress, while dissociating from and disapproving of political violence in any shape or form, places on record its admiration of the bravery and sacrifice of the late Bhagat Singh and his comrades, Sukhdev and Rajguru; and mourns with the bereaved families the loss of their lives.”
The roots of this strategy lay in the basic class approach of Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress Party and in the ultimate aim that they had in mind – the replacement of British rule by a bourgeois-landlord class alliance – exactly what Bhagat Singh had predicted.
CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE OF BHAGAT SINGH
The sterling contributions of Bhagat Singh and his comrades to the freedom struggle and to the cause of sovereignty, secularism and socialism, however, far outweigh these weaknesses.
Bhagat Singh has a special relevance to contemporary India, with the increasing aggressiveness of American imperialism bearing down on the country and the world; with millions of workers, peasants, agricultural labourers and even sections of the middle classes becoming prime targets of the rapacious strategy of imperialist globalization; with the economic and political sovereignty of the country itself being threatened by the worst form of neo-colonialism; and with all kinds of communal, casteist and terrorist forces out to dynamite the country’s unity and integrity.
In a sense, Bhagat Singh had himself forewarned that such developments were bound to occur if one form of exploitative rule was merely replaced by another. Referring to the workers and peasants, he had asked in his last testament, “What difference does it make to them whether Lord Reading is the head of the Indian government or Sir Purshotamdas Thakordas? What difference for a peasant if Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru replaces Lord Irwin!” That is precisely what happened at the time of the transfer of power.
Bhagat Singh is an extremely powerful symbol of the freedom struggle and of revolutionary change The four remarkable strands in the life, work and thought of Bhagat Singh and his comrades are: a) uncompromising struggle against imperialism, b) unflinching resistance to communalism and caste oppression; c) unbending opposition to bourgeois-landlord rule, and d) unshakable faith in Marxism and socialism as the only alternative before society.
There is also much to learn from the magnificent qualities of character that Bhagat Singh displayed through his short life of 23 years. His courage, sacrifice, integrity, determination, studiousness, humility and comradeship have been described in the memoirs written by his comrades and by other contemporaries. These are traits that all true revolutionaries must constantly try to imbibe and develop, first within themselves and then among others.
We shall end with the inspiring words with which Bhagat Singh concluded his last testament:
If you start the work on these lines, you shall have to be very sober.
It requires neither the emotion nor the death, but the life of constant struggle, suffering and sacrifice. Crush your individuality first. Shake off the dreams of personal comfort. Then start to work. Inch by inch you shall have to proceed. It needs courage, perseverance and very strong determination. No difficulties and no hardships shall discourage you. No failure and betrayals shall dishearten you. No travails imposed upon you shall snuff out the revolutionary will in you. Through the ordeals of sufferings and sacrifice you shall come out victorious. And these individual victories shall be the valuable assets of the Revolution.
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C.SUNISH
An Immortal Revolutionary - (28.09.1907- 23.03.1931) - Ashok Dhawale
Human history from the times of Charvaka and Spartacus is illuminated with a galaxy of shining martyrs who have died for noble and progressive causes dearer to them than their own lives. In the modern age, the greatest martyrs have been those who laid down their lives fighting the barbaric scourge of imperialism.
On a world scale, the life and work of Che Guevara, who along with Fidel Castro led the Cuban Revolution and his death at the hands of American imperialism in the jungles of Bolivia on October 9, 1967 while he was spreading the call of revolution in Latin America, has become a powerful beacon in the anti-imperialist struggle.
On a sub-continental scale, the life and work of Bhagat Singh and his death by hanging at Lahore at the hands of British imperialism on March 23, 1931, has been a great saga of inspiration to all those who cherish sovereignty, secularism and socialism – ideals for which Bhagat Singh and his comrades fought valiantly to the end.
BORN : 28th September 1907 at Lyallpur, Punjab, British India
MARTYRDOM :23rd March1931 at Lahore, Punjab, British India
Bhagat Singh was born into a Jatt Sandhu family to Sardar Kishan Singh Sandhu and Vidyavati in the Khatkar Kalan village near Banga in the Lyallpur district of Punjab. Singh's given name of Bhagat means "devotee". He came from a patriotic Sikh family, some of whom had participated in movements supporting the independence of India and others who had served in Maharaja Ranjit Singh's army. His grandfather, Arjun Singh, was a follower of Swami Dayananda Saraswati's Hindu reformist movement, Arya Samaj, which would carry a heavy influence on Singh. His uncles, Ajit Singh and Swaran Singh, as well as his father were members of the Ghadar Party, led by Kartar Singh Sarabha Grewal and Har Dayal. Ajit Singh was forced to flee to Persia because of pending cases against him while Swaran Singh was hanged on December 19, 1927 for his involvement in the Kakori train robbery of 1925.
MAIN CURRENTS IN THE NATIONAL MOVEMENT
The freedom of India from nearly two centuries of oppressive and exploitative British colonial rule was the cumulative result of a complex mosaic of four different currents that coexisted, often confronted and sometimes coordinated with one another. These were:
1. The current of armed struggles and peasant revolts that began with the Sannyasi-Fakir rebellion of 1760, encompassed the First War of Indian Independence of 1857, included the several groups of valiant armed freedom fighters throughout the country and ended with the revolt of the Royal Indian Navy ratings in 1946. All these armed struggles and peasant revolts were brutally crushed by the British, but some of them succeeded in shaking the British Raj to its roots.
