Bhagat Singh Study
Bhagat Singh Study is a blog to know about great Indian martyr Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries of the world, who played a historic role in shaping the destiny of Indian nation and the world. Bhagat Singh and Che Guevara like revolutionaries are the icons of youth, who wish to change the world. In this blog there are photographs, documents and research material about Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries of the world.
Friday 12 April 2024
Tuesday 26 March 2024
ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ-ਰਾਜਗੁਰੂ-ਸੁਖਦੇਵ ਦੀ ਫਾਂਸੀ ਅਤੇ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਫਾਂਸੀਆਂ
Monday 25 March 2024
Revolutionary Legacy of Bhagat Singh for South Asia
Friday 24 November 2023
Bhagat Singh in Canada
A series of Lectures on Bhagat Singh and his ideas of
revolution were planned by Indo-Canadian Workers Association (ICWA) Brampton in
March 2020. The series was to begin from Brampton and was to be taken to other
cities of Canada by either branches of ICWA or like-minded other groups or
organisations. Due to onset of Covid-19 in mid-March 2020, whole Canada was
shut up like other parts of the world, including India, so the series was
postponed but not cancelled.
ICWA has different leadership in different cities, such as
radicals lead ICWA in Ontario province, whereas CPM-oriented people manage it
in British Columbia State’s cities. There is East India Defence Committee,
which was set up by Hardial Bains, a leader of Ghadar Communist Party, a
radical Maoist party at one time and very strong in many cities which launched
many anti- racist struggles. There were other Progressive Cultural and Writers’
Associations among organisers of this lecture series. There were and are many
left oriented journals also published from Canada. At one Hari P Sharma’s
organisation IPANA and later (SANSAD) were much known, it used to bring out
bi-lingual journal in Punjabi and English. Nowadays it is extinct, but some
weeklies or monthlies continued for some more years like The Asian Times edited
by Prithviraj Kalia in four languages-Hindi, Punjabi, English and Urdu or Nawin
Duniya in Punjabi had continued the trend. During Covid crisis both Nawin
Duniya and Asian Times ceased publication. But journals like Sarokaran di Awaz
or Radical Desi still continue to hold the ground! Print or online print media
has given it over now to electronic media like Radio, which is most popular, TV
or podcasts! Many activists of old radical organisations have passed away like
Chin Banerjee. Banerjee had written obituary of Hari P Sharma at his passing
away in 2010. Both Chin Bannerjee and Hari P Sharma served as Professors in
Canadian Universities and had earned laurels as academicians. Hari P Sharma’s
old associate in IPANA, Raj Chauhan is now Speaker of British Columbia
Legislature assembly.
The pending series of lectures materialised in March 2023.
In 2023, invitations from Surrey, Edmonton, Calgary and
Montreal were received even before landing up in Canada. In year 2011, while on
way to San Francisco in USA to deliver lecture on Ghadar party young hero
Kartar Singh Sarabha on his birthday, I had stopped at Edmonton and Surrey to
deliver lectures/meetings on Bhagat Singh Dalit literature. On my return to
India in January 2012 from the assignment of Visiting Professor in Hindi at The
University of West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine campus in Trinidad, I had my
return journey through Toronto, so a lecture on Che Guevara and Bhagat Singh
was organised at Brampton by Rationalist Society. At that very time, friends in
Canada, especially Amrit Dhillon, husband of Bhagat Singh niece Inderjit at
Brampton had expressed desire to arrange a lecture series, though many books of
mine on Bhagat Singh came out after 2011-12. Amrit Dhillon’s efforts through
ICWA brought fruit in the form of lecture series in March 2023!
I touched Toronto airport at 6 am on 24th March. Bhagat
Singh niece Inderjit and her husband Amrit Dhillon were there at airport to
receive me. Both not in very good health and Amrit Dhillon nearing 80 years, I
was feeling a bit guilty.
Amrit Dhillon and ICWA had planned some Radio and TV
interviews for propagating the event of 26th March, which included my lecture
for 45 minutes on revolutionary ideas of Bhagat Singh and a one-hour play based
on Bhagat Singh’s last days in prison by Punjabi play wright Davinder Daman.
