tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51169795579094888902024-03-27T12:07:55.528+05:30Bhagat Singh StudyBhagat 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.Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.comBlogger362125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-86261576447562711812024-03-26T00:10:00.001+05:302024-03-26T00:10:23.890+05:30ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ-ਰਾਜਗੁਰੂ-ਸੁਖਦੇਵ ਦੀ ਫਾਂਸੀ ਅਤੇ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਫਾਂਸੀਆਂ<div><br /></div><a href="https://www.punjabitribuneonline.com/news/editorials/execution-of-bhagat-singh-rajguru-sukhdev-and-political-executions/">https://www.punjabitribuneonline.com/news/editorials/execution-of-bhagat-singh-rajguru-sukhdev-and-political-executions/</a><div><br /></div><div>ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ-ਰਾਜਗੁਰੂ-ਸੁਖਦੇਵ ਦੀ ਫਾਂਸੀ ਅਤੇ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਫਾਂਸੀਆਂ
ਪ੍ਰੋ. ਚਮਨ ਲਾਲ<div><br /></div><div> ਅੰਗਰੇਜ਼ੀ ਟ੍ਰਿਬਿੳੂਨ ਵਿੱਚ ਵਾਪਲਾ ਬਾਲਾਚੰਦਰਨ ਨੇ ਪਾਕਿਸਤਾਨ ਦੇ ਰਾਸ਼ਟਰਪਤੀ
ਆਸਿਫ ਅਲੀ ਜ਼ਰਦਾਰੀ ਵੱਲੋਂ 1979 ਵਿੱਚ ਫ਼ੌਜੀ ਹੁਕਮਰਾਨ ਜ਼ਿਆ-ਉੱਲ-ਹੱਕ ਵੱਲੋਂ
ਪਾਕਿਸਤਾਨ ਦੇ ਹੁਣ ਤੱਕ ਦੇ ਸਭ ਤੋਂ ਵੱਧ ਹਰਮਨਪਿਆਰੇ ਪਾਕਿਸਤਾਨੀ ਪ੍ਰਧਾਨ
ਮੰਤਰੀ ਜ਼ੁਲਫਿਕਾਰ ਅਲੀ ਭੁੱਟੋ ਦੀ ‘ਨਿਹੱਕੀ’ ਤੇ ਗ਼ੈਰ-ਕਾਨੂੰਨੀ’ ਫਾਂਸੀ ਵਿਰੁੱਧ
ਪਾਕਿਸਤਾਨ ਦੀ ਸੁਪਰੀਮ ਕੋਰਟ ਨੂੰ 2013 ਵਿੱਚ ਰਾਸ਼ਟਰਪਤੀ ਹੁੰਦਿਆਂ ਕੀਤੇ
ਰੈਫਰੈਂਸ ਦੇ ਹਵਾਲੇ ਵਿੱਚ 2024 ਵਿੱਚ ਜ਼ਰਦਾਰੀ ਦਾ ਰਾਸ਼ਟਰਪਤੀ ਵਜੋਂ ਦੂਜਾ
ਕਾਰਜਕਾਲ ਸ਼ੁਰੂ ਹੋਣ ਸਮੇਂ 2013 ਦੇ ਰੈਫਰੈਂਸ ਦੇ ਆਧਾਰ ’ਤੇ ਪਾਕਿਸਤਾਨੀ ਸੁਪਰੀਮ
ਕੋਰਟ ਨੇ 2024 ਵਿੱਚ ਨੋਟਿਸ ਲੈਂਦਿਆਂ ਭੁੱਟੋ ਕੇਸ ਦੀ ਦੁਬਾਰਾ ਪਡ਼ਤਾਲ ਦੇ ਹੁਕਮ
ਦਿੱਤੇ ਹਨ। ਇੱਥੇ ਇਹ ਯਾਦ ਰੱਖਦਾ ਚਾਹੀਦਾ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਲਾਹੌਰ ਦੇ ਵਕੀਲ ਇਮਤਿਆਜ਼
ਰਾਸ਼ਿਦ ਅਤੇ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦੇ ਮਰਹੂਮ ਅੱਬਾ ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦਾ ਖ਼ਾਨਦਾਨੀ ਪਿਛੋਕਡ਼ ਅਬੋਹਰ ਦਾ ਹੈ,
ਨੇ ਵੀ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਹਾਈ ਕੋਰਟ ਲਾਹੌਰ ਵਿੱਚ ਕਈ ਸਾਲ ਪਹਿਲਾਂ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਤੇ ਹੋਰਾਂ
ਦੀ ਫਾਂਸੀ ਦੀ ਮੁਡ਼ ਪਡ਼ਤਾਲ ਅਤੇ ਫਾਂਸੀ ਨੂੰ ਕਾਨੂੰਨੀ ਤੌਰ ’ਤੇ ਰੱਦ ਕਰਨ ਦੀ ਅਪੀਲ
ਕੀਤੀ ਸੀ, ਜੋ ਬਡ਼ੇ ਸਾਲਾਂ ਬਾਅਦ ਸ਼ਾਇਦ ਪਿੱਛੇ ਜਿਹੇ ਤਿੰਨ ਜੱਜਾਂ ਦੀ ਬੈਂਚ ਵੱਲੋਂ
ਖਾਰਜ ਕਰ ਦਿੱਤੀ ਗਈ ਸੀ ਪਰ ਰਾਸ਼ਿਦ ਹੁਰਾਂ ਦੀ ਸ਼ਾਦਮਾਨ ਚੌਕ ਨੂੰ ‘ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ
ਚੌਕ’ ਨਾਂ ਦੇਣ ਦੀ ਅਪੀਲ ’ਤੇ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਲਾਹੌਰ ਨੂੰ ਨੋਟਿਸ ਜਾਰੀ ਹੋਇਆ ਹੈ।
ਭੁੱਟੋ ਕੇਸ ਦੀ ਮੁਡ਼ ਪਡ਼ਤਾਲ ਦੀ ਮੰਗ ਮੰਨੀ ਜਾਣ ਬਾਅਦ ਲਾਹੌਰ ਦੇ ਕੁਝ ਵਕੀਲ ਹੁਣ
ਰਾਸ਼ਟਰਪਤੀ ਜ਼ਰਦਾਰੀ ਨੂੰ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਕੇਸ ਦਾ ਰੈਫਰੈਂਸ ਸੁਪਰੀਮ ਕੋਰਟ/ਲਾਹੌਰ
ਹਾਈ ਕੋਰਟ ਨੂੰ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ ਤਿਆਰੀ ਕਰ ਰਹੇ ਹਨ, ਜਿਸ ਦਾ ਰਾਸ਼ਟਰਪਤੀ ਨੂੰ
ਕਾਨੂੰਨੀ ਹੱਕ ਹੈ।
ਇਮਤਿਆਜ਼ ਰਾਸ਼ਿਦ ਦਾ ਕੁਝ ਹਲਕਿਆਂ ਵੱਲੋਂ ਮਜ਼ਾਕ ਉਡਾਇਆ ਗਿਆ ਕਿ ਬੰਦੇ ਨੂੰ
ਫਾਂਸੀ ਦੇਣ ਬਾਅਦ 90-100 ਸਾਲਾਂ ਬਾਅਦ ਫਾਂਸੀ ਰੱਦ ਕਰਨ ਦੀ ਕੀ ਤੁਕ ਹੈ?
ਇਵੇਂ ਹੀ ਭੁੱਟੋ ਦੀ ਫਾਂਸੀ ਦੇ 45 ਵਰ੍ਹੇ ਬਾਅਦ ਫਾਂਸੀ ਰੱਦ ਕਰਨ ਦੀ ਗੱਲ ਦੀ ਕੀ ਤੁਕ
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ਹੈ? ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ-ਰਾਜਗੁਰੂ-ਸੁਖਦੇਵ ਅਤੇ ਨਾਂ ਹੀ ਜ਼ੁਲਫਿਕਾਰ ਭੁੱਟੋ ਨੂੰ ਫਾਂਸੀ ਰੱਦ ਹੋਣ
ਬਾਅਦ ਜ਼ਿੰਦਗੀ ਜਿਊਣ ਦੇ ਪਲ ਹਾਸਲ ਹੋਣੇ ਹਨ, ਪਰ ਇਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਫਾਂਸੀਆਂ ਦੇ ਰੱਦ ਹੋਣ
ਨਾਲ ਇੱਕ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਮੰਤਵ ਪੂਰਾ ਹੁੰਦਾ ਹੈ ਅਤੇ ਇਹ ਸਾਬਤ ਹੋ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਕਿਸੇ
ਵੀ ਦੇਸ਼ ਵਿੱਚ ਅਤੇ ਕਿਸੇ ਵੀ ਸਮਾਜ ਵਿੱਚੋਂ ਨਿਆਂ ਪ੍ਰਣਾਲੀ ਜਿਸ ਨੂੰ ਵੇਲੇ ਦੀ ਹਕੂਮਤ
ਤੋਂ ‘ਆਜ਼ਾਦ’ ਖ਼ਿਆਲ ਕੀਤਾ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਹੈ ਕੀ ਉਹ ਵਾਕਈ ‘ਸਿਆਸੀ ਦਖ਼ਲ’ ਜਾਂ ਵਕਤ
ਦੇ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਮਾਹੌਲ ਦੀ ਹੈਜਮਨੀ (Hegemony) ਤੋਂ ਆਜ਼ਾਦ ਹੁੰਦੀ ਹੈ? ਜਿਸ
ਤਰ੍ਹਾਂ ਇਰਾਕ ਦੇ ਚੁਣੇ ਹੋਏ ਰਾਸ਼ਟਰਪਤੀ ਸੱਦਾਮ ਹੁਸੈਨ ਨੂੰ ਅਮਰੀਕੀ ਫ਼ੌਜ ਨੇ
ਸ਼ਰੇਆਮ ਫਾਂਸੀ ਦਿੱਤੀ ਜਾਂ ਲਿਬੀਆ ਦੇ ਰਾਸ਼ਟਰਪਤੀ ਗੱਦਾਫ਼ੀ ਨੂੰ ਵਿਦੇਸ਼ੀ ਫ਼ੌਜਾਂ ਨੇ
ਘਸੀਟ ਘਸੀਟ ਕੇ ਕਤਲ ਕੀਤਾ, ਉੱਥੇ ਇਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਕਾਰਨਾਂ ਕਰਕੇ ਦਿੱਤੀਆਂ
ਫਾਂਸੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਪਡ਼ਚੋਲਵੀਂ ਨਜ਼ਰ ਨਾਲ ਘੋਖਣਾ ਜ਼ਰੂਰੀ ਹੈ। ਇਸ ਗੱਲ ਬਾਰੇ ਸੋਚਣਾ ਵੀ
ਜ਼ਰੂਰੀ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਕਿਉਂ ਤੇ ਕਿਵੇਂ ਦੁਨੀਆ ਦੇ ਸੌ ਤੋਂ ਵੱਧ ਮੁਲਕਾਂ ਨੇ ਆਪਣੀ ਨਿਆਂ
ਪ੍ਰਣਾਲੀ ਵਿੱਚ ਮੌਤ ਦੀ ਸਜ਼ਾ ਨੂੰ ਖ਼ਤਮ ਕਰ ਦਿੱਤਾ ਹੈ। ਇੱਥੋਂ ਤੱਕ ਕਿ ਨਾਰਵੇ ਵਿੱਚ
ਇੱੱਕ ਦਹਾਕੇ ਤੋਂ ਵੱਧ ਪਹਿਲਾਂ 72 ਮਾਸੂਮ ਬੱਚਿਆਂ ਦੇ ਕਾਤਲ ਬਰੇਵਿਕ ਨੂੰ ਵੀ ਮੌਤ
ਦੀ ਸਜ਼ਾ ਨਹੀਂ ਦਿੱਤੀ ਗਈ ਅਤੇ ਉਹ ਜੇਲ੍ਹ ਵਿੱਚ ਪਡ਼੍ਹਾਈ ਵੀ ਕਰ ਰਿਹਾ ਹੈ।
ਸਵੀਡਨ ਦੇ ਪ੍ਰਧਾਨ ਮੰਤਰੀ ਓਲਫੇ ਪਾਪ ਨੂੰ ਕੁਝ ਦਹਾਕੇ ਪਹਿਲਾਂ ਇੱਕ ਸਿਨਮਾ ਹਾਲ
ਵਿੱਚ ਬਿਨਾਂ ਕਿਸੇ ਸੁਰੱਖਿਆ ਤੋਂ ਬਾਹਰ ਆਉਂਦਿਆਂ ਗੋਲੀ ਮਾਰਨ ਵਾਲੇ ਨੂੰ ਵੀ ਫਾਂਸੀ
ਦੀ ਸਜ਼ਾ ਨਹੀਂ ਦਿੱਤੀ ਗਈ। ਰਾਮਰਖ ਸਿੰਘ ਸਹਿਗਲ ਵੱਲੋਂ ਅਲਾਹਾਬਾਦ ਤੋਂ
ਪ੍ਰਕਾਸ਼ਿਤ ‘ਚਾਂਦ’ ਰਸਾਲੇ ਦੇ ‘ਫਾਂਸੀ ਅੰਕ’ ਜੋ ਨਵੰਬਰ 1928 ਵਿੱਚ ਪ੍ਰਕਾਸ਼ਿਤ
ਹੋਇਆ ਸੀ ਅਤੇ ਜਿਸ ਵਿੱਚ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਅਤੇ ਸ਼ਿਵ ਵਰਮਾ ਨੇ ਮਿਲ ਕੇ 48
ਇਨਕਲਾਬੀਆਂ ਦੇ ਰੇਖਾ ਚਿੱਤਰ ਲਿਖੇ ਸਨ, ਇਹ ਅੰਕ ਵੀ ਮੌਤ ਦੀ ਸਜ਼ਾ ਦੇ
ਸਿਧਾਂਤਕ ਵਿਰੋਧ ਕਾਰਨ ਛਾਪਿਆ ਗਿਆ ਸੀ।
ਮਹਾਤਮਾ ਗਾਂਧੀ ਵੱਲੋਂ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ-ਰਾਜਗੁਰੂ-ਸੁਖਦੇਵ ਦੇ ਫਾਂਸੀ ਤੋਂ ਬਚਾਅ ਨਾ ਕਰਨ
’ਤੇ ਬਹੁਤ ਵਿਵਾਦ ਹੁੰਦਾ ਹੈ। ਮਹਾਤਮਾ ਗਾਂਧੀ ਨੇ ਇਸ ਫਾਂਸੀ ਦਾ ਅੱਧ-ਪਚੱਧਾ ਜਾਂ
ਜ਼ੁਬਾਨੀ ਕਲਾਮੀ ਤਾਂ ਵਿਰੋਧ ਜ਼ਰੂਰ ਕੀਤਾ ਪਰ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦੀ ਕਮਜ਼ੋਰੀ ਇਸ ਮਾਮਲੇ ਵਿੱਚ
‘ਮੌਤ ਦੀ ਸਜ਼ਾ’ ਦਾ ਸਿਧਾਂਤਕ ਅਤੇ ਨੈਤਿਕ ਵਿਰੋਧ ਨਾ ਕਰ ਸਕਣ ਵਿੱਚ ਵਧੇਰੇ
ਜ਼ਾਹਰ ਹੋਈ। ਮਹਾਤਮਾ ਗਾਂਧੀ ਦੁਨੀਆ ਦੇ ਹੋਰ ਉਦਾਰਪੰਥੀ ਆਗੂਆਂ ਵਾਂਗ ‘ਮੌਤ ਦੀ
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ਸਜ਼ਾ’ (Capital Punishment) ਦੇ ਸਿਧਾਂਤਕ ਤੌਰ ’ਤੇ ਵਿਰੋਧੀ ਸਨ ਪਰ ਭਗਤ
ਸਿੰਘ ਹੋਰਾਂ ਦੀ ਫਾਂਸੀ ਦੇ ਮਾਮਲੇ ਵਿੱਚ ਉਹ ਪੂਰੇ ਨੈਤਿਕ ਜ਼ੋਰ ਨਾਲ ਇਹ ਕਹਿਣ ਵਿੱਚ
ਅਸਫਲ ਰਹੇ ਕਿ ‘ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ’ ਜਾਂ ਕਿਸੇ ਸਾਧਾਰਨ ਵਿਅਕਤੀ ਵੱਲੋਂ ਕਤਲ ਜਾਂ ਕੋਈ
ਹੋਰ ਭਿਆਨਕ ਜੁਰਮ ਕਰਨ ਦੇ ਬਾਵਜੂਦ ਉਹ ਮੌਤ ਦੀ ਸਜ਼ਾ ਦਾ ਵਿਰੋਧ ਕਰਦੇ ਹਨ
ਅਤੇ ਇਸੇ ਲਈ ਉਹ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ, ਰਾਜਗੁਰੂ, ਸੁਖਦੇਵ ਦੀ ਫਾਂਸੀ ਦਾ ਵੀ ਵਿਰੋਧ
ਕਰਦੇ ਹਨ। ਇਸ ਦੇ ਬਨਿਸਬਤ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਦਾ ਨੈਤਿਕ ਅਤੇ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਕੱਦ
ਮਹਾਤਮਾ ਗਾਂਧੀ ਨਾਲੋਂ ਇਸ ਪੱਖੋਂ ਬੁਲੰਦ ਰਿਹਾ ਕਿ ਉਸ ਨੇ ਬਰਤਾਨਵੀ ਸਾਮਰਾਜ ਨੂੰ
ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੇ ਲੈਫਟੀਨੈਂਟ ਜਨਰਲ ਰਾਹੀਂ ਭੇਜੇ 20 ਮਾਰਚ, 1931 ਦੇ ਖ਼ਤ ਰਾਹੀਂ ਸਿੱਧੀ
ਚੁਣੌਤੀ ਦੇ ਕੇ ਕਿਹਾ ਕਿ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੂੰ ‘ਫਾਂਸੀ ਨਾ ਦੇ ਕੇ’ ‘ਗੋਲੀ ਨਾਲ ਉਡਾਇਆ ਜਾਵੇ’,
ਕਿਉਂਕਿ ਉਹ ‘ਜੰਗੀ ਕੈਦੀ’ ਹਨ ਅਤੇ ‘ਜੰਗੀ ਕੈਦੀਆਂ’ ਨੂੰ ਗੋਲੀ ਨਾਲ ਉਡਾਉਣਾ
ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦਾ ਸਨਮਾਨ ਕਰਨਾ ਹੈ।
ਜਿਸ ਤਰ੍ਹਾਂ ਪ੍ਰਧਾਨ ਮੰਤਰੀ ਰਹੇ ਜ਼ੁਲਫਿਕਾਰ ਅਲੀ ਭੁੱਟੋ, ਰਾਸ਼ਟਰਪਤੀ ਸੱਦਾਮ ਹੁਸੈਨ
ਜਾਂ ਰਾਸ਼ਟਰਪਤੀ ਗੱਦਾਫ਼ੀ ਫਾਂਸੀ ਰਾਹੀਂ ਜਾਂ ਹੋਰ ਤਰੀਕੇ ਨਾਲ ਮੌਤ ਦੇ ਘਾਟ ਉਤਾਰੇ
ਗਏ, ਇਹ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਬਦਲਾਖੋਰੀ ਦੀ ਸਿਖ਼ਰ ਦਾ ਗ਼ਰੂਰ ਹੈ। ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਦੀ ਫਾਂਸੀ
ਵੀ ਬਰਤਾਨਵੀ ਬਸਤੀਵਾਦ ਦੇ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਗ਼ਰੂਰ ਦਾ ਸਿਖ਼ਰ ਸੀ। ਕਾਨੂੰਨੀ ਦਾਅਪੇਚ
ਦੇ ਹਿਸਾਬ ਨਾਲ ਬਰਤਾਨਵੀ ਨਿਆਂ ਪ੍ਰਣਾਲੀ ਦੇ ਦਾਇਰੇ ਵਿੱਚ ਵੀ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ-
ਰਾਜਗੁਰੂ-ਸੁਖਦੇਵ ਨੂੰ ਫਾਂਸੀ ਨਹੀਂ ਦਿੱਤੀ ਜਾ ਸਕਦੀ ਸੀ, ਬੇਸ਼ੱਕ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਸਾਂਡਰਸ ਨੂੰ
ਕਤਲ ਕਰਨ ਨੂੰ ਖ਼ੁਦ ਕਬੂਲ ਕਰ ਲਿਆ ਸੀ। ਕਾਰਨ ਇਹ ਕਿ ‘ਨਿਆਂ ਪ੍ਰਣਾਲੀ’
‘ਸਬੂਤਾਂ’ ਦੇ ਅਾਧਾਰ ’ਤੇ ਸਜ਼ਾ ਤੈਅ ਕਰਦੀ ਹੈ ਅਤੇ ਜੇ ‘ਸਬੂਤ’ ਜ਼ਰਾ ਵੀ ਸ਼ੱਕ ਦੇ
ਘੇਰੇ ਵਿੱਚ ਹੋਣ ਜਾਂ ਪ੍ਰਮਾਣਿਤ ਨਾ ਹੋ ਸਕਦੇ ਹੋਣ ਤਾਂ ਕਿਸੇ ਵੀ ਸੂਰਤ ਵਿੱਚ ਫਾਂਸੀ
ਨਹੀਂ, ਸਿਰਫ਼ ਉਮਰ ਕੈਦ ਦੀ ਸਜ਼ਾ ਦਿੱਤੀ ਜਾ ਸਕਦੀ ਹੈ। ‘ਨਿਆਂ ਪ੍ਰਣਾਲੀ’ ਵਿੱਚੋਂ
‘ਮੌਤ ਦੀ ਸਜ਼ਾ’ ਖ਼ਤਮ ਕਰਨ ਦਾ ਸਭ ਤੋਂ ਮਜ਼ਬੂਤ ਤਰਕ ਇਹ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਇੱਕ ਵਾਰ
ਇਨਸਾਨ ਦੀ ਜ਼ਿੰਦਗੀ ਖ਼ਤਮ ਕਰਨ (ਫਾਂਸੀ ਦੇਣ) ਬਾਅਦ, ਜੇ ਬਾਅਦ ਵਿੱਚ ਉਸ ਦੀ
‘ਬੇਗੁਨਾਹੀ’ ਦਾ ਸਬੂਤ ਮਿਲ ਜਾਵੇ ਤਾਂ ਉਸ ਇਨਸਾਨ ਦੀ ਜ਼ਿੰਦਗੀ ਵਾਪਸ ਨਹੀਂ ਮੁਡ਼
ਸਕਦੀ। ਇਸ ਲਈ ਰੌਸ਼ਨ ਖ਼ਿਆਲ ਨਿਆਂ ਪ੍ਰਣਾਲੀ ਵਿੱਚ ‘ਮੌਤ ਦੀ ਸਜ਼ਾ’ ਖ਼ਤਮ
ਕਰਕੇ ਕੈਦ (ਉਮਰ ਕੈਦ) ਰਾਹੀਂ ਮੁਜਰਮ ਨੂੰ ਸਿੱਖਿਆ ਰਾਹੀਂ ‘ਸੁਧਾਰਨ’ ਦਾ ਯਤਨ
4
ਕੀਤਾ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਹੈ, ਇਸੇ ਲਈ ਹਿੰਦੁਸਤਾਨ ਵਿੱਚ ਵੀ ਜੇਲ੍ਹਾਂ ਦਾ ਨਾਂ ਬਦਲ ਕੇ ‘ਸੁਧਾਰ
ਘਰ’ ਕੀਤਾ ਗਿਆ ਹੈ। ਹਾਲਾਂਕਿ ਅਸਲੀਅਤ ਇਹ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਨਾਂ ਬਦਲਣ ਨਾਲ ਜੇਲ੍ਹਾਂ
ਅੰਦਰਲੀ ਹਾਲਤ ਵਿੱਚ ਕੋਈ ਸੁਧਾਰ ਨਹੀਂ ਹੋਇਆ ਅਤੇ ਬਰਤਾਨਵੀ ਬਸਤੀਵਾਦੀ
ਹਕੂਮਤ ਦੇ ਦੌਰ ਤੋਂ ਵੱਧ ਭਿਆਨਕ ਜ਼ੁਲਮ ਭਾਰਤੀ ਪੁਲੀਸ ਅਤੇ ਜੇਲ੍ਹ ਅਫ਼ਸਰਾਂ ਵੱਲੋਂ
ਕੀਤੇ ਜਾਣ ਦੀਆਂ ਖ਼ਬਰਾਂ ਅਕਸਰ ਛਪਦੀਆਂ ਰਹਿੰਦੀਆਂ ਹਨ। ਬਰਤਾਨਵੀ ਕਾਲ
ਸਮੇਂ ‘ਪੁਲੀਸ ਮੁਕਾਬਲੇ’ ਨਾਂ ਦੀ ਕੋਈ ‘ਟਰਮ’ ਨਹੀਂ ਸੀ ਪਰ ਬਿਨਾਂ ਕਿਸੇ ਨਿਆਂ
ਪ੍ਰਣਾਲੀ ਦਾ ਪਾਲਣ ਕੀਤੇ ਕਿਸੇ ‘ਅਸਲੀ’ ਜਾਂ ‘ਅਖੌਤੀ’ ਮੁਜਰਮ ਨੂੰ ਪੁਲੀਸ ਜਾਂ ਫ਼ੌਜ
ਜਾਂ ‘ਭੀਡ਼’ ਵੱਲੋਂ ‘ਮੁਕਾਬਲਾ’ ਦਿਖਾ ਕੇ ਜਾਂ ‘ਲਿੰਚ’ ਕਰਕੇ ਮਾਰ ਦੇਣਾ, ‘ਫਾਸ਼ੀਵਾਦੀ’
ਤੁਰਤ-ਫੁਰਤ ‘ਨਿਆਂ’ ਹੈ, ਜੋ ਕਿਸੇ ਸੱਭਿਅਕ ਸਮਾਜ ਜਾਂ ਦੇਸ਼ ਵਿੱਚ ਨਹੀਂ ਹੋ ਸਕਦਾ।
ਅੰਗਰੇਜ਼ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਦੀ ‘ਸਮਾਜਵਾਦੀ ਇਨਕਲਾਬ’ ਲਿਆਉਣ ਦੀ
ਵਿਚਾਰਧਾਰਾ, ਜਿਸ ’ਤੇ ਉਹ ਤੇ ਉਸ ਦੇ ਸਾਥੀ ਲੋਕ ਸੰਘਰਸ਼ਾਂ ਦੇ ਰਾਹ ’ਤੇ ਚੱਲਣਾ
ਚਾਹੁੰਦੇ ਸਨ ਅਤੇ ਜਿਸ ਹੱਦ ਤੱਕ ਉਹ ਲੋਕਾਂ ਦੇ ਮਨਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਘਰ ਕਰ ਗਿਆ ਸੀ ਕਿ
ਖ਼ੁਦ ਮਹਾਤਮਾ ਗਾਂਧੀ ਦੇ ਪੈਰੋਕਾਰ ਤੇ ਕਾਂਗਰਸ ਪਾਰਟੀ ਦੇ ਇਤਿਹਾਸਕਾਰ ਨੇ ਇਹ
ਦਰਜ ਕੀਤਾ ਕਿ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਉਸ ਵੇਲੇ ਮਹਾਤਮਾ ਗਾਂਧੀ ਦੇ ਬਰਾਬਰ ਜਾਂ ਉਸ ਤੋਂ ਵੀ
ਵੱਧ ਹਰਮਨਪਿਆਰਤਾ ਦੇ ਸਿਖ਼ਰ ’ਤੇ ਸੀ। ਆਜ਼ਾਦੀ ਤੋਂ ਬਾਅਦ ਹੁਣ ਤੱਕ ਜਿੰਨੇ
ਮੀਡੀਆ ਕੇਂਦਰਾਂ ਨੇ ਲੋਕਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਆਗੂਆਂ ਦੀ ਹਰਮਨਪਿਆਰਤਾ ਬਾਰੇ ਸਰਵੇ
ਕਰਵਾਏ ਹਨ, ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਲੋਕਾਂ ਦੇ ਮਨਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਅਤੇ ਡਾ. ਅੰਬੇਡਕਰ
ਸਭ ਤੋਂ ਸਿਖਰਲੀ ਪੌਡ਼ੀ ’ਤੇ ਹਨ। ਪੰਜਾਬ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਜੋ ਸਰਕਾਰੀ ਤੌਰ ’ਤੇ ਡਾ.