2. The Indian National Congress, led by Mahatma Gandhi, which managed to establish its hegemony over the national movement after 1920. While the Congress succeeded in mobilizing millions of the Indian people in non-violent upsurges against British rule, its bourgeois-landlord class leadership saw to it that these upsurges never crossed the boundary line to a radical agrarian revolution. Class struggle was, of course, anathema to the Congress, but it did adopt a broadly secular approach.
3. The Communist Party of India, which was formed in 1920, was the first to advocate the goal of complete independence in the Ahmedabad Congress session in 1921. Braving ban orders and massive repression of the British, the Communists plunged into the freedom movement and also organized workers and peasants for heroic class struggles, the pinnacle of which was the Telangana armed peasant revolt. Staunchly secular, the Communists were also the first to put forth the goal of socialism.
4. The social reform movement against caste and gender oppression that was led in various parts of the country by stalwarts like Raja Rammohan Roy, Mahatma Jotirao Phule, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, Narayan Guru, E V Ramaswamy Naicker (Periyar) and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. The social reformers fought for freedom with social justice as one of its cardinal planks, an end to centuries of inhuman social oppression and the annihilation of the caste system itself.
There was a fifth current as well, but it was ranged directly against the national movement. This was the current of communalism. Not only did it never oppose the colonial rulers, but on the contrary it consistently helped British imperialism to execute its ‘Divide and Rule’ policy. It was represented by the Muslim League on the one hand, and by the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha on the other. This current was socially reactionary, it led to constant communal clashes and it eventually resulted in the violent partition of India on the one hand, and in the dastardly assassination of Mahatma Gandhi on the other.
THE DISTINCTIVENESS OF BHAGAT SINGH AND HIS COMRADES
Bhagat Singh and his comrades belonged to the first current of armed anti-imperialist fighters. Their glorious struggle against British imperialism assumed legendary proportions. But their truly distinctive feature was that, amongst the large galaxy of thousands of armed freedom fighters spread over two centuries of the freedom struggle, it was Bhagat Singh and his comrades alone who were inexorably moving ideologically towards the third current – of Marxian socialism and the Communist Party. It is therefore no accident that comrades of Bhagat Singh like Shiv Verma, Kishori Lal, Ajoy Ghosh, Bejoy Kumar Sinha and Jaidev Kapur became leaders of the Communist movement after their release from British jails.
Bhagat Singh and his colleagues were also conscious of the need for social justice and the overthrow of the caste system. They were bitter and uncompromising enemies of communalism in all its forms. And they were inveterate opponents of the bourgeois-landlord class strategy and tactics of the Congress Party and its leadership that were exhibited in ample measure throughout the course of the national movement.
The distinctiveness of Bhagat Singh in the revolutionary firmament of the national movement has been well captured by B.T. Ranadive in his Foreword to the Selected Writings of Shaheed Bhagat Singh edited by Shiv Verma. He writes:
The name of Bhagat Singh and his comrades has secured a permanent place in the minds of the Indian people. No other revolutionary of those days struck such a deep feeling of sympathy, solidarity and oneness among the people. Bhagat Singh and his comrades became part of the people’s consciousness, the symbol of their aspirations and prestige, the symbol of the fight to put an end to enslavement. . . .
Punjab, Bengal and to some extent Maharashtra had earlier seen a large number of revolutionaries with unparalleled courage and capacity for self-sacrifice. They walked to the gallows with their head erect; they braved the horrors of the Andamans for years with unbending spirit. Their memory is no doubt cherished.
But they were challenging the empire at a time when the Indian masses had yet to move into political action. Their sacrifices did not become part of the common consciousness of the vast multitude that faced British lathis and rifles during the national movement in the succeeding years. On the other hand, Bhagat Singh and his comrades were in action when the masses were on the move, when every anti-British action drew their approbation. Their ultimate sacrifice, therefore, put a permanent impress on the consciousness of the Indian people…
Bhagat Singh went on churning his thoughts and preceded more and more towards a better understanding of the Marxist stand on the issues facing the country. It may be stated without contradiction that his opinion on many national issues, his estimation of the national leadership and its weaknesses, were more or less in conformity with the views and opinions of the leaders of the Communist movement who were building their strength among the workers. His writings on various topics and his letters to his colleagues reveal his growing reliance on the Marxist outlook. It is no surprise that he declared himself an atheist and poured ridicule on the concept of a world created by a Supreme Being. His writings show a remarkable ability to merge with the subject under discussion and grasp the essence of points of dispute. They are permeated with an unfathomable sense of dedication to the cause of independence and freedom, to the cause of socialism. His study of Communist literature, of Lenin, led him to understand that India’s struggle for freedom was part of the international working class struggle for socialism.