Though for Canadian Indians/Punjabis Bhagat Singh is most popular iconic figure
for their socio-politico-cultural events, their main focus is more on plays in
Punjabi. As play can engage people from different age and mental level, from
kids to older people. It is a kind of fulfilling their aesthetic needs also, as
most of Canadian Punjabis/Indians have not got integrated with Canada’s own
original citizens of white or of some mix races. Canada as a nation or country
is also not of ancient times. It was founded much later than USA, became a
nation and has huge lands, mostly still uninhibited. Punjabis out of Indians
had started reaching in Canada in early 1900’s and the first Gurdwara which was
built in 1908 at Surrey was demolished by none else than Punjabis themselves to
build a housing complex. There was resistance by some Punjabis/Indians against
demolition, but the greed was more powerful than religious feelings and now
only a token plaque is put up indicating the place to be the first ever
Gurdwara of Canada built in 1908. However, the Gurdwara built in Abbotsford in
1911, stands as historic Gurdwara with a museum and Kamagatamaru ship monuments
as the ship had landed at Vancouver in July 1914. It was made to wait at the seashore
only for two months with 376 passengers onboard; only very few could land with
court intervention. The remaining passengers had to travel back for two months
to Bajbaj Ghat near Calcutta, where British colonial police fired upon them
killing 20 passengers, whose memorial is built on the spot of shooting, which
was inaugurated by first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and was taken care of
Chittagong revolutionary Ganesh Ghosh for long time till his death.
Though I could impress the audience of nearly full Pearson
Hall with around 300 people as most of the people in audience had never heard
of those things which I generally speak to Indian audience or audiences outside
India, I had to wind up before I could exhaust all the ideas, which I summed up
in brief. There was no time for discussion as audience was waiting for the play
and some songs. A poem of Faiz Ahmad Faiz was sung with modern instruments by a
Canadian Pakistani, which was appreciated.
A day before the lecture I may have appeared in 2-3 radio or
TV interviews and on 26th March itself, after the lecture, I went through
two-hour long interview on one local YouTube channel of Nahar Aujla. In Canada,
especially among Punjabis/Indians, radio is most popular mode of information.
Very few people have subscribed to any newspaper in Canada, none in houses I
enjoyed hospitality.
I was to leave for Abbotsford for few lectures in Surrey and
Vancouver area for ten days, so I left Toronto on flight on 28th March, while
on 27th giving some more interviews or outing, it was light raining season with
moderate cold weather in most of Canada during my visit from 24th March to 1st
May for almost five weeks.
At Abbotsford small airport, Taraksheel Society activist
couple Paramjit and her husband picked me up and came over to their beautiful
house on riverside. Next day on 29th April, I had to go through interviews with
Canadian electronic media on different channels, most famous being Red FM and
Connect, but smaller ones like Sher-e-Punjab like channels also had their
studios. I appeared in short and longer interviews at channels as well as home
set up studios for YouTube channels. One well known Indian journalist from
Times of India-Manimugdha Sharma is now part of Red FM as well as doing
research from Fraser University of British Columbia. In Canada, one may do as
many jobs in the day combining Govt and private jobs legally. Among
Punjabis/Indians it is a craze to work more hours, sometimes sixteen hours or
more in a single day. Even when they have weekly break of two days, they take
up private jobs of property dealing or work as realtors! Most of Punjabis with
Govt. or private full time regular jobs, indulge in property dealing on
weekends! As some of Punjabi hosts said that all are running after earning
dollars-Canadian currency is also dollar, its value slightly less than US
dollar. The situation has changed a lot after my last visit in 2012, when this
kind of dollar earning rat race was not there, or less visible! Even when
parents or kins of Punjabi/Indians settled as citizens of Canada are invited to
stay permanently with children, they are also pushed into doing jobs like
cherry/blue berry picking or such kind of jobs. People in their 80’s even 90’s
do work from home doing translations etc, which are well paid.
One may look at this tendency critically, but one has to
admit that there is no distinction between white collar or blue-collar jobs.
People go in for the jobs which fetch them more money and blue-collar jobs are
paid more! So, Indians shedding their inhibition for menial or labour jobs,
take up hard working jobs which pay more bucks. Academicians of repute in
India, who remained Professors in colleges and Universities, when come over to
Canada, they forget the nose of their old academic career and accept jobs like
bus driving without any inhibition! Long drives of goods trucks earn lot of
bucks, more than other blue-collar jobs, so most of Punjabi settlers had heavy
vehicle driving as profession for a length of time to enable them to buy a
house. Housing is well organised. So first they go for two-bedroom flats with
underground basement, which is generally rented to Indian students in Canada.