ਅੰਬੇਡਕਰ ਅਤੇ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਨੂੰ ਦਫ਼ਤਰਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਤਸਵੀਰਾਂ ਲਾ ਕੇ ਮਾਨਤਾ ਦਿੰਦੀ ਹੈ,
ਉਸ ਪਿੱਛੇ ਵੀ ਇਹੋ ਕਾਰਨ ਹੈ। ਭਾਵੇਂ ਕਿ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਦੀ ਅਸਲ ਤਸਵੀਰ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੇ
ਕਿਸੇ ਵੀ ਸਰਕਾਰੀ ਦਫ਼ਤਰ ਵਿੱਚ ਨਹੀਂ ਲੱਗੀ ਹੋਈ। ਅਮਰ ਸਿੰਘ ਆਰਟਿਸਟ ਦੀ
ਬਣਾਈ ਪੇਂਟਿੰਗ, ਜੋ ਗਿਆਨੀ ਜ਼ੈਲ ਸਿੰਘ ਨੇ ਆਪਣੇ ਮੀਡੀਆ ਸਲਾਹਕਾਰ ਤਰਲੋਚਨ
ਸਿੰਘ ਰਾਹੀਂ ਬਣਵਾਈ ਸੀ, ਉਹੋ ਪੇਂਟਿੰਗ ਵਿਚਾਰੇ ਕਲਾਕਾਰ ਦੀ ਕਲਾ ਨੂੰ ਬਿਨਾਂ
ਕਰੈਡਿਟ ਦਿੱਤੇ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਦੇ ਦਫ਼ਤਰਾਂ ਦਾ ਸ਼ਿੰਗਾਰ ਬਣੀ ਹੋਈ ਹੈ। ਇਹੋ ਹਸ਼ਰ
ਸ਼ਹੀਦ ਊਧਮ ਸਿੰਘ ਅਤੇ ਕਰਤਾਰ ਸਿੰਘ ਸਰਾਭਾ ਦੀਆਂ ਤਸਵੀਰਾਂ ਦਾ ਹੈ, ਜੋ ਸਿਰਫ਼
ਪੇਂਟਿੰਗਜ਼ ਹਨ, ਨਾ ਕਿ ਅਸਲ ਤਸਵੀਰਾਂ। ਜੇ ਡਾ. ਅੰਬੇਡਕਰ ਦੀ ਅਸਲ ਤਸਵੀਰ
5
ਨਾਲ ਕੋਈ ਵਿਗਾਡ਼ ਕਰਦਾ ਤਾਂ ਤੁਰੰਤ ਫ਼ਸਾਦ ਹੋਣ ਦਾ ਖ਼ਤਰਾ ਰਹਿੰਦਾ ਹੈ, ਕਈ
ਵਾਰ ਹੋਏ ਵੀ ਹਨ। ਪਰ ਸਾਡੀ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਨੂੰ ਆਪਣੇ ਸਭ ਤੋਂ ਪਿਆਰੇ ਸ਼ਹੀਦਾਂ
ਦੀਆਂ ਅਸਲ ਤਸਵੀਰਾਂ ਨਾਲ ਕੋਈ ਲਗਾਅ ਨਹੀਂ ਤੇ ਸਿਰਫ਼ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਲਾਹਾ ਲੈਣ
ਲਈ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦੀਆਂ ਮਨਚਾਹੀਆਂ ਘਡ਼ੀਆਂ/ਕਲਾਕਾਰਾਂ ਦੀਆਂ ਸਿਰਜੀਆਂ ਤਸਵੀਰਾਂ
ਲਾ ਕੇ ਬੁੱਤਾ ਸਾਰ ਲੈਂਦੀਆਂ ਹਨ।
ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ-ਰਾਜਗੁਰੂ-ਸੁਖਦੇਵ ਦੇ ਸ਼ਹਾਦਤ ਦਿਹਾਡ਼ੇ ਸਾਨੂੰ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਦੀ ਜੇਲ੍ਹ
ਨੋਟ-ਬੁੱਕ ਵਿੱਚ ਦਰਜ ਉਸ ਦੇ ਸੁਧਾਰਵਾਦੀ, ਮਨੁੱਖਤਾਵਾਦੀ, ਨਿਆਂ ਪ੍ਰਣਾਲੀ ਦੇ ਹੱਕ
ਵਿੱਚ ਹੋਣ ਦੀ ਗਵਾਹੀ ਨਾਲ ‘ਮੌਤ ਦੀ ਸਜ਼ਾ’ ਖ਼ਤਮ ਕਰਨ ਅਤੇ ‘ਪੁਲੀਸ ਬਲ ਦੇ
ਮੁਜਰਮਾਂ/ਕੈਦੀਆਂ ਨਾਲ ਅਣਮਨੁੱਖੀ ਤਸੀਹੇ ਦੇਣ ਦੇ ਵਰਤਾਰੇ ’ਤੇ ਸਖ਼ਤੀ ਨਾਲ
ਪਾਬੰਦੀ ਲਾਉਣ ਦੇ ਹੁਕਮ ਦੇ ਕੇ ਹੀ ਸ਼ਹੀਦਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਸੱਚੀ ਸ਼ਰਧਾਂਜਲੀ ਦਿੱਤੀ ਜਾ ਸਕਦੀ
ਹੈ। ਜੇ ਸੰਘਰਸ਼ਸ਼ੀਲ ਕਿਸਾਨ, ਜੋ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਦੇ ਰਾਹ ’ਤੇ ਚੱਲ ਕੇ ਸੰਘਰਸ਼ ਕਰ ਰਹੇ
ਹਨ, ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦੀਆਂ ਐੱਮ.ਐੱਸ.ਪੀ. ਵਰਗੀਆਂ ਜਾਇਜ਼ ਤੇ ਹੱਕੀ ਮੰਗਾਂ ਮੰਨ ਲਈਆਂ
ਜਾਣ ਤਾਂ ਇਹ ਸ਼ਰਧਾਂਜਲੀ ਹੋਰ ਵੀ ਸੱਚੀ ਬਣ ਸਕਦੀ ਹੈ।
*ਆਨਰੇਰੀ ਸਲਾਹਕਾਰ, ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਆਰਕਾਈਵਜ਼, ਨਵੀਂ ਦਿੱਲੀ।</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW7CRugmRWAFqDmRRmDOQwK8hCdXgEW2V1kjPfCU4sKap2EiBgrw9xbHgKwmcLtWe6Sh0PC19_WjiOMcNL85kfHhcB25zFcgAIG8KWFW7GLHnk1YPdmlJRDx9Ft8VcspJP-UgXazrO-kv7-r8QUCJI0wgCRGG0IU7M5ivStYISai93PwF76ypdEGih8Ziu/s2304/3BHAGA~2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1728" data-original-width="2304" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW7CRugmRWAFqDmRRmDOQwK8hCdXgEW2V1kjPfCU4sKap2EiBgrw9xbHgKwmcLtWe6Sh0PC19_WjiOMcNL85kfHhcB25zFcgAIG8KWFW7GLHnk1YPdmlJRDx9Ft8VcspJP-UgXazrO-kv7-r8QUCJI0wgCRGG0IU7M5ivStYISai93PwF76ypdEGih8Ziu/s320/3BHAGA~2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZf5op5N8MTvPjyXYDvkKgM9nvKccZR1tsyLq0yj9MpzTAXBEaIHLCEFqbORymz1wpV8FF4fMMvyiWrwS4TTBOErOGQzUr4_088Gb5bcHJK9RJP87Flrsego-bARBy9h_TXgvrUsdD61nRV2fFdLo0owPe2yZh2I5wWwbcLXMqRRua0B6WTXjqiKS-wrdT/s1800/482YEA~1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; 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text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div><br /></div>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-52775333067930768212024-03-25T23:53:00.001+05:302024-03-26T00:12:19.035+05:30Revolutionary Legacy of Bhagat Singh for South Asia<div><br /></div><a href="https://sapannews.com/2024/03/22/if-the-z-a-bhutto-trial-could-be-declared-unjust-why-not-bhagat-singh/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email"></a>
<a href="https://sapannews.com/2024/03/22/if-the-z-a-bhutto-trial-could-be-declared-unjust-why-not-bhagat-singh/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email">https://sapannews.com/2024/03/22/if-the-z-a-bhutto-trial-could-be-declared-unjust-why-not-bhagat-singh/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email</a><div><br /></div><div>Revolutionary Legacy of Bhagat Singh for South Asia
Chaman Lal*
In year 2007, the birth centenary year of Bhagat Singh, though it was celebrated in India at quite large scale at Government as well as political groups level, but the celebrations had percolated to South Asia as well Irtiqa, a progressive Urdu journal from Karachi brought out a special issue on Bhagat Singh, in which many poems and other material on Bhagat Singh was published. My article published in Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) from Mumbai was translated in Urdu and Zahida Hina, an Urdu writer from Pakistan described Bhagat Singh as ‘son of Pakistan’, as he was born and died in what is today’s Pakistan. Born in Lyallpur, now renamed as Faisalabad district and executed and martyred in Lahore jail, so she claims Pakistan having more claim over the legacy of Bhagat Singh. Many developments keep on taking place in Pakistan, as Shadman Chowk, where earlier existed the execution point of Central Jail, was named once Bhagat Singh Chowk, recommended by Salima Hashmi, daughter of Faiz Ahmad Faiz as part of expert committee appointed by then Lahore administration. But some religious fundamentalists got stay from the court, yet every year on 23rd March, civil groups, including many women activists gather there on 23rd march and pay tributes to the martyr by singing revolutionary songs. Sometimes they have been assaulted by religious fundamentalist groups, so like this year, activists have been seeking security to be provided from Punjab High Court.
Imtiaz Rashid, whose late father Abdul Rashid migrated from Abohar area of present East Punjab, both father and son have long been fighting to get Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev acquitted from infamous Lahore conspiracy case, through which they were convicted to death sentence by three High court level judges tribunal, against which no appeal could be made. As per A G Noorani book-The Trial of Bhagat Singh, the whole judicial procedure was so defective that he termed it as ‘judicial murder’! Lahore based Punjab High court after many years perhaps dismissed the case, and it may land up in Supreme Court of Pakistan. Interestingly activists might be approaching Pakistan President Asif Zardari for reference of this case to Supreme Court for review, on the pattern of former popular Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto case and Supreme Court of Pakistan has recently accepted the reference made by Zardari in his earlier term as President of Pakistan in year 2013. Activists in Pakistan are thinking about making petition to President Zardari to make reference to Pakistan Supreme court regarding Lahore Conspiracy case as well, in which Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged on 23rd March 1931 at odd time of 7 pm past. Normally in any country execution takes place in morning time and these revolutionaries’ execution was also planned for morning of 24th March. But British colonial authorities, scared of massive people’s protest, advanced the execution to 12 hours and hanged them at 7 pm past on 23rd March itself. Yet people who had held a massive protest rally on 23rd March evening also and were dispersing when the news came about their being hanged and people gathered again at the gate of Lahore jail. It was revealed by a jail official to an Indian nationalist living close to the jail complex that all three revolutionaries had thrown their black masks, traditionally to cover the faces before being hanged, saying they were no criminals and holding their head high shouting slogans of Inqilab Zindabad, rode to the gallows. Decades later the whole world saw on television how Iraq President Saddam Hussain, throwing away black mask from his face before being hanged by American occupying forces. But Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev did this act many decades ago! The bodies were cut into pieces and stacked in raw jute bags and taken from the back gates of jail towards river Sutlej and bodies burnt with kerosene oil near village Ganda Singh wala, but the people including Bhagat Singh younger sister Bibi Amar Kaur, Lala Lajpat Rai daughter Parvati Bai had followed the tracks and found half burnt warm flesh and bones of the martyrs, which were picked from sand and brought back to Lahore and were given proper cremation at Ravi banks of Lahore in a procession of more than 50 thousand people. A huge meeting was also held at Minto Park Lahore. The news of this was carried in The Tribune of Lahore on 26th March on front page.
Naujwan Bharat Sabha founded by Bhagat Singh and his comrades had planned to built a memorial for the martyrs for which an appeal to collect ten lakh rupees was issued by Sushila Ghosh, sister of Ajoy Ghosh, comrade of Bhagat Singh who was acquitted in Lahore Conspiracy case and remained General Secretary of Communist party of India(CPI) for 12 years till his death in 1962. Memorial would have included a training centre for workers for trade unionism and library plus meeting hall, this was somehow got sabotages and never came up. Ajoy Ghosh considered Bhagat Singh to be much brighter than himself and mentions that it was Bhagat Singh who took him and other comrades to the path of Socialist revolution. It was at Bhagat Singh proposal that the revolutionary organisation name Hindustan Republican Association/Army was renamed as Hindustan Socialist Republican Association/Army. Many Comrades from HSRA and Naujwan Bharat Sabha (NBS) later became part of Socialist faction of Congress party and supported Netaji Subhash Chander Bose as against Mahatma Gandhi candidate in Congress election. Some Muslim Comrades like Mubark Sagar and Ahmad Deen of NBS and HSRA migrated to Pakistan after 1947 and since relations between India and Pakistan remained cool till 1965, Chaman Lal Azad, who was NBS activist and later Urdu journalist, helped Mubark Sagar and Ahmad Deen during their medical needs by inviting them to Delhi and getting them treated. Chaman Lal Azad wrote a good book in Urdu-Bhagat Singh aur Dutt ki Amar Kahani, now out of print. He was close to Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and could get Mubark Sagar and Munshi Ahmad Deen to have medical help in Delhi.
There has been renewed interest in Pakistan about Bhagat Singh as in many countries in west, from where many research publications have come up recently. Lyallpur Historian club organises lectures on Bhagat Singh and also celebrate his birth anniversary in his birth village Chak No 105, Bange, now in Faisalabad district. The allottee and owner of Bhagat Singh family house has created a two-room museum of freedom struggle in birth room of Bhagat Singh, which includes pictures of all freedom fighters of that period-Hindus/Sikhs/Muslims etc. Bhagat Singh birth house was visited even by one-time Indian Ambassador to Pakistan TCA Raghvan. Prior to 1965 Indo-Pak war, the visitors to Nankana Sahib invariably used to visit Chak no 105-Bhagat Singh birth place on buses, which falls in Jaranwala Tehsil, about 45 kilometres from Nankana Sahib. Ammara Ahmad, a journalist cum scholar is planning her research on Footsteps of Bhagat Singh in Lahore. Recently historian Waqar Piroz, who retired from Govt. College Lyallpur (Faisalabad), has published a good biography of Bhagat Singh in Urdu, published by Fiction house Lahore under the title Sarfarosh Sardar Bhagat Singh. NRI Indian scholar and lawyer from London Satvinder Juss could consult 134 files of Bhagat Singh case lying in Punjab Archives in Anarkali Lahore and wrote two books on the base of that-The Execution of Bhagat Singh and Bhagat Singh Life and Revolution, published by HarperCollins India and Penguins India. Earlier famous Sindhi poet Sheikh Ayaz had an epic on Bhagat Singh in Sindhi. Punjabi poet Ahmade Saleem has a poetry collection under the title-Kehdi Maan ne Bhagat Singh Jammiya(Which mother gave birth to Bhagat Singh). So Bhagat Singh is not just Indian phenomenon. First time in March 2018, Punjab Archives Lahore had pout an exhibition on Bhagat Singh case, exhibiting many documents from these 134 files. A Pakistani historian has told me in 2014, that Pakistan Government has planned to digitise these whole files and put in public domain, but it has not been done till day, ten years later! Pakistani and South Asian youth are equally enamoured of Bhagat Singh’s personality and revolutionary ideas. Our latest book-The Political Writings of Bhagat Singh edited by Monthly Review ex-editor and Director Michael D Yates and me, has been published by LeftWord India but its Monthly Review Press edition is coming up from New York this very year. Slowly Bhagat Singh is turning into a popular revolutionary international icon like Che Guevara. This connects the revolutionary tradition of South Asia and South America and that is a good sign for world progressive circles and oppressed people, who take inspiration to make revolution in their countries from these two supreme fearless icons of revolution!
*Chaman Lal is a retired Professor from JNU, New Delhi and Honorary Advisor Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, Delhi Archives, New Delhi. His books on Bhagat Singh include The Bhagat Singh Reader, The Political Writings of Bhagat Singh-coedited, Understanding Bhagat Singh and Complete writings of Bhagat Singh in Hindi, Urdu, English and Marathi. He can be contacted at Chamanlal.jnu@gmail.com, blog and whatsapp channel-Bhagat Singh Study
</div>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-84366060826282142402023-11-24T23:30:00.004+05:302023-11-25T23:56:54.292+05:30Bhagat Singh in Canada <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The pending series of lectures materialised in March 2023.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> 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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The return journey was as difficult as the first journey was
but again this was compensated by watching the Satyajit Ray film Jalsaghar
itself!<span style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-85774991170206589292023-08-30T18:55:00.002+05:302023-08-30T18:55:43.141+05:30Indian Politicians in India and Canada: A study in contrast! Chaman Lal*<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 4.0pt; margin-left: -1.0cm; margin-right: -37.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.0cm;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/indian-politicians-canada-study-contrast-chandigarh-8868553/">Indian politicians in Canada and India: A study in contrast | Chandigarh News - The Indian Express</a></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqk5iamtV8EfdOoHuPgS2xodpcAwakkbTpfmb6epcgVp-8czkxc2mAW2yr-XIaIUjdzxRIUhKCY89XX5jEQ8Fe_9IkmcmwBTJsRMMuoLhUCUwIgyQaSdKWN4A4RDkCjAoUqaQ31YeRa80PhHX_-SvDwG5gMRqWB03rSA3EpnJg5LwnKDdEUfRf5CnAn1rO/s4000/BC%20Capital%20tour%204-4-2023%20(117).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; 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margin-bottom: 4.0pt; margin-left: -1.0cm; margin-right: -37.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 4.0pt; margin-left: -1.0cm; margin-right: -37.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.0cm;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">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</span> <span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 4.0pt; margin-left: -1.0cm; margin-right: -37.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 92.15pt;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">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!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 4.0pt; margin-left: -1.0cm; margin-right: -37.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 92.15pt;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">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!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 4.0pt; margin-left: -1.0cm; margin-right: -37.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 92.15pt;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">
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!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; margin-left: -1.0cm; margin-right: -37.75pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 92.15pt;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;"> 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.! <b><i><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">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</span> </i><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Sikh bodyguards of<i> 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!</i></span></b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 4.0pt; margin-left: -1.0cm; margin-right: -37.75pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 92.15pt;"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">*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 </span><a href="mailto:Chamanlal.jnu@gmail.com"><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">Chamanlal.jnu@gmail.com</span></a><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><script type="text/javascript">
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</script>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-41050145639452243172023-06-28T23:00:00.000+05:302023-06-28T23:00:09.645+05:30<p class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/relook-book-new-edition-c-s-venus-then-banned-biography-bhagat-singh"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 0pt; text-decoration-line: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-line-height-alt: 16.8pt; mso-outline-level: 1;"><b><span style="color: #163c5a; font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 22.5pt; letter-spacing: .2pt; mso-bidi-language: HI; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/relook-book-new-edition-c-s-venus-then-banned-biography-bhagat-singh"><span style="color: #163c5a; text-decoration-line: none;">Relook at a
Book: New Edition of C S Venu’s Then Banned Biography of Bhagat Singh</span><span style="color: #163c5a; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; letter-spacing: 0pt; text-decoration-line: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></a></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/author/chaman-lal"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt; text-decoration-line: none;">Chaman Lal</span></b></a><b><span style="color: #163c5a; font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: .2pt; mso-bidi-language: HI; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"> | 28 Jun 2023</span></b><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/India" style="text-align: right;"><span style="background: rgb(237, 237, 237); color: blue; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt; text-decoration-line: none;">India</span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #515f67; font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 15.0pt; letter-spacing: .2pt; mso-bidi-language: HI; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75"
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">Venu, C S,
Sirdar Bhagat Singh (Banned biography), ed. Rajwanti Maan, 2022, Delhi, New
World Publication, 114, Price Rs 150.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">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 <i>The
Tribune,</i> at that time. She also does not mention that Bhagat Singh
went on two more hunger strikes adding more days.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">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 <i>Sirdar Bhagat
Singh</i>. 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 <i>Dreamland</i>, 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">The first
chapter, ‘Childhood and Early Influences’ starts with a quote from Walter Scott’s
poetry:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"> <i>“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.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">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. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">The second
chapter, ‘The Blast of the Trumpet, begins with a quote from De Quincey’s
poetry:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">
“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.”</span></i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">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!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">The author,
a follower of Gandhi and Congress, declares ‘a thousand times emphatic ‘No’ to
the charge of terrorism in this act!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">The third
chapter, ‘The Trial and the Sentence’, begins with a quote from Indian poet
Harin Chattopadhyay:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">
“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.”</span></i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">‘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:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"> “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.”</span></i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">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 <i>Bhagwad Gita</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;">Chaman Lal
is retired Professor from JNU and is Honorary Advisor, Bhagat Singh Archives
and Resource Centre, Delhi Archives, New Delhi.</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; letter-spacing: 0.2pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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</script>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-69353879839427227822023-02-08T23:13:00.000+05:302023-02-08T23:13:33.053+05:30Bhagat Singh and Gandhi-the complex relationship<div><a href="https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/features/the-two-martyrs-and-their-enduring-legacy-474623">The two martyrs and their enduring legacy : The Tribune India</a></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXXwTv3XpzLhtBsKUY2OgJGpxr7b5zQKeCx0jFq3Lw08Kn3TWlmNzC22xBUx2MvWQQ8bS7aaAMn1lyRxcpa1NiB3vbgP6KGKOeBppbyHeGWz05wCscF0M9f-K4TLZ_VGnr-fdhTSy093fnVlBLXaixT6rs0RT8-LdMTSH_NEuQt8p26o0Vl6DT3mjo4w/s915/IMG-20230129-WA0032%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="915" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXXwTv3XpzLhtBsKUY2OgJGpxr7b5zQKeCx0jFq3Lw08Kn3TWlmNzC22xBUx2MvWQQ8bS7aaAMn1lyRxcpa1NiB3vbgP6KGKOeBppbyHeGWz05wCscF0M9f-K4TLZ_VGnr-fdhTSy093fnVlBLXaixT6rs0RT8-LdMTSH_NEuQt8p26o0Vl6DT3mjo4w/s320/IMG-20230129-WA0032%5B1%5D.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Mahatma Gandhi and Bhagat Singh (With Subhash Bose)</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Chaman Lal*</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">As we commemorate the 75th martyrdom anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, one question is</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">perennially linked with Shaheed Bhagat Singh. Could Gandhi have saved Bhagat Singh?</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Whatever the political views of Gandhi may have been, he was martyred while fighting a tide</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">of communal hatred. Before he was assassinated by Nathuram Godse on January 30, 1948, he was</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">attacked many times. In the month of January that year itself, attempts were made on his life.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Despite Jawaharlal Nehru pleading to have his security tightened, Mahatma Gandhi refused. Had</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Bhagat Singh alive at the time of Mahatma Gandhi assassination, he would have been the first to</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">condemn it in strongest terms. In fact at one time, a Hindutavite religious organisation had offered</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">to supply arms to Chandershekhar Azad, provided they killed M A Jinnah and Azad had contempt</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">for them, expressing his anger-‘they think us, professional murderers not revolutionaries’! </span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Unlike Bhagat Singh, ‘Shaheed’ never came to be associated with Gandhi perhaps because the</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">epithets ‘Mahatma’, referred to first by Rabindranath Tagore in all likelihood, and ‘Father of Nation’,</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">coined by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, had become more accepted and popular even when he was</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">alive. In public imagination, both Gandhi and Bhagat Singh held highest degree of popularity, as</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Congress party historian Pattabhi Sitaramaih himself recorded in his history of Congress party! In</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">post independence era. ruling Congress party and some historians limited Bhagat Singh role during</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">freedom struggle as of just a brave and fearless revolutionary. It goes to the credit of historians</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">like Sumit Sarkar, Bipan Chandra and K N Pannikar to underline the role of Bhagat Singh as an</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">ideologically committed socialist revolutionary through his writings, with an alternative path to</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">freedom of India! </span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Netaji, who had defeated Gandhi-patronised leaders in the Congress presidential elections in 1938</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">and 1938, had to quit and float a new political party, Forward Bloc, owing to differences with</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Gandhi. Yet, the same Netaji, incidentally whose 126th birth anniversary was also observed recently,</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">was the one who described Mahatma Gandhi as Father of Nation (Rashtarpita) and set up Gandhi,</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Nehru and Azad brigades in the Indian National Army (INA) or Azad Hind Fauj, whose command he</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">took over from Ras Behari Bose earlier.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Ironically, Netaji’s daughter Anita Pfaff Bose has exposed recent attempts to appropriate Netaji’s</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">legacy, calling her father a ‘leftist’ as against a ‘rightist’ party trying to appropriate Netaji Bose</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">legacy!</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Interestingly, in March 1931, British Viceroy Lord Irwin had sent, through his secretary, a letter</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">addressed to Gandhi to stop Netaji from holding a public protest against the execution of Bhagat</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. Gandhi plainly refused to intervene and told Irwin’s secretary that he</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">could not stop Netaji from holding a huge public protest in Delhi on March 20.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In the 1938 and 1939 Congress elections, Bhagat Singh’s comrades — Mubarak Sagar, Ahmaddin and</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Ghadarites like Baba Bhagat Singh Bilga , who were part of All India Congress committee(AICC)</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">then— had supported Netaji.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">A mass-based Congress movement from 1885 onwards included multiple ideological streams —</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">from feudal landlordism to revolutionary socialist views as expressed through the Congress Socialist</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Party (CSP). Stalwarts like Jai Prakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia, Acharya Narender Dev, Nehru</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">and Netaji, even Communists like EMS Namboodiripad, were all working as part of CSP.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Groups or parties like the Muslim League, led by MA Jinnah who was part of the Congress at one</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">time, Hindu Mahasabha, RSS and pro-Sikhistan Akalis were working towards creating religion-based</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">nations.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">There were the revolutionaries, from uprisings prior to 1857 and later. From Anushilan Samitis</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">to ‘Jugantar’, Ghadar Party, to Naujawan Bharat Sabha and Hindustan Socialist Republican</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Army/Association (HSRA), the Chittagong revolutionary movement, Azad Hind Fauj and finally, the</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Indian Navy Revolt of 1946. Bhagat Singh and fellow revolutionaries, even later ones after Bhagat</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Singh, were dead against such concept of a religion based nation and they visualised an inclusive,</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">non sectarian and exploitation free India!</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">All these socio-cultural streams had a complex relationship with each other. Religion-oriented</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">nationalist movements were in constant conflict with the mass-based Congress party as well as with</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">different revolutionary streams, though Abhinav Bharat like religious organisations had been in</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">touch with some former revolutionaries who had turned into religious fundamentalists later</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">However, later-day revolutionaries took a clear ideological position of a secular India with religious</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">or any other faith as the private affair of revolutionaries. Members of HSRA and Chittagong</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">movement became more pronounced socialist revolutionaries. The groups were in constant</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">interaction with the Congress. Even Bhagat Singh and his associates were in touch with the Congress</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">and in one elections to Central and provincial assembly, had supported Moti Lal Nehru led Swaraj</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">party against Lala Lajpat Rai party, which was perceived to be more close to religious concept of</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">nation! Later both factions had merged in parent party Indian National Congress party.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">National College, Lahore, was set up at Bradlaugh Hall, headquarter of Punjab Congress party. It was</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">the nursery of Bhagat Singh-led revolutionary movement. Acharya Jugal Kishore and Principal</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Chhabil Das, the two college principals from 1921 to 1926, were members of the Congress party as</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">well as sympathisers of revolutionaries.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">3</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Netaji Subhash Bose, Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Madan Mohan Malviya, Lala Lajpat Rai and</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Purshotam Das Tandon had a constant interaction with the revolutionaries. Netaji and Jawaharlal</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Nehru had been presiding over annual meetings of Naujwan Bharat Sabha, incidentally held around</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">same time and venue when the Indian National Congress sessions were being held.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Gandhi and Bhagat Singh probably never met each other. Bal Gangadhar Tilak may have blessed</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Bhagat Singh in his childhood, when his father Kishan Singh and uncle Ajit Singh had taken him to a</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Congress session, where Tilak bestowed a ‘taj’ on Ajit Singh in appreciation of his role during the</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Pagdi Sambhal Jatta farmers’ movement of 1907.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Bhagat Singh had accompanied his father Kishan Singh to the 1924 Belgavi Congress also, the only</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Congress session was presided over by Mahatma Gandhi.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">There are chances that Bhagat Singh would have paid his respects to Gandhiji and may have shared a</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">few words as well, but both Gandhi and Bhagat Singh never mentioned about it. However, in the</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">writings of both Gandhi and Bhagat Singh, there are ample references to each other. In his famous</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">‘Letter to Young Political Workers’ (February 2, 1931), Bhagat Singh praises Gandhi as a leader who</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">can impress masses immensely and he wishes revolutionaries to learn this art from him, but he is</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">equally critical of his views as an ‘idealist’ and impractical.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">He even prophesies that Gandhi will not have any permanent followers of his ideas! After the</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">pronouncement of death sentence to Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, Mahatma Gandhi did try</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">to get their sentence commuted in communication with Viceroy Irwin, but while appealing for the</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">reprieve of revolutionaries, Mahatma Gandhi did not take his own professed principled stand</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">against capital punishment, whatever the crime, political or otherwise.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Gandhi could not have saved the lives of the three revolutionaries as Bhagat Singh himself was</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">determined to sacrifice his life in order to shake the conscience of Indian people to rise for achieving</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">freedom from British colonial rule!</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Mahatma Gandhi praised Bhagat Singh’s bravery but was critical of his militant revolutionary</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">approach towards achieving freedom. After his execution, Mahatma Gandhi in the Karachi Congress</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">got a resolution moved through Nehru which praised Bhagat Singh’s bravery and patriotism, but</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">asked youth ‘not to follow his path’.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In political terms, Gandhi and Bhagat Singh were poles apart. One was a committed atheist and</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">socialist and the other deeply religious but non-communal, respecting all religious faiths equally.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Historian V N Datta, who had authored a book-Gandhi and Bhagat Singh, was favourably inclined</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">towards Mahatma Gandhi’s view of nationalism and national struggle and upheld Gandhi’s</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">criticism of Bhagat Singh. </span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">4</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Towards the end of his life, Bhagat Singh and his comrades had realised that a peaceful militant</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">mass mobilisation of workers, peasants and youth was the way towards achieving their goal of</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">socialism, but they never ruled out the use of violence if absolutely necessary, for achieving their</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">final goal of socialism! By then, their revolutionary organisation HSRA was almost in disarray as</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">most of its leading figures were either martyred or incarcerated for a long period. Many of Bhagat</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Singh’s comrades joined CPI after release, few joined Congress party and one or two joined RSS</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">oriented groups! (Third point already covered here)</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">By his consciously chosen martyrdom, Bhagat Singh wanted to create an icon for future generations</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">to follow. The farmers’ protest of 2020-21 saw a year-long peaceful but militant struggle, mixing the</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Gandhian methods with Bhagat Singh’s revolutionary ideology, which led to their victory and</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">the government had to buckle down by withdrawing the controversial farm laws.</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">*Chaman Lal, an ex Dean of PU Chandigarh and retired Professor from JNU is the editor and author of</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The Bhagat Singh Reader and Life and Legend of Bhagat Singh.</span></div><div><br /></div><script type="text/javascript">
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</script>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-6768893802177213982022-12-13T19:17:00.004+05:302022-12-13T19:17:41.278+05:30Spreading Bhagat Singh’s ideas: Through Military Literary Festival<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-IN"> </span><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial Rounded MT Bold",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">Bhagat Singh in Military Literary festival!<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial Rounded MT Bold",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">
</span></b><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial Rounded MT Bold",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"> Chaman Lal*<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial Rounded MT Bold",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"> </span></b><a href="https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/features/spreading-bhagat-singhs-ideas-457352"><span style="color: blue;">Spreading Bhagat Singh’s ideas : The Tribune India</span></a><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial Rounded MT Bold",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial Rounded MT Bold",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"> </span></b><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"> It was a bit
perplexing for me when I got a call from Sports University Patiala Vice
Chancellor Lieutenant General (Retired) J S Cheema inviting me to be part of a discussion
panel in a session on Bhagat Singh in Military literary festival, as I could not
see any connection, since the military literary festival concentrates more on
defence related books and matters, national and international. Among other panellists,
he named Major General (Retd.) and Mahavir Chakra awardee Sheonan Singh, who is
nephew of Bhagat Singh, but who never let it known during his whole military
service, of this close relationship, as he thought it will be construed as
seeking favour or privilege! Only after retirement, he let it be known in an
interview in a national daily. That made me immediately accept the invite. He
is not joining the panel due to urgent family function, but among mong all
close relations of Bhagat Singh, he is one of most well read about Bhagat Singh
and his ideas, as Ranbir Singh, his father and younger brother of Bhagat Singh
had penned a biography of the great martyr in Urdu!<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"> Few other pleasant coincidents happened
around. While planning to write a short piece for The Tribune, I received
author/editor’s complimentary copies of <i><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">11<sup>th</sup> reprint</span></i> of the book from
National Book Trust (NBT), New Delhi, few days before I got a copy of another
book <i><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Jail Notebook and
other writings</span></i> from another publisher leftword, mentioning it as <i><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">12<sup>th</sup> reprint.</span></i>
Yet another instance was of pleasant surprise was an award given by a Pune
organisation recently for my writings on Bhagat Singh, while I accepted the
honour, but returned 10 thousand rupees award money to be used for purchasing
books for libraries on Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries. A youth group
from <i><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Khed</span>,</i> birth
place of Rajguru, the martyr with Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev, now named Rajguru
Nagar, close to Pune, had come to the function, which is running a mobile library
of lending books on revolutionaries to youth in many towns and villages around,
which was more pleasant to know than even the award for me! <i><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Marathi translation of Bhagat
Singh’s complete writings</span></i> from my edited book in Hindi of same title
by Datta Desai has again run into <i><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">ten reprints.</span></i> This book has introduction and released by
late Supreme Court Justice P B Sawant during Bhagat Singh birth centenary.
Another pleasant coincident is that as Publication Division, Govt. of India,
which had published my edited volume in Hindi of complete writings of Bhagat
Singh, released in 2007 in presence of two nephews of Bhagat Singh and late
Kuldip Nayar, has updated it into four volume edition, which was brought out in
the beginning of celebrations of 75<sup>th</sup> anniversary of independence!
