'Class-Consciousness Can Stop Communal Rioting': Bhagat Singh on
Religious Violence
If religion is separated from politics, then we can all come together in
politics even if we belong to different religions, wrote Bhagat Singh.
Bhagat
Singh in jail. Photo: 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 Dharmvar Fasad Te unha de ilaj (The
Religion wise Riots and their Solutions) was published in the June 1927 issue
of Kirti. After the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy in 1919, the British began a huge
propaganda campaign to incite communal riots. This resulted in inhuman riots
between the Hindus and Muslims in 1924 in Kohat. After this, there was
considerable debate on communal riots in the national political arena. Everyone
felt the need to end these but it was the Congress leaders who made an attempt
to get Hindu and Muslim leaders to sign a pact to stop the riots.
The condition of Bharatvarsha/India is indeed
pitiable today. The devotees of one religion are sworn enemies of the devotees
of another religion. Merely to belong to one religion is now considered enough
reason to be the enemy of another religion. If we find this difficult to
believe, let us look at the fresh outbreaks of violence in Lahore. How the
Muslims killed innocent Sikhs and Hindus, and how even the Sikhs did their
worst when the opportunity came. This butchering was not done because a
particular man committed a crime, but because a particular man is a Hindu or a
Sikh or a Muslim. Just the fact of a person being a Sikh or a Hindu is enough
for him to be killed by a Muslim, and in the same way merely being a Muslim is
a sufficient reason to take his life. If this is the situation, then may God
help Hindustan!
Under these conditions, the future of Hindustan
seems very bleak. These ‘religions’ have ruined the country. And one has no
idea how long these religious riots will plague Hindustan. These riots have
shamed Hindustan in the eyes of the world. And we have seen how everyone is
carried on the tide of blind faith. It is a rare Hindu, Muslim or Sikh who can
keep a cool head; the rest of them take sticks and staffs, swords and knives
and kill each other. Those who escape death either go to the gallows or are
thrown into jail. After so much bloodshed, these ‘religious’ folk are subjected
to the baton of the English government, and only then do they come to their
senses.
As far as we’ve seen, communal leaders and newspapers
are behind these riots. These days the Indian leaders exhibit such shameful
conduct that it is better not to say anything. The same leaders who have taken
upon themselves the challenge of winning independence for their country and who
don’t tire of shouting slogans of ‘Common Nationality’ and ‘Self Rule…
Self-Rule….’ are hiding themselves and are flowing on this tide of religious
blindness. The number of people hiding themselves is much less. But leaders who
join communal agitations can be found in hundreds when one scratches the
surface. There are very few leaders who wish for the welfare of people from the
bottom of their hearts. Communalism has come like such a great deluge that they
are not able to stem it. It appears as if the leadership of Bharat/india has
gone bankrupt.
Also read: Bhagat Singh Is
Not the Man the Right Wants You to Think He Is
The other people who have played a special role in
igniting communal riots are the newspaper people.
Chaman Lal
The Bhagat Singh Reader
HarperCollins, 2019
The profession of journalism that was, at one point
of time, accorded a very high status has become very filthy now. These people
print prominent, provocative headlines and rouse the passions of people against
one another, which leads to rioting. Not just in one or two places, but in many
places riots have taken place because the local papers have written very
outrageous essays. Few writers have been able to maintain their sanity and keep
calm on such days.
The real duty of the newspapers was to impart education,
eradicate narrow-mindedness in people, put an end to communal feelings,
encourage mutual understanding, and create a common Indian nationalism. But
they have turned their main business to spread ignorance, preach narrowness,
create prejudice, lead to rioting and destroy Indian common nationalism. This
is the reason that tears of blood flow from our eyes at Bharat’s present state
and the question that rises in our heart is, ‘What will become of Hindustan?’
The people who are familiar with the enthusiasm and
awakening of the times during the Non-Cooperation movement feel like crying at
this present state. What days they were when they could glimpse independence in
front of them – and today! The idea of Home Rule seems like a mere dream now.
That is the advantage that the tyrants have got from communal riots. The
bureaucracy that had begun to fear for its very existence has now dug in its
roots so deeply that it is not an easy task to shake it.