With that earning they work many extra hours and reach in a position to go for
a three-bedroom flat. Bank loans are easily available. Flats get pledged to
bank for the amount they spend on buying. There is no Indian notion of ‘my
home’ they change the homes like changing the clothes, buying new ones after a
couple of years. So, 2 to 3, 3 to 4, 4 to five-room house, the race continues
all the time leaving no time for leisure or entertainment. Many of them have
houses in 2-3 cities, even in American cities as travelling and working in
American cities is as easy as inside Canada!
As I was to spend almost ten days in Vancouver area, apart
from visiting some historic sites and sight-seeing I wished my friends to
organise as many meetings as possible during my stay, whether small in house
meetings, or public hall meetings. After staying one or two nights at Surrey I
moved to Abbotsford with a young relative. I had a second visit to historic
1911 built Gurdwara, which was once the centre of Ghadarite activists, in whose
langar hall I was honoured with Siropa and a medal in 2011 by then MLA and
minister Raj Chauhan, who is now Speaker of British Columbia assembly, but had
his long association with Hari P Sharma’s radical left organisation. Raj
Chauhan and other friends belong to NDP party, strong in British Columbia,
where Ujjal Dosanjh, grandson of a Ghadarite from Hoshiarpur district of Punjab
was the Premier one time or Chief Minister, in Indian political sense. I had
met Ujjal Dosanjh in 2011 as well and during this visit also, we joined a
dinner held by a common friend. He became controversial for changing parties,
while losing his seat in elections. Ujjal has now taken to writing and one part
of his autobiography was released in Delhi recently by his publisher Speaking
Tiger in Delhi.
During my stay in Vancouver area, I visited British Columbia
provincial assembly in Victoria, where one has to ferry by ship from Vancouver.
During 2011 also I had visited and wished that in some way the reference to
Bhagat Singh should come on record of assembly proceedings. Last time Harry
Bains, Raj Chahuan and Jagroop Brar were our hosts, and Rachna Singh was part
of us as visitors. (This time Rachna Singh was minister herself, though we
could not meet!) Time was so short that we could not watch the proceedings of
assembly. This time however it was pleasant surprise as we were invited by a
Filipino background MLA Mable Egmore, who was once part of Drivers Union, led
by Kirpal Bains, who was President of Drivers Union, and Mable was her deputy
in union as Vice President. She was the one who extended an invitation to be
her guest and visit Assembly premises and watch proceedings of the assembly.
She received five of us warmly at Assembly gate and took us around the complex,
where at one place pictures of all early Premiers were displayed including one
of Ujjal Dosanjh. While in huge assembly library I could not gift any book, as
I was left with none, but did present brochure of Bhagat Singh archives and
Resource centre to be displayed. As we also met Niki Sharma the law minister in
the assembly complex, I wished to present Bhagat Singh’s writings in Hindi to
her, but she expressed her inability to read Hindi, though her parental
background is from Jalandhar area of Punjab. We were introduced to Assembly speaker,
who happened to be Raj Chauhan, a Hari P Sharma follower once, I presented the
copy of Understanding Bhagat Singh to him and he invited us to watch the
proceedings in afternoon session, when he will be chairing. In the meantime,
Mable has managed to treat us as special visitors to be introduced to the
members of assembly. I was first to be introduced by Jinny Sims, former MP and
Minister to the house as Researcher on Bhagat Singh, the greatest icon of
freedom struggle of India. Later Mable introduced the other four members of our
group, especially mentioning Kirpal Bains to be her mentor in trade union! We
got the copy of recording after some time. Not to be forgotten was the
sumptuous lunch in assembly canteen, where minister Jagroop Brar met and MLA Jinny
Sims joined for a while, expressing her concern about Khalistani and Amrik
Singh’s neo-Bhindrawalian activities. Jinny Sims’s father was a communist
activist in Punjab. We returned after that session and Mable Igmore came out to
see us off. Mable once again referred to Bhagat Singh in assembly in context of
a race done in his name. In Canada races are part and parcel of social life.
Mable is part of queer movement of Canada and it does not affect her electoral
prospects as she had already won her seat for four times in a row
During my stay in Vancouver area, where I lived in Surrey,
Abbotsford and Maple Field, few notable things are-visit to Abbotsford old fort
Langley site, where the mention to aboriginal children being killed, which has
been the hot topic of Canadian newspapers and society since few months. I saw
their genocide monuments being built in the hearts of cities like Surrey,
Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto, may be few other cities too. In those designated
spaces, the design or pictures of skulls of aboriginal children, their dresses,
shoes with the banners like every child matters etc have been displayed and
they attract huge attention of visitors. In most of place the use of Punjabi
along with English and French was quite common.