And then they invited me to write a biography of <i>Bhagat Singh<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">-Life and Legend of Bhagat
Singh: A Pictorial volume</span></i>! I was more in collecting and researching
on Bhagat Singh’s writings and was in a dilemma how to plan it since there were
already a number of biographies in print! It suddenly struck my mind that since
decades, I have been collecting documents, writings, images of monuments etc.
in order to focus on the </span></b><b><i><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">authenticity
</span></i></b><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">of Bhagat Singh’s life
and writings, so I accepted the invite and pleasant coincident is that book has
just come out in print on this occasion! HarperCollins published <i><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Bhagat Singh Reader</span></i>
edited by me is in the process of bringing out its updated edition shortly, as
I found more documents since its first publication in 2019. In 2019, I had
included 130 writings of Bhagat Singh along with Jail Notebook, three more
writings are now added to upcoming edition!<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"> My best
experiences in my mission to spread Bhagat Singh’s ideas are with Gopal Roy,
minister of Delhi Govt., who inaugurated <i><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre</span></i>,
with my gifted collection on freedom struggle of India and which is located in
Delhi Archives of Delhi Govt., who, while being in charge minister of freedom
fighters cell in Delhi, holds functions
on every 23<sup>rd</sup> March and 28<sup>th</sup>
September-martyrdom and birth anniversaries of the three martyrs, by free distribution
of books by or on Bhagat Singh to the audience from children to old people in
thousands. In one year, he got distributed one thousand copies of Bhagat Singh
nephew Jagmohan Singh and mine edited volume of Bhagat Singh and his comrades
writings and in another function he got 1500 hundred copies of my four volume
collection of Bhagat Singh’s writings published by Publication Division, which
has now come out with latest biography of Bhagat Singh in English! This is the
best way of spreading Bhagat Singh’s ideas of free India to enlighten the
youth! I hope Punjab Government also follows this example of their colleague in
Delhi!<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">*Chaman Lal is
retired Professor from JNU, ex Dean of Panjab University Chandigarh and
Honorary advisor to Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource centre New Delhi.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"> </span></b><a href="mailto:Prof.chaman@gmail.com"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">Prof.chaman@gmail.com</span></b></a><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"> whatsapp no
9868774820 <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><script type="text/javascript">
</script>
<script src="http://www.boxbe.com/scripts/widget_contactme.js?user=drchaman" type="text/javascript">
</script>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-13847798342161363362022-12-06T20:35:00.001+05:302022-12-06T22:57:52.696+05:30Sushila Didi: Companion of Durga Bhabhi <div id="block-subscribeandsupport" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="subs_support_block" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 17px 15px 15px;"><br /></div></div></div><div about="/relook-book-sushila-didi-life-quiet-revolutionary" class="story full clearfix news-article" data-history-node-id="51024" id="articleSection" role="article" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: grid; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; gap: 1em 2.5%; grid-template-columns: 74% 23.5%; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="articleContent" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: flex; flex-direction: column; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; row-gap: 1em;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/relook-book-sushila-didi-life-quiet-revolutionary" id="label" rel="bookmark" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;"><h1 style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #163c5a; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Relook at a Book: Sushila Didi – Life of a Quiet Revolutionary</h1></a><div class="articleDetails" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: grid; grid-template-columns: 50% 50%; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; row-gap: 1em;"><div class="authorDetails" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #163c5a; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/author/Chaman%20Lal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Chaman Lal</a> </span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">| </span><time style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">30 Nov</time></div><div class="articleCategories" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right;"><ul class="field field--name-taxonomy-term field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field--items" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: flex; flex-flow: row-reverse wrap; gap: 1em 0.5em; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="field--item" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></li></ul></div></div><div class="articleIntro" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #515f67; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The book by Satyadev Vidyalankar includes not just memories of Sushila Didi by her fellow HSRA revolutionaries but also an autobiographical note written by her.</div></div><div class="content" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: flex; flex-direction: column; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; row-gap: 1em;"><div class="coverImage" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Relook at a Book: Sushila Didi – Life of a Quiet Revolutionary" height="580" loading="lazy" src="https://www.newsclick.in/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_885/public/2022-11/IMG_20221128_191402_2.jpg?itok=uwjV3wxg" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="885" /></div></div></div></div><div class="bodyContent" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Vidyalankar, Satyadev, Didi Sushila Mohan (Hindi Biography), 1965, Delhi Marwari Prakashan, Pages 390, Price 2/rupees and half Introduction by Dr. Yudhveer Singh</em></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sushila Didi, in the revolutionary circles, was almost as important as Durga Bhabhi, but she did not get as much fame. Sushila Didi, who later came to be known as Sushila Mohan, after marrying her friend Shyam ji Mohan, who provided her protection when the police were after her.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It was in the late 1960s that some very important books were published on the life and activities of revolutionaries. Many of these books were not republished and slowly became oblivious, except some old libraries holding on to their copies, which are rarely looked upon by readers. Only researchers or some diehard activists read such books, but due to lack of upkeep with modern technology, these too are withering away. Some such books include Manmath Nath Gupt’s <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">They Lived Dangerously</em> in English and <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Didi Sushila Mohan</em> in Hindi among others. Several special issues of journals on Bhagat Singh, Azad and other revolutionaries also came out in the 1970s, but only a few of these are found now.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Hindi book <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Didi Sushila Mohan</em> is authored by Satyadev Vidyalankar and was first published in 1965 by Marwari Prakashan, Delhi at the printed price of just Rs.2.5, having 386 pages and several photographs. This is not just a biography of Sushila Didi, as she was known among fellow revolutionaries, it is also an edited volume, as it includes memoirs of Didi by fellow revolutionaries and an autobiographical note by Sushila Didi herself.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">When the book was under print, the editor got the copy of the autobiography by Sushila Mohan written in English, which was included in the volume’s Hindi translation. Thus, this big volume has four sections-- the first is written by Satyadev Vidyalankar as <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Jivan Darshan </em>(Philosophy of Life) of Sushila Didi in 16 chapters of nearly 170 pages. The first 20 pages are an Introduction by the author/editor and Blessings from well known Delhi freedom fighter, Dr. Yudhvir Singh.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The second section includes photographs of contemporary freedom fighters and Didi’s family in about 25 pages. The third section is devoted to memoirs of Didi’s fellow revolutionaries in nearly 135 pages and the fourth section, or as appendix, is Didi’s own biographical narration in 20 pages plus some other material.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The whole volume, though somewhat spread out and not tightly edited, is a rich source of authentic information of Bhagat Singh, Hindustan Socialist Republic Association/Army and his comrades, of which Sushila Didi herself was a major, but quiet participant.</span></p><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="susila" height="1513" loading="lazy" src="https://www.newsclick.in/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_885/public/2022-11/IMG_20221128_191103_2%20%281%29.jpg?itok=4ABjFdFg" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="885" /></div></div><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">One should begin looking at the book from the appendix- the autobiographical narration by Sushila Didi. In his editorial note, Vidyalankar underlined her meeting with Mahatma Gandhi in connection with Bhagat Singh’s impending execution, which, as per the editor, clears the doubts about Gandhi’s indifference toward Bhagat Singh execution.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sushila Didi's autobiographical narration is in simple style. She begins with referring to her birth on March 5, 1905 at Datto Chuhar village of Gujarat district of pre-partition Punjab. Her father Karam Chand was a medical officer in the Army, who retired in 1927. He was an Arya Samajist and a staunch nationalist. After retirement, due to his selfless social service, the British government offered to confer ‘Rai Sahib’’s title on him, which he declined. He was an admirer of Bal Gangadhar Tilak. He arranged education for all his children in DAV schools, as these were considered nationalist education centres.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sushila Didi was only 14 years old at the time of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar. At that time Gujranwala railway station (now in Pakistan) was burnt and British forces in retaliation air-bombed the city and committed extreme tortures on the people. Mahatma Gandhi visited Gujranwala and while addressing a public meeting asked people to boycott foreign clothes and wear <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">k</em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">hadi.</em> Sushila Didi was deeply impressed and gave her gold ring to Gandhi. She also started wearing <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">k</em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">hadi </em>(hand-spun cotton),<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </em>which she wore throughout her life except when she went underground. She was sent to a nationalist school, Kanya Mahavidyalaya, (set up by Lala Devraj) in Jalandhar in 1921, where she stayed till 1927. Another sympathiser of revolutionaries and Congress activist Kumari Lajjawati was the principal of the school, which later was upgraded to a college and continues till date.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sushila Didi used to sing her own written poems and songs to spread nationalist feelings. During the visit of radical Congress leader Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das to her school, to greet him, she recited her poem, which was so emotional that he could not control his tears. On the arrest of Lala Lajpat Rai, a Punjabi song written by her was distributed throughout Punjab.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">During her nationalist activities, in a letter to her, her father advised her not to do anything would affect his Army job. She wrote back that rather than quitting her mission, she would prefer not to visit home. So, for two years she did not go home. When she was to appear for her graduation papers, the trial of the Kakori case accused was going on. On the day of her paper, she heard about the death sentence to four Kakori case accused -- Bismil, Ashfaq, Roshan Singh and Rajinder Lahiri. She fainted in the examination hall and could not complete her first paper.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sushila Didi was already in touch with the revolutionaries. In 1926, on the occasion of the annual function of Hindi Sahitya Sammelan in Dehradun, the students of KMV Jalandhar and National College Lahore met each other. Pandit Chet Ram, who was lecturer in Hindi at National College Lahore (teacher of Bhagat Singh) was the link among the students. Everyone then decided to dedicate themselves to the service of Mother India.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">HSRA was in the process of formation then, and she had met Bhagwati Charan Vohra and his wife Durga Bhabhi at the Dehradun conference. Vohar wanted her to distribute HSRA pamphlets that advocated freedom of India by all means, including using violence, if need be. Sushila, with her close friends, secretly and carefully distributed the pamphlets in Jalandhar and sent its copies to officials through post. This created a sensation in Jalandhar.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">After completing graduation, Sushila offered her services to KMV for a year, but remained in close contact with the revolutionaries. Vohra introduced her to Jai Chander Vidyalankar (professor of history at National College Lahore and well known historian of ancient India later), who was in charge of the Punjab branch of HSRA. He said that to get the Kakori prisoners released, HSRA needed money. Sushila’s father had given more than 10gm of gold to her for her marriage, which she had kept in safe custody of Kumari Lajjawati. She passed it on to Vidyalankar.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sushila also came into close contact with other revolutionaries like Yashpal (Hindi fiction writer), Sampuran Singh Tandon (Delhi college Professor), Dhanwantri etc. This made a radical change in her mental outlook.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sushila Didi then narrates the well-known incident of Bhagat Singh’s escape from Lahore after Saunders’ murder and she and Vohra receiving them at Calcutta station and providing him shelter. Bhagat Singh was accompanied by Durga Bhabhi as his ‘wife’. Sushila Didi was then working as a tutor to Savitri, daughter of Chaudhary Chhaju Ram in Calcutta. He narrates:</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“Annual Congress session was to be held in Calcutta. Shri Bhagwaticharan had reached Calcutta to my place prior to Saunders assassination. His aim was to contact Bengal revolutionaries. I got a telegram from Bhabhi Durga that she is reaching Calcutta with his brother. I could not make out anything of that telegram, but Bhai Bhagwaticharan immediately understood that Durga ji is coming with Sardar Bhagat Singh. I made arrangements for their stay here.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">We reached station to welcome them. Bhai Bhagwati immediately recognised Sardar. Since having clean shaved and hair cut and being in European attire, I could not immediately recognise him. We hugged each other and I brought all to my residence in Sir Chhaju Ram ji’s place. Bhagat Singh stayed with me in Calcutta and Bhai Bhagwaticharn along with Bhabhi Durga returned to Lahore, as the staying together of all in Calcutta was not considered safe…….”</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">There is further narration of the story, including police raids at the house where Bhagat Singh was staying. Bhagat Singh went to some unknown place, but in February, he again visited Sushila Didi in Calcutta, as he had come to meet Jatin Das for making bombs. There is some contrary narration of events related to th action of bomb throwing in the Assembly. As per Sushila Didi, Bhagat Singh offered himself for this action, but Chandershekhar Azad was not in favour of it. Sukhdev was also of a similar view. This is contrary to other revolutionaries’ accounts, which all say that Bhagat Singh did offer to go, but others rejected it and selected two other revolutionaries for this action, as they did not wish to lose his leadership at a crucial time and knowing well that he is involved in Saunders assassination, which will risk his life.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Since Sukhdev was not present in that meeting, he met Bhagat Singh later and taunted him for ‘trying to save his life’, as he knew that he was the best person for this action. Bhagat Singh called meetings of the group again and despite resistance from other evolutionaries, forced them to send him along with Batukeshwar Dutt for this action. Either there has been a mistranslation of this sentence in Hindi or Sushila Didi was not aware of this fact. She mentions that Sukhdev brought negatives of Bhagat Singh Dutt’s jointly clicked photographs.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sushila Didi lived with Vohra and Durga Bhabhi in Lahore. In one instance, there was police raid at the house in the absence of Vohra, but Sukhdev was there along with both Durga Bhabhi and Sushila Didi. How both managed to get Sukhdev to escape is an interesting episode.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Another episode completely forgotten now is how Sushila Didi was got involved in the Viceroy bomb attack on December 23, 1929, by Vohra, who had planned this action with Yashpal. He got Sushila Didi to wear a very expensive foreign saree and asked her to inspect the train in which the Viceroy was to travel. At the station, as the Viceroy’s train was standing, Sushila Didi sought permission to just see the beauty of the train from inside, which she was allowed as she looked like a rich lady. She later informed Vohra which compartment the Viceroy was to sit in.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sushila Didi was also involved with the plan to rescue Bhagat Singh from jail, in which Vohra lost his life while bomb-testing in the house that was rented for this purpose. Durga Bhabhi could not get a last glimpse of her husband, as he was buried by the revolutionaries on the banks of river Ravi in Lahore, as it was risky to get his body home.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">After Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were sentenced to death, there were huge protests in the country. The Gandhi-Irwin talks were on. Chandrashekhar Azad deputed Durga Bhabhi and Sushila Didi to go to Delhi and meet Mahatma Gandhi to save the lives of the three revolutionaries. As per Sushila Didi, she and Durga Bhabhi met Gandhi and conveyed Azad’s message that if he saved their lives, the revolutionary party would surrender to Gandhi. Sushila Didi mentions that they later came to know that Gandhi tried his best in this regard. But again, Durga Bhabhi’s account differs. She had clearly spoken about Gandhi telling Durga to surrender, as she was an absconder in the Lamington Road Bombay shooting incident. (The detailed account of this is included in the appendix of the book written by Baba Prithvi Singh Azad). Durga said they had not come to seek help for Durga, but for saving the lives of three sentenced revolutionaries. As per Durga Bhabhi’s account, Gandhi point blank refused to intervene in the matter. Though Sushila Didi is partly correct that Mahatma Gandhi made some efforts unsuccessfully at the personal level with the Viceroy to get the death sentence commuted.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sushila Didi first met her husband Shyam ji Mohan in 1929 at Congress leader Shanno Devi’s house in 1929 at Jalandhar, when she was working for the revolutionary party. Mohan was a colleague of another revolutionary Sampuran Singh Tandon, who was teaching in Ramjas College, Delhi. In her absconding period, she took shelter at Mohan’s house, too, who suffered for giving her shelter. Later, they got married.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sushila Didi joined the Congress party and went to jail during the Quit India movement with a fictitious name, Indumati. (Her inter-caste marriage with Mohan was on January 1, 1933, after she came out of jail). She adopted an orphan boy even before her marriage who remained part of their family.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">After coming out of jail, Sushila Didi became active in the Congress party and remained an office bearer of Delhi district party. Her account of life is not complete, it is up to 1942 only, though she lived till January 13, 1963. For her last 20 years’ account, one has to refer back to the author Vidyalankar. In the appendix, there are two letters of January 1954, one by poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan and another by Rudardatt from Ajmer, addressed to her. Then there is Baba Prithvi Singh Azad’s account of the Lamington Road Bombay shooting case of 1930, in which Durga Bhabhi had taken part prominently.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">To fill the gaps of Sushila Didi's brief account of her life, Vidyalankar mentions that she was the eldest among six brothers and sisters. The problem with the biographer is that he had penned this in memoir form, which are otherwise authentic historic accounts, fascinating to read, but not in chronological order. So, one has to look through the chronology.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">One important fact underlined by author in his introduction is that Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev used to send letters through Sushila Didi from jail to their comrades or other people. He emphatically says that perhaps two dozen such letters of Bhagat Singh had been lost. If so, there is still a possibility of Bhagat Singh’s writings getting discovered from unknown sources. But, now this possibility is becoming dimmer, except that the Lahore conspiracy case’s most important 134 files from Punjab archives, Lahore, are still not fully explored.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Vidyalankar mentions how Sushila Didi made efforts to make the socialist convention successful in 1946 and also helped in organising an old revolutionaries conference in Delhi in 1958, in which over 400 living revolutionaries participated and the then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru had a long meeting with them.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sushila was also associated with the Madan Mohan Skill institute for girls for a long time. In the last year of her life, she was the first Alderman (an old term, next only to Mayor, no more in use now) of the Delhi Municipal Corporation. She died on January 13, 1963, before she could complete her term. On her first death anniversary in January 1964, Delhi Congress President Mir Mushtaq Ahmad named a road as Sushila Mohan Marg and Delhi Mayor Nooruddin Ahmad named a high school in her name as Sushila Mohan Girls High School.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Some notable incidents of her life have been narrated in loose style, such as Sushila Didi had sent a <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">r</em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">akhi </em>to Bhagat Singh in 1929 with a letter so full of patriotic feelings that Calcutta Hindi daily <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Swatantar</em> editor had to face sedition charges for publishing it.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">There are historic pictures in the book, but since the pnes published here are photocopied from Shiv Verma’s collection, which is now part of Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, New Delhi, their quality may not be so good.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In the memoirs section one can see almost every well-known revolutionary of those times, who were alive at the time of compiling this book. Beginning from Batukeshwar Dutt, this section includes names like Bejoy Kumar Sinha, Bhagwandas Mahaur, Jogesh Chatterjee, Vishawnath Vaishampayan, Durga Devi Vohra (Bhabhi), Shanno Devi, Satyavati, Subhadra Devi (Joshi?), Kamalnath Tiwari, Pandit Parmanand Jhansi, Banarsidas Chaturvedi, Sita Devi (wife of Principal Chhabil Das), Chaudhary Brahma Prakash(First Chief Minister of Delhi), Sucheta Kriplani (UP Chief Minister) Aruna Asaf Ali and few more.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Banarsidas Chaturvedi, an ex-MP and editor of many books on revolutionaries, had certified author/editor’s claim that Sushila Didi had told him about having many letters of Bhagat Singh that were taken away by some volunteer who did not return them, and she felt very anguished about that. Another interesting incident mentioned is that during Bhagat Singh’s stay in Calcutta after Saunders’ assassination, a torn and worn-out shirt was hanging outside the bathroom. Sushila took away that shirt and brought a new one. As Bhagat Singh returned and enquired about his shirt, in a bit of irritation, she told him that it had been confiscated and gave him a new shirt. She kept that shirt in her own cloth box.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sitaram Seksaria, an eminent Hindi protagonist of Calcutta, had mentioned that Sushila Didi helped collect funds for Chittagong revolutionaries also. Chhaju Ram Chaudhary’s daughter Savitri Devi, for whom Sushila Didi, was invited as guardian teacher, remembers her bringing an orphan child home and her mother Luxmi Devi (Mrs Chhaju Ram) bringing out that child during Sushila Didi’s underground period. Sushila had placed her younger sister Shanta as guardian teacher of Savitri Devi, after going underground. Luxmi Devi was so impressed by Sushila, that she had agreed to shelter Bhagat Singh without letting her husband know.</span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The volume is a good and authentic source of historical events of Bhagat Singh and his comrade’s life and actions, HSRA activities and of Sushila Didi’s role in all these activities. But it lacks good editing. A new edition of this</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimcPRxuEIdWserQsOcaEsVxyr9MYecq0xrNwTWxnUZxSOZrTgz3NiwdmBBkkQo7f4HTr5-27_IazCBZUwsNHlwArNCZK1SE3YmtZY7jjmbDsXKy7qNGS_-mSGYL0ub0i6qRUQHr5DqKMVgOXPoB45Scy7VnlFM-cKGKdZOGCGUAC7sZrB31s4BkLaVCw/s2000/IMG_20221128_191132~2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1450" data-original-width="2000" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimcPRxuEIdWserQsOcaEsVxyr9MYecq0xrNwTWxnUZxSOZrTgz3NiwdmBBkkQo7f4HTr5-27_IazCBZUwsNHlwArNCZK1SE3YmtZY7jjmbDsXKy7qNGS_-mSGYL0ub0i6qRUQHr5DqKMVgOXPoB45Scy7VnlFM-cKGKdZOGCGUAC7sZrB31s4BkLaVCw/s320/IMG_20221128_191132~2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5CqPbO1CuhUDIdpmi7ticfmCaftlkU7p1ntAifJbInhh4bf1mm3cfSERP--8_FkylHdGfte4FWe8V0XykIpjU3-fhlB3MxXw7Z-gpnGPd1m1i7T5Zye8fzheipYfWoP27n4OQviNtOCDcxZLbI5rrsOSjVh2jzoBmp03CkLFW5BdFFInBArlLY7AbUw/s2474/IMG_20221128_191005~2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2474" data-original-width="1580" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5CqPbO1CuhUDIdpmi7ticfmCaftlkU7p1ntAifJbInhh4bf1mm3cfSERP--8_FkylHdGfte4FWe8V0XykIpjU3-fhlB3MxXw7Z-gpnGPd1m1i7T5Zye8fzheipYfWoP27n4OQviNtOCDcxZLbI5rrsOSjVh2jzoBmp03CkLFW5BdFFInBArlLY7AbUw/s320/IMG_20221128_191005~2.jpg" width="204" /></a></div><br /> volume, more tightly edited, should be brought out, as an authentic source of revolutionaries' lives is more required in present circumstances of fake and mythical stories being spread as ‘history’ by certain sections of society.<p></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></span></p><p lang="en-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;" xml:lang="en-US"><strong style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The</em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> is a retired Professor from JNU and Honorary Advisor to Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, New Delhi. He </em>writes on some important books for Newsclick. <a href="mailto:Prof.chaman@gmail.com" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #003eff; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Prof.chaman@gmail.com</a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></strong></p></div></div></div></div></div><script type="text/javascript">
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</script>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-18525650722582063692022-10-09T22:50:00.002+05:302022-10-09T22:50:40.595+05:30Venezuelan Ambassador Coromoto Godary visit to Bhagat Singh Archives in Delhi<script type="text/javascript">
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text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzRkX0GcRd96buhYClJWPMFPurlBR9XopOqMNFvfmG9PvbLh-8s9dCu5WiWyqVbZcA9ABfQBgW8WH1JxMmC3w' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-32040205355125220032022-10-09T20:16:00.002+05:302022-10-09T20:16:46.651+05:30The Bolivian Dairies and Castro memoirs of Che Guevara<a href="https://www.newsclick.in/relook-book-bolivian-diaries-ernesto-che-guevara-che-a-memoir-fidel-castro" id="label" rel="bookmark" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;"><h1 style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #163c5a; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Relook at a Book: The Bolivian Diaries by Ernesto Che Guevara; Che – A Memoir by Fidel Castro</h1></a><div class="articleDetails" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: grid; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; grid-template-columns: 50% 50%; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; row-gap: 1em;"><div class="authorDetails" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #163c5a; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/author/chaman%20lal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">chaman lal</a> </span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">| </span><time style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">09 Oct 2022</time><div class="translated-by" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></div></div><div class="articleCategories" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right;"><ul class="field field--name-taxonomy-term field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field--items" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: flex; flex-flow: row-reverse wrap; gap: 1em 0.5em; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="field--item" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/Books" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: rgb(237, 237, 237); border-radius: 15px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 1.2em; text-decoration-line: none;">Books</a></li><li class="field--item" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/Politics" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: rgb(237, 237, 237); border-radius: 15px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 1.2em; text-decoration-line: none;">Politics</a></li><li class="field--item" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/International" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: rgb(237, 237, 237); border-radius: 15px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 1.2em; text-decoration-line: none;">International</a></li></ul></div></div><div class="articleIntro" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #515f67; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">On October 9, 1967, CIA operatives brutally killed Che Guevara. The Diaries record his last months, fighting in the Bolivian jungles. The Memoir has speeches by Castro after Che’s death.</div></div><div class="content" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; row-gap: 1em;"><div class="coverImage" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Relook at a Book: The Bolivian Diaries by Ernesto Che Guevara; Che – A Memoir by Fidel Castro" height="498" loading="lazy" src="https://www.newsclick.in/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_885/public/2022-10/TODAY%27S%20NEWS%20ROUNDUP%20%2872%29.png?itok=Aqi8-DZ0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="885" /></div></div></div></div><div class="bodyContent" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Bolivian Diaries-authorised edition, Ernesto Che Guevara, Introduction by Fidel Castro, Preface by Camilo Guevara, 1st ed. 2006, Ocean Press, Melbourne-New York, Pages 303, Indian price, Rs. 450</em></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">As one of the most important books of world revolutionary movements, this book is made up Che Guevara’s diary notes during his Bolivia mission. Beginning November 7, 1966, the diary has regular entries for 11 months, till October 7, 1967.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The next day, on October 8, 1967, Guevara was captured by the Bolivian army. He was murdered in cold blood on October 9.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Except for Cuba and its leader, Fidel Castro, and the world’s revolutionary movements, no bourgeois politician of the world expressed any sorrow or condemnation for the cruel treatment of a wounded Che and his murder at the behest of US imperialists and their lackey, Bolivian dictator Barrientos.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Che Guevara was at his marvellous best even during his one-day custody, bearing all the pain heroically and challenging his killers to shoot him.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Though the diary is not important in terms of any theoretical foundations, but it reveals, in a matter of fact manner, how selflessly and heroically Che Guevara led this most difficult mission of making revolution in Bolivia. How, despite his serious asthma problem, he left Cuba at a time when he was providing leadership in building socialism as Castro’s most trusted comrade; and how he worked in Bolivia, where most of the circumstances were hostile and conditions not favourable to advance the revolution.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">But Che was Che, he could not agree to Fidel’s assessment to wait for more favourable circumstances and ground preparation before he could join the forces there. And Castro was equally great, and kept his word to allow Che to leave the Cuban government and let him organise a Cuba-like revolution in the rest of Latin American countries, a dream nurtured by Simon Bolivar to create a revolutionary United States of South America.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Che wished to begin in his motherland, Argentina, but the conditions were not yet ripe there to lead such a movement. Bolivia was also not ripe yet, but the Cuban victory was a source of inspiration.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> In Cuba, the struggle had started with just 82 men on Granma, of which just 15-16 people survived. Yet, within two years, the 80,000-strong army of dictator Batista was defeated and the revolution was victorious on January 1, 1959.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Fidel Castro not only relieved Che to lead the revolution in Bolivia but he also provided men and arms, including many senior communist party cadres, who sacrificed their lives in the Bolivian mission, like Che.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Bolivian Diaries</em> has been edited meticulously. Apart from entries by Che, it includes rare photographs of that period, the editor’s brief note, maps of the area, including guerrilla zones, a glossary of people and terms/events, and five communiqués issued by the National Liberation Army (ELN) of Bolivia, fighting under the leadership of Che. The actual diary entries are covered in about 220 pages. A life sketch of Che is also there. </span></p><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="book" height="637" loading="lazy" src="https://www.newsclick.in/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_885/public/2022-10/book.PNG?itok=-O6bsejt" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="885" /></div></div><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Camilo Guevara, the eldest son of Che Guevara, has written a brief but moving preface. He observes that in the last entry on October 7, 1967, “there is not the slightest tone of discouragement, pessimism, or defeatism; on the contrary, these words seem to be a beginning, a prologue...”</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Camilo is sure that the enemies could have never captured Che, despite his wounded leg, broken rifle and no other weapon, except that he could not leave his other sick and wounded companeros. Camilo describes the scene on October 9 as well, when Che was murdered as the ‘order to murder him came from Washington’.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">He beautifully concludes that –“Without a trial, without a thought, the new man Che Guevara represented is killed. But what is born is a yearning for the new human being, who is neither an illusion nor a fantasy. A dream, dormant for many centuries takes shape: an ethical, virtuous selfless human being. This time stripped of all myth and mysticism; this person must be fundamentally human”.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Fidel Castro wrote an Introduction to the diary in 1968, when it was published for the first time in Spanish in Havana, and two lakh copies were circulated free to Cubans. In this introduction, Fidel narrates the story of acquiring the diary from the interior minister of Bolivia, who lost his job for this, and establishing its authenticity.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Introduction underlines the intense human character of Che and his immense bravery, it also exposes the brutalities of the Bolivian regime, which was a lackey of US imperialism and was playing a puppet’s role.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Castro also exposes the treachery of Mario Monje, secretary of the Bolivian Communist Party at that time, who ditched Che. Even the other group led by Oscar Zamora became a venomous critic of Che Guevara. Moises Guevara, the miners’ leader, joined the movement and sacrificed his life. Other comrades of Monje, like Inti and Coco Perado, also joined and proved their bravery, but Monje went to the extent of sabotaging the movement.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Che knew many peasants in Bolivia but was suspicious and cautious of their character. Despite so many difficulties, he and his comrades performed marvellous feats and the Bolivian army could succeed only on September 26, 1967 against Che’s detachment, after which this group could never overcome the damage.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Castro opines that never in history has so small a number of men set out for such a gigantic task. He has also highlighted the bravery of Che in fighting his last battle on October 8, trying to save two comrades and fighting on, even while he was wounded.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In La Paz, dictator Barrientos and defence chief Ovando decided to murder the captured Che. It was Che, who said firmly to his killer—‘Shoot! Don’t be afraid’. Still, the drunk killer could only shoot him in the side. Che’s agony in the last few hours of his life was very bitter, and Castro puts it aptly: “No person was better prepared than Che to be put to such a test”.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Castro reveals that Che’s diary was obtained without any payment and was published simultaneously in France, Italy, Germany, the US; and in Chile and Mexico in Spanish. He concludes with the famous slogan of Che- <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Hasta la victoria siempre</em>! (Ever Onward to Victory).</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The 25-page-long glossary gives details of almost all the people involved in this epic struggle on both sides. The first appendix refers to instructions to urban cadres, dated January 22, 1967, written by Che and Loyola Guzman, when she visited Che on January 26. According to this document’s reference, the National Liberation Army (ELN) was established in March 1967.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Che has given detailed instructions regarding all organisational aspects for the army, like supplies, finances, transport, and contact with sympathisers, etc. Other communiqués make it clear that ELN is the only responsible party for the armed struggle. In one entry, Che makes an impassioned plea to join ELN, as ‘we are restructuring the worker-peasant alliance that was broken by an anti-plebeian demagoguery.’ He is confident at this moment that ‘we are converting defeat into triumph.’</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The actual diary begins on November 7, 1966, with the inspiring first sentence: “Today begins a new phase...”. The diary has an interesting entry on November 12: “My hair is growing, although very sparsely, and the grey hair are turning blond, and beginning to disappear; my beard is returning. In a few months I will be myself again.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Che had entered Bolivia with a fake passport and he had shaved off his characteristic beard. He could not be recognised even by Castro and other comrades in Havana. Che also refers to the existence of 12 insurgents on November 27. He made it a point to write a review of each month’s events at the end of the month. November’s analysis records Che’s opinion: “Everything has gone well; my arrival was without incident and half of the troops have arrived, also without incident...”.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">On December 12, Che made certain appointments in the group, giving charge to various people. On December 31, an important meeting with Monje took place. Some understanding was reached, which was not followed by Monje later.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">On January 6, Che noted: “The importance of study is indispensable for the future”. In the analysis of the month, he notes with anguish: “As I expected, Monje’s position was at first evasive and then treacherous”. He notes with concern that the party (communist party) has taken up arms against us...” Che concluded ironically: “Of everything that was envisioned, the slowest has been the incorporation of Bolivian Combatants.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">February was not a very conducive month for the group. They had been walking ‘miles and miles’.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">On March 14, Che noted: “We heard parts of Fidel’s speech in which he makes blunt criticism of Venezuelan communists and harshly attacks the position of Soviet Union on Latin American puppets.” On March 17, he notes another loss for revolutionaries, as many crucial weapons on backpacks were lost in crossing a river.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">On March 23-24, they make gains, they capture weapons from the enemy and kill and arrest many. There is mention of French leftist Regis Debray visiting ELN. In the March 25 meeting of the group, the liberation army is given the name of National Liberation Army of the Bolivia, ELN in short.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Che notes in a detailed analysis of events in March: “The phase of consolidation and purging of the guerrilla force - fully completed”. He noted that the enemy was totally ineffective so far and he was trying to moblise peasants to isolate them.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In April, Che notes ‘total disaster’ on the 4th and ‘great tension’ on the 6th. April 11 records the radio news of a ‘new and bloody encounter’ with mention of nine dead from the army and four guerrillas. April 22 is noted for ‘making mistakes’, and 25th as a ‘bad day’ with the best guerrilla Rolando dying in ambush. The summary of April confirmed the death of Rubio and Rolando as a ‘severe blow’. The certainty of North America’s heavy intervention, which has already sent helicopters and Green Berets, is mentioned, but Che notes the morale of combatants as good.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">May Day is celebrated by clearing vegetation in the guerrilla camp. The diary noted Debray’s status as a journalist being rejected by dictator Barrientos, and his trial. The summary of May is worrisome -- Che notes total loss of contact with Manila (Cuba), La Paz and Joaquin (the other guerrilla group) of ELN, reducing the strength of the group to 25; complete failure to recruit peasants, though they now admire ELN. He notes that it is a slow and patient task.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In June, the 14th is mentioned as the birthday of Che’s youngest daughter, Celia, which is his own birthday as well, which he notes simply as: “I turned 39 (today) and am inevitably approaching the age when I need to consider my future as guerrilla, but for now I am still ‘in one piece’”.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Che notes on June 23 that ‘asthma is becoming a serious problem for me and there is very little medicine left’. In the ensuing days, it worsens. On June 29, he noted they were now 24 men. On 30th, Che notes that ‘Debray apparently talked more than was necessary’. In an analysis of the month, Che notes the total lack of contact, continued lack of peasant recruitment, lack of contact with the Bolivian communist party, Debray’s case and Che’s recognition as ‘the leader of the movement’. Che notes the urgent task of recruiting at least 50 to 100 men in the movement.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The very first day of July mentions Bolivian dictator Barrientos’s press conference terming the guerrillas as ‘rats and snakes’ and calling for wiping out Che Guevara and punishing Debray. Che’s deteriorating asthma is noted repeatedly.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">On July 14, Che noted with concern that the Bolivian “government is disintegrating rapidly. Such a pity that we do not have 100 more men right now.” On July 31, he wrote: “We are 22 men with two wounded, and me with full blown asthma”. The month’s analysis notes the total loss of contact continuing, lack of peasant recruitment continuing, guerrilla force becoming legendary, and the morale and combat experience of guerrilla force increasing with each battle.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">On August 2, Che noted: “My asthma is hitting me very hard and I have used up my last anti- asthmatic injection, all I have left are tablets for about ten days.’ On August 8, he makes a speech to his comrades and mentions the difficult situation, but noted: “This is one of those moments when great decisions have to be made, this type of struggle gives us the opportunity to become revolutionaries, the highest form of human species, and it also allows us to emerge fully as men.....”</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">August’s summary mentions the blow from loss of all the documents, medicines, loss of two men, one desertion (first one). The other features of the month remain the same, but the morale factor changes to ‘decline’, though Che hopes it to be ‘temporary’.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">September has much worse news as, after much confusion, it is confirmed that Tania has been killed. Mentioning 10th as a bad day, Che made a funny entry: “I forgot to mark an event: Today I took a bath after more than six months. This constitutes a record that several others are already approaching.” His 26th entry begins with the word ‘Defeat’, on 28th, the entry begins with the words ‘Day of anguish’.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The month’s summary is sad. Che now accepted: “We must consider Jouquin’s group wiped out, still hoping the report to be ‘exaggerated’ and ‘small group wandering around”. He mentions the bitter fact that the army is now more effective and peasants are becoming ‘informers’. Che underlines the most important task as ‘to escape and seek more favourable areas; then focus on contacts, despite the fact that our urban network in La Paz is in shambles, where we also have been hit hard.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The entry on October 3 is ironic: capture of two guerrillas, Antonio (Leo) and Orlando (Camba), both betray and give information. Debray is praised for his courageous stand in the trial. The last entry on October 7 begins as: “The 11 month anniversary of our establishment as guerrilla force passed in bucolic mood with no complications”. Che mentions that ‘the 17 of us set out under a slither of a moon, the march was exhausting, no nearby houses”.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Che’s last lines: "The army issued an odd report about the presence of 250 men in Serrano to block the escape of the 37 (guerrillas) that are said to be surrounded. Our refuge is supposedly between the Acero and Oro rivers. The report seems to be diversionary. Altitude=2000 meters”.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Bolivian Diary of Che Guevara</em> records the 11- month glorious struggle to liberate Bolivia from the crutches of dictator Barrientos and its brutal army working directly under US imperialists.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I took look at <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Motorcycle Diaries</em> and <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Bolivian Diary</em> of Che Guevara together, though the two diaries are entirely different in content and style, one can understand his marvellous and heroic character, which made him an icon of the international revolutionary movement in every part of the world. Wherever resistance movements have erupted after Che’s murder in 1967, his photographs/posters/souvenirs have been the most visible part of demonstrations/processions etc.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Che is an icon for the youth. One can see this from the conduct of Che’s life. <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Bolivian Diary </em>shows<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </em>how selfless and caring he was toward his comrades. How, despite his horrible asthmatic conditions, he suffered all the hardships of guerrilla life, walking 15-20 km a day, performing all the duties of a guerrilla, always full of optimism, even when things were going completely beyond control.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Che realistically analysed the weaknesses of the movement through his diary. He was an idealist, despite being a Marxist. Conditions were not ripe for him to go to Bolivia, which was the opinion of Fidel Castro also, but he was restless to go.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Che Guevara and Bhagat Singh-like personalities create role models for youth or struggling people by their complete selfless conduct. Che was probably hoping to create another Cuba with his 25 men or so, as in Cuba just 15-16 of them mobilised the whole of Cuba and defeated Batista.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">But Che underestimated the US's role after the Cuban revolution. It would not allow another Cuba in Latin America at any cost and that is what it did in Bolivia by killing Che and many Cuban revolutionaries in 1967. Yet, the saga of Che Guevara’s bravery and struggle has become a legend and inspiration for the liberation of humankind from all kinds of oppression.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Che could have been impulsive in Bolivia, but his sacrifice created a much more powerful Che for US imperialism, which can never be killed with bullets as it has become idea-personified. The life of Bhagat Singh, an icon in South Asia, has similar characteristics.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Che Guevara in the eyes of Fidel Castro</strong></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Che: A Memoir – by Fidel Castro, edited by David Deutschmann, Preface by Jesus Montane, National Book Agency, Calcutta, first Indian ed. 1994 [Original Ocean Press, Melbourne]. Rs. 100; Pages 168.</em></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I read for the second time, and it was worth reading again. It has life sketches of both Che Guevara and Fidel Castro in the beginning, followed by Che’s life’s chronology. After a preface by Jesus Montane Oropesa, there is an introduction by David. Then, in seven chapters, Castro’s writings or lectures relating to Che Guevara have been compiled, followed by a Post Script and a Glossary of persons and events.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It starts with Che Guevara’s farewell letter to Castro before proceeding to start revolutionary activities in Africa and Latin America. As Che was not seen in Havana, all kinds of rumours and scandals were spread by the bourgeois media and Castro made the letter public only when Che reached Bolivia in 1966 to participate in the armed struggle that finally led to his life being sacrificed in 1967.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Then there is a speech by Castro on Cuban television on October 15, 1967 to announce the death of Comrade Che. The third chapter includes his speech in front of a million people in Revolutionary Plaza, Havana, in a memorial meeting for Che. Chapter four includes Castro’s introduction to the Bolivian diaries of Che, which were published in 1968 after these were recovered from Bolivia.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Chapter five includes Castro’s speech in Chile, where he inaugurated the first statue of Che Guevara. Chapter six is Castro’s interview with Italian journalist Gianni Mina on the occasion of 20th anniversary of Che’s martyrdom in 1987 and the seventh and last chapter includes Castro’s speech on that occasion at electronic factory named after Ernesto Che Guevara in the city of Pinar del Rio.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It is difficult to take notes on this book - I may have to copy almost half of it. Suffice it to say that it is a very important book to understand both Che and Fidel. It confirms my earlier conviction that Che and Bhagat Singh have much in common. What has been aptly described by Castro in the context of Che is largely applicable to the personality of Bhagat Singh.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><strong style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Chaman Lal is retired Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and Honorary Advisor to Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre New Delhi. He can be contacted at <a href="mailto:prof.chaman@gmail.com" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 62, 255) !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">prof.chaman@gmail.com</a></span></span></em></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></strong></p></div></div></div><script type="text/javascript">
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</script>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-63117244284905337132022-10-09T19:09:00.004+05:302022-10-09T19:09:52.386+05:30Tania-Undercover for Che Guevara in Bolivia<div class="post-meta" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(217, 224, 230); color: #a1a9af; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; padding: 20px;"><h1 class="title" style="font-size: 40px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><br /></h1></div><div class="clearfix post-wrap post-83737 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-book-review tag-book-review" id="post-83737" style="color: #4c5155; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; padding: 20px; zoom: 1;"><div class="entry"><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="Tania" class="not-transparent aligncenter size-full wp-image-83738" data-dominant-color="754c49" data-has-transparency="false" height="509" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" src="https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Tania.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Tania.jpg 700w, https://cdn.countercurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Tania-300x218-jpg.webp 300w" style="--dominant-color: #754c49; background-clip: content-box, padding-box; border: 0px; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" title="Tania-Undercover for Che Guevara in Bolivia 1" width="700" /></p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Ulises Estrada, editor of Tricontinental, joined Cuban revolution from the very beginning as part of 26<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> July movement in 1953. He was part of Cuban liberation war 1957-59 and later worked with Che Guevara in many assignments including in Congo. He was close friend of Tania, fiancée in today’s terminology and they were supposed to marry after the success of Tania’s mission in Bolivia, which unfortunately resulted in her, Che Guevara and many more guerrillas’ assassination at the hands of Bolivian army. After their assassination, USA and western media vilified Che and Tania to demoralise revolutionary forces and to hid their own crimes behind smokescreen of this vilification. However Tania’s mother fought for the reputation of her daughter and got the vilifires convicted.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Tania’s real name was Haydee Tamara Bunke, she was born in Argentina from German communist couple, who have to go to Argentina to save themselves from Hitler’s fascism. Tamara was born on 19<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> November, 1937 and was martyred on 31<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">st</span> August 1967 in the jungles of Bolivia by Bolivian army, before completing even 30 years of her life.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">In 1970, Estrada with another writer has published-Tania-The Unforgettable Guerrilla. That time many things could not be made public, now in this expanded and exhaustive biography with lot of secret documents made public for the first time in Appendices, Tania’s heroism, bravery and sacrificing spirit comes to fore. Her letters, her personal account of life, all make this book more enriching.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">The book is rightly dedicated to Nadia Bunke, mother of Tamara-Tania, who knew Tamara had wanted to marry Estrada, ‘who treated me as her own son for more than 35 years’, in author’s words, who has written a detailed and touching dedication with the regret that Nadia Bunke would not be able to see the book, as he passed away before the publication of the book. Exhauvtine contents of the book include-Acknowldgements Preface by author, Prologue by editor-Luis Suarez and Tania’s biography in 14 chapters and 137 pages. There are 17 documents as Appendixes in Appendices, Notes, List of Acroynms and List of Aliases in further abut 2oo pages. One feature of Ocean publications missing in this book is Choronology, which is generally part of all books on Che and Castro, in case of Tania, that was even more necessary. But in totality, with nearly 30 rare photographs, makes the book a significant contribution to biographical literature.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">In Preface, Ulises Estrada narrates his intense personal relationship with Tamara, bunking the western sensalization of Tania-Che romantic liaison. Ulises aexplains that except for few companerosand Tania family, no body knew about this relationship till 1969, two years after the assassination of Tania. Only when the author collaborated in first book on Tania, author published Tania’s letter about their relationship to her mother. After that Tania’s mother identified the “negrito” (Afro-Cuban), whom Tania dreamt of marrying and producing many “mulatito” (kids).</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">As per the author Che and Tania were discredited for political objectives or profit motives by many writers like French Pierre Kalfon, Mexican intellectual Jorge Castaneda. Later in last chapter of the book, author detailed how West German publisher in 1997 published the libel by Uruguyan writer Jose A. Friedl Zapata under title- ‘Tania the woman-Che Guevara Loved’. Nadia at 81 years of age dragged the publisher to the court and won the case by getting 14 defamations removed from the book in 1998 and also getting him fined. There were many more in the west, who through their cheap sensational writings had vilified the revolutionary spirit of the two great revolutionaries of the world. But it is not new phenomenon. Karl Marx was described as ‘Red bandit’ and all communist leaders have been vilified, US has vilified and continue till now to vilify Fidel Castro.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">In Prologue Luis Suatez has mentioned Tania was denigrated by some intellectuals in pay roll of ruling classes in US, Europe and Latin America by describing her as ‘femme fatale’, who had ‘useless sacrifice’ for “her secret and sordid extramarital affair with Che.” She was also described as ‘Triple Agent for Cuba, East Germany and KGB of ex Soviet Union. These villifiers described Che Guevara also as ‘seeking death’, because of his differences with Cuban leadership. All these lies have been bunked with documents bow being published from Cuba, putting an egg on the faces of these so called ‘intellectuals’ and ‘writers’ holding rabid anti communist views. On the contrary great writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez have upheld Cuban revolution and its heroic leaders, including Fidel and Che Guevara.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Chapter 1-Historical context</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">In this introductory chapter Ulises has explaned Che’s plans to expand liberation guerrilla struggles to other parts of the world as true internationalist. First they tried in Congo, where popular freedom fighter and Prime Minister Patric Lumumba was brutally assassinated by CIA in 1964. There were dictators in Haiti, Nicaragua like places. Ulises has travelled with Che secretly to Congo through Tanzania; stayed clandsinely in Prague.Che spoke of his best relations with Fidel and Raul during those days. These days in these preparations writer got linked to Tamara, who had come to Havana.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Chapter 2- Operation Fantasma</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Tamara was mentioned by Pineoro for the operation recommended by Che.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Chapter 3.The Tania Case-</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Tamara born in Argentina, came to East Germany with her parents when 14 years old and joined youth organisation, visited Soviet Union as youth delegation, heard about Cuban struggle, well informed about war in Sierra Maestra and demonstrated solidarity. In 1959, she acted as interpretor for Che Guevara, when he visted East Germany. She became enthused to come to Cuba and finally arrived in 1961, at 24 years. Worked as interpretor/translator, associated with ‘Assocation of Young Rebels’ turned into ‘Union of Young Communists’ (UJC), on 4<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> April 1962… Tamara highly educated, knew many languages-German, French, Spanish, and English, well versed in music and literature, and studied philosophy at Humboldt University. She was working with Sandanista, planned to fight in Nicaragua. Che interviewed for mission in Bolivia and she end up by saying-I will not betray this trust while I am alive and breathing’-Page 29</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Chapter 4-Operational Training in Cuba-</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Tamara worked with Ulises during training period and they came close, though violating revolutionary code of not being personally close. Tania sung Argentine folk songs, played Guitar</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Chapter 5-Preparing for Latin America-</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Che told her about her mission in Bolivia and to take up legal residency there.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Chapter 6-Tania and Ulises-</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Author honestly tells that ‘we both knew that our relationship was forbidden in clandestine work, but we also knew that we could no longer retrain ourselves. We were convinced of the purity of our feeling and that these would not affect our professional relationship’-Page 56. Ulyses shared with his senior comrade Diosdado, Tamara shared with her parents by writing to her mother on 11<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> April 1964 from Prague. Writer knew about this letter only when he joined Marta Rojas and Mirta Rodriguez Caldron in writing the book-Tania: the Unforgettable Guerrilla, published in 1970, where this letter was published. Ulises divorced his wife and remarried years after Tania were killed. Ulises Writes longingly: ‘i have to confess that she still remains alive within me. Not just as Tania, but also as Haydee Tamara Bunke Bider, the exceptional woman, compenera, and friend I once loved with all my heart.’-Page 59</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Chapter 7-Failed Cover</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Tania was sent ot Prague for further training, but this time Diosdado was assigned the task to train her, writer was heart broken, he also felt it as punishment for breaking the rules. Diosdado sent positive reports about Tania’s progress.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Chapter 8- The Birth of Laura Gutierrez Bauer</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Tania was first planned as Italian cover Vittoria Pancini, which was dropped due to language deficiency and other practical problems.This time it was planned as Argentine woman, she was well versed with country and language. There have been funny instances of Tania-Diosdado stay in Prague. Tania always made Diosdado read her letters to her parents, even to Ulises, despite his reluctance to do so.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Chapter 9 Tania’s first year in Bolivia</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Riding aa mule, Tania entered Bolivian border from Peru on 17<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> November 1964. Got into touch with all high and mighty in that society, through showing her interest in Folk lore and met painters, writers, journalists, once even had dinner with dictator Barrientos, with a ‘friend’. Her network included intellectuals, professionals, politicians of right wing; she always projected her as anti communist. For legal residency, she even married an enginnering student Mario Martinez Alvarez, who helped her in exit procedures, she had new passport now, travelled to Brazil as translator. Comrade Mercy sent a positive report about her.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Chapter 10-An encounter with Ariel-Tania came to Mexico from Brazil in 1966 to meet Cuban officer. Che was clandestinely working from Cuban embassy in Tanzania. Tania did not know that Che was behind her selection for the mission and he had been involved in Operation Fantasma, which determnined the following years of Tania’s life, her sacrifice, and her transformation into Tania the Guerrilla.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Chapter 11- Reunion with Che-</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Che checked about Tania’s well being and about her marriage, whether it was with her free will. In 1966, as planned earlier, Tania got divorce from her husband, but helped him in his training in Bulgaria by arranging scholasrship for him. Che arrived in La paz on a passport of business person with Uruguyan passport as Adolfo Mena Gonzalez. Che probable met Tania on 4<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> November. Tania arranged for Che travel documents to travel the whole of Bolivia. The letter present to Sr. Adolfo mena mentions ‘special envoy of OAS to research on economic and social situation in Bolivarian countryside’, recommending all possible cooperation for research from all national and private institutions. Page 107</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">On November 20-19<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> December she brought ranch to jungles, not supposed to do then she accompanied Mario Munje, Bolivian cp leader on 31<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">st</span> December 1966 crucial meeting, disagreed, tense. Bolivian Communist party inside Moscow line and Peking line, Monje Moscow line. Che predicted ‘difficult time’ ahead and announced to work for ‘the unity of all those who want a revolution’. Tania later visited Argentina to arrange Che’s liasions with revolutionary support. AS PER WRITER TANIA FOLLOWED DIRECT INSTRUCTIONS OF Che from 2<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">nd</span> January 1967 to 19<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> March 1967. Tania brought Regis Debray and Ciro Roberto Bustos, both now ‘regret’ to committement to revolution. Che criticised Tania for being there, as two Bolivians deserted and difficult situation developed.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Chapter 12-Tania the Guerrilla-</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">23<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">rd</span> March 1967, first encounter with army-25<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> March Bolivian ELN, liberation front announced in meeting of 43 Bolivian, Cuban and Peruvian combatants. On 27<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> March, situation worsened. On 31<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">st</span> March Tania given M-1 rifle and became combatant. She had fever of 102 and Che attached her to Cuban Joaquin’s command on 17<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> April, where she remained till 31<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">st</span> ambush by army, in which ten of the combatants were killed by army. Tania fought, falling with bullets in river, body found after aweek on 7<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> September. Bolivian peasant Honorato Rojas betrayed and led army to ambush gurrellis. 35 members of army killed 7 of 10 member Joaquin’s column combatants. Che‘s impression of Rojas on 10<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> February was ‘a potentially dangerous man’.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">On 8<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> October Che ambushed, killed brutally on 9<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> October. With that out of 49 Cuban, Peruvian, Bolivian, majority of guerrillas killed.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Chapter 13-Return to Cuba</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Officially death of Tania declared on 7<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> September, people wanted her body to be treated with respect, but army officer cruel. For pubilicity stunt Bolivian dictator Barrientos photographed with Tania corpse on 10<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> September, saying he ordered burial of Laura G baeur, Argentine woman with Tania alias ‘with military honour’. But Christian burial was given to Tania due to pressure of women of area Vallegrande. But no one knew the remains later till 1997, when President Lozada has to order investigation.On 28<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> June 1997, Che’s remains discovered and buried with honour in Santa Clara on October 8, 1997 on 30<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> death anniversary of Che. Tania’s remains found on 19<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> September 1998, brought to Cuba in December 1998.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Chapter 14-‘My Little Ita’</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">On 29<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> December 1998, Tania’s remains interned in Santa Clara alongwith Che and other guerrillas in presence of her mother Nadia Bunke. Nadia died in 2003, her deepest feeling expressed in her ‘little ita’, an autobiographical note- They came to Argentina in 1935.Erich got job as teacher, had two children-Tamara and boy Olaf, pet name Tamarita, she too little say ita, she signed as Ita, happy optimist, energetic, tireless, vibrant, romantic, liked Argentine folk songs and folk music, attached to Latin America. Ulises assures Nadia and Erich that ‘Tania is and will always be alive among us’-Page 144.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Appendices</p><ol style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-position: inside; margin: 0px 0px 14px 14px; padding: 0px;"><li style="list-style-position: inside; list-style-type: decimal;">Personal Records prepared for the Tania case –Secret</li></ol><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Tamara Bunke wrote this autobiographical note in preparation for her new identity as Tania.-</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Born in Buenos Aires, parents Communist, anti fascists, helped Jew refuegees, returned to Germany in1952, settled in Stalinstad, arrived in Cuba on 12<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> May 1961</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Appendix 2-Tania’a Operational Plan for the Cienufegos Practical exercise</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Secret-Havana-12<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> February 1964</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Appendix 3-Tania’s report on the Cienfuegos Exercises-</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Only Copy-Secret</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">To Ulises-Tania’s report on work from 21<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">st</span> Feb. To 1<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">st</span> March 1964</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Appendix 4- Tania’s Message from Prague after her first trip to Western Europe</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">To: MOE from Bolivar</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Secret message 3</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Appendix 5-Tania’s message from Prague before her second trip to West Germany</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Secret To: MOE meant for Ulises Estrada</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Appendix 6-The Laura Guetierrez bauer Cover Story</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">July 25, 1964</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Top Secret</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">To M1 Copy 1- From MOE page 1</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Appendix 7- Message to Mercy from HQ regarding Future contact with Tania in Bolivia</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Mercy Message 5, November 1965, start</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Appendix 8- Mercy’s report on contact with Tania in Bolivia and Brazil-To MOE From Mercy Report on the various contacts made between 7 January and the last days of March 1966</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Appendix 9-Tania’s oral report on her first year of work in Bolivia given to Ariel on 16<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> April 1966 in Mexico</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Appendix 10 Document Denying Tania’s link to Stasi-GDR agency-1997</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Appendix 11- Document denyingTania’s link to KGB</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Russian Fedration –Dec. 5, 1997</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Appendix 12-Document denying Tania’s link to Soviet intelligence -1997</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Appendix 13- My Battle for Truth-An interview with Nadia Gunke</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Interview by Chritoph Wiesner, published on 7-8 March 1998, in Junge Welt</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">There are many groups and institutions that are named after Tamara Bunke or Tania in Cuba, also in Bolivia, lot of children are named Tania or Ernesto</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Appendix 14-Nadia Bunke’s letter to Fidel Castro on Tania’s remains be buried in Cuba-25<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> December 1995</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Appendix 15-Fidel Castro’s Reply to Nadia Bunke-1<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">st</span> April 1996</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Apendix 16-Fidel Castro’s speech at the burial of the remains of Che Guevara and his Companeros-Santa Clara-17<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> October 1997</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">I see Che as a moral giant who grows with each passing day, whose image, strength, and influence have multiplied throughout the earth.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Che was a true Communist and is today an example and a paradigm of the revolutionary and the communist, -Page 285</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Che is taking up and winning more battles than ever.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">This land is your land, these people are your people, and this revolution is your revolution. We continue to fly socialist banner with honor and pride-page 287</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Appendix 17- Ramiro Valdes’s speech at the Burial of the remains of Tania and others internationalist combatants-30<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> December 1998</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Tania, she filled a glorious page in the history of Che’s actions in Bolivia, giving her life in hostile environment, side by side with other Bolivian, Peruvian and Cuban Companeros</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Welcomt Tania, immortal example of a woman and a communist-page 293-Socialism or death, homeland or death, we shall overcome</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Notes</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Patrice Lumumba founded Congo on 30th June 1960, assassinated on 17<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> January 1961 Mobutu Seiku became dictator and was overthrown in 1997 by Laurent Kabila, with whom Che had differences</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">Ciro Bustos drew sketches for army and US services, confirming Che’s presence in Bolivia.</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;">A well written book and an apt tribute to Tania!</p><p style="font-family: sintony, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">Chaman Lal</span>,Honorary Advisor, Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, Delhi Archives, New Delhi</p></div></div><script type="text/javascript">
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</script>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-4253488519907506242022-09-28T16:39:00.000+05:302022-09-28T16:39:00.357+05:30Anarkant Jttu book-Walking with Bhagat Singh<a href="https://www.newsclick.in/book-review-bhagat-singh-lamp-reason-ceased-burn" id="label" rel="bookmark" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;"><h1 style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #163c5a; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Book Review: Bhagat Singh – The ‘Lamp of Reason’ That ‘Ceased to Burn’</h1></a><div class="articleDetails" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: grid; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; grid-template-columns: 50% 50%; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; row-gap: 1em;"><div class="authorDetails" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #163c5a; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/author/Chaman%20Lal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Chaman Lal</a> </span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">| </span><time style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">28 Sep 2022</time><div class="translated-by" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></div></div><div class="articleCategories" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right;"><ul class="field field--name-taxonomy-term field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field--items" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: flex; flex-flow: row-reverse wrap; gap: 1em 0.5em; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="field--item" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/Politics" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: rgb(237, 237, 237); border-radius: 15px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 1.2em; text-decoration-line: none;">Politics</a></li><li class="field--item" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/India" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: rgb(237, 237, 237); border-radius: 15px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 1.2em; text-decoration-line: none;">India</a></li></ul></div></div><div class="articleIntro" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #515f67; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">On the revolutionary’ s birthday on Sept 28, Amar Kany Jttu’s book ‘Walking With Bhagat Singh’ focuses on his ideas and role in the Indian freedom struggle and interprets his thoughts in Marxist tradition.</div></div><div class="content" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; row-gap: 1em;"><div class="coverImage" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Book Review: Bhagat Singh – The ‘Lamp of Reason’ That ‘Ceased to Burn’" height="498" loading="lazy" src="https://www.newsclick.in/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_885/public/2022-09/TODAY%27S%20NEWS%20ROUNDUP%20%2839%29%20%281%29.png?itok=atoH9JBj" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="885" /></div></div></div></div><div class="bodyContent" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">There has hardly been a time when books or other publications on Bhagat Singh were not being written. This began in 1929 when publications on Bhagat Singh became the target of British colonial proscriptions. By now more than 600 books have appeared on Bhagat Singh in nearly 20 Indian and foreign languages. While many books are based on romantic tales of his life, few books focus on his ideas and role in the Indian freedom struggle. Amar Kant Jttu's book, <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Walking With Bhagat Singh Soon After Independence</em>, is one such book that focuses on his revolutionary ideas and interprets his thoughts in the Marxist tradition.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">The book was published just before the onset of COVID in 2019. The cover has a handsome hat-wearing photograph of Bhagat Singh, and what attracts the attention of the reader, is a couplet from a poem by Russian poet NA Nekrasov written in memory of Dobrolyubov, the pre-socialist revolution Russian materialist philosopher who died almost at the same age as Bhagat Singh, at 24 years.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">The couplet is:</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">Oh, what a lamp of reason ceased to burn,</span></em></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">Oh, what a heart then ceased to throb!</span></em></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">This is not only a most appropriate poetic manner of describing Bhagat Singh’s personality, it also brings to mind Friedrich Engels’s tribute to Karl Marx at the time of his burial in London, that "the greatest living thinker ceased to think!"</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">That the writer Amar Kant Jttu, a retired public relations officer of the Punjab government, wrote this book at the age of 90+ years shows what a magical effect Bhagat Singh has on people; that age is no bar from getting inspired by his personality. Perhaps, it is the other way round, it inspires people to stay young at least mentally, if not physically, as he is ever a young icon of the revolution. The only other such icon is Che Guevara.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">Apart from his mother, father, and grandfather, the author has dedicated the book to the revolutionaries fighting for the establishment of ‘scientific socialism in the world!’ The dedication itself shows the expectations of the author, which are idealist in present circumstances.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">The book is divided into 40 small chapters but begins with a short piece from ‘The Roll of Honour’, published long ago by Kali Charan Ghosh, a directory of Indian revolutionaries. Its title is 'Glorious Deeds or Revolutionaries: The Salt of History'. Further, there is Bhagat Singh’s March 20 1931 letter to the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab with the title ‘The War Shall Continue'. Then come acknowledgments in which the author expresses his gratitude to authors like Howard Zinn and Eduardo Galeano whose writings like <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Peoples History of the United States</em> and <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Open Veins of Latin America</em> inspired him to write this book. He is also inspired by authors like Suniti Kumar Ghosh, Rajni Palme Dutt, and Ashok Mitra, and their books and <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Monthly Review</em> journals.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">Before his ‘Introduction’, the author has included four short prefaces by his kin and friends, which perhaps is a sort of thanksgiving for supporting or fulfilling his desire of writing this book at a late age.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">In his introduction to the book, Jttu has claimed that this book is an effort to critically analyse the three most popular icons of the freedom struggle of India-- Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Bhagat Singh -- from the prism of revolutionaries. The author thinks all three to be geniuses but opines that Gandhi and Nehru are superabundantly glorified, whereas Bhagat Singh has not been given his due. The author has taken up the task to undo this imbalance and put Bhagat Singh as a more important figure than these two icons. He has also referred to some earlier books like those of Manmathnath Gupta and Hans Raj Rehbar. He clearly states in his introduction that Bhagat Singh’s ideology was Scientific Socialism. In the next 40 chapters, Jttu tries to prove his point.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">In the very first chapter - 'Tracking down Bhagat Singh and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru' -- Jttu comes down rather heavily on the ‘duplicity’ of Nehru, when he refers to him as General Secretary of Congress in 1929 and publishes Bhagat Singh and BK Dutt’s June 6 Court statement in the sessions court of Delhi in ‘The Congress Bulletin’, which was widely appreciated. Incidentally, this statement in full was carried by every major daily of that time and one paper, <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pioneer,</em> even carried a version, some parts of which were objected to and not taken on record by the sessions judge concerned.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">Mahatma Gandhi objected to its publication in the Congress bulletin and as per Jttu, Nehru apologised: "I am sorry you disapproved of my giving Bhagat Singh and Dutt’s statement in the Congress Bulletin. I was a little doubtful as to whether I should give it, but when I found there was a very general appreciation of it among Congress circles, I decided to give extracts. It was difficult, however, to pick and choose and gradually most of it went in. But I agree with you that it was somewhat out of place. I think you are mistaken that the statement was the work of their counsel (Asaf Ali). My information is that the council had nothing or practically nothing to do with it. He might have touched the punctuation. I think the statement was undoubtedly a genuine thing."</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">Apart from the description of it as the ‘duplicity’ of Nehru, it is interesting that well-known historian VN Datta in his book ‘<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Gandhi and Bhagat Singh’</em> has described this statement to be authored by Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru himself has gone with the version of Asaf Ali when the sessions judge had questioned accused Bhagat Singh and Dutt’s competence in English to pen down such statement, to which Asaf Ali had responded what Nehru had quoted that "I may have touched upon punctuation here and there, but I had submitted what my clients had handed me over to this court’. Asaf Ali wrote this in his memoir later about this case.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">Jttu has described in this statement and later on in the same case to the High Court in appeal in July 1929, as "phenomenal brilliance of Bhagat Singh."</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">Incidentally, Bhagat Singh, in both the Delhi Assembly bomb case and the Lahore Conspiracy case, had chosen to argue his case and accepted only legal counsel to help prepare his defence. Asaf Ali represented BK Dutt in legal terms in the High Court and was only a legal counsel to Bhagat Singh, who did not agree with Asaf Ali's approach of denying the act of revolutionaries to defend themselves legally.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">Bhagat Singh later objected to Asaf Ali’s arguments in defence of Hari Kishan, contesting Asaf Ali denying the revolutionary act of Hari Kishan to save him. Bhagat Singh, in his two letters from Lahore Jail, one of which was even ‘lost’ (as Bhagat Singh himself referred to his ‘lost’ letter in the second letter), emphasised owning up to the revolutionary act and asserting the reasons for the act. (This author edited <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Bhagat Singh Reader</em>, pages 78-85, Harper Collins India). It is also a fact that most, rather all of the statements on behalf of Dutt or other revolutionaries from Lahore jail were drafted by Bhagat Singh, some of these statements are available in Bhagat Singh’s own recognised handwriting.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">Jttu refers to Nehru’s <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">An Autobiography</em> ,first published in 1936, where on pages-174-76, Nehru discusses their amazing popularity as "he became a symbol to vindicate the honour of Lala Lajpat Rai and through him of the nation". Jttu later refers to Nehru’s ‘<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Glimpses of World History’</em>, in which he refers to Karl Marx and Lenin, but not Bhagat Singh and Indian revolutionaries in world history.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">As per Jttu, Gandhi began his political life in India in 1915 as a British loyalist. He quotes Gandhi himself to buttress his argument. He quotes for the April 25, 1915 dinner speech at Madras, in which Gandhi pledged loyalty to the British empire. The source of this speech is the <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi</em> volume 13, pages 59-60. For enlisting into the army to fight in World War 1, Gandhi was awarded the title of ‘Kaiser-e-Hind'.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">As per Jttu, the poor Indian recruits were used as ‘cannon fodder’ in the service of the British empire. He claims that before the <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Kaiser-e-Hind</em> medal, Gandhi was also awarded Boer and Zulu medals during his South African stay. The author claims that Gandhi did not return these medals as Rabindranath Tagore had renounced his knighthood in protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">Perhaps Jttu’s claim is unverified. Gandhi did return his <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Kaiser-e- Hind</em> medal in 1920 during the non-cooperation movement and in support of the Khilafat movement, but Sarojini Naidu, also the recipient of the <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Kaiser –e-Hind </em>medal returned her medal in protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, like Tagore did.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">The author is very critical of Gandhi, especially his support to the British colonial regime in suppressing Garhwali Rifles led by Chandra Singh Garhwali, who had refused to fire at peaceful protesters of the 1930 non-cooperation movement at Peshawar and the 1946 Royal Indian Navy revolt.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">Jttu also described the March 5, 1931 Gandhi-Irwin Pact, which did not take into account the release or commutation of the death sentence of revolutionaries and only sought the release of Congress party protestors as ‘Surrender Pact’. Nehru himself had described the irony of the situation that ‘when talks will be held with British rulers--the dead bodies of Bhagat Singh revolutionaries will be staring us’ (Not exact words, but the spirit of phrase).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">Jttu acknowledges in a whole chapter devoted to the issue –‘Was Mahatma Gandhi duty bound to save Bhagat Singh? And that Mahatma Gandhi did take up the issue of execution of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev many times with Lord Irwin, but Jttu’s grouse is that he was never very serious about it.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">Both Bhagat Singh and Gandhi had different political perspectives and it is unfair to say, as people generally say, that Gandhi was powerful enough to save Bhagat Singh’s life. The British colonial regime was determined to hang Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev through a sham trial, as it feared the Bolshevik socialist perspective gaining ground in case Bhagat Singh was allowed to live. Probably, Gandhi faltered in not asserting his principled moral position of being anti-capital punishment, for Bhagat Singh or anyone else.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">In several chapters author, Jttu narrates the factual story of Naujawan Bharat Sabha and Hindustan Socialist Republican Association/Army (HSRA), the organisations created by Bhagat Singh along with his other comrades, which are the strength of the book. The story of the Simon Commission, the killing of Lala Lajpat Rai, the assassination of Saunders, bombs in Central Assembly, Delhi, subsequent trials and court statements of Bhagat Singh, epoch-making hunger strikes in jail, and fearlessly kissing the gallows-- have all been described factually but with passion. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">The conclusion of the author is in the chapter titled ‘Bhagat Singh was True Marxist’. In support of his conclusion, Jttu has included some of the major ideological writings of Bhagat Singh such as ‘Letter to Young Political Workers’, 'Court Statements', 'Why I am an Atheist', and March 20, 1931 letter to Lieutenant Governor Punjab- 'The War Shall Continue' -- and an ample number of quotations from ‘Jail Notebook’ as well as from other writings.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">While everyone may not agree with the arguments of Jttu, especially about Gandhi and Nehru, it goes to the author's credit that he directly quotes Gandhi and Nehru to build his arguments. His interpretation can be contested based on some other writings of Gandhi and Nehru, but the author cannot be blamed for misquoting them. He had, after all, in the beginning, accepted Gandhi, Nehru, and Bhagat Singh - -all three as geniuses. For Jttu, Bhagat Singh was a bigger genius than the other too. One can disagree with him, but he has the right to have his opinion.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">Jttu, Amar Kant, Walking with Bhagat Singh: Soon after Independence, Delhi, Aakar Books, 2019, Pages 320, Rs 595.</span></em></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">The author is Former Dean, Faculty of Languages, Panjab University Chandigarh and Honorary Advisor, Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre.</span></em></strong></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p></div></div></div><script type="text/javascript">
