'Why Should We Not Rid Ourselves of This Entire Problem?': Bhagat Singh
on Religion
The moot point is that even if one keeps one’s religion a private matter,
does it not heighten a feeling of alienation in people’s hearts? Does it not
affect the aim of attaining complete freedom?
Bhagat
Singh. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
28/SEP/2020
On Bhagat Singh’s birth anniversary, an extract
from The Bhagat Singh
Reader, edited by Chaman Lal and published by HarperCollins India.
The essay Mazhab Te Sadi Azadi di jang (Religion
and our Freedom Struggle) was published in the May 1928 issue of Kirti.
A political conference and the conference of the Naujawan Bharat Sabha were
held in Amritsar in which there was an intense debate on religion amongst
Bhagat Singh and his friends. This essay throws light on this problem. The
outlines of the idea of an independent India had begun to be more clearly
delineated. Some concrete suggestions for unity among the people have been made
in this essay.
A political conference was held in Amritsar from
11th of April to the 13th of April along with the conference for the youth. A
great deal of debate and discussion centred around two or three points. One of
the issues was religion. Though no one would have raised the question of
religion, but a resolution was proposed against communal organizations, and
those who were supporting these communal organizations under the pretext of
religion wanted to protect themselves. This question could have remained buried
a little longer; but once it was brought to the public arena, discussion
regarding it could take place and the concomitant question of solving the issue
of religion also arose.
Even in the subject committee of the regional
conference when Maulana Zafar Ali Sahib uttered ‘Khuda, Khuda!’ a few times,
the President, Pandit Jawaharlal, asked him to refrain from doing so on that
platform. ‘If you are a missionary of religion, then I am a preacher of
irreligion’. Later even in Lahore a meeting of Naujawan Bharat Sabha was held.
Several speeches were made and advice dispensed by some gentlemen who used
religion for their benefit and also by those who were afraid to discuss this
divisive issue, lest it led to tension.
Also read: ‘Class-Consciousness
Can Stop Communal Rioting’: Bhagat Singh on Religious Violence
The most important thing that was reiterated
repeatedly and upon which Shriman Bhai Amar Singh ji Jhabaal laid special
emphasis was that the question of religion should not be touched at all. This
was very good advice. If anyone’s religion is not creating an obstacle in
another person’s happiness and peace then why should anyone have a reason to
raise a voice against it? But the question that arises is this: what has
experience taught us up till now? Even in the last agitation, the same question
of religion had arisen and every one had been given complete freedom. So much
so that mantras and aayats began to be read
from the Congress dais as well. Those days anyone lagging behind in religion
was not considered to be good. As a result, narrow-mindedness was on the rise.
Chaman Lal
The Bhagat Singh Reader
HarperCollins, 2019
The ill-effects of this are not hidden from anyone.
Now the nationalist people and lovers of freedom have grasped the truth behind
religion and think of it as an obstacle in their path.
The moot point is that even if one keeps one’s
religion a private matter, does it not heighten a feeling of alienation in
people’s hearts? Does it not affect the aim of attaining complete freedom for
the country? At this time, the worshippers of complete freedom call religion a
kind of mental slavery. They also feel that telling a child that God is
omnipotent and man nothing but a mere statue of clay, is to make the child weak
forever. It is to destroy the strength of his heart and his sense of self-confidence.
But even if we don’t discuss this and go straight
to the direct questions before us, even then we see that religion is an
obstacle in our path. For example, we want everyone to be equal. There should
be no division of class among the capitalists, nor of touchable and
untouchable. But Sanatan Dharma is in favour of this discrimination. Even in
the twentieth century, if a low-caste boy garlands people like the Pandit or
the Maulvi, they have a bath with their clothes on and refuse to grant the ‘janeyu’,
the sacred thread, to the untouchables. Either we pledge to say nothing against
this religion and sit silently at home, or we must oppose it. People also say
that we must reform these ills. Very good! Swami Dayanand abolished
untouchability but he could not go beyond the four varnas. Discrimination still
remained. If the Sikhs go to the Gurudwara and sing ‘Raj Karega Khalsa’ (May
the Khalsa rule!) and then come out and talk of a Republic, what meaning does
it have?