Other smaller meetings in Surrey area was one at Jarnail
Singh artist’s studio. A small indoor meeting, in which Punjabi senior writer
of Pakistani origin Fauzia Rafique joined. CPM activists also held indoor
meeting at Kulwant Dhesi spacious house with respectable presence and
meaningful discussion, in which historian Sohan Singh Pooni and activist
Surinder Sangha joined in intense discussion. A larger public hall discussion
was held in East India defence committee hall Surrey, where for more than two hours
an exhaustive discussion was held on the role of Bhagat Singh’s ideas to change
the society on socialist principles.
Irony of the all these meetings was there were very few
participants, who might have attended all meetings, not due to time
constraints, but political constraints. Like their counterparts in India, they
attend only their own faction or group’s meeting despite commonality in views
and need for broader unity.
After spending ten days in British Columbia province, I
moved to Alberta province with Capital at Edmonton. Here there is a strong
Punjabi background group with Progressive Cultural platform with 85 years old
Prithvi Raj Kalia as its main spirit. Kalia, himself a Hindi and English writer
and retired official of Haryana Sahitya Akademi, contributed a lot after
migrating to Canada post-retirement, bringing out Asian Times, bringing out
books on Bhagat Singh, Ghadar Party, Marxism etc to mark the anniversaries.
Jasvir Deol with Mangat Ram Pasla group political affiliation during his
student days in Punjab is NDP popular MLA here. So, a well-attended public
meeting was held here in a hall of Punjabi background Canadians. There was
lively discussion. Mayor of Edmonton is a Punjabi background theatre activist,
who was earlier a federal minister in Trudeau Govt. Amarjit Sohi came to see me
after the meeting as he belonged to Trudeau’s liberal party while Deol belonged
to NDP. Amarjit Sohi with a family background from Sangrur district of Punjab
was a theatre activist, who in seventies had gone to Bihar to watch radical
Naxal movement’s cultural activities, where he was arrested by special cell of
Bihar police. He was tortured like anything and could have even been eliminated
given the circumstances, which have still not changed much, perhaps worsened.
To his good fortune and to the bad fortune of Bihar police a young IAS Punjabi
lady with academic and poetic background had just joined as Deputy Commissioner
of Jahanabad district. She raided the circuit house where Sohi was being
tortured and called for the police officers who tortured Sohi. Sohi was sent to
hospital immediately and the brutal police officers, one in drunkard condition
and threatening DC herself was bundled out of the district. Sohi suffered few
years of prison and later as a free person, again led a protest demonstration
of some workers to the same Deputy Commissioner, this encounter did not turn
bitter and things were settled smoothly! Later Amarjit Sohi migrated to Canada
with whole family and in turn of the events became federal minister in Trudeau
Govt. He continues to be the Mayor of Edmonton. Mayor post in Canadian system
is very important. While meeting him, I asked him to display Bhagat Singh portrait
in Mayoral office and get Bhagat Singh books in libraries of Edmonton. I am not
sure whether they would do it as politicians in Canada, while more accessible
and less arrogant than their Indian counterparts are not much different when
coming to action.
My next lecture was very next day in Calgary, which is
larger city of Alberta province. Here Taraksheel society organised lecture in a
NGO hall again with large gathering and very congenial atmosphere for
discussion. After spending a week in Alberta province, I returned to Ontario
again for the last leg of my lecture tour as 30th April was the Taraksheel
programme in same Pearson Hall in Brampton, from where I began on 26th March.
After return to Ontario I stayed with different friends and visited my old friend
and very sensitive Punjabi poet Navtej Bharti in London Ontario, almost one and
half hours drive from Brampton. I had once translated his poem in Hindi-Ram Ab
Ayodhya Nahin Lautenge-Rama will not return to Ayodhya now! It was in
background of 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, it was published in popular Hindi
daily Jansatta. Though this was equally good poem, the poem which got popular
about this theme was Kaifi Azmi’s. There were display of Che Guevara photos in
his small but aesthetically beautiful villa. It was there that we talked about
Bhootwara, of whose he and just one more Prem Pali are survivors as a day
before Surjeet Lee, had expired in Patiala. In Brampton, one indoor meeting was
held in the house of Arider Hundal, a member of Canadian Communist Party, who
fought local election. His father a progressive poet Harbhajan Hundal was
affiliated to Pasla group in Punjab, who passed away recently. One pleasant
invitation came from Concordia University Montreal.Dolores Chew organised a
meeting at a small hall in Concordia University on 26th April. It was the only
academic meeting in the whole lecture tour, though it was of radical political
thinkers’ group. I was in hall just in time as I had missed a train to Montreal
from Toronto, I was allowed to travel in next train without any additional
charge with a gap of three hours, the train journey itself was pleasant,
meeting an Afghan student during the journey and arousing her interest in
atheism of Bhagat Singh! Apart from a very useful and rich discussion at
Montreal, I met Maya Khankhoje, daughter of legendary Ghadarite revolutionary
Pandurang Khankhoje whom I had met in Delhi earlier and our JNU alumnus Diane
Sha, while Anand, son of legendry Hindi writer Yashpal, who was instrumental in
organising this meeting. I travelled to Ottawa, the capital of Canada from
Montreal before returning to Brampton for the last meeting on 30th April.
