The legend of Bhagat Singh

 

Bhagat Singh, considered to be one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian Independence Movement, whose acts of dramatic violence against the Britishers is fondly remembered every year on his birth anniversary.

Bhagat Singh was born in British India in 1907. From childhood, he witnessed numerous atrocities committed on fellow Indians by the British, who came to trade under the guise of the East India Company and ended up controlling most of the nation. Bhagat took a solemn vow to free India from British rule after witnessing the aftermath of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Soon after the massacre, he learnt of Mahatma Gandhi's satyagraha policies and supports the non-cooperation movement, which saw thousands of people burning British-made clothing and giving up school, college studies, and government jobs.

In 1922, Gandhi called-off the movement after the Chauri Chaura incident. Undaunted, Bhagat decided to be a revolutionary, and, as an adult, joined the Hindustan Republic Association in its struggle for India's independence, ending up in prison for it. Bhagat's father, Kishen, bailed him out so that he could get him to run a dairy farm and marry a girl named Mannewali. Bhagat ran away from home, leaving a note saying that his love for the country comes first.

September 28, 2020, marks the 113th anniversary of the birth of South Asian revolutionary Bhagat Singh. Revolutionaries across India mark this occasion with meetings and ceremonies.

Bhagat Singh’s life (September 28, 1907–March 23, 1931), work and thought were marked by an uncompromising struggle against colonialism and imperialism, together with radical opposition to capitalism, communalism and the caste system.

The threat of US neo-imperialism is looming large, not only over India, but over the whole world, particularly the nations of Asia, Africa, the Arab countries and Latin America. In Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, this threat has taken the form of direct military intervention by the US and Israel. Iran and North Korea faced all sorts of bullying, whereas Cuba and Venezuela had to fight conspiracies all the time. India and some other countries are faced with pressures that threaten their independence in the conduct of foreign policy as well as framing their own domestic policies according to the needs of their own people.

In those difficult times, we are reminded of Bhagat Singh and Che Guevara, both of whom fought against all forms of imperialism and colonialism. While the story of Che Guevara is known the world over, the story of Bhagat Singh’s fight against British imperialism needs to be retold; it has the potential of inspiring struggling people everywhere, just as Che’s saga does.

It was not just a change at the linguistic level, from Sanskrit to a blend of Hindustani and English, but a sign of the growth of consciousness to a higher level in revolutionary movement of the country. And the catalyst of this change was none other than Bhagat Singh, who by now, through his experience of the revolutionary movement and from a systematic study of the revolutionary movement the world over, particularly from his study of the Soviet experience, had reached the conclusion that it was not just enough to free the mother India from the chains of foreign slavery, it was much more important to understand the whole system of enslaving and exploiting other nations, i.e., the system of imperialism and then to understand the mechanism of smashing it.

At the age of 12 Bhagat Singh visited Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar in April 1919, after the massacre, and brought home blood-soaked sand. At the age of 14, while reading in school in Lahore, he informed his grandfather about the preparations being made by railway workers to go on strike in 1921. Bhagat Singh had joined the National College, Lahore, at an age of 15. Prior to that he had welcomed the protesting Akali workers in his village, following the incident of February 4, 1921, when Mahant Narain Dass, in collaboration with the British authorities, killed 140 devout Sikhs at Gurdwara Nankana Sahib.

At the level of ideas, Ajit Singh was more advanced than the Indian Nation Congress leadership in the Punjab, especially in terms of his perception of what the freedom of India meant. He was also much more revolutionary in thought than the Congress leadership as he wanted to awaken and organise the peasantry on the basis of their economic exploitation at the hands of the big feudal landlords and the colonial system. Bhagat Singh went beyond this advanced thinking of his uncle and reached the logical end of adopting the Marxist vision of liberation.

At the age of 15, Bhagat Singh was questioning his father about the withdrawal of the non-cooperation movement by Mahatma Gandhi on the pretext of the Chauri Chaura incident. In fact, the withdrawal of the non-cooperation movement after Chauri Chaura in 1922 had disillusioned youth and revolutionaries all over India.

Chandra Shekhar Azad, who was flogged for shouting “Mahatma Gandhi Ki Jai”, was one among those youth, who were very bitter at this development, and later, in the course of his revolutionary activities, could never trust Gandhi. They associated with C.R. Dass, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, Lala Lajpat Rai and Madan Mohan Malviya, but not with Gandhi, though correspondence with the latter had taken place, with Gandhi’s reply to Sukhdev’s letter appearing in Young India only after the latter’s execution. To be fair, Gandhi received the letter, though written earlier, only after Sukhdev’s execution along with Bhagat Singh and Raj Guru.