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</script>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-80047013933327776682022-09-01T17:30:00.000+05:302022-09-01T17:30:14.807+05:30Letter to Punjab and Delhi CM's regarding Bhagat Singh<div>In media</div><div>https://www.timesnownews.com/education/provide-books-on-bhagat-singh-to-schools-colleges-in-delhi-and-punjab-professor-chaman-lal-article-93847619?fbclid=IwAR3-UWUcfI_hI12M8hqt0Ed-s4EsS0yUpokDpiUvSUsYHrvTJN9nb-mWtcY</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjcB_KXLtKj2RGd1Qq62w3LaMBuzCP_yYFDgqGevUw9q3IHYOzwuGPzdNFgm2IKBxWqbELlohf8NRzGx6TlGv6c7q5xtO9Laf1m6Urs0ykYObkFuzLSLfKt6_E_YQeE8PPUXTQMD95eqY2GqXkZJkVpcLZe1VVZf4HZYJwHE6vIxI3fNJvzTB7IJXx81g" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1099" data-original-width="1080" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjcB_KXLtKj2RGd1Qq62w3LaMBuzCP_yYFDgqGevUw9q3IHYOzwuGPzdNFgm2IKBxWqbELlohf8NRzGx6TlGv6c7q5xtO9Laf1m6Urs0ykYObkFuzLSLfKt6_E_YQeE8PPUXTQMD95eqY2GqXkZJkVpcLZe1VVZf4HZYJwHE6vIxI3fNJvzTB7IJXx81g" width="236" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/chandigarh-news/provide-books-on-bhagat-singh-to-schools-colleges-in-delhi-punjab-chaman-lal-to-cms-101661719704102.html?fbclid=IwAR3lwIp_ZN0G5kk6LfzxqjsEtWgZlxnYSG4KUYhGfe3ypzAmDrzRvKcj3qo</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWz6SiEexGFqzMlrLg9hGXMEH2wnDPxG5maOISs8mIdt1HGnnsidb5tCpGRAW5ZeGG4QJhrpV67D23mv-A06ttGroEXZRH9wDyJ4GxTrBboJzjXYZ7cmc9Xy0TBHl7jghXyyhSP8f0ByRG5H2acrwTlKG-iOLZm-6uSltqdXPgignIvIfUSWNHrT5-2g" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="618" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWz6SiEexGFqzMlrLg9hGXMEH2wnDPxG5maOISs8mIdt1HGnnsidb5tCpGRAW5ZeGG4QJhrpV67D23mv-A06ttGroEXZRH9wDyJ4GxTrBboJzjXYZ7cmc9Xy0TBHl7jghXyyhSP8f0ByRG5H2acrwTlKG-iOLZm-6uSltqdXPgignIvIfUSWNHrT5-2g" width="242" /></a></div><br />https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/ht-this-day-july-10-1929-bhagat-singh-s-hunger-strike-101657025520394.html</div><div><br /></div><div>https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/historian-urges-delhi-punjab-to-secure-bhagat-singhs-files-from-pakistan/article65818137.ece?fbclid=IwAR0SMW9A24ti51zO0kCrxWhcYCvwZBnu44flCITtGEHaZw88GrUY9FHrGIE</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg6B8XXAaL7RxZRqya_qMHHG1c-AHolQyPxSX0HckWdzYe5d2erpwYrUvXX6cONRigEsGnJouG4TCE9GF_78H41DB89Mu6PJ-mb02WFc47OPy9mOpw97KWhOO2mGRjt9q_o3XUGj3O_-kDJmP0C0pOFNaZPNy4s1tXr_iT2rDsIe3IB7A24N4SwvuIDXA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1958" data-original-width="1706" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg6B8XXAaL7RxZRqya_qMHHG1c-AHolQyPxSX0HckWdzYe5d2erpwYrUvXX6cONRigEsGnJouG4TCE9GF_78H41DB89Mu6PJ-mb02WFc47OPy9mOpw97KWhOO2mGRjt9q_o3XUGj3O_-kDJmP0C0pOFNaZPNy4s1tXr_iT2rDsIe3IB7A24N4SwvuIDXA" width="209" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>https://www.babushahi.com/punjabi/full-news.php?id=171919</div><div><br /></div><div>https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/fact-check-khatkar-kalan-is-bhagat-singhs-ancestral-village-but-he-never-lived-there/2469100/?utm_source=newsstand&utm_medium=Referral</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><br /></div><div><br /></div>The text of the Letter<script type="text/javascript">
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</script><div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif;">Sh. Bhagwant Mann <wbr></wbr> Sh. Arvind Kejriwal</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif;">Hon’ble Chief Minister Punjab <wbr></wbr> Hon’ble Chief Minister Delhi</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif;"> <wbr></wbr> <wbr></wbr> Sh. Manish Sisodia</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif;"> <wbr></wbr> <wbr></wbr> Hon’ble Deputy CM, Delhi </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Subject: Some recommendations regarding Shaheed Bhagat Singh</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Honorable Chief Ministers and Deputy CM,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> As Honorable advisor to Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, Delhi Archives, New Delhi, I have some common suggestions for Punjab and Delhi Governments, which have adopted Shaheed Bhagat Singh and Dr. Ambedkar as official icons of the two governments.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">1.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre was inaugurated on 23<sup>rd</sup> March 2018 in Delhi Archives complex by Delhi Govt. Minister Sh. Gopal Rai. Same day the renovated Bhagat Singh Museum in Khatkar Kalan was also inaugurated by then Punjab Government.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">2.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">While Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre (BSARC) Delhi has an advisory committee led by Sh. Manish Sisodia, Deputy CM Delhi. Shaheed Bhagat Singh Museum in Khatkar Kalan has no such committee as the family members of Bhagat Singh, who had gifted their ancestral haveli and property to Punjab Government probably did not ask for it. But it would be good to have an advisory committee including some family members of Bhagat Singh and some scholars studying Bhagat Singh role in freedom struggle, should be included in that committee, which may be led by Hon’ble CM, Punjab. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">3.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">BSARC in Delhi Archives and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Museum in Khatkar Kalan should have interactive relations with each other.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">4.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Since the painting of Shaheed Bhagat Singh which is being used in Delhi and Punjab Government offices was got made during the time of Punjab Chief Minister Giani Zail Singh, grand uncle of present Speaker of Punjab Assembly Sh. Kulwant Singh Sandhwan, for which artist Amar Singh was honored by then Punjab Governor B D Pandey. (Photograph attached courtesy London based Punjabi poet Amarjit Chandan) . S. Tarlochan Singh former MP and OSD to Giani Zail Singh at that time, can confirm this fact. It is appropriate to acknowledge the artist Amar Singh in this regard and his initials at the painting should be highlighted from the original painting, which should be in Raj Bhavan or some other office of the Punjab Government. The original painting must be recovered from Punjab Government records and preserved as master copy for making the bulk photographs now in use in Punjab and Delhi offices.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">5.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Universities in Delhi and Punjab should be named after Shaheed Bhagat Singh to inspire the young students towards ideas and patriotism of Bhagat Singh. Central University of Punjab should be named on Shaheed Bhagat Singh Central University of Punjab, Bathinda and in Delhi, out of three unnamed Universities, one should be named on the name of Shaheed Bhagat Singh.</span></p><ol start="6" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In Punjab, the last Government named sports University on the name of Bhupindra Singh, who was pro-British king of Patiala and who was responsible for the martyrdom of great patriot and nationalist Shaheed Sewa Singh Thikriwala. A Government University should be named only on the name of a patriotic martyr. Sewa Singh Thikriwala was martyred in Bhupindra Singh’s Jail in Patiala on midnight of 19-20 January 1935. Thikriwala was fighting for the cause of Punjab farmers and against colonial and feudal collaborators of British colonialism., I strongly urge Punjab Government to rename Bhupindra Singh Sports University Patiala in the name of Patiala’s greatest martyr Shaheed Sewa Singh Thikriwala, so that young students must get inspiration of patriotism and not follow the feudal and pro-colonial ideas and conduct of a feudal, pro-colonial and oppressive king Bhupindra Singh.</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">A trip to martyr’s memorials for school students should be organized once in three months covering Shaheed Bhagat Singh Khatkar Kalan Museum, Ludhiana Shaheed Sukhdev house and Kartar Singh Sarabha memorial in Sarabha village to Amritsar Jallianwala Bagh and Madan Lal Dhingra memorial, Sunam Shaheed Udham Singh memorial to Hussaini wala Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, BK Dutt and Mata Vidyawati memorial.</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Few years ago, Sh. Bhagwant Mann along with Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi had met Cuban Ambassador in India at Delhi and offered to gift a statue/bust of Bhagat Singh to be placed among anti-colonial martyrs of Latin America, Africa, Asia and other countries at a particular road in Cuban capital Havana. Punjab and Delhi Governments shall pursue it again and offer Shaheed Bhagat Singh statue/bust to be placed in Havana and in return Cuban revolutionary martyr Che Guevara bust/statue may be placed in Delhi or Chandigarh.</span></li></ol><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/installation-of-bhagat-singhs-statue-in-havana-honour-for-us-left-parties/articleshow/25786139.cms&source=gmail&ust=1662119183473000&usg=AOvVaw11Oron4ohYo3qC7PF7FV0B" href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/installation-of-bhagat-singhs-statue-in-havana-honour-for-us-left-parties/articleshow/25786139.cms" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Installation of Bhagat Singh's statue in Havana honour for us: Left parties | India News - Times of India (indiatimes.com)</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/campaign-for-bhagat-singh-bust-in-cuba/articleshow/41989602.cms&source=gmail&ust=1662119183473000&usg=AOvVaw130VZ9-N97x1amfx0u__Bj" href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/campaign-for-bhagat-singh-bust-in-cuba/articleshow/41989602.cms" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Campaign for Bhagat Singh bust in Cuba | India News - Times of India (indiatimes.com)</a></span></p><ol start="9" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-top: 0cm;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I am copying this letter to some MPs of Punjab, so that they can support Bhagat Singh Archives in Delhi with lump sum financial support from their MP funds, to buy new books every year and other help like acquiring a Photo Copier machine and support for staff in BSARC. Since the inauguration of BSARC in 2018, not a single book has been bought by Delhi Govt. despite my recommendations. Whatever new books I buy or get as gift, I deposit to BSARC! I would urge Punjab Rajya Sabha members to visit BSARC in Delhi Archives.</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">There are 134 case files relating to Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries lying in Punjab Archives Lahore. A copy of these files of as historic records should be brought to Punjab Government Chandigarh. A digital copy of these files fmay also be kept at BSARCm Delhi Archives.</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">To propagate the ideas of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, the standard books relating to writings of Bhagat Singh and some standard biographies of Bhagat Singh should be purchased in bulk and supplied to all the libraries of schools/colleges and public libraries of Delhi and Punjab. The list of books-</span></li></ol><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Important Books on Bhagat Singh for libraries</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">1.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">First and banned biography of Bhagat Singh by Jitender Nath Sanyal-1931. Jitender Nath Sanyal was acquitted in main Lahore conspiracy case on 7<sup>th</sup> October 1930. His biography of Bhagat Singh was published after few months of execution of Bhagat Singh. It was being serialized in Bhavishya-Hindi journal edited by Ramrakh Singh Sehgal. English edition of biography and Bhavishya both were proscribed. Jatinder Nath Sanyal was convicted and imprisoned for two years for writing this biography. Ramrakh Singh Sehgal was also imprisoned for few months and heavily penalized. It is one of the best and early authentic biography of Bhagat Singh. Now it is published by Vishav Bharti Prakashan Nagpur and by NBT, Bew Delhi in Hindi and Punjabi.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">2.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">1968 first edition of Virender Sindhu Book-Foreword was written by then Home Minister of India Y B Chavan. Written by Bhagat Singh’s niece Virender Sindhu, this is authentic biography of three generations of Bhagat Singh family-from Bhagat Singh grandfather Arjun Singh to Bhagat Singh Father Kishan Singh and Uncles Ajit Singh/Swarn Singh to Bhagat Singh himself. It was published by Bhartiya Gyanpeeth then from Banaras, now published by Rajpal& sons Delhi as <i>Bhagat Singh aur unke Mrityuanjay Purkhe.</i> This book was translated in Punjabi by Languages Dept. Punjab, Patiala, but now not even a single copy is available there. It should be reprinted, while a private publisher has been publishing it without author or Language dept. permission and selling it.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">3.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Bhagat Singh’s writings first collection in book form came out in Punjabi in 1974. Though his writings were being published from his life time before 1931 in various journals, but in collected form it came out only in 1974. It was edited by Punjabi poet Amarjit Chandan, but he remained anonymous on book title. First time 28 writings of Bhagat Singh were put together. Now Bhagat Singh nephew Prof. Jagmohan Singh edited-<i>Bhagat Singh ate Uhna de Sathian dian Likhtan </i>is available from Chetna Prakashan, Ludhiana.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 38.25pt;"><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;"> </span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">4.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Hindi journal from Allahabad-Chand-Fansi issue with 37 articles by Bhagat Singh was published in November 1928. The journal was edited by Ramrakh Singh Sehgal, but Fansi issue as special issue was edited by Hindi novelist Acharya Chatursen Shastri, as guest editor, who had later to appear for evidence in Lahore Conspiracy case. Now available with Radhakrishan Prakashan New Delhi.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">5.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Bhagat Singh Complete writings in Hindi-edited by Chaman Lal, 2007/2020 by Publications Division Delhi. First single volume edition was published in Bhagat Singh birth centenary year in 2007. Updated and enlarged four volume edition published in 2020. It includes all 130 writings and Jail Notebook of Bhagat Singh.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">6.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;"> Complete writings of Bhagat Singh in Urdu published in 2014 by Publications Division Delhi. Updated translation of 2007 Hindi edition.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">7.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;"> Bhagat Singh Jail Notebook translation in Bengali, published in 2012</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">8.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;"> Bhagat Singh Jail Notebook translation published in Kannada in 2015</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">9.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Complete writings-of Bhagat Singh published in Marathi in 2008 and 2016</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">10.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Telugu Translation of Bhagat Singh selected writings published in 1986 and 2004.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">11.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Tamil edition of Why I am an Atheist by Bhagat Singh published first in 1934, the first ever translation got done by E V Ramaswamy Naicker Periyar from P. Jeevanandam. More than 30 editions published by now.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">12.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">French translation of Why I am an Atheist published from Paris in 2016</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">13.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Different editions of Bhagat Singh Jail Note Book in Punjabi by Punjab Govt first published in Bhagat Singh birth centenary year 2007 for free distribution.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">14.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Hindi translation of Bhagat Singh Jail Note Book published by Haryana Govt. in 2008 for free distribution.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">15.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Shiv Verma edited first collection of Bhagat Singh writings in English published in 1986. It includes 29 writings of Bhagat Singh, published by National Book Centre Calcutta.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">16.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Complete writings of Bhagat Singh edited by Chaman Lal published in <i><span style="background: yellow;">The Bhagat Singh Reader</span></i> published by HarperCollins India as international edition in 2019. It includes all 130 writings and Jail Notebook of Bhagat Singh</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-indent: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">17.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Comrade Ramchandra Book- authentic history of Naujwan Bharat Sabha and HSRA of organizations of Bhagat Singh movement. Comrade Ramchandra was among founders of Naujwan Bharat Sabha with Bhagat Singh and remained its President too, was part of HSRA as well. In later life he remained MLA of pre-partition and post-partition Punjab legislative assemblies at Lahore and Chandigarh and also MLA in Himachal Pradesh Assembly. He authored three books on freedom struggle and self-financed their publications. Punjab Govt. should publish these books as a private publisher is selling one book without author family permission.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-indent: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">18.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">A G Noorani book-<i>The Trial of Bhagat Singh</i>, now available with Oxford University Press, New Delhi.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-indent: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">19.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Kartar Singh Duggal’s Bhagat Singh biography in Punjabi language by Publication Division, Govt. of India priced just Three rupees. It should be bought in thousands.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-indent: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">20.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Bhagat Singh de Siasi Dastavez in Punjabi, edited by Chaman Lal, published by National Book Trust New Delhi.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">21.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Bhagat Singh ke Sampuran Dastavez edited by Chaman Lal, published by Aadhar Prakashan Panchkula.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">22.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><i><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">The Legend and Life of Bhagat Singh: A Pictorial biography of Bhagat Singh</span></i></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;"> by Chaman Lal, expected by September end 2022 from Publication Division, Govt. of India in English.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">23.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Bhagat Singh: The Political Reader, edited by Michael D Yates and Chaman Lal in an international edition by Monthlyu Review Press New York and Leftword Press New Delhi, expected in September 2022</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">24.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Banned Publications on Bhagat Singh, edited by Gurdev Singh, published by Leftword Publications New Delhi in 2022.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 25.68px;">25.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">India’s Revolutionary Inheritance by Chris Moffat, published by Cambridge University Press London/Delhi</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 39.75pt;"><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;"> </span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;"> I think is some of these suggestions are accepted and implemented, it will not cause much finances and it will prove to be more useful in spreading the ideas of Bhagat Singh, which I think is the purpose of Punjab and Delhi Governments by adopting Shaheed Bhagat Singh as official icon.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;"> I shall be available for discussion on these suggestions as and when both Chief Ministers can spare some time together or separately.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">With best regards</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;"> </span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;"> (Chaman Lal)</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;"> </span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Copy to concerned officials of Delhi and Punjab Governments</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Copy to concerned Rajya Sabha members from Punjab.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Copy to the advisory committee members of BSARC.</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;"> </span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Annexures</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 54pt;"><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">1.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Painting of Bhagat Singh by artist Amar Singh</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 54pt;"><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">2.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Artist Amar Singh being honoured by Governor Punjab</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 54pt;"><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">3.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="line-height: 19.26px;">Clippings of Deputy CM Meeting with Cuban Ambassador</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 54pt;"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 12.84px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 54pt;"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 12.84px;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 54pt;"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial Black", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 12.84px;">H.no.2690, Urban Estate, Phase-2, PATIALA (Punjab)-147002</span></p></div>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-46165901529581547042022-08-13T18:23:00.002+05:302022-08-13T18:23:28.724+05:30Three Letters of Bhagat Singh<div class="row" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 990px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 990px;"><div class="heading-part" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-bottom-color: rgb(218, 218, 218); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; margin: 10px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 0px 10px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><h1 class="native_story_title" itemprop="headline" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Droid Serif", serif; font-size: 45px; line-height: 50px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What three letters, part of the Lahore Conspiracy Case, will be part of an updated Bhagat Singh Reader?</h1><h2 class="synopsis" itemprop="description" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6b6b6b; font-family: "Droid Serif", serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">As India completes 75 years, the discovery of three petition letters will enrich the history of its most charismatic revolutionary.</h2></div></div><div class="row" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 990px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 990px;"><div class="leftpanel" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 650px;"><div class="story-details" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="main-story" style="border: 0px; 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border-radius: 3px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; display: block; height: 39px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 7px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 40px;" target="_blank" title="Reddit"><i class="reddit" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: 24px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 1px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 26px;"><img alt="" height="24" src="https://indianexpress.com/wp-content/themes/indianexpress/images/reddit.svg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="26" /></i></a></li></ul></div></div></div></div></div><div class="editor" id="storycenterbyline" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #484848; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">Written by Chaman Lal |<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span content="2022-08-13T13:14:36+05:30" itemprop="dateModified" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">August 13, 2022 1:14:36 pm</span></div><span itemprop="image" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span class="custom-caption" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(219, 219, 219); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #747474; display: block; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Bhagat Singh" data-lazy-loaded="true" height="356" src="https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/Bhagat-Singh-eye-illustration2.jpeg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 640px;" width="640" /><span class="ie-custom-caption" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">An artist’s impression of Bhagat Singh. (Illustration: Suvajit Dey)</span></span><div id="pcl-full-content" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">The completion of 75 years of Independence is a good time to recall Bhagat Singh, the iconic hero of India’s freedom struggle who has been frequently invoked by political parties of late, although often without sufficient knowledge of — and respect for — his true revolutionary ideals.</p><ev-engagement group-name="contentLogin" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></ev-engagement><ev-engagement group-name="myNotification" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></ev-engagement><div class="ev-meter-content" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">The last time the great personalities of the Independence Movement were celebrated at a scale somewhat approximating the current one was in 2007, the year in which five national anniversaries were observed — 150 years each of the First War of Independence and the birth of Lokmanya Tilak; 60 years of Independence; and 75 years of the death and 100 years of the birth of Bhagat Singh.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><div class="ie-int-campign-ad" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="" id="gpt_ad_IE_ROS_INT_CAMP_DESK" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div></div><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">The <a class="" href="https://indianexpress.com/about/manmohan-singh/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #346f99; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Manmohan Singh</a> government formed national committees with leaders of all opposition parties including the <a class="" href="https://indianexpress.com/about/bjp/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #346f99; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BJP</a>, a large number of programmes were held at the national and state levels and a range of publications appeared between 2006 and 2008.</p><div class="premium-story" style="background-color: #0b122b; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h6 class="premium-story__title" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #ffc200; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">SUBSCRIBER ONLY STORIES</h6><div class="viewmore-premium" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: right; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="premium-widgets-events viewmores" data-device="Desktop" data-type="View All" href="https://indianexpress.com/about/express-premium/" style="background: 0px 0px; 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padding: 8px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/express-sunday-eye/indian-films-cinema-gender-parity-women-representation-shubhra-gupta-8087589/" style="background: 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Seven decades since Independence, it’s high time our films reflecte...</a></div></div><div class="p-story-box" style="background-color: white; border-radius: 10px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 145px;"><figure style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="premium-widgets-events" data-device="Desktop" data-type="Story 2" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/express-sunday-eye/india-still-fails-its-women-75-years-after-independence-8087492/" style="background: 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="India still fails its women, 75 years after Independence" data-lazy-loaded="true" height="83" src="https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/women-eye_200_Wikimedia-commons.jpg?resize=450,250" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="150" /></a><span class="premium-story__slug" style="background-color: #ffc200; border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 700; height: 13px; line-height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 4px 0px 5px; position: absolute; right: 10px; top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 51px;">Premium</span></figure><div class="premium-summary" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; height: 108px; line-height: 1.43; margin: 0px 0px 6px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/express-sunday-eye/india-still-fails-its-women-75-years-after-independence-8087492/" style="background: 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">India still fails its women, 75 years after Independence</a></div></div><div class="p-story-box" style="background-color: white; border-radius: 10px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 145px;"><figure style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="premium-widgets-events" data-device="Desktop" data-type="Story 3" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/cricket-chases-the-american-dream-8087418/" style="background: 0px 0px; 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margin: 0px 0px 6px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/cricket-chases-the-american-dream-8087418/" style="background: 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cricket chases the American dream</a></div></div><div class="p-story-box" style="background-color: white; border-radius: 10px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 145px;"><figure style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="premium-widgets-events" data-device="Desktop" data-type="Story 4" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/business/companies/self-regulation-divide-among-big-tech-firms-on-way-forward-8087385/" style="background: 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Self-regulation: Divide among Big Tech firms on way forward" data-lazy-loaded="true" height="83" src="https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/Social-media-1-1.jpg?resize=450,250" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="150" /></a><span class="premium-story__slug" style="background-color: #ffc200; border-radius: 3px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 700; height: 13px; line-height: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 4px 0px 5px; position: absolute; right: 10px; top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 51px;">Premium</span></figure><div class="premium-summary" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; height: 108px; line-height: 1.43; margin: 0px 0px 6px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/business/companies/self-regulation-divide-among-big-tech-firms-on-way-forward-8087385/" style="background: 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Self-regulation: Divide among Big Tech firms on way forward</a></div></div></div></div><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Earlier, in 1997, when IK Gujral was the prime minister, the golden jubilee of Independence was celebrated with great solemnity but limited noise. The focus in 1997 was on Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Subhas Chandra Bose, while in 2007, greater attention devolved on Tilak and Bhagat Singh. In 2022, the spotlight remains on Bhagat Singh, and he shares it with Sardar Patel, <a class="" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/who-is/who-was-birsa-munda/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #346f99; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Birsa Munda</a>, and Dr BR Ambedkar.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">In 2007, the government’s Publications Division commissioned me to prepare a volume of the writings of Bhagat Singh, which was published in Hindi with a translation in Urdu. The Hindi original was updated in 2020 and published in four volumes.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">In 2019, I edited The Bhagat Singh Reader, a collection of all his writings that could be located until 2018. Singh wrote in English, Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi, though he was also well versed in Sanskrit and Bengali, and was learning Persian in jail. Of the 133 writings in The Reader, 58 are in English and 46 in Hindi. Since then, I have come across three more important documents — a letter by Singh to the Special Magistrate, Lahore Conspiracy case, published in The Hindustan Times on February 13, 1930, in which he laid down the reasons for his refusal to come to court, and two hitherto unseen letters in his own hand, part of the Lahore Conspiracy case files. Both petitions protest the fact that he’d been refused legal counsel, and that hurdles had been put on his attempts to communicate with the court. These new writings will be part of forthcoming updated edition of The Bhagat Singh Reader likely to come out later this year.</p><div class="adboxtop adsizes" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="ie-adtext" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 9px; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">ADVERTISEMENT</div><div class="" id="gpt_ad_IE_ROS_ROTATE_1_300X250" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div></div><span class="custom-caption" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(219, 219, 219); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #747474; display: block; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Bhagat Singh, BK Dutta" class="wp-image-8087762" data-lazy-loaded="true" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 759px) 100vw, 759px" src="https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/Bhagat-Singh-and-BK-Dutt-on-hunger-strike.-Photographs-taken-by-Ramnath-Photographer-of-Kashmere-Gate-on-3rd-April-1929-1.jpg?resize=600,493" srcset="https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/Bhagat-Singh-and-BK-Dutt-on-hunger-strike.-Photographs-taken-by-Ramnath-Photographer-of-Kashmere-Gate-on-3rd-April-1929-1.jpg 759w, https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/Bhagat-Singh-and-BK-Dutt-on-hunger-strike.-Photographs-taken-by-Ramnath-Photographer-of-Kashmere-Gate-on-3rd-April-1929-1.jpg?resize=450,370 450w, https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/Bhagat-Singh-and-BK-Dutt-on-hunger-strike.-Photographs-taken-by-Ramnath-Photographer-of-Kashmere-Gate-on-3rd-April-1929-1.jpg?resize=600,493 600w, https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/Bhagat-Singh-and-BK-Dutt-on-hunger-strike.-Photographs-taken-by-Ramnath-Photographer-of-Kashmere-Gate-on-3rd-April-1929-1.jpg?resize=493,405 493w, https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/Bhagat-Singh-and-BK-Dutt-on-hunger-strike.-Photographs-taken-by-Ramnath-Photographer-of-Kashmere-Gate-on-3rd-April-1929-1.jpg?resize=150,123 150w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 640px;" /> Starving to death for country’s honor. (Credit: Photograph by Ramnath/ Courtesy Chaman Lal, Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, New Delhi)</span><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">A summary of the short, remarkable life of Bhagat Singh, and the context in which these three letters were written, would be in order. Singh was arrested twice and faced two trials in his 23-year life. He was first arrested on May 29, 1927, and kept in police custody until July 4, 1927, during which he was brutally tortured to extract a confession. He was given bail against Rs 60,000, a very large sum in those days, and the case was withdrawn after it was hotly debated in the Punjab Assembly.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">He was arrested for the second time on April 8, 1929, at the Central Assembly in <a class="" href="https://indianexpress.com/section/cities/delhi/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #346f99; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Delhi</a>, the present Parliament House, which had been inaugurated two years earlier. Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt offered themselves for arrest after throwing bombs at the Assembly. Both were convicted on June 12 and were transferred to Mianwali and Lahore jails, respectively, on June 14. During the journey, they went on a hunger strike that ended after 110 days on October 4. Their comrade Jatin Das, who too was on a hunger strike, died on September 13, 1929.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Proceedings in the Lahore Conspiracy case, the second case Singh faced, began on July 10, 1929. On a hunger strike at the time, Singh was brought to court in Lahore from Mianwali jail on a stretcher. Singh, Dutt and some other revolutionaries went on a hunger strike again on February 4, 1930, as the colonial administration refused to honour their commitments.</p><div class="adboxtop adsizes" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="ie-adtext" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 9px; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">ADVERTISEMENT</div><div class="" id="gpt_ad_IE_ROS_ROTATE_2_300X250" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div></div><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">The letter published in The Hindustan Times was accompanied by the news of the hunger strikes by the revolutionaries. The two handwritten letters are from the last days of the trial by the Special Tribunal, comprising three High Court judges. Its proceedings began on May 5, 1930, and the verdict was announced on October 7. The date of execution was fixed for October 27, 1930, a few days before the term of the Tribunal was scheduled to end. Following an appeal and its rejection, Bhagat Singh was hanged on March 23, 1931, along with comrades Rajguru and Sukhdev.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Chaman Lal is honorary advisor, Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, Delhi Archives, New Delhi, and India’s foremost scholar on Bhagat Singh.</em></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Letter 1</span></p><span class="custom-caption" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(219, 219, 219); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #747474; display: block; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="HT Article, Bhagat Singh" class="wp-image-8087826" data-lazy-loaded="true" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 759px) 100vw, 759px" src="https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/LETTER-1-Hindustan-Times-report-BS-Case-2-1.jpg?resize=408,600" srcset="https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/LETTER-1-Hindustan-Times-report-BS-Case-2-1.jpg 759w, https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/LETTER-1-Hindustan-Times-report-BS-Case-2-1.jpg?resize=306,450 306w, https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/LETTER-1-Hindustan-Times-report-BS-Case-2-1.jpg?resize=408,600 408w, https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/LETTER-1-Hindustan-Times-report-BS-Case-2-1.jpg?resize=276,405 276w, https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/LETTER-1-Hindustan-Times-report-BS-Case-2-1.jpg?resize=150,220 150w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 640px;" /> Bhagat Singh and BK Dutt’s letter to the special magistrate in the Lahore Conspiracy case, which was published in The Hindustan Times, dated February 13, 1930, giving reasons for their refusal to go to court — being “harassed ceaselessly”, “plea for interviews” with them were rejected, the “defence counsel not being allowed to attend court”, the “lack of supply of newspapers to literate undertrials” such as themselves. (CREDIT: Courtesy Chaman Lal, Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, New Delhi)</span><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Reasons for refusing to come to court: ‘Harassed Ceaselessly’</em></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lahore accused’s letter to Special Magistrate</em></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lahore, February 10</em></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bhagat Singh and BK Dutt have sent the following [letter] to the Special Magistrate, Lahore Conspiracy case, Lahore through the Superintendent, Central Jail, Lahore:</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">In view of your statement and order dated February 4, 1930, published in the Civil and Military Gazette bearing the date of February 6, we feel it necessary to make a statement clearing the position of the accused as regarding their refusal to come to your court so that any sort of misunderstanding and misrepresentation may not be possible.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Harassed Ceaselessly</span></p><div class="adboxtop adsizes" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="ie-adtext" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 9px; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">ADVERTISEMENT</div><div class="" id="gpt_ad_IE_ROS_ROTATE_3_300X250" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div></div><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">In the first place we should point out that we have not so far boycotted all the British courts. We are attending the court of Mr. Lewis who is trying us under Section 52 of Prisons Act for the occurrence of January 29 in your court. But there are special circumstances which force us to take this step-in connection with the Lahore conspiracy case. We have been feeling from the very beginning that the nonfessant attitude of the court, and misfeasance and malfeasance of the jail or other authorities, we are being harassed ceaselessly, but deliberately with a view to hamper our defense. Many of our grievances had been placed before you in a bail application, a few days back, but while rejecting that petition on some legal grounds, you did not feel the necessity of even making a mention of the grievances of the accused, on the ground of which a prayer for the bail was made.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Magistrate’s Foremost Duty</span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">We feel that the first and foremost duty of the Magistrate is to keep his attitude quite impartial up and above both the prosecution and defence parties. Even the Hon’ble Justice Ford gave the ruling that day, telling the Magistrate 1o be ever at arm’s length from the prosecution. The second most important thing that a Magistrate ought to keep before him is to see if the accused have genuine difficulty in connection with their defense and remove if any. Otherwise, the whole trial is reduced to a farce. But the contrary has been the conduct of the Magistrate in such an important case where 18 young men are being tried for serious offences such as murder, dacoity and conspiracy for which they may, very likely to be sentenced to death.