As 30th April meeting
organised by Taraksheel society was more focussed on a play by a Punjabi
playwright, I was asked to speak briefly on Bhagat Singh, which I did with
great precision.
The only major province and city I missed out was Winnipeg
in Manitoba, for which I had invitation in 2020, but which could not
materialise in 2023.
With this tenth and last meeting in Canada, my lecture tour
was concluded and my return ticket was booked for 1st May. Out of these ten
meetings, seven were public meetings and three were indoor meetings. There were
book exhibitions in most of public meetings, but very exhibitions had my books
on display except few. Though I had circulated the list of my books to all
organisers, but few of them got them for display.
Despite a successful tour one question continues to haunt
this writer. Why Indians/ Panjabis who have chosen to take citizenship of
Canada and are ministers/MLAs, part of ruling elite and yet they indulge more
in Indian politics than in their adopted country? They don’t question the
Canadian Government for playing second fiddle to US in almost all international
affairs. They find it easy to condemn or praise Indian Government, but don’t
question Canadian government. Perhaps if they start criticising Canadian
Government for its pro-US policies their liberty to indulge in Indian politics
will also get checked. The hypocrisy of Sonia Gandhi being a foreigner, so
can’t be an Indian PM, but how Indian background people at so many places
become Presidents/Prime Ministers and are not called anti-national in the
countries where they have become rulers, and Indian Government and people both
celebrate it when Sunk becomes UK Premier, but in India any person of foreign
origin is a suspect/anti-national etc.
The return journey was as difficult as the first journey was
but again this was compensated by watching the Satyajit Ray film Jalsaghar
itself!
Wednesday 30 August 2023
Indian Politicians in India and Canada: A study in contrast! Chaman Lal*
Indian politicians in Canada and India: A study in contrast | Chandigarh News - The Indian Express
It was in March 2020
that the Indo-Canadian Workers Association in Brampton sent me an invitation to
deliver a few lectures on Shaheed Bhagat
Singh in some cities of Canada. However, as the pandemic Covid-19 spread world
over in mid-March, the programs were cancelled at the last moment, as were in
India too! The invitation materialised three years later in March 2023.! While
as part of the series, the lectures were held in Vancouver also. During my stay in the Vancouver area, it was in April first week, that along with a few friends of
Punjabi origin, I wished to and visit Victoria, the capital of British
Columbia province of Canada, which is popularly called Beautiful British
Columbia (BBC)! We were invited to visit the Assembly Hall of the province by an MLA
of Filipino origin, Mable Elmore, who was Vice President of the Drivers Union
at one time and a four-time MLA. During my last visit in year 2011, an MLA of
Punjabi origin Harry Bains had invited a few friends and we were entertained
there in the Assembly Hall by Raj Chauhan, Jagrup Brar and Harry Bains, who took us
around the assembly hall. At that time also, I had wished that if there could be
some reference made to Shaheed Bhagat Singh in Assembly proceedings as we went
around. This time to my pleasant surprise, it did happen, that too, due to a
Filipino-origin MLA! To fulfil my wish, Kirpal Bains, a Punjabi-origin friend,
who remained President of a union, of which Mable Elmore was Vice President, arranged
an invitation from his comrade and MLA Mable Elmore to visit the assembly with friends.