If we look for the roots of these communal riots,
the reason seems to be economic. Leaders and journalists went through untold
sacrifices during the days of the Non-Cooperation Movement. They suffered
financially as well. When the movement ebbed, it led to a lack of confidence in
the leaders, which led to the collapse of the business of a lot of these
religious leaders. The question of filling one’s belly is at the bottom of
whatever work is done in this world. This is one of the three principal maxims
of Karl Marx. It is due to this maxim that practices like the Tablig, Tanzeem,
Shuddhi (Hindu-Muslim communal practices) etc. were initiated, and it is
because of this that we are in such a terrible state; in this mess.
If there is to be any lasting solution to all these
communal riots, it lies only in the improvement in the economic condition of
Hindustan; because the economic condition of the common people is so degraded
in Hindustan, that anyone can pay four annas to get another person insulted.
Tormented by hunger and sorrow, a person can abandon all principles. It becomes
a matter of survival.
Also read: Kakori Martyrs
Were Symbols of Communal Harmony in India’s Freedom Struggle
But economic reforms are too difficult in the
present circumstances because the government is a foreign one and it does not
allow any improvement in the condition of the people. That is why people must
concentrate all their energy on attacking it and not rest till it is completely
transformed.
Class-consciousness is crucial to stop people from
fighting each other. The poor workers and peasants should be made to clearly
understand that their real enemies are the capitalists, so they must be careful
not to fall into their trap. All the poor people of the world – whatever their
caste, race, religion or nation – have the same rights. It is in your interest
that all discrimination on account of religion, colour, race, and nationality
is eliminated and the power of the government be taken in your hands. These
efforts will not harm you in any way but will one day cut off your shackles and
you will get economic freedom.
Bhagat Singh
signature specimen from Punjab Archives, Lahore. Photo: Ammara Ahmad
The people who are familiar with the history of
Russia know that similar conditions prevailed there during the rule of the
Tsar. There were several groups who kept dragging each other down. But from the
day the Workers’ Revolution took place, the very map of the place changed. Now
there are never any riots there. Now everyone is considered to be a ‘human
being’ there, not ‘a member of a religious group’. The economic condition of
the people was very pathetic during the times of the Tsar and this led to
rioting. But now when the economic condition of the Russians has improved and
they have developed class-consciousness, there is no news from there about any
riots.
Though one hears very heart-rending accounts of
such riots, yet one heard something positive about the Calcutta riots. The
workers of the trade unions did not participate in the riots nor did they come
to blows with each other; on the other hand, all the Hindus and Muslims behaved
normally towards each other in the mills and even tried to stop the riots. This
is because there was class-consciousness in them and they fully recognized what
would benefit their class. This is the beautiful path of class-consciousness
that can stop communal rioting.
Front of the Lahore
Central Jail. Photo: F.E. Chaudhary
We have received this bit of happy news that the
youth of Bharat are now tired of religions that teach mutual hatred and war,
and are washing their hands off such religions; and there is so much progressiveness
in them now that they look upon the people of Bharat, not from the point of
view of religion – as Hindu, Muslim or Sikh – but human beings first, and then
as citizens of one country. The birth of such feelings in the youth of Bharat
gives us hope for a golden future and the people of Bharat should not worry
about these riots; they should rather hold themselves in a state of readiness
and always attempt to ensure that such an environment is not created; there are
no riots ever.
In 1914-15 the martyrs separated religion from
politics. They believed that religion was an individual’s personal matter and
no one else should interfere in it. Nor should one let religion push itself
into politics because it does not unite everyone or make them work together. That
is the reason movements like the Ghadar Party were strong and had a single soul
in which the Sikhs were in the forefront for going to the gallows, and even the
Hindus and the Muslims didn’t lag behind.
Also read: Che, Lenin,
Bhagat Singh: How One Man Is Taking Punjab Down Revolutionary Road
At present, some Indian leaders also want to
separate religion from politics. This is also a beautiful remedy to eliminate
quarrels and we support it.
If religion is separated from politics, then we can
all come together in politics even if we belong to different religions.
We think that the real sympathizers of Hindustan
will ponder over our prescribed remedy and that we will save India from
self-destruction.
We hope that class-consciousness shall also emerge
among the workers and peasants of organizations that the Congress party has
adopted, because this will hasten the elimination of communal riots.
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