</p><div class="adboxtop adsizes" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="ie-adtext" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 9px; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">ADVERTISEMENT</div><div class="" id="gpt_ad_IE_ROS_ROTATE_4_300X250" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div></div><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">The main grounds on which we were forced to attend your court were the following:</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">The majority of the accused belong to distant provinces and all are middle class people. In these circumstances it is very difficult, nay almost impossible for their relatives to come here every now and then to help them in their defence. They wanted to hold interviews with some of their friends whom they could entrust with the reasonability of their defence. Even common sense says that they are entitled to these interviews. In this court repeated requests were made to that effect, but one and all requests went unheard.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">No Interviews Allowed</span></p><div class="adboxtop adsizes" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="ie-adtext" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 9px; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">ADVERTISEMENT</div><div class="" id="gpt_ad_IE_ROS_ROTATE_5_300X250" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div></div><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mr. BK Dutt belongs to Bengal and Mr. Kanwal Nath Tiwari to Behar. Both of them wanted to interview their friends- Shrimati Kumari Lajjawati and Shrimati Parvati Devi (daughter of Lala Lajpat Rai-editor), respectively. But the court forwarded all their applications to the jail authorities, who in turn rejected them on the plea that interviews could be allowed to relatives and counsel only. Again, and again the matter was brought to your notice, but no step was taken to enable the accused to make the necessary arrangements for their defense. Even after they had appointed their friends as their attorneys and the attorney power had been attested to by this very court, no interview was allowed to them. And the magistrate even refused to write to the jail authorities that the accused demanded the interviews for defence purposes in connection with the case which he himself was trying. And the accused, thus handicapped, could not even move the higher court. But the trial was being proceeded with. In these circumstances, the accused felt quite — helpless and for them the trial had no other value than a mere farcical show. It is noteworthy that those, and a majority of the accused were going unrepresented.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Accused’s Grievances</span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">I am an unrepresented accused and could not afford to engage a whole-time counsel to represent me throughout the lengthy trial. I wanted his legal advice on certain points. And at a certain stage I wanted him to watch the proceedings personally to be in a better position to form his opinion. But he was refused even a seat in the body of the court. Was this not a deliberate move on the part of the authorities concerned to harass us to hamper our defence Counsel from attending the courts to watch the interests of their clients, who are not present nor even represented by them. What are the “Special circumstances of this case”, that forced the Magistrate to adopt such a rude attitude towards a barrister…, thus discouraging any counsel might be invited to come to assist the accused? What was the justification in allowing Mr. Amar Das to occupy the chair of defence when he is no longer representing any party and not even giving any legal advice to any person? I was to discuss with my legal adviser the question of interviews with attorneys and to instruct him to move the High Court on this point. But I could not get the opportunity to discuss it with him at all and nothing could be done. What does this all amount to? Is it not throwing dust into the eyes of the public by showing that the trial is being held quite judicially? The accused did not absolutely get any opportunity to make any arrangements for their defence. This is what we protest against. If there is to be no fair play, there need not be a show. We cannot see injustice being done in the name of justice. In these circumstances we all thought it fit that either we should have a fair chance of defending ourselves or be prepared to bear the sentence passed against us in a trial held in our absence.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">The third main grievance is about the supply of newspapers. The undertrials as such should not be treated as convicts and only such restrictions can be justifiably imposed upon them as may be extremely necessary for their safe custody. Nothing beyond that can be justified. The accused who cannot be released on bail should never be subjected to such hardships which may amount to punishment. Hence every literate undertrial is entitled to get at least one standard daily newspaper. The “Executive” agreed on certain principles to give us one daily English newspaper in the court. But things done by half worse than not done at all: Our repeated requests asking for a vernacular paper for the non-English reading accused proved to be futile. We had been returning <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Tribune</em> daily in protest against the order refusing a vernacular paper.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Any how these were the three main ground, an which we announced on January 29 about our refusal to come to the court.</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">As soon as these grievances would be removed, we will ourselves quite willingly come to attend the court — <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Free Press</em> (News agency).</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Inside the three-column news, a special box titled “Lahore Hunger Strike: Prisoners Look Pulled Down”, dated February 10, mentions: The effects of the hunger strike are becoming clearly marked in the case of the accused in the Lahore Conspiracy Case. When they were produced before the Additional District Magistrate, who is trying them under Section 52 of the Prisons Act, for disobedience, they looked greatly pulled down. Four of them were unable to sit in chairs and had to be stretched on mattresses in the courtroom. API news agency</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(The Hindustan Times, February 13, 1930; edited excerpts)</em></span></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Letter 2</span></p><span class="custom-caption" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(219, 219, 219); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #747474; display: block; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Bhagat Singh letter" class="wp-image-8087828" data-lazy-loaded="true" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 759px) 100vw, 759px" src="https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/LETTER-2-Bhagat-Singh-petition-of-6th-May-1930-to-Special-Tribunal-1-1.jpg?resize=316,600" srcset="https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/LETTER-2-Bhagat-Singh-petition-of-6th-May-1930-to-Special-Tribunal-1-1.jpg 759w, https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/LETTER-2-Bhagat-Singh-petition-of-6th-May-1930-to-Special-Tribunal-1-1.jpg?resize=237,450 237w, https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/LETTER-2-Bhagat-Singh-petition-of-6th-May-1930-to-Special-Tribunal-1-1.jpg?resize=316,600 316w, https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/LETTER-2-Bhagat-Singh-petition-of-6th-May-1930-to-Special-Tribunal-1-1.jpg?resize=213,405 213w, https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/LETTER-2-Bhagat-Singh-petition-of-6th-May-1930-to-Special-Tribunal-1-1.jpg?resize=150,285 150w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 640px;" /> Bhagat Singh’s petition dated 6 May 1930, pleading that “he is not in a position to engage whole time counsel”, “that he does not want to accept any help from the government”, and that “an order be passed to accommodate his legal adviser in a body of the court.” (CREDIT: Courtesy Chaman Lal, Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, New Delhi)</span><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bhagat Singh petition for legal advisor, May 6, 1930</span></em></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">In the court of the special Tribunal,</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lahore Conspiracy Case</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lahore</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most respectfully Shweth,</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">1. That the petitioner is an unrepresented accused in this case</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">2. That he is not in a position to engage whole time council in this lengthy trial</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">3. That he does not want to accept any help from the government</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">4. That he wishes to fight his own case with such legal aid as he can afford</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">5. That it is prayed that an order be passed to accommodate to his legal adviser in a body of the court so that he may be able to give necessary help whenever desired</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bhagat Singh</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Petitioner</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">May 6, 1930</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Letter 3</span></p><span class="custom-caption" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(219, 219, 219); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #747474; display: block; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Bhagat Singh letter" class="wp-image-8087831" data-lazy-loaded="true" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 759px) 100vw, 759px" src="https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/LETTER-3-Bhagat-Singh-letter-to-Special-Tribunal-on-27th-August-1930-1.jpg?resize=382,600" srcset="https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/LETTER-3-Bhagat-Singh-letter-to-Special-Tribunal-on-27th-August-1930-1.jpg 759w, https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/LETTER-3-Bhagat-Singh-letter-to-Special-Tribunal-on-27th-August-1930-1.jpg?resize=286,450 286w, https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/LETTER-3-Bhagat-Singh-letter-to-Special-Tribunal-on-27th-August-1930-1.jpg?resize=382,600 382w, https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/LETTER-3-Bhagat-Singh-letter-to-Special-Tribunal-on-27th-August-1930-1.jpg?resize=258,405 258w, https://images.indianexpress.com/2022/08/LETTER-3-Bhagat-Singh-letter-to-Special-Tribunal-on-27th-August-1930-1.jpg?resize=150,236 150w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 640px;" /> Bhagat Singh’s petition dated 27 August 1930, protesting the refusal of the court registrar to accept from him an application to the court; the lack of information on whether his two earlier applications had been delivered to the court; and that even though he has been asked to produce his defence, he has not been allowed interviews to co-accused and relatives, which are very essential to the purposes of his defence. (CREDIT: Courtesy Chaman Lal, Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, New Delhi)</span><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bhagat Singh petition of August 27, 1930</span></em></p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">In the court of the special Tribunal</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lahore Conspiracy Case, Lahore</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Crown Vs. Sukhdev</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Charged under sections 120, 121-A, 120-B etc., IPC</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most respectfully Shweth,</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">1. That the petitioner has just been furnished in copy of the over of the learned courts, bearing the date August 22, 1930, by the Registrar of the Count</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">2. That the petitioner wanted to write an application to the court and hand it over to the Registrar personally</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">3. That the Registrar refused to handle it saying he was particularly ordered by the court not to accept any written application the petitioner to the Court</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">4. That the petitioner, by no stretch of imagination, comprehends the logic of this order</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">5. That the petitioner had put two applications the registrar on August 22 and 26 about which he has no knowledge whether they were properly delivered the Court or not</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">6. That he has not been either furnished with copy of the orders that the Court was pleased to pass in the aforesaid application</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">7. That today he has been called upon to produce whatever defence he has to</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">8. That in spite of many petitions sent by the petitioner to the learned court, no orders have been issued by court to the jail authorities to allow the interviews to co accused and relatives, which are very essential to the defence purposes</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">9. That it is prayed that court be pleased to inform the petitioner what order has the court been able to pass on his applications mentioned in the last paragraph. kindly pass orders intimating the petitioner to hold interviews with his relatives, thus enabling to prepare and produce his defence, which he cannot otherwise, and thirdly to stay the further proceedings of the court until the said interviews are held and proper defence are provided to him, and lastly inform the petitioner so whatever order the Court pleased to pass on this petition</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bhagat Singh</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">August 27, 1930</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Petitioner</p><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;">Central Jail, Lahore</p><div class="non-city-story-widget" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p></div></div><div class="ev-meter-content" data-bottom="true" data-slug="express-sunday-eye" id="id_newsletter_subscription" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div class="ev-meter-content" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="appstext hide_utm_paytm_phonepe" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p></div><div class="news-guard ev-meter-content" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(219, 219, 219); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><ul style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 10px 25px; outline: 0px; padding: 15px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #777575; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Newsguard" height="26px" src="https://indianexpress.com/wp-content/themes/indianexpress/images/newsguard-check.svg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 40px;" width="20px" /></li><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #777575; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.</li><li style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #777575; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; min-width: 120px; opacity: 0.7; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Newsguard" height="18px" src="https://indianexpress.com/wp-content/themes/indianexpress/images/newsGuard_logo.svg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="120px" /></li></ul></div><div class="ie-first-publish" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 20px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">First published on: <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">13-08-2022 at 01:14:36 pm</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><script type="text/javascript">
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</script>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-90143327301660039082022-08-12T22:55:00.001+05:302022-08-12T22:55:52.952+05:30Black Skin White Masks’, an Inspiration for Black Movement<a href="https://www.newsclick.in/relook-bBook-black-skin-white-masks-inspiration-black-movement" id="label" rel="bookmark" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;"><h1 style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #163c5a; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Relook at a Book: ‘Black Skin White Masks’, an Inspiration for Black Movement</h1></a><div class="articleDetails" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: grid; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; grid-template-columns: 50% 50%; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; row-gap: 1em;"><div class="authorDetails" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #163c5a; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/author/Chaman%20Lal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Chaman Lal</a> </span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">| </span><time style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">10 Aug 2022</time><div class="translated-by" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></div></div><div class="articleCategories" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right;"><ul class="field field--name-taxonomy-term field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field--items" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: flex; flex-flow: row-reverse wrap; gap: 1em 0.5em; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="field--item" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/Books" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: rgb(237, 237, 237); border-radius: 15px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 1.2em; text-decoration-line: none;">Books</a></li><li class="field--item" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/Politics" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: rgb(237, 237, 237); border-radius: 15px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 1.2em; text-decoration-line: none;">Politics</a></li><li class="field--item" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/International" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: rgb(237, 237, 237); border-radius: 15px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 1.2em; text-decoration-line: none;">International</a></li></ul></div></div><div class="articleIntro" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #515f67; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Originally meant to be a doctoral thesis, Frantz Fanon’s book remains a seminal work in studying Black psyche in a White world.</div></div><div class="content" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; row-gap: 1em;"><div class="coverImage" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Relook at a Book: ‘Black Skin White Masks’, an Inspiration for Black Movement" height="498" loading="lazy" src="https://www.newsclick.in/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_885/public/2022-08/TODAY%27S%20NEWS%20ROUNDUP%2858%29.png?itok=aoT-Oaem" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="885" /></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Image Courtesy: Amazon.in</strong></em></p></div></div></div></div><div class="bodyContent" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Who is Frantz Fanon? He is one of the foremost revolutionary thinkers from Africa and the Caribbean. He was born in Martinique, still under French control, but remained an active part of the revolutionary liberation struggle against French colonialism. Professionally he was a trained doctor of psychiatry and wrote a doctoral thesis in France on the subject. He was the son of an African origin father and an Afro-Martinican white origin mother.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">During his schooling in Martinique, he came under influence of his teacher, French poet and writer Aime Cesair. Born in 1925, Fanon lived for just 36 years, dying in 1961. He left Martinique at the age of 18 years and received his higher education from University of Lyons in France. He was influenced by Marxism. While studying medicine and psychiatry at University of Lyons, he also attended lectures on literature, drama, and philosophy by French philosopher Merleau Ponty.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">While studying he wrote three plays, of which two survive. He joined FLN -- the anti-colonial Algerian liberation front, fighting against French colonialism. He practiced as a psychiatrist, and from his experiences, he wrote his first book at the age of 27, in 1952 -- <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black Skin White Masks</em>. It was his doctoral thesis, but he submitted the thesis with some variation and published this as a book. He was detected as suffering from leukaemia, yet he continued working and just before his death, his most famous work -- <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Wretched of the Earth</em> was published with an introduction by author-philosopher Jean Paul Sartre.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Fanon was impressed by Sartre’s support to the Algerian liberation war. Fanon served as the Ambassador to Ghana of provisional Government of Algeria and on its behalf attended many conferences in African countries. In 1959, his book, <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Dyeing Colonialism,</em> was published and in 1961, his magnum opus <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Wretched of the Earth</em> was published. Two collections of his shorter writings were published posthumously- <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Towards the African Revolution</em> in 1964 and <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Alienation and Freedom</em> in 2018. </span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">All his books have been translated into English. <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black Skin White Masks</em>, since its first publication, is considered a seminal book; two post-modernist thinkers -- Indian scholar Homi K Bhabha and British-Pakistani scholar Ziauddin Sardar -- wrote forewords to the book. Its English translation was done by Charles Lam Markmaan in 1967 and was published by Groove Press. Bhabha wrote the foreword in the 1986 edition and Sardar in 2008 edition by Pluto Press London.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sardar in his foreword explains the theme of the book as --</span></span></span> <span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It is the anger of all whose cultures, knowledge systems and ways of being that are ridiculed, demonized, declared inferior and irrational, and, in some cases, eliminated.</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></span></span> </span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">He further adds that while fighting against Nazi Germany from the Free France side, serving in the military, Fanon experienced</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">racism on a daily basis. In France, he noticed that French women</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">avoided black soldiers who were sacrificing their lives to liberate</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">them. He was wounded; and was awarded the Croix de Guerre</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">for bravery during his service in the Free French forces.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">After the war against Nazi Germany was over, Fanon won a scholarship to study medicine and psychiatry at Lyon. After completing his doctorate, in 1953, he was offered a job as head of the psychiatric department of Bilda- Joinville Hospital in Algiers </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">and </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">he jumped at the opportunity.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">In Algeria a full-blown liberation struggle was going on and Fanon joined the National Liberation Front (FLN) after leaving the job in 1956. The French response was brutal. Sardar writes with sorrow that Fanon did not live to see Algeria gain full independence.</span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">While in Ghana, Fanon was diagnosed with </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">leukaemia</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">. He was taken to </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the United States </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">for treatment, but died there in Washington on December </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">6, </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">1961. Yet, his most influential work, <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Wretched of the Earth, </em>with the foreword by Sartre<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</em> was published before his death, which became an inspiration for the black movement throughout the world. US Black Power or Black Panthers movement was influenced by Fanon’s classic book.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">As per Sardar</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">:</span></span></span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span></span></span></em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black Skin, White Masks </span></span></span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">was the first book to investigate</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the psychology of colonialism. It examines how colonialism</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">is internalized by the colonized, how an inferiority complex is</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">inculcated, and how, through the</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">mechanism of racism, black</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">people end up emulating their oppressors.</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Sardar also quotes Indian scholar Ashish Nandy in support of his argument. Kenyan writer/scholar Ngugi WaThiongo’s book</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">‘<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Decolonizing the Mind’</em> was also influenced by <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black </em></span></span></span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">S</span></span></span></em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">kin White Masks</span></span></span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In his long </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">f</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">oreword in 1986 edition, Indian scholar Homi </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">K</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Bhabha introduces the post-modernist interpretation of <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black Skin White Masks</em></span></span></span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, </span></span></span></em><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">which </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">becomes more tedious to read than even the book, which has a complex subject, but can be understood better without the post-modernist forewords. Homi K Bhabha writes in his foreword</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> ‘Whenever questions of race and sexuality make their own organizational and theoretical demands on the primacy of “class,” “state” and “party” the language of traditional socialism is quick to describe those urgent, “other” questions as symptoms of petty-bourgeois deviation, signs of the bad faith of socialist intellectuals. The ritual respect accorded to the name of Fanon, the currency of his titles in the common language of liberation, are part of the ceremony of a polite, English refusal.</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></span></span> </span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">He further says</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</span></span></span> <span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Fanon attempts such audacious, often impossible, transformations of truth and value, the jagged testimony of colonial dislocation, its displacement of time and person, its defilement of culture and territory, refuses the ambition of any “total” theory of colonial oppression.</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></span></span> </span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Moving straight to the book, Fanon in his short introduction begins with a quote from his beloved teacher</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">:</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I am talking of millions of men who have been skillfully injected with fear, inferiority complexes, trepidation, servility, despair, abasement.</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">—Aimé Césaire, <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Discours sur le Colonialisme</em></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Unlike his scientific subject, Fanon begins in a bit emotional poetic introduction as he explains the reason for writing this book-</span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Why write this book? No one has asked me for it.</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Especially those to whom it is directed.</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Well? Well, I reply quite calmly that there are too many idiots in</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">this world. And having said it, I have the burden of proving it.</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Toward a new humanism. . . .</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Understanding among men. . . .</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Our colored brothers. . . .</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Mankind, I believe in you. . . .</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Race prejudice. . . .</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">To understand and to love. . . .</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> In an anguished tone at </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">young age of </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">about </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">25, he further poses the questions-</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">What does a man want?</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">What does the black man want?</span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">At the risk of arousing the resentment of my colored brothers,</span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I will say that the black is not a man.</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> The task of the author, who is </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">a </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">professional psychiatrist</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> is to explain Black-White relations</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">;</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> he says</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">:</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The white man is sealed in his whiteness.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">The black man in his blackness.</span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">We shall seek to ascertain the directions of this dual narcissism</span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">and the motivations that inspire it.</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">From his experiences in treating patients</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, the</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> author get</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> the raw data, which is problematic</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">:</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">There is a fact: White men consider themselves superior to</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">black men.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">There is another fact: Black men want to prove to white men,</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">at all costs, the richness of their thought, the equal value of their</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">intellect.</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">How do we extricate ourselves?</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">A moment ago, I spoke of narcissism. Indeed, I believe that only</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">a psychoanalytical interpretation of the black problem can lay</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">bare the anomalies of affect that are responsible for the structure</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">of the complex.</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">One can see that </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">author is better able to explain the complexity of his subject than his post-modernist interpreters, who by their theoretical jargon, make the book look more complex than it actually is. </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The a</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">uthor explains the theme of the book rather clearly when he says</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> --</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">‘This book is a clinical study. Those who recognize themselves</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">in it, I think, will have made a step forward. I seriously hope to</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">persuade my brother, whether black or white, to tear off with</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">all his strength the shameful livery put together by centuries of</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">incomprehension.’</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Fanon goes on to describe the chapterisation of the book like a researcher. In fact, the book initially was supposed to be Fanon’s doctoral thesis, which later he changed </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">to </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">book format, while he submitted</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> the</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> thesis in a different format.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> The first three chapters </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">contain the </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">concept and features of </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Negro and later chapters take up some case studies. So, he begins </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">first chapter as </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">‘</span></span></span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Negro and Language</span></span></span></em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span></span></span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">. Unconsciously or subconsciously, Negroes are natives of any coloni</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ed country in Asia or Africa</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">;</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> while fighting the colonial masters and getting rid of them, they try to acquire the competence in </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">colonial master’s language imposed upon them </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">through</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> administration or </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">education system. Fanon has discussed this trend in context of Africa, which </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">was </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">colonized more by </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">French </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">with </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">established hegemony of French language in the colonies. But </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">same is true of British colonies.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">As Fanon talks about Algerian or Martinican </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">N</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">egroes getting mentally enslaved by </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">French, so has Ngũgĩ</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, from the British colony of Kenya,</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> discussed in <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Decolonizing the Mind</em>. In fact, Ngũgĩ changed even his Christian name James to Thiong’o wa and went back to his mother tongue Gikuyu for his creative writing, while </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">as</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> a Professor of Comparative </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">L</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">iterature</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, he</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> uses English for his academic writings.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Fanon is critical of those liberals who say that Negroes should be treated ‘kindly’, in a way </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">that </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">they pity them and make them devoid of human dignity of equality. Fanon says at one place</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</span></span></span> <span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">What I am asserting is that the European has a fixed concept of the Negro, and there is nothing more exasperating than to be asked: “How long have you been in France? You speak French so well.”</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In other words, </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">it implies </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the Negro has got civili</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ed and cultured by speaking</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> a</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> colonial language ‘so well’, </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">and </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">thus psychologically expressing the ‘superiority’ of the ‘white’!</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In India</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> there were examples of public school educated children who were asked to speak English even in their homes and adopt an ‘accent’, say, British or American, whereas the natural accent with a Bengali, South Indian or North Indian touch is mocked, even if the written language of such persons may better than </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">a </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">British or American.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Fanon observes the bitter reality that </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture. The Antilles Negro who wants to be white will be the whiter as he gains greater mastery of the cultural tool that language is.</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Fanon elaborates it further</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">:</span></span></span> <span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Historically, it must be understood that the Negro wants to speak French because it is the key that can open doors which were still barred to him fifty years ago.</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Compare this with the one section among </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">dalit movement pleading for English as a medium and source to become part of </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">elite and corporate sector in India. Our old Leftist dalit intellectual Chandra Bhan Prasad is a votary of this trend.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">second chapter</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Fanon moves to </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">a </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">more complex subject of </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">‘</span></span></span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Woman of Colour and the White Man</span></span></span></em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span></span></span></em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">. </span></span></span></em><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">M</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">en and women</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">both Whites and Blacks</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> get attracted to each other, sometime marry too, but somehow their mental complexes come in the way of loving each other as two free human beings without any complex of colour or race. Both have a sense of superiority and inferiority and narcissism, which reflects upon their sexual relationship </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">as well</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The t</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">hird chapter title is </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">reversal of the second chapter</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> -- ‘</span></span></span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Man of Colour and the White Woman</span></span></span></em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span></span></span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">. As a practi</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ing psychiatrist</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Fanon observes features of complexity in emotional and physical relations of both sexes </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">culturally </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">shaped by the sense of colour, even when they are intellectually advanced and sometime</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> progressive. The cultural, emotional and psychological fallout of such situations are described by Fanon in these words</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">:</span></span></span> <span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">We know historically that the Negro guilty of lying with a white woman is castrated. The Negro who has had a white woman makes himself taboo to his fellows.</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> There are many case studies by Fanon, but his conclusion is</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> -</span></span></span> <span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">We shall see that another solution is possible. It implies a restructuring of the world.</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> So, how to restructure the world in </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">a </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">non</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">-</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">racial, no</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">n-</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">casteist, non-discriminatory </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">manner</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">?</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In the fourth chapter with the title<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">-</em></span></span></span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> ‘</span></span></span></em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The </span></span></span></em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">S</span></span></span></em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">o-called Dependency Complex of the Colonized Peoples</span></span></span></em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span></span></span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, Fanon debates this issue with another scholar, Mannoni, author of <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Psychology of Colonization</em></span></span></span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</span></span></span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> and rebuts his arguments. Taking the example of South Africa, he says</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, “</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">What is South Africa? A boiler into which thirteen million blacks are clubbed and penned in by two and a half million whites. If the poor whites hate the Negroes, it is not, as M. Mannoni would have us believe, because “racialism is the work of petty officials, small traders, and colonials who have toiled much without great success.” No; it is because the structure of South Africa is a racist structure</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">.”</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Moving further</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Fanon discusses</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> ‘</span></span></span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Fact of Blackness</span></span></span></em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span></span></span></em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">. </span></span></span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">He reacts to others defining what a Negro is in their own definitions, to which </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">he </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">responds</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">: “</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">For my own part, I would certainly know how to react. And in one sense, if I were asked for a definition of myself, I would say that I am one who waits; I investigate my surroundings, I interpret everything in terms of what I discover, I become sensitive.