So, five of us Kirpal Bains, Dr. Sadhu Singh, Iqbal Purewal, Santokh Singh and
me, took a ferry from Vancouver and reached Victoria, where the British Columbia
Assembly is located. Both Kirpal Bains and Dr Sadhu Singh had their
illustrious academic career in Punjab earlier. We were received at the gate of the Assembly by MLA Mable Elmore herself, who came out from the assembly's ongoing
proceedings. While she took us around the assembly hall complex, we met some
ministers of British Columbia holding their own files without any staff to
carry around. One of the ministers we met, was Niki Sharma, the law minister. I was carrying a few books on Shaheed Bhagat Singh in Hindi and was told that
Niki Sharma might know Hindi, as she is from the Jalandhar area background,
but she did not know Hindi. We were pleasantly surprised to see Raj Chauhan as
Speaker of the British Columbia assembly, in 2011, he was a minister. He received
us warmly in the speaker’s chamber. As I
presented one of my books on Bhagat Singh to him, he invited us to watch the
proceedings of the Assembly in the afternoon session, which he was to chair. We
were entertained on a nutritious lunch with all kinds of food, in the Assembly Canteen
where we met Jagrup Brar, who was minister this time and also joined briefly by
MLA Jinny Sims, who was, an MP of federal parliament in 2011. Jinny's name is Joginder from the Doaba area and her father was a Communist activist in Punjab.
While talking over lunch, she shared our concern about what was being done by
Khalistani elements in Canada and Amritpal and others in the UK and other
countries.
In the afternoon
session of the Assembly, while we were seated in the visitor’s gallery, we were
introduced to the Assembly members as special visitors. While I was introduced
to the Assembly by ex-Minister Jinny Sims as a researcher on Bhagat Singh, by
adding that Shaheed Bhagat Singh was India’s greatest hero of the freedom struggle.
Mable Elmore introduced the other four friends Kirpal Bains, Sadhu Singh, Iqbal
Purewal and Santokh Singh, mentioning Kirpal Bains as her mentor in the trade union! The proceedings were recorded and I was happy that at least it was
possible this time to get Shaheed Bhagat Singh's name mentioned in Assembly
records as an icon of the Indian freedom struggle. While going through the assembly
complex, I clicked the photograph of Ujjal Dosanjh, who had remained Premier of
British Columbia province once, later a federal minister too. (Ujjal Dosanjh
too joined in a dinner held during my stay in Surrey with lively chat on drinks
and food! He was in Chandigarh recently to release one of his autobiographical books,
as he left politics for writing. He is the grandson of a Ghadrite revolutionary
from the Hoshiarpur district). I presented a Brochure of Bhagat Singh Archives and
Resource Centre New Delhi to be displayed in Assembly library. While Mable
Elmore came out with us to the Assembly gate to say goodbye! I was told that on the next day of the Assembly session, Mable again made mention of Shaheed Bhagat Singh
in the context of a race being organised in martyr’s name in Vancouver!
I was wondering how a system in different countries makes people of different backgrounds
conduct themselves in accordance with the country they adopt to live in. All
MLAs and ministers of Punjabi /Indian origin keep coming over to India and see
how their counterparts in the Indian parliamentary system behave like feudal lords.
While MLAs/ministers of Indian origin do all their work themselves, buying tea
or coffee too by standing in queue, the Indian feudal-minded parliamentarians cannot
be even approached by common or even somewhat privileged Indians! Aam Aadmis (Common
People in literal translation), become so Khas (Special), that even their close
friends earlier are not responded to in any manner. I know one or two Cabinet
ministers and senior functionaries of Punjab, who once took me to various
monumental places relating to the Ghadar party like Stockton, Sacramento and San
Francisco in the USA, will not even respond to my phone/Whatsapp calls/msgs or
emails, so is in Delhi Aam turns Khas after getting power!
Ironically Governments in the centre and states in the Indian Parliamentary
system, find it difficult to appreciate the truly Multi-Cultural Canadian
Parliamentary system, though still a dominion of the erstwhile British empire,
where ministers including Prime Minister and Chief Ministers, MPs and MLAs live
like other citizens of the country, one could find them in markets, carrying
their own grocery, driving their own vehicles, standing in ques with all other
citizens, allowing peoples peaceful protests, accepting their genuine demands
without taking the sacrifices of people, like 700 farmers lives during recent
farmers struggle! Indian Govt. bullies the Canadian government like
international feudal lords. Canada itself has lost more than 300 of its
citizen's lives, due to Khalistani elements causing an air crash few years ago, and
a grand monument stands in the Vancouver area, with all the names of aeroplane
crash victims caused by Khalistanis, so is a monument built at Vancouver
waterfront in memory of 376 Kamagatamaru ship passengers including
Hindu-Sikh-Muslims all, who were not allowed to land and reverted back to India
after two months in 1914! Canadian Govt. has recorded an apology for that in its
Parliament!