Pattabhi Sitaramayya, the official historian of the Congress, wrote that “it is no exaggeration to say that at that moment Bhagat Singh’s name was as widely known all over India and was as popular as Gandhi’s.” In the same vein, a confidential Intelligence Bureau report of the British government, Terrorism in India (1917-1936) declared about Bhagat Singh that “for a time, he bade fair to oust Mr. Gandhi as the foremost political figure of the day.”
A.G. Noorani concludes his book The Trial of Bhagat Singh – Politics of Justice with the words: “What distinguished Bhagat Singh from all others, besides his courage, patriotism and commitment to moral values, was his intellectual strength. A voracious reader, he was also willing to rethink. He had the capacity to brood and to torment his soul over the past. That led him to renounce terrorism, and to advise the young to follow suit; indeed, to counsel moderation and readiness to compromise. He was only 23 when he was hanged. On his death, Indian leaders vied with one another in lavishing praise on him. One wonders how many of them knew then that they had lost a man who, had he lived, might have had an incalculable impact on the course of India’s politics.”
EARLY INFLUENCES: GHADAR MARTYRS AND JALLIANWALA BAGH
Bhagat Singh was born to Vidyavati and Kishan Singh on September 28, 1907, in the village Banga in Lyallpur district, now in Pakistan. His original village Khatkar Kalan is in Jalandhar district. He hailed from a patriotic family. His uncle Ajit Singh, along with Lala Lajpat Rai, was exiled to Mandalay jail in Burma by the British for leading a powerful peasant agitation against the hike in land revenue and canal taxes. At the time of Bhagat Singh’s birth, his father Kishan Singh and his other uncle Swarn Singh, were also in jail due to their nationalist activities, and were released soon after. In such an atmosphere, Bhagat Singh naturally imbibed patriotic sentiments. He especially adored his exiled uncle Ajit Singh.
While Bhagat Singh was in school, Punjab was rocked by the hanging of seven Ghadar martyrs by the British on November 16 and 17, 1915, in the First Lahore Conspiracy Case. Prominent among them were Kartar Singh Sarabha from Punjab and Vishnu Ganesh Pingle from Maharashtra. The young Bhagat Singh was deeply moved by the heroic saga and sacrifice of Kartar Singh Sarabha, who was just 20 years old when he was hanged. Bhagat Singh always carried a photo of Sarabha in his pocket and was carrying one when he was arrested in 1929. In March 1926, when Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Bhagwati Charan Vohra founded the Naujawan Bharat Sabha in Lahore, its inaugural session began with the unveiling of Sarabha’s portrait, in open defiance of the British authorities. Bhagat Singh also wrote moving articles on Kartar Singh Sarabha and some other Ghadar heroes.
The Ghadar (meaning Revolt) Party was formed in 1913 in the USA by a group of Indian, mainly Punjabi Sikh, émigré freedom fighters under the leadership of Sohan Singh Bhakna and Lala Hardayal. The formation of the Ghadar Party was a big step forward. Unlike some of the earlier armed freedom fighters from Maharashtra and Bengal, who had a marked Hindu religious bias, the Ghadar Party was completely secular, declared religion to be a private affair and opposed the poison of communalism and also untouchability. Unlike the earlier armed freedom fighters, most of whom came from the lower middle class, most Ghadar members were peasants turned workers. Its main stress was not so much on armed individual actions; rather it called upon peasants and soldiers to rise in revolt against British rule. Since most of its members were based in Canada and the USA before they came to India, it had an international outlook. The Ghadar Party made tremendous sacrifices for Indian freedom.
Another event that was to leave a deep impression on the young Bhagat Singh was, of course, the horrific Jallianwala Bagh massacre at Amritsar on April 13, 1919. The butcher of Amritsar, General Dyer fired 1600 rounds of ammunition on the unarmed crowd of around 10,000 that had gathered for a public meeting, killing 379 according to official figures; unofficially, it was put at over 1000; and leaving over 1200 wounded.
Bhagat Singh was then just 12 years old and was studying at the D A V School in Lahore. He was deeply enraged by the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. It has been recorded that he immediately went to the Bagh, collected its soil in a bottle and kept it as a constant reminder of the hurt and humiliation that that the Indian people had suffered.
In his work A History of Indian Freedom Struggle, E.M.S. Namboodiripad summed up Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership of the freedom struggle: “Thus, it became clear that Gandhi was a leader who could mobilize people for struggle on such a scale that not a single political leader, including Tilak, could so far do, and at the same time, suspend the struggle in the name of ‘violence on the part of people’ which no other leader dared to do. These two aspects of the Gandhian form of struggle were evident at every subsequent stage of the freedom struggle. It is needless to state whom or which class these two aspects of the Gandhian form of struggle served.”
Bhagat Singh, in his last testament To Young Political Workers written in February 1931, crystallizes his conclusions from the events of the early 1920s, “The real revolutionary armies are in the villages and in factories, the peasantry and the labourers. But our bourgeois leaders do not and cannot dare to tackle them. The sleeping lion once awakened from its slumber shall become irresistible even after the achievement of what our leaders aim at. After his first experience with the Ahmedabad labourers in 1920 Mahatma Gandhi declared: ‘We must not tamper with the labourers. It is dangerous to make political use of the factory proletariat’ (The Times, May 1921). Since then, they never dared to approach them. There remains the peasantry. The Bardoli resolution of 1922 clearly defines the horrors the leaders felt when they saw the gigantic peasant class rising to shake off not only the domination of an alien nation but also the yoke of the landlords. It is there that our leaders prefer surrender to the British than to the peasantry.”