In a way, the withdrawal of the non-cooperation movement in 1922 gave an impetus to the revolutionary movement throughout the country, units of which already existed in Bengal in the form of Ahushilan and Yugantar, the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) in the United Provinces, etc. Bhagat Singh reached Kanpur in 1923, after informing his father in a letter that he had dedicated his life to the nation and hence he could not think of marrying. His teacher at the National College, Jai Chander Vidyalankar, had written a letter introducing Bhagat Singh to Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, editor of Pratap, Kanpur, and Congress leader of the United Provinces.

Bhagat Singh not only worked for Pratap, he also joined the underground revolutionary organisation, Hindustan Republican Association, organised by Sachinder Nath Sanyal, the author of Bandi Jivan, who had already gone through one round of incarceration in the Andamans. Bhagat Singh had met him at Lahore. It was at Kanpur that Bhagat Singh met Bejoy Kumar Sinha, Shiv Verma, Jaider Kapoor, B.K. Dutt and Ajay Ghosh. Sukhdev and Bhagwati Charn Vohra were his comrades in Lahore. After spending about six months, writing under the pen name of Balwant in Pratap, working part time in flood relief and also performing the duties of headmaster in a national school around Aligarh, Bhagat Singh returned to Lahore upon hearing the news of his grandmother’s illness and getting an assurance that none in the household would talk about his marriage anymore.

By the age of 17 Bhagat Singh had intellectually matured to such an extent that he wrote a prize-winning essay in Hindi on the language issue of Punjab. In 1924 and 1925, he wrote “Vishv Prem” (“In love with the world”) and “Yuvak”, which were published in Matwala, both under the assumed name of Balwant Singh. His article on the execution of the six Babbar Akali revolutionaries in 1926 entitled “Holi ke din rakat ke chinte” (“Blood drops on Holi Day”) was published under the byline of “one Punjabi youth”. And, in “Why I am an Atheist”, written in 1930, Bhagat Singh referred to his acceptance of the logic of atheism by the end of 1926, when he was not yet 19 years of age.

Against all international norms, Britain hanged Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev at 7 pm on March 23 itself. A huge rally was held on that day at Lahore, organised by the Naujawan Bharat Sabha, apprehending that execution will take place in the morning on March 24. But, scared of the huge gathering of people at the Lahore central jail, British colonial officials executed them on March 23, 1931.

There are some other interesting aspects of the saga of Bhagat Singh. He had an excellent rapport with national leaders – Subhash Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru, Lala Lajpat Rai, Madan Mohan Malviya, and others. Despite differences in approach, they remained in contact. Chandra Shekhar Azad’s meeting with Nehru at Allahabad, as described by Nehru himself, was not that pleasant. Azad did not impress Nehru, but he did contribute Rs1000 to help the revolutionaries go to Russia, although the trip never materialised due to Azad’s death. Both Subhash Bose and Nehru were appreciative of Bhagat Singh, although Congress leaders and revolutionary youth often worked at cross-purposes due to their radically different strategies and tactics in the struggle for freedom.

Che Guevara once said, “We must struggle every day so that this love for humanity becomes a reality”. Bhagat Singh’s struggle for freedom was driven by this love for humanity and this love for humanity was so intense that worldly desires lost their appeal before him. In 1924, when his family pressurised him to get married, he left the house leaving behind a letter stating: “My life has been dedicated to the noblest cause, that of the freedom of the country. Therefore, there is no rest or worldly desire that can lure me now…” His jail notebook carries one of his beautiful quotes, “I am a man and all that affects mankind concerns me”.

Great people leave behind great legacies and the greater is the legacy, the greater are its claimants. Thus Bhagat Singh was no exceptional. Like any other great person of Indian Subcontinent, from Dullah Bhatti to Tipu Sultan and from Muhammad Iqbal to Amrita Pritam, the legacy of Bhagat Singh is equally borderless. Nothing could confine him in this world. Like he writes in his Jail notebook: "Every tiny molecule of Ash is in motion with my heat. I am such a Lunatic that I am free even in Jail."


The writer is an independent political observer who writes on politics, political and human-centred figures, current and international affairs.