Religion says that the kafirs that
don’t follow Islam should be hacked down; what would be the result if an
exhortation of unity is given here? We are aware that chanting some higher
order aayats and mantras can be used to draw
different interpretations but the question is why should we not rid ourselves
of this entire problem? Religion stands before us like a mountain. Suppose a
freedom struggle spread all over the country, armies with guns standing face to
face, shots are about to be fired and if at that moment someone does what
Mohammed Gauri did – as the story goes – and even today places cows, pigs, the
Granth Sahib, Veda-Quran etc. before us, then what will we do? If we are
staunchly religious we will roll up our beddings and go back home.
Also read: Bhagat Singh Was
a Thinking Individual, Not Just a Raw Nationalist
While there is religion, Hindus and Sikhs will not
shoot at cows or Muslims at a pig. Staunch believers would keep rolling in
front of their idols like the thousands of priests at the Somnath Temple, while
the others, atheists or the irreligious, will get the task done. So what
conclusion do we reach? One is forced to think against religion. But let us
even consider the argument offered by those in favour of religion, who say that
the world would become a land of darkness and sin will increase if religion is
absent. All right, let us look at this.
Lahore Jail. Photo:
F.E. Chaudhary
The Russian Mahatma, Tolstoy, writing about
religion in his Essays and Letters has divided it into three
parts –
1. Essentials of Religion, that is, the main tenets
of religion – to speak the truth, not steal, help the poor, stay in harmony
with others, etc.
2. Philosophy of Religion, that is, the philosophy
of birth and death, reincarnation, the creation of the world etc. In this, a
person tries to think and understand things according to his own will.
This means that in the first part, all religions
are alike. All believe in speaking the truth, not lying, living in harmony with
others. Some people have called these things individual religion. There is no
question of dissent here. In fact, every human being should follow such noble
principles. The second is the question of philosophy. One has to accept that
“Philosophy is the outcome of human weakness” (originally in English). Where
people can see, there is no trouble. When things are not clearly visible, then
one’s brain works overtime and some specific results are dug out. Philosophy is
undoubtedly a very important thing because we cannot progress without it, yet
peace is equally important.
Our elders have said that there is reincarnation,
but the Christians and Muslims don’t believe in it. Very well, each to his own!
Come, let us sit down and discuss this calmly. Learn each others’ views. But
when there is a debate on the question of transmigration of soul, then the Arya
Samajists and the Muslims come to blows. The thing is that both parties lock up
their intelligence and abandon their power to think and debate. They believe
that God has written this in the Veda in this manner – and that is the ultimate
truth. The others believe that in the Quran Sharif, God has written this – and
that this is the only truth. These people have abandoned all powers of
reasoning. If philosophy had no greater power than the personal opinion of an
individual and no separate groups are formed due to a belief in a particular
philosophy, what is there to complain about?
Also read: Hindutva’s Desperate
Attempt to Use Bhagat Singh Against Love
Now we come to the third thing – the rituals. On
the day of Saraswati Pooja, it is necessary to take Goddess Saraswati’s idol in
a procession and it is also necessary that a band be brought to play music
before the idol. But en route there is a mosque on Harrison
Road. Islam says that there should be no music in front of a mosque. Now what
should be done? Civil rights decree that one can go through the market playing
music, but religion says no. In one religion, cow sacrifice is prescribed and
in the other, cow worship. What to do under the circumstances? If religion
undergoes a change as soon as a bough of a peepal tree is cut, what should be
done? And these minor differences in philosophy and rituals and customs later
grow into a national religion and become the reason for the making of separate
organizations. The result is before us to see.
(L) Exhibition by
Punjab Archives Lahore on Bhagat Singh files in 2018 (R) Front page of
Naujwan Bharat Sabha manifesto from Bhagat Singh files in Punjab Archives
Lahore exhibition 2018. Photo: Nusrat Manto
So if religion is to mix superstition with the
above-written third and second thing, then there is no need for religion. Not
tomorrow, rather it should be blown up today itself! If free thought can be
mixed with the first and second then may such a religion flourish! But it is
necessary to do away with factionalism and discrimination in the serving and
sharing of food; words like untouchable will have to be uprooted entirely.
Till the time we let go of our narrow-mindedness
and become one, true unity cannot be achieved. So only by following the
above-mentioned things can we move towards freedom. Our freedom does not mean
merely to escape the hold of the British; it means complete independence – when
people will intermingle with each other freely and be rid of mental slavery as
well.
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