</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> In this chapter</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Fanon quotes many poems to describe the complex feelings involved even in matters of sexual relationships.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">sixth chapter</span></span></span> <span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, ‘</span></span></span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Negro and Psychopathology</span></span></span></em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span></span></span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, Fanon presents a brief but deep psychoanalyses of coloni</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ed black people, and the inability of black people to fit into the norms (social, cultural, racial) established by white society (the coloni</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">er). That "a normal Negro child, having grown up in a normal Negro family, will become abnormal on the slightest contact of the white world.</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> In next chapter</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, ‘</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Negro and Recognition</em></span></span></span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span></span></span></em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</span></span></span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Fanon goes further deep in describing Negroes. After discussing Adler, in sub section of this chapter</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> ‘</span></span></span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Black Man and Hegel</span></span></span></em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span></span></span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, he examines the dialectics of the philosopher and conveys his suspicions of the black man being under the rubric of a philosophy </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">modelled</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> after whiteness. According to Fanon</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> there is a conflict that takes form internally as self-deprecation because of this white philosophical affirmation.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In last chapter</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</span></span></span> <span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">‘</span></span></span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">By Way of Conclusion</span></span></span></em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’</span></span></span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">, Fanon opines that both Black</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> and White</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">s</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> are torn due to </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">historical past of racialism and for creating </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">a </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">new society</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">. H</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">e concludes the book with these words</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">:</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It is through the lasting tension of their freedom that</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">men will be able to create the ideal conditions of existence for a</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">human world.</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Superiority? Inferiority?</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Why not the quite simple attempt to touch the other, to feel the</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">other, to explain the other to myself?</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Was my freedom not given to me then in order to build the</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">world of the you?</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">At the conclusion of this study, I want the world to recognize,</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">with me, the open door of every consciousness.</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">My final prayer:</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">O my body, make of me always a man who questions!</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">n India,</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> too,</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> we need to build a society where there are people who question. The weak tradition of questioning is being suppressed by the cult of Bhakti, rather Andh Bhakti</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">(Blind Faith), against which Dr </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">BR </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Ambedkar, another victim of casteism, like racialism in Africa, opine</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">d</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> that questioning was the biggest asset of mankind and the society </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">that </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">stops questioning was doomed to go back to barbarism. Bhagat Singh too wrote</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">‘<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Why I am an Atheist’</em> by questioning every</span></span></span> <span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">phenomenon around him.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The f</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">irst step of liberation for ‘<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Wretched of the Earth’</em></span></span></span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</span></span></span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> the last and classic book of Frantz Fanon</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> lies in his first book</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> ‘</span></span></span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black Skins and White Masks</span></span></span></em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">’ </span></span></span></em><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">-</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“</span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> O my body, make of me always a man who questions!</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">”</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The writer is a retired professor of JNU and an honorary adviser to the Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, Delhi.</span> Views are personal.</span></strong></em></span></span></span></p></div></div></div><script type="text/javascript">
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</script>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-9432906990743595432022-07-31T18:57:00.000+05:302022-07-31T18:57:13.883+05:30Udham Singh – Life of a Hero, Peppered With History, Fiction, Thrill<div about="/Relook-Book-Udham-Singh-Life-Hero-Peppered-History-Fiction-Thrill" class="story full clearfix news-article" data-history-node-id="48718" id="articleSection" role="article" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: grid; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; gap: 1em 2.5%; grid-template-columns: 74% 23.5%; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="articleContent" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: flex; flex-direction: column; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; row-gap: 1em;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/Relook-Book-Udham-Singh-Life-Hero-Peppered-History-Fiction-Thrill" id="label" rel="bookmark" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;"><h1 style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #163c5a; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></h1><h1 style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #163c5a; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></h1><h1 style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #163c5a; font-size: 30px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Relook at a Book: Udham Singh – Life of a Hero, Peppered With History, Fiction, Thrill</h1></a><div class="articleDetails" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: grid; grid-template-columns: 50% 50%; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; row-gap: 1em;"><div class="authorDetails" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #163c5a; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/author/Chaman%20Lal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Chaman Lal</a> </span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">| </span><time style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">31 Jul 2022</time><div class="translated-by" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></div></div><div class="articleCategories" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right;"><ul class="field field--name-taxonomy-term field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field--items" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: flex; flex-flow: row-reverse wrap; gap: 1em 0.5em; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="field--item" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/Books" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: rgb(237, 237, 237); border-radius: 15px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 1.2em; text-decoration-line: none;">Books</a></li><li class="field--item" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/Politics" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: rgb(237, 237, 237); border-radius: 15px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 1.2em; text-decoration-line: none;">Politics</a></li><li class="field--item" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/India" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: rgb(237, 237, 237); border-radius: 15px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 1.2em; text-decoration-line: none;">India</a></li></ul></div></div><div class="articleIntro" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #515f67; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The author, an award-winning journalist, uses an interesting narrative style to celebrate the life of Jalianwala Bagh massacre’s revenge taker, who was executed on July 31, 1940.</div></div><div class="content" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: flex; flex-direction: column; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; row-gap: 1em;"><div class="coverImage" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="udham singh1." height="524" loading="lazy" src="https://www.newsclick.in/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_885/public/2022-07/udham%20singh1.PNG?itok=-6eAg9Bq" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="885" /></div></div></div></div><div class="bodyContent" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Anita Anand, The Patient Assassin, The True Tale of Massacre, revenge and the Raj, London, Simon and Schuster, 2019, pages 384, Kindle ed</em></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">The book, The Patient Assassin, by London-based Anita Anand is based on the life of Udham Singh, who assassinated Michael O’Dwyer, the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab during 1919, and was infamous for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Anand’s ancestors on both sides, her own and her husband’s, were involved in some way or the other the sufferings of the biggest massacre during British Raj after the 1857 revolt. Her grandfather, Ishwar Das Anand, was in Jallianwala Bagh on that fateful day of April 13, 1919. He survived as he left a bit early before the firing was ordered by Reginald Dyer. Her husband’s ancestors settled in London in the 1930s and one of them lived with Udham Singh in London.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">So, as a writer, Anand has the privilege of having heard the story from close family persons, as well as being a broadcast journalist with BBC, she has used her skills as a journalist and researcher to build the story of Udham Singh in a narrative style. She already has written another popular book on Sophia, the daughter of the last Maharaja of Punjab, Duleep Singh, and also co-authored another one on Kohinoor, with celebrated historian William Dalrymple. In this book, she has given a historical event the shape of a long narrative, to make it more interesting, and has taken the liberty to give almost a fictional form and a thriller as well.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="udham singh" height="1967" loading="lazy" src="https://www.newsclick.in/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_885/public/2022-07/IMG_20220727_155934-min.jpg?itok=r0gDzHnU" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="885" /></div></div><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Before Anand begins the narration, she quotes from one of the greatest novelists of the world, Charles Dickens: “Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule” The quote is from one of his famous novels, A Tale of Two Cities, and shows that Anand, through the historic event, wishes to create a story of revenge as well.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Apart from 25 chapters of this spread-out narration, nine are in part one, and 16 are in part two. In the preface, the author has referred to her family connections to the event and the historical background and a few known facts, like the number of killings as per British and Indian perceptions. The author has also included a list of illustrations (which are very important and rare).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">The preface has underlined that on April 13, 1919, Dyer, a British officer of Irish origin, had ordered his men to fire upon around 20,000 innocent and unarmed men, women and children. The victims included the youngest, a six-month old baby and the oldest, a man in his 80s.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Dyer was supported Michael O’Dwyer, then Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, who became the target of Udham Singh’s revenge, as Dyer had died early in 1927. Dyer had boasted that he could have killed many more had his men not exhausted firearms and if he could have driven his armoured car inside the Bagh through a narrow lane with machine guns, as he was seeking to teach a lesson to the restive province.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Anand refers to former British Prime Minister David Cameron expressing remorse but not apologising at the site itself 94 years later. Her grandfather, Ishwar Das Anand, suffered survivor’s guilt in his short life of 40 years. He lost his sight as well.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">The Amazon advertisement of the book (edited) says:</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"> “The dramatic true story of a celebrated young survivor of a 1919 British massacre in India, Udham Singh and his ferocious twenty-year campaign of revenge that made him a hero to hundreds of millions—and spawned a classic legend. (Presence of Udham Singh in Jallianwala Bagh has not been conclusively proven, the evidence is there that he was away in Africa at the time of happening).”</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Titles on Udham Singh" height="638" loading="lazy" src="https://www.newsclick.in/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_885/public/2022-07/Titles%20on%20Udham%20Singh%20%281%29.jpg?itok=Ix6EzUlm" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="885" /></div></div><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">When Michael O’Dwyer ordered Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer to Amritsar, he wanted him to bring the ‘troublesome’ city to heel. O’Dwyer had become increasingly alarmed at the effect Gandhi was having on this province, as well as the demonstrations, strikes, and shows of Hindu-Muslim unity. All these things, to him, were a precursor to a second Indian revolt.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">What happened next shocked the world. An unauthorised gathering in Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar in April 1919 became the focal point for O’Dwyer’s law enforcers. Dyer marched his soldiers into the walled garden, blocking the only exit. Then, without issuing any order to disperse, he instructed his men to open fire, turning their guns on the dense part of the crowd, filled with over a thousand unarmed men, women, and children. For 10 minutes, the soldiers continued firing, stopping only when they ran out of ammunition.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;">According to legend (yes, not a proven fact), 18-year-old Sikh orphan Udham Singh was injured in the attack and remained surrounded by the dead and dying until he was able to move the next morning. Then, he supposedly picked up a handful of blood-soaked earth, smeared it across his forehead, and vowed to kill the men responsible.</p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">The truth, as the author has discovered, is more complex—but no less dramatic. The award winning journalist traced Singh’s journey through Africa, the United States, and across Europe until, in March 1940, he finally arrived in front of O’Dwyer himself in a London Hall, ready to shoot him down. The Patient Assassin shines a devastating light on one of history’s most horrific events, but it reads like a taut thriller and reveals the incredible but true story behind a legend that still endures today.” (Amazon ad ends here)</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">Many books have been written in many languages on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and Udham Singh, some of which have been quoted by Anand. She visited Sunam and met people known to Udham Singh still alive. Some of her narration could be contested on the factual level, as one researcher Navtej Singh earlier has authoritatively, with documentation, claimed that Udham Singh was not present in the Bagh on that day and that he was abroad for labour. But it is true that Anita Anand’s narrative style is more enchanting than the historical accounts of earlier authors.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Navtej Book-Udham Singh documents" height="630" loading="lazy" src="https://www.newsclick.in/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_885/public/2022-07/Navtej%20Book-Udham%20Singh%20documents%20%20%281%29.jpg?itok=80i7yVFg" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="885" /></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;">Navtej Book-Udham Singh documents</p></div></div><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">History was earlier written in an academic manner as well as fiction, now a new more reader-friendly genre has developed, which is a combination of journalism, fictional narration and historical facts. History was considered a boring subject among school students earlier, maybe school textbooks are still boring, but new forms of history writing are becoming more attractive, but with a rider that the narration and style should not lose the core message of historic tragedies. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">The Patient Assassin brings makes Udham Singh seem like a fictional hero, as well as a romantic, having many liaisons with women and leaving them without remorse, yet completely focused on his aim to shoot the murderer of Jallianwala Bagh. He achieves this aim in well-planned plot and is proud of it. This aspect of Udham Singh is well brought out by Anand, a non-professional historian.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Rakesh Kumar-Udham Singh book title and documents" height="644" loading="lazy" src="https://www.newsclick.in/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_885/public/2022-07/Rakesh%20Kumar-Udham%20Singh%20book%20title%20and%20documents%20%281%29_0.jpg?itok=g5ReHOhn" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="885" /></div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Rakesh Kumar-Udham Singh book title and documents</em></p></div></div><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">However, more important and authentic books on Udham Singh or Mohmmad Singh Azad, as he himself signed and presented in London’s trial court, are written by Navtej Singh, published by Punjabi University Patiala, and Rakesh Kumar, a retired engineer from Udham Singh’s own place, Sunam. The titles of those books are given in Anand’s book. A life size statue erected by the Indian government in 2018 at the entrance of Jallianwala Bagh Amritsar is also there, which does not match with the real photographs of Udham Singh, whose birth name was Sher Singh. He was an orphan and was brought up in Pingalwara School in Amritsar and later moved to Africa for labour work after his education in Amritsar was over. He travelled to many countries before shooting Michael O’Dwyer and getting executed on July 31, 1940 in London. His remains were brought to India 34 years later, in 1974.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US">The writer is a retired professor of JNU and an honorary adviser to the Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, Delhi.</span></strong></em></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p></div></div><div class="attribution" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="courtesy" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></div><div class="original-published-date" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; 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</script>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-41937508243124774712022-07-22T20:39:00.001+05:302022-07-22T20:39:16.972+05:30Seven That Were Hanged questions Death Penalty-favourite of Bhagat Singh<h1 style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #163c5a; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 30px; letter-spacing: 0.28px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/relook-book-andreyev-seven-hanged-questions-rationale-death-penalty">https://www.newsclick.in/relook-book-andreyev-seven-hanged-questions-rationale-death-penalty</a><br /></h1><h1 style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #163c5a; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 30px; letter-spacing: 0.28px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">R<a href="https://www.newsclick.in/relook-book-andreyev-seven-hanged-questions-rationale-death-penalty" id="label" rel="bookmark" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">elook at a Book: Andreyev’s ‘Seven That Were Hanged’ Questions the Rationale of Death Penalty</a></h1><div class="articleDetails" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: grid; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; grid-template-columns: 50% 50%; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; row-gap: 1em;"><div class="authorDetails" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #163c5a; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/author/Chaman%20Lal" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Chaman Lal</a> </span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">| </span><time style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">22 Jul 2022</time><div class="translated-by" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></div></div><div class="articleCategories" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right;"><ul class="field field--name-taxonomy-term field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field--items" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: flex; flex-flow: row-reverse wrap; gap: 1em 0.5em; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="field--item" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/Books" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: rgb(237, 237, 237); border-radius: 15px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 1.2em; text-decoration-line: none;">Books</a></li><li class="field--item" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/Politics" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: rgb(237, 237, 237); border-radius: 15px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 1.2em; text-decoration-line: none;">Politics</a></li><li class="field--item" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/India" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: rgb(237, 237, 237); border-radius: 15px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 1.2em; text-decoration-line: none;">India</a></li><li class="field--item" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/International" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background: rgb(237, 237, 237); border-radius: 15px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0.3em 1.2em; text-decoration-line: none;">International</a></li></ul></div></div><div class="articleIntro" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: #515f67; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The author underlines the futility of capital punishment in a world that is getting bloodier by the day.</div></div><div class="content" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; row-gap: 1em;"><div class="coverImage" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt=" Relook at a Book: Andreyev’s ‘Seven That Were Hanged’ Questions the Rationale of Death Penalty" height="498" loading="lazy" src="https://www.newsclick.in/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_885/public/2022-07/TODAY%27S%20NEWS%20ROUNDUP%2820%29%281%29.png?itok=KqXr-0P7" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" typeof="foaf:Image" width="885" /></div></div></div></div><div class="bodyContent" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Andreyev, Leonid, Seven that were Hanged</em>, (Novella) first publication in Russian <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">in 1891, many English translations, pages 80+</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">This is one of the favourite books of Bhagat Singh and his fellow revolutionaries. In many memoirs regarding the revolutionaries, there is reference to this book among the few favourites they read and discussed. The writer of this novella was Russian writer Leonid Andreyev, a friend of author Maxim Gorki, who encouraged him to concentrate on writing after he noticed his story published in 1898.</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Andreyev was born in 1871 and worked as a police court reporter. Later, he turned out to be a celebrity playwright. Out of the 25 plays he wrote, his most famous one was <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">He Who Gets Slapped</em>. During the 1905 Russian Revolution, he defended democratic values. He also welcomed the February 1917 Russian democratic revolution, but was not comfortable with the Bolshevik October revolution later that year. He shifted to Finland, where he died in 1919.</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Apart from plays, Andreyev also wrote fiction and his 1908 novella, <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Seven that were Hanged, </em>is considered among his major works. This novella has many translations in English -- the first was in 1909 by Herman Bernstein, another by Thomas Seltzer in 1925, the latest one was in 2016 by Anthony Briggs. It was adapted into a play as well as a film.</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Andreyev wrote a brief introduction to the novella’s first English translation –“Literature, which I have the honor to serve, is dear to me just because the noblest task it sets before itself is that of wiping out boundaries and distances.” He mentions the Russian state’s attitude to literature in those days:</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">‘I have treated ruling and slaughtering Russia with restraint and mildness may best be gathered from the fact that the Russian censor has permitted my book to circulate. This is sufficient evidence when we recall how many books, brochures and newspapers have found eternal rest in the peaceful shade of the police stations, where they have risen to the patient sky in the smoke and flame of bonfires.’</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">But the purpose of this novella is to question death penalty or capital punishment, which is relevant even today. The novelist says: ‘My task was to point out the horror and the iniquity of capital punishment under any circumstances. The horror of capital punishment is great when it falls to the lot of courageous and honest people whose only guilt is their excess of love and the sense of righteousness-in such instances, conscience revolts. But the rope is still more horrible when it forms the noose around the necks of weak and ignorant people.’</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The novella is the story of the execution of five revolutionaries and two ordinary criminals, but the author’s sympathy lies more with the ordinary murderers, because he feels that the revolutionaries, with their strong will and ideas, can face death boldly, but same can turn ordinary criminals to insanity!</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The 73-page novella is divided into 11 small chapters and begins with first chapter under the title- ‘At One O’ clock, Your Excellency!’ The Czarist minister is reported by the chief of his guards that exactly at one o’ clock next afternoon, the revolutionaries will attack him. The minister is surprised at this information, as he himself had come to know of this just hours ago. The description of the whole night spent awake by the minister, the imagination of his fears and anxieties, have been depicted psychologically.</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The story moves to the second chapter, ‘<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">C</em>ondemned to be Hanged’ with the arrest of the four revolutionaries at the gate of minister’s house. While the three men and a woman are arrested with bombs and weapons at the gate, another woman is also arrested from the place where the conspiracy to kill the minister was hatched. They all were very young, the eldest was a 28-year-old man and the youngest was a 19-year-old woman. The trial was held swiftly in the fortress, they were imprisoned and condemned to death. They were calm, very serious and thoughtful. Their contempt for the judges was so intense during the trial that they did not even feign cheerfulness or smile. Bhagat Singh and the other revolutionaries’ conduct during their trials was perhaps impacted by their readings of such novels.</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Sergey Golovin, son of an ex-officer was the main character among the revolutionaries. The young pale girl, known by the name Musya, was among two women. Tanya Kovalchuk was the other woman, a motherly figure, who was ready to sacrifice her life for others. Werner was the bitterest of all and Vasily Kashirin most terrified of death.</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The two other prisoners condemned to death were Ivan Yansen, a farm hand, who had killed his master and tried to rape his daughter and Tsiganok Golubets, a Russian bandit, a Tatarian, proud of his act of murder of three persons and jovial about the sentence.</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">One chapter each is dedicated to describing the mental state all the seven persons are going through. Golovin and Tanya are not afraid of death and try to help others to come to terms with the sentence. Musya also tries to provide succor to other criminals who are sentenced to death. The most pitiable condition is of Yansen who, while being led to the gallows, is begging to be allowed to live. Golovin’s father prepares his wife not to show any sorrow or fear before his son and keeps his and his own and his son’s pride intact, while meeting him in prison. Women even kiss ordinary non-political criminals to give them a sense of human warmth. Sergey keeps exercising to keep fit all through. There is lot of philosophising and psychoanlaysis of the characters.</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In the final 11th chapter, all the seven are -’On the way to Scaffold’. They are taken in vehicles to a far off location where the gallows are in a snow-filled region. They are asked to walk in twos, holding hands and everyone’s state of mind is depicted by the author in a somewhat dramatic manner.</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The novella ends with this last paragraph:</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">“The sun was rising over the sea.</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">The bodies were placed in a box. Then they were taken away. With stretched necks, with bulging eyes, with blue, swollen tongues, looking like some unknown, terrible flowers between the lips, which were covered with bloody foam-the bodies were hurried back along the same road by which they had come-alive. And the spring snow was just as soft and fresh; the spring air was just as strong and fragrant. And on the snow lay Sergey’s black rubber-shoe, wet, trampled underfoot.</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Thus, did men greet the rising sun.’</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Bhagat Singh and his revolutionary comrades had read such literature to strengthen their resolve to face death bravely, but author had written to underline the futility of capital punishment, which colonial and oppressive rulers like the Russian Czar could never understand. Nor is it understood today after more than hundred years of publication of such humanist literature.</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Mahatma Gandhi and all other pacifist activists and philosophers have been against capital punishment. Mutual killings by human beings are not a new phenomenon. From the onset of human civilisation, which has grown out of Darwinian theory of evolution, no living being other than humans kills other beings, even the most feared ones, such as snakes, lions etc. It is to satisfy their hunger that stronger animals kill weaker ones.</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In the earlier phase of human civilisation, the human race was doing the same, though mostly killing animals to eat. This is also true during wars, when many a times human beings had to eat human flesh to survive. Some cruel colonial masters also forced prisoners to eat human flesh. It is with the development of civilisation and culture, that human societies have organised themselves on certain ‘social contract’ created out of concepts like democracy etc. Even today, in many Arabian countries ‘blood money’ is an accepted form of justice for murder!</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">There are more than a hundred countries in the world that have done away with capital punishment. India is not one among these, yet some form of demand and urgency exists in India, too. Ironically, the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi are publicised in India and abroad, but his principled opposition to capital punishment is not given much importance. Defending Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries from execution, Mahatma Gandhi did whatever he could, but ironically, he did not emphasise upon his own basic principle of being against capital punishment. Had he done so, he would not have been subjected to such scrutiny as he is now in context of the revolutionaries’ execution.</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">There are two extremes in the world today. On the one side, there are blood seekers of the religious fundamentalist variety, who want to lynch anyone who speaks against their professed religion. India has lately among such nations. Another perspective was seen in the case of even the worst criminals, like Andres Breivik in Norway who killed more than 70 children playing in a park. The Norwegian people, despite this most brutal Nazi kind of crime, did not make cat calls for his lynching or <em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">fansi do, fansi do </em><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">(</em>hang him<em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">).</em></span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Stable societies treat such crimes as aberrations. Even as Sweden Prime Minister Olof Palme was killed inside a theatre while watching film with his wife like any other citizen without security, the Swedish society did not resort to the kind of madness that Indian society has resorted to, providing any petty politician police security in such a visible and annoying form.</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">In jurisprudence, there are theories of retribution and deterrence as opposed to reformative and rehabilitative theories. Bhagat Singh in his jail notebook had taken detailed notes of these theories. He was like other humanist philosophers of the world, who were in favour of reformative and rehabilitative justice system and considered the British colonial system to be retributive jurisprudence.</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Seven that were Hanged</em> once again reminds the human society of the relevance of building a society where there is no capital punishment, as in the roots of any crime, lie a social set-up that is exploitative and oppressive. To counter it, the task of society is to build a system based on equality, fraternity and justice -- a far looking dream today despite many social revolutions!</span></b></span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em;"><strong style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The writer is a retired professor of JNU and an honorary adviser to the Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, Delhi.</em></span></span></strong></p></div></div></div><script type="text/javascript">
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</script>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-25982512251293135182022-07-15T20:33:00.002+05:302022-07-15T20:33:39.776+05:30Victor Hugo's last Novel-Ninety Three and world revolutionaries<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><a name="_Hlk108562880"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="color: red; font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Hugo, Victor, <i>Ninety-Three</i>,
a novel, first French original edition 1874<o:p></o:p></span></b></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">https://www.newsclick.in/relook-book-victor-hugo-last-novel-influenced-revolutionaries<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7030a0; line-height: 106%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="color: red; font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> </span></b><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Bhagat Singh was a voracious reader of books and the variety of books
he read varied from Political economy to literature. Though Victor Hugo is
a hugely known, rather a classic writer of 19<sup>th</sup> century, but he
is known more for his novel </span></b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Les Misérables</span></i></b></a><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">. Victor Hugo, who lived a rich and tumultuous life of 83 years, is
considered one of the most respected writers of not only France, but of
Europe as a whole. Nineteenth century was a century of enlightenment in
Europe after French revolution of 1793, giving rise to the slogan of
Equality, Fraternity and Liberty, which later became part of French
constitution and even UNO motto. </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7030a0; line-height: 106%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">
Bhagat Singh had read <i>Les Misérables</i> also, but on this novel
<i>Ninety-Three,</i> he and Sukhdev had discussions. Along with Leonid
Andreyev novel <i>Seven that were Hanged</i> their personalities as
revolutionaries were shaped to some extent on the lives of revolutionaries
in these two novels in France and Russia, at least these novels had left
deep impression on them.</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7030a0; line-height: 106%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> For
France, Victor Hugo as a writer, was one of the greatest. France gives more
respect to its writers than its political leaders. As once one of most
powerful President of France Charles de Gaulle had famously said about
Jean Paul Sartre that <i>Sartre is France and I can not arrest France.</i>
That time Sartre had come on roads to support France’s rebellious students
in 1968. Victor Hugo wrote much in terms of quantity, but is known for
quality of his works as well. Apart from ten books of fiction, he wrote
more than fifty more books, which include poetry, plays, prose and
political writings. His other famous novel is <i>Hunchback of the Notre
Dame</i>. Very few personalities of the world have got so much space on
Wikipedia, as Victor Hugo has got. Victor Hugo is considered as foremost
writer of Romantic movement in literature. </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7030a0; line-height: 106%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> <i>Ninety-Three</i>
was his last writing published in 1874 at the age of 72 years. He died in
1885 at the age of 83 years. Victor Hugo was not only a writer; he was
active in political life of France and took part in its revolutionary
activities as well. Hugo had become member of prestigious French Academy
of Letters of France in 1841 and entered Upper Chamber of Parliament in
1845, nominated by then King. Later he was elected to Second Republic’s
National Assembly like lower chamber in 1848, as a conservative. He broke
from Conservatives in 1849 and became votary of abolition of death
sentence. He spoke in favour of ending misery of the poor people and for
universal suffrage. He was also in favour of free education for all children.
In 1851, when Napoleon III seized the power, Hugo went into exile in 1855
and returned to France in 1870 only, after Napoleon III was deposed.
Although like Charles Dickens in England, Victor Hugo also initially
supported French colonialism of Africa as ‘civilizing mission’. But later
he became strong votary of abolishing slavery in the Caribbean and also of
decolonising Africa. He famously said in 1862-‘</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Only one slave on
Earth is enough to dishonor the freedom of all men. So, the abolition of
slavery is, at this hour, the supreme goal of the thinkers’<o:p></o:p></span></b></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%; margin-left: 36.0pt;"><b><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">—</span></b><b><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> </span></b><b><i><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Victor Hugo, 17 January 1862</span></i></b><b><span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7030a0; line-height: 106%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> During Paris Commune in
France from 18<sup>th</sup> March 1871 to 27<sup>th</sup> May, he was in
Brussels, he was critical of atrocities on ‘both sides.’ He freed himself
from the impact of religion and declared himself to be <i>Free Thinker</i>,
in the tradition of Voltaire, a progressive trend in those times. His
rationalism had offended some people and he had faced slogans like Burn
Hugo. Despite his many contradictions, he had become a hero for France by
1870, he had remained member of National Assembly again and when he died,
France mourned his death as a national hero. In many cities of France,
lanes or areas are named after him.<o:p></o:p></span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7030a0; line-height: 106%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> Interesting part of his
last novel <i>Ninety-Three</i> is that on one side ‘Reds’ like Joseph
Stalin and Bhagat Singh had read and appreciated it. On the other side
‘Whites’ like iconic novelist of individualism Ayan Rand also admired this
novel and even wrote an introduction to one of its English
translations. <o:p></o:p></span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7030a0; line-height: 106%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> The novel was written on 1793
French revolution but in the shadow of Paris Commune of 1871, as the novel
was published in 1874. It is long novel of nearly 350 pages and not very
simple narration or storytelling. <i>Ninety-Three</i> (Quatrevingt-treize)
is the last novel by Victor Hugo. The novel concerns the Revolt in the
Vendée and Chouannerie – the counter-revolutionary revolts in 1793 during
the French Revolution. It is divided into three parts, but not connected
chronologically; each part tells a different story, offering a different
view of historical general events. The action mainly takes place in
Brittany and in Paris. The civil war in France had started in November
1792 and the murders which started were so terrible that they raised one’s
hair on head. A troop of "Blues" (soldiers of the French
Republic) encounter in the bocage Michelle Fléchard, a peasant woman, and
her three young children, who are fleeing from the conflict. She explains
that her husband and parents have been killed in the peasant revolt that
started the insurrection. The troop's commander, Sergeant Radoub,
convinces them to look after the family.<o:p></o:p></span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7030a0; line-height: 106%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> Meanwhile, at sea, a group
of Royalist "Whites" are planning to land the Marquis de
Lantenac, a Breton aristocrat whose leadership could transform the
fortunes of the rebellion. While at sea, a sailor fails to properly secure
his cannon, which rolls out of control and damages the ship. The sailor
risks his life to secure the cannon and save their ship. Lantenac awards
the man a medal for his bravery and then executes him (without trial) for
failing in his duty. Their corvette is spotted by ships of the Republic.
Lantenac slips away in a boat with one supporter, Halmalo, the brother of
the executed sailor, and the corvette distracts the Republican ships by
provoking a battle the damaged ship cannot win. <o:p></o:p></span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7030a0; line-height: 106%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> Lantenac is hunted by
the Blues, but is protected by a local beggar, to whom he gave alms in the
past. He meets up with his supporters, and they immediately launch an
attack on the Blues. Part of the troop with the family is captured.