THE ASSASSINATION OF SAUNDERS:
AVENGING A NATIONAL INSULT
In 1928, the all-white Simon Commission came to India to probe the question of further constitutional reforms. The Congress decided to boycott the Commission and to hold protest demonstrations against it. The HSRA decided to actively participate in these actions. The Commission came to Lahore on October 30, 1928, less than two months after the formation of the HSRA. A huge demonstration, led by Lala Lajpat Rai, was held. Bhagat Singh and his comrades were part of it. The police ordered a lathi charge and the Superintendent of Police named Scott rained lathi blows on Lajpat Rai’s head. He died on November 17. The nation was stunned and infuriated.
The HSRA decided to avenge the death of Lajpat Rai and the insult to the nation by killing Scott. On December 17, 1928, exactly a month after Lajpat Rai’s death, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Rajguru and Sukhdev shot dead J P Saunders, another police officer who was also involved in the lathi charge, mistaking him for Scott.
After the assassination of Saunders, Bhagat Singh immediately escaped to Calcutta along with Rajguru and Bhagwati Charan’s wife Durga Bhabhi, who was a dedicated revolutionary in her own right. All three were in disguise. In Calcutta, Bhagat Singh met the Bengal revolutionaries Trailokya Chakravarty and Pratul Ganguly who had by that time come out of jail. He reported to them about the HSRA decisions taken in the September meeting in Delhi and obtained their assent on all the points. They agreed to send Jatin Das to train the HSRA revolutionaries in manufacturing bombs.
Bhagat Singh attended in secret the first All India Conference of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Parties which was held at Calcutta from December 21-24, 1928. Sohan Singh Josh and others from Punjab attended the conference as delegates. Bhagat Singh was also present during the Calcutta session of the Congress which was held from December 29, 1928 to January 1, 1929. Here, on the first day, the Communist Party made a historic intervention when it led a huge demonstration of over 50,000 workers which occupied the Congress pandal and demanded that the Congress accept the goal of complete independence instead of dominion status at this session itself. That did not happen. This long-standing demand of the Indian people, which was first raised by the Communist Party, was finally accepted one year later, at the Lahore session of the Congress on December 31, 1929.
For four months, from December 1928 to April 1929, the British regime, in spite of desperate efforts, could not trace those responsible for the assassination of Saunders. It was the next episode in the struggle that was to provide them with the clues.
BOMBS IN THE CENTRAL ASSEMBLY:
TO MAKE THE DEAF HEAR
To crack down on the rising working class movement and the increasing influence of the Communists, the British government brought the repressive Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Bill in the Central Legislative Assembly at Delhi. Already, on March 20, 1929, the British regime had arrested 31 prominent Communist and labour leaders from different parts of the country in the famous Meerut Conspiracy Case.
The HSRA leadership decided to throw bombs in the Central Assembly to protest against the passage of the above two draconian Bills and also against the arrests of the Communist and labour leaders. The bombs were not meant to kill anybody; they were to serve as a warning. Those throwing the bombs would not escape, but would deliberately get arrested and then use the trial in court for propaganda so that the programme and ideology of the HSRA would become widely known throughout the country.
On April 8, 1929, as planned, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw two bombs in the Assembly, immediately after the passage of the Trade Disputes Bill. No one was seriously injured. They also threw leaflets in the Assembly proclaiming why they had thrown the bombs. They did not try to run away and calmly courted arrest.
The leaflet thrown in the Assembly, in the name of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, began thus: “It takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear. With these immortal words uttered on a similar occasion by Valliant, a French anarchist martyr, do we strongly justify this action of ours…The Government is thrusting upon us new repressive measures like the Public Safety and the Trade Disputes Bill, while reserving the Press Sedition Bill for the next session. The indiscriminate arrests of labour leaders working in the open field clearly indicate whither the wind blows…”
“Let the representatives of the people return to their constituencies and prepare the masses for the coming revolution, and let the Government know that while protesting against the Public Safety and Trade Disputes Bills and the callous murder of Lala Lajpat Rai, on behalf of the helpless Indian masses, we want to emphasize the lesson often repeated by history, that it is easy to kill individuals but you cannot kill the ideas. Great empires crumbled while the ideas survived. Bourbons and Czars fell.
“We are sorry to admit that we who attach so great a sanctity to human life, we who dream of a glorious future, when man will be enjoying perfect peace and full liberty, have been forced to shed human blood. But the sacrifice of individuals at the altar of the ‘Great Revolution’ that will bring freedom to all, rendering the exploitation of man by man impossible, is inevitable. Long Live Revolution! “
Both the above actions – the assassination of Saunders and the hurling of bombs in the Central Assembly – made Bhagat Singh and his comrades legendary heroes. The whole country acclaimed them with admiration and adulation. The acclamation was to increase even more after seeing their fearless defiance in British jails and before British courts.