I also wonder that after
becoming citizens of Canada/other countries, why people from Indian background
keep harping more on Indian situation than on the situation of their
citizenship adopted countries! One can understand showing concern about the Indian
situation from a humanitarian angle, but that should be for any country’s
situation! Irony is the Indian Govt, while being critical of Canadian/other Governments.
for not checking protests against the Indian govt. by Indian background people for
its oppression inside India, they use similar Indian background people for
promoting a present brand of Indian Govt. Thus, Indian Prime Minister Modi
has been built as a ‘hero’ by the same type of Indian background people in the USA, UK
and Australia, but this govt. gets stung when the same type of Indian background
people criticise or protest against Modi Govt.! While no action was taken at the replay and
eulogising Nathu Ram Godse for shooting Mahatma Gandhi, by a Hindu
fundamentalist woman in Aligarh, action is demanded against some Sikhs in
Canada replaying and eulogising Sikh bodyguards of Indira Gandhi shooting her! Both
these actions in public are reprehensible, yet demanding action against
Canadian Sikhs and not taking any action against Nathu Ram Godse's followers at
home! This is the hypocrisy of first
order!
*Chaman Lal is a
retired Professor from JNU and Honorary Advisor Bhagat Singh Archives and
Resource Centre, Delhi , has been in Canada recently for a lecture series on
Shaheed Bhagat Singh. Whatsapp 9868774820, email Chamanlal.jnu@gmail.com
Wednesday 28 June 2023
Relook at a
Book: New Edition of C S Venu’s Then Banned Biography of Bhagat Singh
Chaman Lal | 28 Jun 2023India
Venu’s
biography of Bhagat Singh, despite some errors in dates and narration, is one
of the authentic records of those times, and its new edition is welcome.
Venu, C S,
Sirdar Bhagat Singh (Banned biography), ed. Rajwanti Maan, 2022, Delhi, New
World Publication, 114, Price Rs 150.
This
was one of earliest biographies of Bhagat Singh, published in the year 1931,
immediately after his execution. Its price was just six annas at that time and
its copies were available from the author's address in Madras. All books,
especially biographies and poetry on Bhagat Singh, were promptly
proscribed. The new edition of the book has been published after 91
years. Rajwanti Maan, the Haryana archivist got its copy from the British
Library, London, and under her ‘editorship’, it was published in 2022 by a
relatively new publisher -- New World Publication.
The author,
a Tamil, was in Lahore jail at the time of the execution of Bhagat Singh,
Rajguru and Sukhdev. In the fresh edition, Rajwanti Maan, in her brief
introduction, has quoted from the biography but has not used the latest
information to update.
In Venu’s
biography, the hunger strike period of Bhagat Singh in jail is referred to as
116 days. The editor has neither mentioned that the hunger strike period was
actually110 days, which was mentioned in newspapers, such as The
Tribune, at that time. She also does not mention that Bhagat Singh
went on two more hunger strikes adding more days.
As per the
editor, CS Venu’s biography was acquired by the British Library London on
November 12, 1931. It was an 80-page book, priced six annas, and had the
address of the author for copies. Its original title was Sirdar Bhagat
Singh. No justification has been given as to why the word Sirdar has been
changed to Sardar in the latest edition. The editor ends her introduction with
the para from Dreamland, a poetry book by Lala Ram Saran Das, whose
introduction was written by Bhagat Singh at the poet’s insistence. The editor
has titled eight chapters. The original edition, perhaps, had breaks but was
not divided into titles. Every new title or break began with some couplet from
a classic revolutionary poem quoted by Venu.
The first
chapter, ‘Childhood and Early Influences’ starts with a quote from Walter Scott’s
poetry:
“Oh
hush thee my baby, the time soon will come/When the sleep shall be broken by
trumpet and drum/Then hush thee my darling, take rest while you may/For strife
comes with manhood and waking with day.”
Venu refers
to the 1906 Congress session at Calcutta, where Ajit Singh with Lala Lajpat Rai
and Kishan Singh thundered the demand for freedom for India. He refers to
Bhagat Singh’s birth date as September 19, 1907. Jitendranath Sanyal, the first
biographer of Bhagat Singh, who was acquitted in the Lahore conspiracy case but
convicted to two-year imprisonment for writing the biography, has also falsely
mentioned Bhagat Singh birth date as October 5. It was only after Virender
Sandhu wrote the biography of three generations of his family that Bhagat
Singh’s birth date was confirmed as September 28,1907.