WHAT IS REVOLUTION?’
The hearing of the Assembly Bomb Case began on May 7, 1929. Entering the court, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt raised slogans of ‘Long Live Revolution’, ‘Long Live the Proletariat’ and ‘Down With Imperialism’. These three slogans were to be repeatedly raised by the HSRA revolutionaries in British courts and jails over the next two years. They were to be repeated by millions across the land and were to become an integral part of the heritage of the freedom movement. Through these three slogans, Bhagat Singh and his comrades succinctly summed up their entire programme.
In their historic statement before the court on June 6, 1929, Bhagat Singh and B K Dutt, while defending their action of throwing bombs in the Central Assembly, also gave a lucid and inspiring account of what they meant by the word ‘Revolution’. It clearly revealed the growing influence of Marxism and is quoted here in full:
Revolution does not necessarily involve sanguinary strife, nor is there any place in it for individual vendetta. It is not the cult of the bomb and the pistol. By ‘Revolution’ we mean that the present order of things, which is based on manifest injustice must change. Producers or labourers, in spite of being the most necessary element of society, are robbed by their exploiters of their labour and deprived of their elementary rights. The peasant who grows corn for all, starves with his family; the weaver who supplies the world market with textile fabrics, has not enough to cover his and his children’s bodies; masons, smiths and carpenters who raise magnificent places, live like pariahs in the slums. The capitalists and exploiters, the parasites of society, squander millions on their whims. These terrible inequalities and forced disparity of chances are bound to lead to chaos. This state of affairs cannot last long, and it is obvious that the present order of society in merry-making is on the brink of a volcano.
The whole edifice of this civilization, if not saved in time, shall crumble. A radical change, therefore, is necessary and it is the duty of those who realize it to reorganize society on the socialistic basis. Unless this thing is done and the exploitation of man by man and of nations by nations is brought to an end, suffering and carnage with which humanity is threatened today, cannot be prevented. All talk of ending war and ushering in an era of universal peace is undisguised hypocrisy.
By ‘Revolution’, we mean the ultimate establishment of an order of society which may not be threatened by such breakdown, and in which the sovereignty of the proletariat should be recognized and a world federation should redeem humanity from the bondage of capitalism and misery of imperial wars. This is our ideal and, with this ideology as our inspiration, we have given a fair and loud enough warning.
If, however, it goes unheeded and the present system of government continues to be an impediment in the way of the natural forces that are swelling up, a grim struggle will ensue involving the overthrow of all obstacles and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat to pave the way for the consummation of the ideal of revolution. Revolution is an inalienable right of mankind. Freedom is an imperishable birthright of all. Labour is the real sustainer of society. The sovereignty of the people is the ultimate destiny of the workers.
For these ideals, and for this faith, we shall welcome any suffering to which we may be condemned. At the altar of this revolution we have brought our youth as an incense, for no sacrifice is too great for so magnificent a cause. We are content, we await the advent of Revolution. Long Live Revolution!
REVOLUTIONARY BATTLES IN COURT AND JAIL
On June 12, 1929, the court sentenced Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt in the Assembly Bomb Case to transportation for life in the Andamans. But in the meanwhile the police had uncovered the details of Saunders’ assassination. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev and several others were tried in the historic second Lahore Conspiracy Case. The trial started on July 10, 1929 and continued for over a year up to October 7, 1930.
Bhagat Singh and his comrades turned the court into a forum for revolutionary propaganda, just as the Communist undertrials were doing in the Meerut Conspiracy Case, which, significantly, was proceeding simultaneously with the Lahore Conspiracy Case. Both cases drew nationwide attention, but the Lahore Case was more in the limelight.
The revolutionaries began a prolonged hunger strike in jail to protest against the terrible jail conditions, to demand that they be treated not as ordinary criminals but as political prisoners, for necessities like proper diet, supply of books and newspapers and against forced labour.
The jail authorities did not relent and on September 13, 1929, on the 64th day of the hunger strike, Jatin Das died a martyr. A huge procession with his body was taken through the main roads of Lahore, culminating in a massive public meeting. His body was taken by train by Durga Bhabhi from Lahore to Calcutta and all along the route, thousands gathered at every station to pay him homage. In Calcutta itself, an unprecedented procession of more than six lakhs carried Jatin Das’ coffin to the cremation ground.
Later, on May 17, 1933, Mahavir Singh, another comrade of Bhagat Singh who was transported for life in the Lahore Conspiracy Case, was martyred in the indefinite hunger strike in the Andaman Cellular Jail.
On October 19, 1929, the second Punjab Students’ Conference was held at Lahore under the presidentship of Subhash Chandra Bose. From jail, Bhagat Singh sent a short message to the Conference which was read out and received thunderous response. In this message Bhagat Singh said, “Comrades, Today, we cannot ask the youth to take to pistols and bombs. Today, students are confronted with a far more important assignment. In the coming Lahore Session the Congress is to give a call for a fierce fight for the independence of the country. The youth will have to bear a great burden in this difficult time in the history of the nation…The youth will have to spread this revolutionary message to the far corners of the country. They have to awaken the crores of slum-dwellers of the industrial areas and villagers living in worn-out cottages, so that we can become independent and the exploitation of man by man will become an impossibility.” Students and Politics and Youth were two other articles written by Bhagat Singh, who always set great store by the youth.