The first
chapter goes up to the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The author makes another
fallacy in the chapter by mentioning Batukeshwar Dutt as Bhagat Singh’s school
mate and inseparable companion. Bhagat Singh met BK Dutt for the first time in
1923 at Kanpur. The editor has not made any editorial change or footnote to
correct this.
The second
chapter, ‘The Blast of the Trumpet, begins with a quote from De Quincey’s
poetry:
“The Blood-stained murder bare thy hideous arm/And thou Rebellion welter in thy
storm/Awake ye Spirits of avenging crime/Burst from your bonds and battle with
time.”
This
chapter focuses upon the Delhi Assembly bomb incident of April 8, 1929. The
author is more accurate in its description and describes the passing of the
Public Safety Bill by 56 against 38 votes as the time when the bombs exploded
near George Schuster’s bench. As author John Simon, present in House, ‘took to
his heels’, Sir Hari Singh Gour, on whose name Sagar University in Madhya
Pradesh was named, ‘locked himself in the Bathroom’! ‘Red’ pamphlets were
thrown by Bhagat Singh and Dutt in the Assembly. The author correctly mentions
that this act was inspired by French revolutionary Auguste Vaillant, whose words
at a similar explosion in French Parliament: “It takes a loud voice to make the
deaf hear” were repeated in the Delhi Assembly pamphlet!
The author,
a follower of Gandhi and Congress, declares ‘a thousand times emphatic ‘No’ to
the charge of terrorism in this act!
The third
chapter, ‘The Trial and the Sentence’, begins with a quote from Indian poet
Harin Chattopadhyay:
“Life or death? What does it matter? / Heroes ever scorned the grave/Tyrant, we
are out to shatter/The Last fetter of the slave/Let us shout from tower and
Steeple/Now our banner is unfurled/That by fighting for our people/We are
fighting for the world.”
In this
chapter, the reference to the 116-day record hunger strike comes after
mentioning the earlier record of 97 days hunger strike by an Irish
revolutionary. The reference to one judge, (Justice Agha Hyder) expressing
disgust at the beating of revolutionaries, does not mention his name.
‘Ordinance
Challenged’ is the title of the fourth chapter and the quote is from a poem by
Vanzetti, who himself was hanged in US:
“O
capitalist system I know you well/I have heard the prayers of your starving
children/I have heard the groans of young dyeing soldiers/I have seen the agony
of strong men hunting for jobs/I know your crimes capitalism; I know your crazy
houses/Your jails, factories, hospitals filled with victims/You are a monster,
I hate you/I am glad to die!/Friends Ghouls!Assassins of the poor/We will have
revenge!/Revolution! Give me a million men/And I will walk from this jail/And
set America free.”
This
chapter contains almost a verbatim record of the Privy Council proceedings in
London. Gandhi has been described as a ‘benevolent Saint’ and it mentions that
not less than 20 million signatures had gone to the Viceroy asking for mercy.
Chapter
five again begins with Vanzetti’s long poem In this chapter, ‘The Sacrifice’,
the Lahore hartal after the executions and the Mori Gate meeting of 20,000
people has been mentioned. One lakh people, bare headed, marched in procession,
taking the three martyrs’ biers with charred body parts, and cremated them at
Ravi river site.
The sixth
chapter, ‘A Nation in Mourning’, also begins with Vanzetti’s poem. A mention
has been made of Dewan Bahadur Rangacharya, leader of opposition in the Central
Assembly, making a statement. Chapter seven, ‘Fundamental’, begins with a
shloka from Bhagwad Gita.
The eighth
chapter, ‘Conclusion’, discusses the death of Greek philosopher Socrates but
his philosophy living, and the letter written by Bhagat Singh to young
political workers. The author, Venu, mentions here his being in the same jail
and getting a chance to speak with him.
Venu was so
inspired by Bhagat Singh in jail, that after his release and going back to
Madras, he wrote his biography, probably publishing it with his own money,
which was proscribed immediately.
Biographies
written during the early period of Bhagat Singh’s execution are more factual
and objective, though there are errors in certain dates. C S Venu’s biography
of Bhagat Singh, despite some errors in dates and narration, is one of the
authentic records of those times and its new edition is welcome.
Chaman Lal
is retired Professor from JNU and is Honorary Advisor, Bhagat Singh Archives
and Resource Centre, Delhi Archives, New Delhi.