The HSRA revolutionaries observed memorable days in the court itself. On December 19, 1929, they observed ‘Kakori Day’ and paid homage to their hanged comrades. On January 21, 1930, they appeared in the court wearing red scarves to celebrate Lenin Day. Bhagat Singh read out a telegram and asked the magistrate to send it to the Third International. The text was: “On Lenin Day we send hearty greetings to all who are doing something for carrying forward the ideas of the great Lenin. We wish success to the great experiment Russia is carrying out. We join our voice to that of the international working class movement. The proletariat will win. Capitalism will be defeated. Death to Imperialism.” On May 1, 1930, they celebrated May Day and on November 7, 1930, they sent greetings to the Soviet Union on the anniversary of the Revolution.
The year 1930 saw several historic events in the freedom struggle. At the call of the Lahore Congress in December 1929, that for the first time belatedly adopted the goal of complete independence, January 26, 1930 was celebrated throughout the country as Independence Day by raising the national flag. The mass civil disobedience movement began with the Dandi March and Salt Satyagraha of Mahatma Gandhi from March 12 to April 6, 1930. Millions participated in spontaneous demonstrations all over the country. This time, again, the movement did not always follow the Gandhian guideline of non-violence. More than 50 cases of ‘terrorist’ activities were registered in 1930. Some were extremely prominent.
When the case was in its final stage, on September 20, 1930, Bhagat Singh’s father Kishan Singh made a written request to the Tribunal, saying that there were many facts to prove his son was innocent of Saunder’s murder and that his son be given an opportunity to prove his innocence. Bhagat Singh was infuriated and wrote an open letter to his father on October 4, 1930, which was printed in the Tribune. The letter is historic and throws light on Bhagat Singh’s revolutionary character:
My life is not so precious, at least to me, as you may probably think it to be. It is not at all worth buying at the cost of my principles. There are other comrades of mine whose case is as serious as that of mine. We had adopted a common policy and we shall stand to the last, no matter how dearly we have to pay individually for it. Father, I am quite perplexed. I fear I might overlook the ordinary principles of etiquette and my language may become a little bit harsh while criticizing or censuring this move on your part. Let me be candid. I feel as though I have been stabbed in the back. Had any other person done it, I would have considered it to be nothing short of treachery. But in your case, let me say that it has been a weakness – a weakness of the worst type. This was the time when everybody’s mettle was being tested. Let me say, father, that you have failed. I know you are as sincere a patriot as one can be. I know you have devoted your life to the cause of Indian independence, but why, at this moment, have you displayed such a weakness? I cannot understand. In the end, I would like to inform you and my other friends and all the people interested in my case, that I have not approved of your move. I want that the public should know all the details about this complication, and therefore, I request you to publish this letter. Your loving son, Bhagat Singh.
On October 7, 1930, the Special Tribunal in the Lahore Conspiracy Case delivered judgement convicting all the accused except three who were acquitted – Ajoy Kumar Ghosh, Jatindra Nath Sanyal and Des Raj. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were sentenced to death. Kishori Lal, Mahavir Singh, Bejoy Kumar Sinha, Shiv Verma, Gaya Prasad, Jaidev Kapur and Kamalnath Tewari were sentenced to transportation for life. Kundan Lal Gupta was sentenced to seven years; Prem Dutt, to five. Almost all these revolutionaries were in their twenties. The nation was stunned. It reverberated with the demand for the commutation of the death sentences on the heroic youth.
‘OUR UNDISPUTED IDEOLOGICAL LEADER’
Before and after the judgement, Bhagat Singh’s reading and writing in jail continued unabated. As he declared before the Lahore Court, “The sword of revolution is sharpened on the whetstone of ideas.” Shiv Verma, in an interview given to the present writer in Mumbai on March 5, 1991, replied to a question as to what set Bhagat Singh apart from the others, as follows, “I can tell you that in just one sentence: Bhagat Singh was our undisputed ideological leader. I do not remember a single moment when Bhagat Singh did not have a book in his pocket. The other virtues of Bhagat Singh like tremendous courage and so on were there in the other revolutionaries amongst us also. But his uniqueness lay in his great studiousness. The degree of clarity and integrity that he had about the aims of our movement, was not there in any one of us at that time.” Bipan Chandra wrote that, “Bhagat Singh was already at a young age a giant of an intellectual and thinker.” Chaman Lal wrote that, “Bhagat Singh had command of four languages, without much formal training or education. He wrote in Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu and English. His jail notebooks collect excerpts from 108 authors and 43 books including prominently Marx, Engels and Lenin, but also many others.”
There are various volumes of the writings of Bhagat Singh compiled by Shiv Verma, Chaman Lal and Bhagat Singh’s nephew Jagmohan Singh and his niece Virender Sindhu. They are a treasure house. There are also several meaningful letters written by him. For instance, he wrote a letter reprimanding Sukhdev who had said that if he did not get the death sentence, he would rather commit suicide than face life imprisonment. A month after he was given the death sentence, in November 1930 he wrote a letter to Batukeshwar Dutt in which he gave an idea of what he expected from comrades who had escaped capital punishment. ‘Why I Am An Atheist’ and ‘Introduction to Dreamland’ were two seminal tracts written by him in jail. It is the greatest of misfortunes that four other books written by Bhagat Singh in jail, viz. The Ideal of Socialism, Autobiography, History of Revolutionary Movement in India and At the Door of Death, although they were smuggled out of jail, were later destroyed.
The Statement of the Undefended Accused, drafted by Bhagat Singh, launched this scathing attack on imperialism, which can well apply even to the present situation in the world: “We believe that imperialism is nothing but a vast conspiracy organized with predatory motives. Imperialism is the last stage of development of insidious exploitation of man by man and of nation by nation. The imperialists, with a view to further their piratical designs, not only commit judicial murders through their law courts but also organize general massacres, devastations and other horrible crimes like war. They feel no hesitation in shooting down innocent and unarmed people who refuse to yield to their depredatory demands or to acquiesce in their ruinous and abominable designs. Under the garb of custodians of ‘law and order’, they break peace, create disorder, kill people and commit all conceivable crimes.”
Summing up his political thought, Bhagat Singh said in a message sent from prison in October 1930: “We mean by revolution the uprooting of the present social order. For this capture of state power is necessary. The state apparatus is now in the hands of the privileged class. The protection of the interests of the masses, the translation of our ideal into reality, that is, laying the foundation of society in accordance with the principles of Karl Marx, demand our seizure of this apparatus.”
On February 2, 1931, less than two months before his martyrdom, Bhagat Singh wrote the remarkable appeal To Young Political Workers, which is his last testament. After analyzing the prevailing conditions and the tactics of the Congress, he advised youth to adopt Marxism as their ideology, work among the people, organize workers and peasants and join the Communist Party. He wrote: “We require – to use the term so dear to Lenin – the ‘professional revolutionaries’. The whole time workers who have no other ambition or life-work except the revolution. The greater the number of such workers organized into the Party, the greater the chances of your success…The name of the Party should be the Communist Party. This Party of political workers, bound by strict discipline, should handle all other movements. It shall have to organize the peasants’ and workers’ parties, labour unions, and may even venture to capture the Congress and kindred political bodies. And in order to create political consciousness, not only of national politics but class politics as well, the Party should organize a big publishing campaign.”
In the same appeal, renouncing terrorism, he wrote, “Apparently I have acted like a terrorist. But I am not a terrorist. I am a revolutionary who has got such definite ideas of a lengthy programme as is being discussed here…Let me announce with all the strength at my command, that I am not a terrorist and I never was, except perhaps in the beginning of my revolutionary career. And I am convinced that we cannot gain anything through those methods.”
A few days before his execution, in a letter written in March 1931 to the Punjab Governor, Bhagat Singh wrote, “Let us declare that the state of war does exist and shall exist so long as the Indian toiling masses and their natural resources are being exploited by a handful of parasites. They may be purely British capitalists, or mixed British and Indian, or even purely Indian. They may be carrying on their insidious exploitation through mixed or even purely Indian bureaucratic apparatus. All these things make no difference…This war shall continue…It shall be waged with new vigour, greater audacity and unflinching determination till the socialist republic is established.”
Referring to the unparalleled sacrifices of Jatin Das, Bhagwati Charan Vohra and Chandrashekhar Azad, he ended his letter pointing out to the Punjab Governor that since the verdict of the court was that they had waged war against the British empire, they were war prisoners; therefore “we claim to be shot dead instead of being hanged.”
On March 22, the day before Bhagat Singh’s execution, his comrades in jail sent him a slip asking if he would like to live. He wrote back: “The desire to live is natural. It is in me also. I do not want to conceal it. But it is conditional. I don’t want to live as a prisoner or under restrictions. My name has become a symbol of the Indian revolution. The ideals and the sacrifices of the revolutionary party have elevated me to a height beyond which I will never to be able to rise if I live…Yes, one thing pricks me even today. My heart nurtured some ambitions for doing something for humanity and for my country. I have not been able to fulfil even one thousandth part of those ambitions. If I live I might perhaps get a chance to fulfil them. If ever it came to my mind that I should not die, it came from this end only. I am proud of myself these days and I am anxiously waiting for the final test. I wish the day may come nearer soon. Your comrade, Bhagat Singh.”
Manmathnath Gupta, who was sentenced in the Kakori case, has reconstructed the events of March 23, 1931, the last day in the life of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. The Chief Warder of the jail, one Chatar Singh, got the order in the afternoon that the hanging was to take place the same evening. The God-fearing man approached Bhagat Singh and pleaded with him to pray and read a holy book that he had brought along. Bhagat Singh politely refused, saying that he had been an atheist all his life and would remain so even on this last day. The whole day, Bhagat Singh was reading a biography of Lenin that had been sent to him at his express wish. When, at around seven in the evening, a jail official came to take him to the gallows, Bhagat Singh, still engrossed in reading Lenin’s biography, said, “Wait a minute, one revolutionary is busy meeting another.” After reading for a while, he got up and embarked on his final journey. Amidst slogans of ‘Down With Imperialism’ and ‘Long Live Revolution’, the three martyrs – Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev - attained revolutionary immortality. The final song on their lips was:
Dil se niklegi na markar bhi watan ki ulfat,
Meri mitti se bhi khushbue watan aaegi.
(Love for the motherland will not leave my heart even after death,
Its fragrance will still be there in my dusty remains.)
Drawing lessons from the massive crowds that had gathered for Jatin Das’ funeral earlier, and apprehending an immeasurably greater uproar this time, the British authorities secretly took away all three bodies. Without handing them over to the relatives of the martyrs, the jail authorities hurriedly cremated them near Ferozepur on the banks of the Sutlej.
Bipan Chandra recounts: “The entire country went into mourning on hearing the news of their martyrdom. Angry condolence meetings and demonstrations were held in cities and towns, in which many who had earlier stood aside participated. In many places, demonstrators clashed with the police and faced firing and lathi charges in which over a hundred people died. Hundreds of schools and colleges observed hartals; lakhs fasted on that day.”
Soon after the martyrdom of these three heroes, in the last week of March 1931 a serious communal riot broke out in Kanpur. The senior Congress leader Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, who was one of the mentors of Bhagat Singh and his comrades, was killed by fanatics while he was boldly trying to save the lives of innocents from communal wrath. This tragedy underlined Bhagat Singh’s constant warnings against the grave danger of communalism.
Noorani concludes the chapter with: “Gandhi alone could have intervened effectively to save Bhagat Singh’s life. He did not, till the very last. Later claims such as that ‘I brought all the persuasion at my command to bear on him’ (the Viceroy) are belied by the record that came to light four decades later. In this tragic episode, Gandhi was not candid either to the nation or even to his closest colleagues about his talks with the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, on saving Bhagat Singh’s life.”
A week after the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh and his comrades, the Congress session was held at Karachi. For the first and only time during the freedom struggle, Mahatma Gandhi was greeted by black flag demonstrations at all railway stations from Lahore to Karachi when he came to attend the session. The Congress session itself was enveloped by gloom. It ratified the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. After much tension over the wording, it also passed the following resolution: “This Congress, while dissociating from and disapproving of political violence in any shape or form, places on record its admiration of the bravery and sacrifice of the late Bhagat Singh and his comrades, Sukhdev and Rajguru; and mourns with the bereaved families the loss of their lives.”
The roots of this strategy lay in the basic class approach of Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress Party and in the ultimate aim that they had in mind – the replacement of British rule by a bourgeois-landlord class alliance – exactly what Bhagat Singh had predicted.
CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE OF BHAGAT SINGH
The sterling contributions of Bhagat Singh and his comrades to the freedom struggle and to the cause of sovereignty, secularism and socialism, however, far outweigh these weaknesses.
Bhagat Singh has a special relevance to contemporary India, with the increasing aggressiveness of American imperialism bearing down on the country and the world; with millions of workers, peasants, agricultural labourers and even sections of the middle classes becoming prime targets of the rapacious strategy of imperialist globalization; with the economic and political sovereignty of the country itself being threatened by the worst form of neo-colonialism; and with all kinds of communal, casteist and terrorist forces out to dynamite the country’s unity and integrity.
In a sense, Bhagat Singh had himself forewarned that such developments were bound to occur if one form of exploitative rule was merely replaced by another. Referring to the workers and peasants, he had asked in his last testament, “What difference does it make to them whether Lord Reading is the head of the Indian government or Sir Purshotamdas Thakordas? What difference for a peasant if Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru replaces Lord Irwin!” That is precisely what happened at the time of the transfer of power.
Bhagat Singh is an extremely powerful symbol of the freedom struggle and of revolutionary change The four remarkable strands in the life, work and thought of Bhagat Singh and his comrades are: a) uncompromising struggle against imperialism, b) unflinching resistance to communalism and caste oppression; c) unbending opposition to bourgeois-landlord rule, and d) unshakable faith in Marxism and socialism as the only alternative before society.
There is also much to learn from the magnificent qualities of character that Bhagat Singh displayed through his short life of 23 years. His courage, sacrifice, integrity, determination, studiousness, humility and comradeship have been described in the memoirs written by his comrades and by other contemporaries. These are traits that all true revolutionaries must constantly try to imbibe and develop, first within themselves and then among others.
We shall end with the inspiring words with which Bhagat Singh concluded his last testament:
If you start the work on these lines, you shall have to be very sober.
It requires neither the emotion nor the death, but the life of constant struggle, suffering and sacrifice. Crush your individuality first. Shake off the dreams of personal comfort. Then start to work. Inch by inch you shall have to proceed. It needs courage, perseverance and very strong determination. No difficulties and no hardships shall discourage you. No failure and betrayals shall dishearten you. No travails imposed upon you shall snuff out the revolutionary will in you. Through the ordeals of sufferings and sacrifice you shall come out victorious. And these individual victories shall be the valuable assets of the Revolution.
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C.SUNISH
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