Lantenac orders them all to be shot, including Michelle. He takes the
children with him as hostages. The beggar finds the bodies, and discovers
that Michelle is still alive. He nurses her back to health. <o:p></o:p></span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7030a0; line-height: 106%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> antenac's ruthless
methods have turned the revolt into a major threat to the Republic. In
Paris, Danton, Robespierre and Marat argue about the threat, while also
sniping at each other. They promulgate a decree that all rebels and anyone
who helps them will be executed. Cimourdain, a committed revolutionary and
former priest, is deputed to carry out their orders in Brittany. He is
also told to keep an eye on Gauvain, the commander of the Republican
troops there, who is related to Lantenac and thought to be too lenient to
rebels. Unknown to the revolutionary leaders, Cimourdain was Gauvain's
childhood tutor, and thinks of him as a son.<o:p></o:p></span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7030a0; line-height: 106%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> Meanwhile, Michelle has
recovered and goes in search of her children. She wanders aimlessly, but
eventually hears that they are being held hostage in Lantenac's castle. At
the castle Sergeant Radoub, fighting with the besiegers, spots the
children. He persuades Gauvain to let him lead an assault. He manages to
break through the defences and kill several rebels, but with Halmalo's
aid, Lantenac and a few survivors escape through a secret passage after
setting fire to the building. As the fire takes hold, Michelle arrives,
and sees that her children are trapped. Her hysterical cries of despair
are heard by Lantenac. Struck with guilt, he returns through the passage
to the castle and rescues the children, helped by Radoub. He then gives
himself up. Lantenac, who throughout had been most ruthless and without
any sense of humanity in him, shows a kind of some human kindness for
children, whom he had kept as hostages, makes revolutionary Gauvain a bit
soft towards him. Lantenac fate was certain, he was going to be
guillotined after a trial chaired by former priest Cimourdain. Gauvain out
of his idealist humanism, releases Lantenac and takes his place in prison
by changing clothes with him. Next morning at the time of trial, instead
of Lantenac, it is their own revolutionary comrade Gauvain, who faces
trial, which creates consternation among the jury. Radaub is part of jury
headed by Cimourdain, who treats Gauvain as his son, as he had tutored him
as a child. Out of three member judges panel Radaub acquits Gauvain seeing
his past sincere and unfailing revolutionary record. Cimourdin sides with
other judge to convict Gauvain and before Gauvain has to guillotined next
morning, goes and meets him in prison during his last night. Next morning
Gauvain is guillotined and at the same time a shot is heard, Cimourdined
had shot himself with pistol. The novel ends there.<o:p></o:p></span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7030a0; line-height: 106%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> Joseph Stalin had read the
novel during his seminary in Georgia and was deeply impacted by the
character of Cimourdin. Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev had discussion on this
novel. Sukhdev had no sympathy for Cimourdin committing suicide, he was
against the very idea of suicide as a revolutionary. However, after being
arrested and in jail, Sukhdev himself thought of suicide instead of
spending whole life behind jail walls. Sukhdev could not sustain long
hunger strike as Bhagat Singh and BK Dutt and many other comrades had
observed. The two letters exchange between Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev, one
outside jail and second inside jail throws light on the philosophical
attitude towards the concepts of Love and Suicide. Bhagat Singh was quite
harsh in criticism of Sukhdev about the idea of committing suicide and he
tells him clearly that inside and outside jail, both had changed
positions. Bhagat Singh argued that revolutionaries had to remain prepared
for long sufferings inside and outside jail without ever thinking of
suicide, though Bhagat Singh like Stalin understood Cimourdin’s dilemma,
who could perform his duty as revolutionary to get his son convicted and
guillotined, but then out of paternal emotions shot himself dead. <o:p></o:p></span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7030a0; line-height: 106%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> This novel had
influenced a lot those Indian revolutionaries, who were fond of and read
literature, like the other revolutionaries of the world. Though not much
discussed as literary classic, yet <i>ninety-three</i> stands apart among
its readership of revolutionaries across the world. That keeps the novel’s
socio-political relevance live even after nearly 150 years after its
publication!<o:p></o:p></span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7030a0; line-height: 106%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Arial Nova",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-bidi-font-family: Raavi; mso-bidi-language: PA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> The novel has been digitized
under Gutenberg project and available free on Internet Archives. <o:p></o:p></span></b></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><script type="text/javascript">
</script>
<script src="http://www.boxbe.com/scripts/widget_contactme.js?user=drchaman" type="text/javascript">
</script>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-47520362643361596572022-07-06T19:56:00.001+05:302022-07-06T19:56:34.119+05:30The Sun never set and The Blood Never Dried: Story of British colonialism<div class="news-article-details" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 148, 23); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "open sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><div class="taxonomy" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="taxonomy__terms__container" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 148, 23); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 10px 0px; width: 1140px;"><div class="taxonomy__term" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/Books" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d3554; font-weight: bolder; margin-right: 15px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;">Books</a></div> <div class="taxonomy__term" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/Politics" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d3554; font-weight: bolder; margin-right: 15px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;">Politics</a></div> <div class="taxonomy__term" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/India" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d3554; font-weight: bolder; margin-right: 15px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;">India</a></div> <div class="taxonomy__term" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/articlelist/International" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d3554; font-weight: bolder; margin-right: 15px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;">International</a></div></div><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/Relook%20at%20a%20Book%3A%20The%20Blood%20Never%20Dried%3A%20A%20People%E2%80%99s%20History%20of%20the%20British%20Empire" id="label" rel="bookmark" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #030b12; outline-offset: -2px; outline: -webkit-focus-ring-color auto 5px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;"><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 27px; font-weight: bolder; line-height: 1.1; margin: 10px 0px;">Relook at a Book: The Blood Never Dried: A People’s History of the British Empire</h1></a></div><div class="article-subtitle" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 10px;"><div class="field field--name-field-subtitle field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field--item" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 148, 23); box-sizing: border-box;">John Newsinger focuses on the major freedom struggles against colonialism and the cruelties committed by the British to crush them.</div></div><div class="author clearfix" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 148, 23); box-sizing: border-box; display: table; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 4px 0px;"><div class="author-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: table-row; float: left;"><div class="author-details" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d3554; display: inline-block; font-weight: 700;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/author/chaman%20lal" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d3554; overflow-wrap: break-word;">chaman lal</a></span></div> <div class="authored-date" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d3554; display: inline-block; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 5px;"><time style="box-sizing: border-box;">06 Jul 2022</time></div><div class="translated-by" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #919417;"></div></div></div></div><div class="article-inner-wrap" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "open sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 15px;"><div class="col-md-9" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 35px; position: relative; width: 855px;"><div class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 30px;"><div class="field field--name-field-cover-media-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field--item" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field--item" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="John Newsinger, ‘The Blood Never Dried: A People’s History of the British Empire’, 2013/2006, Bookmarks Publications, London, Pages 304." class="img-responsive" height="498" loading="lazy" src="https://www.newsclick.in/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_885/public/2022-07/TODAY%27S%20NEWS%20ROUNDUP%281%29.png?itok=MFQbPUVI" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" title="John Newsinger, ‘The Blood Never Dried: A People’s History of the British Empire’, 2013/2006, Bookmarks Publications, London, Pages 304." typeof="foaf:Image" width="885" /></div><div class="field field--name-field-media-image-caption field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field--item" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.42857em; margin-top: -10px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">John Newsinger, ‘The Blood Never Dried: A People’s History of the British Empire’, 2013/2006, Bookmarks Publications, London, Pages 304.</em></p></div></div></div><div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-top: 20px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Earnest Jones, the British socialist poet, wrote in his long poem <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Revolt of Hindostan,</em> “On its colonies, the sun never sets, but the blood never dries.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">John Newsinger, a British historian with left orientation, titled his book published in 2006 <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Blood Never Dried: A People’s History of British Empire</em>’. Its second and updated edition, which came out in 2013, is dedicated to the writer’s old comrades from Leicester—Chris Lymn, Mal Deakin, Andy Wynne, Jim Tolton, John Peach and the late Ken Orrill.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The book covers the history of British colonial oppression and exploitation in different regions of the world as Britain had colonised nearly a hundred countries in Asia, Africa and some other regions. The author’s main focus is not on many countries but on the major freedom struggles and the cruelties British committed to crush those anti-colonial movements.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Indian resistance figures twice in the book—first, as ‘The Great Indian Rebellion, 1857-58’ and then as ‘Quit India’ movement. In between, another chapter refers to massacres like the Jallianwala Bagh. The first chapter of the book begins with ‘The Jamaican Rebellion and the overthrow of slavery’<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">.</em> </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">There are chapters on Ireland, Irish famine, Opium Wars, Egypt, Suez Canal, Palestine Question, Mau Mau Movement in Kenya, Malaya and the Far East. Finally, the British colonial empire gives up before the neo-colonial regime of the American empire begins.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In the 2013 edition, a chapter on the US invasion of Iraq takes readers to the reality of the merging of colonial and neo-colonial systems of oppression and exploitation of the world’s largest population and how the fruits of this exploitation are enjoyed by a minuscule number of colonial and neo-colonial rulers and their patronised corporate giants—which, perhaps, has grown much worse during the pandemic.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In the introduction to the first edition of the book, Newsinger underlines the fact that “a close look at British imperial rule reveals episodes as brutal and shameful as in the history of any empire, indeed the British colonial regime suppressed the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya in the 1950s.” We remember the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar on April 13, 1919. But if one compares it with the British suppression of the Mau Mau rebellion around three decades later in Kenya, the Jallianwala Bagh brutality looks much lesser. What makes it gorier was that the atrocities were committed after the formation of international organisations like the United Nations.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The author refers to the previously hidden 294 boxes of 1,500 files on the Mau Mau rebellion, whose judgement came after the 2013 edition of the book. Britain had to pay a huge compensation of £19.9 million to the descendants of the 5,000 Kenyan victims. Whereas in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the British had to pay a few lakh rupees to the families of the victims and only Rs 500 to some.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Referring to author N Ferguson, an apologist of British imperialism whose book <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World</em> (2003) doesn’t even mention the Mau Mau revolt, Newsinger writes: “The Mau Mau revolt of the 1950’s was put down with terrible brutality, the routine use of torture, the summary executions, internment on a massive scale and the hanging of over 1000 prisoners.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Newsinger not only narrates the history of oppression and brutalities of British colonialism but also goes to the roots of exploitation. “Imperialism has two dimensions; firstly, the competition between the great imperial powers, competition that in the 20th century produced two world wars and the Cold war. This competition is the driving force of modern imperialism, and it has wreaked terrible damage on the world, consuming millions of lives.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Probably, one can understand the Ukraine War and the resulting Cold War-like situation from Newsinger’s interpretation of imperial competition. In his introduction, the author refers to a few films on the repression of South African people but also underlines the role of radicals and socialists in Britain who supported the resistance movements in colonies. He underlines the stand against British imperialism in Jones and another fierce critic of the empire, radical socialist William Morris.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In this context, the author does not spare the so-called progressive Labour Party, which was no different from the Conservatives in defending the colonial empire. Newsinger is unsparing of the new Labour Party with the rise of Tony Blair, who played a subordinate to US imperialism. The author has the humility to say that his study is not the history of the British colonial empire but only focuses on particular episodes—but these episodes expose the real and brutal face of old colonialism and neo-imperialism. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In the 2013 edition, like the first edition, Newsinger challenges another apologist of colonial empires John Darwin, a professor of history at Oxford University. In critical scrutiny of his 400-plus pages-book <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Unfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain </em>(2012),<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </em>he questions how Darwin casually referred to the catastrophic Bengal Famine of 1943. Darwin just gives a passing reference on page 346 that “the Bengal Famine of 1943 may have killed two million people”.<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"></em></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Newsinger favourably refers to Madhusree Mukherjee’s book <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Churchill’s Secret War’</em>, which powerfully exposes the British colonial regime during the famine. As per Mukherjee, the famine killed 3.5 to 5 million people while Winston Churchill used to say, “Indians are used to hunger.” </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">This edition also takes into account the British role in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. A new chapter on Iraq and Afghanistan has been added. The first chapter on Jamaica takes us back to the days of slavery and in Antigua, where less than 3,000 Whites were holding more than 24,000 Blacks as slaves.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The British empire in the Caribbean was built on the production of sugar from plantations where Africans worked as slaves and later Indians as semi-slaves after the abolition of slavery. In Jamaica, five lakh slaves were brought in from Africa between 1700 and 1774. During the 180 years of British rule in Jamaica, hardly any decade went without revolt against slavery. In neighbouring Trinidad, Barbados and Guyana, the situation was no different. Slaves were brought in chains and sold like cattle in markets. After the killing of thousands of people and several revolts, slavery finally ended in 1834.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The second chapter ‘The Irish Famine’ is a saga of the Irish revolutionary resistance to the British empire, which also inspired Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries in India. The story begins with the 1798 full-scale rebellion against British rule in Ireland. The Irish Potato Famine, also known as the Great Hunger, destroyed up to 40% of the potato crop. The effects of famine continued till 1850.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The story of the Irish struggle for freedom and the conflict between Catholics and Protestants is also woven into the story of the famine. The struggle of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which had impacted Indian revolutionaries, is described till the 1916 Easter rising. Later, Ireland is split into two parts—one part is now the Republic of Ireland whereas Northern Ireland continues to be an uneasy part of the United Kingdom with the Sinn Fein becoming the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly for the first time this year.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The third chapter ‘Opium Wars’ deals with wars with China due to the opium trade. British traders were earning from opium smuggling, which China was trying to control. The First Opium War took place in the 1840s with the Manchu empire of China. Despite being a small country, Britain won the war but the conflict continued. The Taiping rebellion in 1853 and the fall of the Nanjing regime took place during the three opium wars fought between China and Britain. Britain succeeded in occupying Hong Kong during these wars and kept it colonised till the 1997 agreement.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">India comes in the next chapter with the apt title ‘The Great Indian Rebellion 1857-58’, which begins with a quote from Michael Edwardes: “The English threw aside the mask of civilisation and engaged in a war on such ferocity that a reasonable parallel can be seen in our times with the Nazi occupation of Europe.”</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">A very strong statement by a historian of repute—though Newsinger does not completely agree with it—yet the comparison is found to be true in some respects, at least, in the methods adopted by the Nazi occupants of Europe and British colonialists.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">As he quotes a memoir of Thomas Lowe in his book <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Central India During The Rebellion of 1857 and 58, </em>Newsinger narrates the bloody wars of aggression by the British since the 19th century referring to the 1824-26 invasion of Burma, the 1839-42 disastrous invasion of Afghanistan, the 1843 occupation of Sindh, the 1844 occupation of Gwalior, the 1844-45 First Anglo-Sikh war, followed by two more wars to conquer Punjab in 1849.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Under the Doctrine of Lapse, any princely state under the suzerainty of the then-East India Company (EIC) would have its princely status abolished if the ruler was incompetent or died without a male heir. Using the doctrine, governor general Lord Dalhousie annexed Satara, Nagpur, Jhansi, Tanjore and lastly Awadh in 1856.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Dalhousie proudly proclaimed that the British queen had added fifty lakh people and £12 lakh to the empire. By 1818, the EIC had collected £22 lakh from land taxes surpassing the earnings from trade.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The author quotes from Karl Marx’s 1853 article on India that Britain achieved its sole purpose of destroying India. The tortures committed by the British during 1857-58 figure in British Parliament but were hidden by historians of the Raj. While colonialists were defending the atrocities on Indians, Marx underlined: “Mussulmans and Hindus renouncing their mutual antipathies have combined against their common masters. Revolt was part of the general disaffection against English supremacy on the part of great Asiatic nations.” (quoted from ‘First war of Independence’ by Marx).</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Newsinger also mentions how VD Savarkar’s book <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Indian war of Independence 1857</em> was published in 1909 and banned quickly in India. But it appeared on bookstalls wrapped in a cover labelled as ‘<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Random Papers of Pickwick Club’</em> (The author has given the source of this information from a 1931 book by Mac Munn). This book was secretly printed and distributed by Indian revolutionaries too.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The author narrates the details of the great rebellion but it is remembered more as the Cawnpore massacres in England. At Sati Chaura Ghat, in Kanpur, large number of British, including women, were massacred by Indian sepoys, giving rise to many narrations. Bhairav Prasad Gupt, a Hindi novelist, wrote a huge novel titled<em style="box-sizing: border-box;"> Sati Maiya Ka Chaura.</em> Rudrangshu Mukherjee in <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Specter of Violence</em> has tried to contextualise this massacre at Bibighar.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">But compared to what the British did to Indians in 1857-58, it seems minor but a violent reaction to colonial atrocities. The exact number of killings in 1857-58 are not known but it runs into lakhs as no official records were ever maintained.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Newsinger has detailed British cruelties, including 282 sepoys choked to death at Ajnala, Punjab, by the orders of deputy commissioner Cooper. Their remains were found during the last decade. The British were generally against Indian resistance as a large number of pro-British accounts were written during and after the revolt. But there was support for Indian resistance too as Jones wrote in <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Revolt of Hindostan</em>, from which the title of this book is taken. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Some unknown or lesser-known facts about the great rebellion mentioned by Newsinger include even Charles Dickens, the beloved writer of liberals, who defended British cruelties on Indians by saying, “To exterminate the race upon whom the stain of the late cruelties rested … to blot it out of mankind and raze it off the face of the earth (Page 89 of the 2013 edition).” On the other hand, Marx’s daughter Jenny supported Jones by siding with the revolt. The whole chapter of the book needs to be read carefully to see the real face of the colonial mindset. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">India is again mentioned in the chapter ‘Quit India’. Another chapter ‘The Post war Crisis-1916-26’ narrates the Irish Struggle and the Egyptian revolt and also refers to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and General Dyer’s crimes in the subchapter ‘Holding India by the sword’.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In the chapter Quit India, the author focuses on Mahatma Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movement besides referring to the Sholapur workers strike and other developments. The chapter makes reference to Simon Commission, Lala Lajpat Rai, Congress Socialist Party (CSP) and CPI before moving towards the launch of the Quit India Movement. It narrates in detail the various incidents during Quit India and the glorious resistance by Indians. The chapter also highlights the Bengal Famine and Churchill’s racist response to it. The chapter completes the story of Indian independence going through the Indian National Army, led by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, and the Royal Indian Navy revolt of 1946.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Very few books refer to the Palestinian sufferings but Newsinger brings to the fore the whole issue with a perspective on Zionism and imperialism in one full chapter. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Later chapters include the Suez Canal crisis, the British defeat and the crushing of the Mau Mau rebellion in great detail. Southern Rhodesia, the Indonesian killings of communists, the Vietnam War and Britain joining the American imperialist camp also find mention. Before concluding the book, a chapter added as Afterwards describes the hypocrisy and lies of the non-existential weapons of mass destruction used as an excuse to attack Iraq and publicly execute Saddam Hussain.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Every nationalist or patriot of any country should read this book to understand colonial and imperialist oppression and exploitation. Unfortunately, the world seems to be moving towards more imperialistic wars.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The writer is a retired professor of JNU and an honorary adviser to the Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, Delhi.<a href="https://www.newsclick.in/Relook%20at%20a%20Book%3A%20The%20Blood%20Never%20Dried%3A%20A%20People%E2%80%99s%20History%20of%20the%20British%20Empire">https://www.newsclick.in/Relook%20at%20a%20Book%3A%20The%20Blood%20Never%20Dried%3A%20A%20People%E2%80%99s%20History%20of%20the%20British%20Empire</a></em></span></span></p></div></div></div></div><script type="text/javascript">
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</script>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-53625904639592571762022-06-30T19:00:00.002+05:302022-06-30T19:38:16.730+05:30Books that change lives<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 15pt;">A journey with books from a
public library in Rampura Phul in Bathinda district of Punjab to JNU in Delhi
to Trinidad and Tobago.<br />
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/author/Chaman%20Lal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: #0d3554; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: HI; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chaman Lal</span></b></a><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: #0d3554; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: HI; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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Jun 2022<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">When
did I start reading books in life, apart from course books? In my childhood, I
used to go to a public library and another open kind of newspaper reading place
in my hometown, Rampura Phul, in Bathinda district of Punjab. I used to read
Hindi and Punjabi children’s magazines like <i>'Chandamama'</i>, '<i>Bal
Sandesh' </i>or Hindi/Punjabi newspapers and the children’s sections.
After matriculating, I was not able to join any college, and went to stay at my
elder sister's place in Abohar in Ferozepur district.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Abohar,
incidentally, was a much better-known town before 1947. Eminent Hindi writers
and national leaders during the freedom struggle used to visit Sahitya Sadan
there. My brother-in-law arranged for me to work as a trainee worker in Bhiwani
cotton mills. I tried for a month or so but could not adjust with factory work.
But during my stay in Abohar in 1962 or so, I got into the habit of reading spy
or <i>jasoosi </i>novels in Hindi. There was a shop in Abohar, which
stored hundreds of such novels and charged one anna (6 paise today) per day for
reading. Sometimes I used to read more than one novel a day. Many of these were
monthly publications like <i>'Jassosi duniya'</i> etc.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">After
I returned to Rampura Phul, I started helping my father in his shop. I started
going to the library again and sometimes browsed English papers, mainly <i>'The
Tribune'</i>, particularly film advertisements or sports pages, since I used to
listen to cricket commentaries on the radio. Names of Salim Durrani, Chandu
Borde, Vijay Manjrekar, Polly Umrigar, Bapu Nadkarni from India and Gary
Sobers, Gibbs, Clive Lloyd, Rohan Kanhai etc from West Indies, had etched in my
mind.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">When
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru died in May 1964, the shop was closed for two days, one
on his death day and another when his ashes were immersed. I think at that time
I became a member of the public library and the first book I issued out of the
two issued at that time was Premchand's novel <i>Godaan. </i>Perhaps
Premchand’s autobiographical story <i>'Mera Jivan'</i> in school
curricula made a deep impact on my adolescent mind. I read the novel in a
single day or maybe two days, but that set my standards for literary reading. I
tried to read Punjabi novels by Nanak Singh and Jaswant Kanwal, but could not
continue, as novels in Hindi by Premchand and other writers gave me more
aesthetic pleasure than Punjabi novels.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The
public library in Rampura Phul was established during the freedom struggle and
has a rich collection in Hindi, Urdu, English and Punjabi. I tried reading the
Urdu copy of '<i>Godan'</i> with my father, who was middle pass those days
and was not allowed by my grandfather to accept a schoolteacher’s job in 1933
at Rs 18 a month. My father could not be attuned to literature, but continued
reading his favourite Urdu daily, perhaps <i>'Hind Samachar'</i>. Since
that day, my reading has never stopped and that helped me become what I am
today.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">I
started buying books other than course books in the late 60s, when I became a
schoolteacher in 1967. I became a member of Hind Pocket Books. Those days in Re
1 one got good paperbacks. I translated one of these books in Punjabi from
Hindi in my early phase of writing—it was Manmathnath Gupt's <i>'Bharat Ke
Krantikari'</i>, sketches of 16 or 18 revolutionaries. It was serialised by
Ghadarite Baba Gurmukh Singh who edited <i>'Desh Bhagat Yaadan'</i> from
Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Hall Jalandhar. Some pieces were published in '<i>Preetlari'</i>, <i>Aarsee</i>'
journals also.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Unfortunately,
in the police raids in the 1970s to suppress the Naxalite movement, even the
Ghadar Party memorial could not preserve its records and those issues of <i>Desh
Bhagat Yadan</i>, edited by such legendary Ghadarite Gurmukh Singh Lalton, were
lost. Perhaps out of fear, I did not preserve those issues, and only five or of
those sketches are with me that were published in some literary or government
journals.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">While
doing M.A. in Hindi and Punjabi, I bought lots of books. During my
incarceration in Bathinda jail for seven months during the Emergency of
1975-77, the best part was reading huge novels like those of Sarat Chandra. My
weekly supply of books came from the public library in Rampura Phul. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Bulk
buying of books started when I became a research scholar in Jawaharlal Nehru
University (JNU) in 1977 and started getting a fellowship. Every hostel room in
JNU has a bookshelf and not having books on the shelf meant being a lesser
being in that culture. I always spent more than what I received as contingency grant
for purchasing books. It gave immense pleasure to own a book which was
considered important, whether literature or any other discipline. Faculty
members and JNU students would stand at Geeta Book Shop in the Kamal Complex
market every evening to look for new titles and join the race to buy first.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">I
had so many books in my collection that when I left for Bombay in 1982 to join
as Hindi officer, I left a big collection in my room with my friend Shashi
Bhushan Upadhyaya (now Professor in History at IGNOU, New Delhi) and one of the
painful chapters of my life is that many of these books were lost when JNU was
closed sine die in 1983 and Shashi was one among arrested and later rusticated.
Students were not able to preserve their precious books, because hostels were
vacated in a very rough manner.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">I
continued buying books after I joined the job. It became a habit, a
continuation of the Geeta Book Shop culture. But conditions changed after 1985,
when I joined as lecturer in Hindi at Punjabi University, Patiala. The purchase
of books increased, adding Punjabi books to my collection apart from Hindi and
English. But, after a few years, there was a gap in my buying books and reading
them. I never depended on the library for my personal or professional need of
books, I preferred to buy. Yet, with family life and professional engagements
and socialising with colleagues, participating in teachers’ movement, and with
the entry of television in life, reading got affected. The gap between
purchase and reading of books kept widening, and with a lot of magazines coming
up in Hindi, Punjabi and English, the demand/urge for writing further affected
my reading. So much so that even after rejoining JNU, the situation did not
improve. Rather, it worsened with the entry of computers with internet
facility. Now, the situation is that while my purchase of books never stopped
or slowed, even after retirement without pension, my reading has further
diminished.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">I
have more than 5,000 books in my personal collection of Hindi, Punjabi, English
and, lately, of Urdu, yet, I may not have read more than 2,000 of these,
perhaps less. That does not mean that average reading has completely stopped,
which perhaps is not less than 60 books a year. But since internet/magazines
consume too much time, the average reading has reduced substantially. Had these
factors not entered life, my average reading would not have been less than 200
books a year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">While
joining The University of West Indies (UWI), Trinidad & Tobago in 2010-11,
my one temptation was to read many books that I felt I must read and also see
films. So, I brought more than 500 books and about 100 or so film DVDs there,
knowing it would not be easy to fulfill the desire, as I had a task at hand --
complete at least one major manuscript and travel to a lot of countries nearby.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">So,
my reading of books restarted after reaching Port of Spain. It started with a
pile of Hindi, Punjabi and English magazines, which I mostly scanned, including
two important issues of <i>Journal of Literature &Aesthetics</i> focused
on Indian dalit literature in Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali,
Gujrati, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam. Edited by Dr. D.Sreenivasan from Kollam
in Kerala, this was a good literary journal. In scanned issues of <i>Summer
Hill Review</i>, <i>Law Animated World</i>, <i>Mainstream,</i> <i>Frontline</i>,
and F<i>rontier</i> in English; <i>Filhal,</i> <i>Virsa, Sirjana</i> and <i>Chirag </i>in
Punjabi and <i>Tadbhav</i>,<i>Shesh</i>, <i>Parikatha</i>,<i>Naya
Gyanoudey</i>, <i>Vasudha,</i> <i>Samkallen Janmat,Aalochna </i>and <i>Apeksha </i>in
Hindi.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Leo
Tolstoy's classic novel <i>'Anna Karenina'</i> is my favourite, too,
after reading its summary in Hindi in <i>'Naya Gyanoudey'</i>. Since my
books were to arrive by courier a few days later, I got some books from the
Indian High commission library there. Before that, famous Hindi writer and
Professor in Hindi, Susham Bedi (she died in the beginning of COVID-19), gifted
her books-<i>Chidiya Aur Cheel' </i>(stories) and <i>'Shabdon ki
Khidkiyan'(</i>poems) to me in New York. I also got her novel '<i>Havan</i>'
from the High Commission library to complete reading her writings in poetry,
and fiction.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Among
the few more books borrowed from the library were Asha Rani Vohra's-<i>Swatantarta
Senani Lekhikayen'</i>(Freedom fighter women writers), this included Bhagat
Singh groups' activist Susheela Mohan's sketch as well. Also Dr. Bharat
Mishra's <i>'1857 ki Kranti aur uske pramukh krantikari'</i>, Dr. Kailash
Kumari Sahay's <i>'Pravasi Bhartiyon ki Hindi seva'</i> and Vimlesh
Kanti and Dheera Verma's <i>'Fiji mein Hindi.</i> The last two books
that I read were to refresh my exposure to Hindi language in Mauritius, Fiji,
Trinidad &Tobago, Suriname and Guyana--five countries of Indian descent
people domination where political power also remains with or shared by Indian
descent people. I also read Bahadurshah Zafar's Urdu poetry transliterated in
Hindi.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
(To be continued)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><b><span style="color: #030b12; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 20.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-language: HI; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/Books-Neglected-Aspects-Freedom-Struggle-Veritable-Treasure"><span style="color: #030b12; text-decoration-line: none;"> Books on
Neglected Aspects of Freedom Struggle Are a Veritable Treasure</span></a></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 15pt;">In the concluding part of
his reading journey, the writer highlights the contribution of Rahul
Sankrityayan and a host of Punjabi and Bengali writers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: #0d3554; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-language: HI; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/author/Chaman%20Lal"><span style="color: #0d3554;">Chaman
Lal</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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Jun 2022<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Among
the more important books that I read in Hindi during my stay in Trinidad are
Rahul Sankrityayan's-<i>'Ghummakad Swami' </i>(The Traveler Hermitage)
and <i>'Aaj Ki Samasyayen'</i>. Both these are not available these days
and a photocopy was gifted to me by Dr. P.N.Vidyarthi, when I visited
his house in Ranchi in 2007 or 08.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><i><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Ghummakad
Swami</span></i><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> is
a semi-autobiographical account or Sankritayayan’s travelogues, which included
a Punjab travelogue in 1919, when the Jallianwalabagh massacre took place. Very
few people know that Sankrityayan had deep knowledge about pre-Partition Punjab
too.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><i><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">'Aaj
ki Samasyayen'</span></i><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> is
a 1945 book, and includes four important articles -- <i>Pakistan ya
jatiyon ki samasaya </i>(Pakistan or Problem of Nationalities), <i>Matar
Bhashayon ki samasya </i>(Problem of Mother Tongues, <i>Pragatisheelta
ka Prashan </i>(Question of Progressivism) and <i>Aaj ka sahityakar (</i>Writer
of Today). The book is really enlightening, it explains in a very rational and
objective way how the creation of Pakistan became inevitable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Sankrityayan
rightly blames the Hindu majoritarian fundamentalist attitude of treating the
Muslim community like untouchables and also Hindu capitalists not allowing
Muslim capitalists to have share in national wealth. Partition was made
inevitable by both the communities’ ruling feudal and bourgeoise classes,
because the Hindu ruling classes were not ready to share the appropriation of
wealth from the Muslim ruling classes in a fair manner. And they did not allow
Muslim community members into Hindu kitchens or used to serve them food/water
in separate utensils even among friends.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Sankrityayan
rightly asks: Which self-respecting person will tolerate this treatment? And,
he predicted the fallout of Bangladesh at that very time. In his opinion,
language is at the core of the nationality issue, though religion also is a
strong factor and geography, too. This became true in the case of creation of
Bangladesh in 1971. Sankrityayan counted 73 nationalities in India in 1945 and
11 in the proposed Pakistan at that time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The
article, <i>Matar Bhashayon ki samasayen,</i> also deals with the
sensitive issue of mother tongue. Sankrityayan is against Hindi's domination
over mother tongues like Bhojpuri, Maithili, Santhali etc. People, and my
friends like Prof. Amarnath Sharma, should read this article to understand the
language sensitivity of people that can explode if any oppression of their
language is done.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">This
also made me realise that Mahatma Gandhi and Premchand conceived that <i>Hindustani </i>is
no more possible or feasible except in verbal communication. The existence of
Hindi and Urdu as two closely linked but separate languages should be accepted,
yet young children can easily learn both the languages easily if this is made
part of school curricula.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Rahul
Sankrityayan was a versatile writer-activist. Born in 1893, he lived up to
1963, completing 70 years of life. From a traditional Hindu family, to becoming
a monk, then Arya Samajist, then Buddhist and finally a Marxist, he
authored/edited/translated nearly 150 books in Hindi, Pali, English and
Tibetan.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Sankrityayan
travelled a lot and his book <i>'Ghummakad Shashtra'</i> is
traveller's guide book. He travelled on foot/ponies/buses/trains/ships/by air
and visited many countries. He was a professor in Sri Lanka and perhaps in the
erstwhile Soviet Union as well, where he married and his progeny lives there
(his Russian wife-born son also died). His Indian wife Kamala Sankrityayan died
a few years ago. His son and daughter Jaya and Jeta live in India.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Sankrityayan
faced <i>lathi </i>blows along with writer Nagarajun during the
peasant movement in Bihar and served many months in various jails. When I get
bogged down with my multifarious activities, then his life shows me the way. He
could start writing four books at a time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">A
very significant book that I read and which literally shook me is an old
classic -- Dinabandhu Mitra's Bengali play <i>'Neel Darpan'</i> ,
written in 1860, just three years after the First Indian War for Independence
took place. The play exposes British colonial cruelties on the Indian people,
who destroyed Indian peasants for doing indigo farming. The kind of cruelties
committed and described in this 90-page play reminded me of Abhimanyu Anat's '<i>Lal
Pasina</i>' set in Mauritius that exposed the brutal cruelties on Indian indentured
labour taken to that country by the British.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">There
are similar stories of cruelties on Indian indentured labour in Trinidad
& Tobago, where I was based and also in Suriname, Guyana and Fiji. So
has been the case in South Africa and other African countries colonised by the
British those days.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><i><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Neel
Darpan</span></i><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> was
translated into English by a British Christian priest and he was jailed
for that. The play was performed in theatres in Calcutta in 1872 for the first
time and despite ticketed entry, large crowds turned up to watch it. This play
has become relevant again now, when under the neo liberal/colonial policies,
peasant lands are again being snatched in favour of multinational companies to
establish industries. I wish someone translated this play in Punjabi.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Another
significant, though controversial novel of 1961, is again a translation from
Bengali, called <i>'Plassey ka Yudh'</i> by Tapan Mohan
Chattopadhyaya. It is a history-based novel, but underlines historic dates and
incidents perhaps accurately. It is written from the anti-Sirajudaulah angle
and, in a way, supports the rise of British occupation of India led by Robert
Clive. But, it attacks British myths, like Calcutta's blackhole story, where, in the writer's
view, not more than 30 Britishers died, but Sirajudaulah had no hand in
it. Though the Britishers propagated it as brutality by Sirajudaulah, and gave
the figure of the dead as around 150.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">During
the 1857 War of Independence, therewas another blackhole in Ajnala in
Punjab, where the British Deputy commissioner at that time made 257
Indian freedom fighters die of suffocation. The Britishers created a
monument to a false blackhole, but the Indian government has nothing to show
the Ajnala blackhole as a reminder of colonial brutalities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">An
interesting feature of the 1757 Plassey war actors have been their personal
tragedies. Starting with Sirajudaulah, who lived for just 25 years, which
included 14 months of being the Bengal Nawab, and was murdered in the
most brutal and cruel manner. Mir Jafar, the traitor, who was also a close
relative of Siraj, died in 1765 due to leprosy, and was hated by everyone,
even his sons. Meeran, who killed all the close relations of Siraj in fear of
the Nawab’s throne being passed on to them, died of lightning. Maharaja Nand Kumar
was hanged. British Admiral Watson did not survive even two months of the
Plassey war and was buried in St. John graveyard. The 'hero' Clive, who looted
Rs 21 lakh from the Plassey war, killed himself on November 22, 1774. Almost a
similar fate was met by the Jallianwalabagh mass murderer, General Dyer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Some
Punjabi books that I read in this period also included Gurdial Singh's
novel <i>'Aahan'</i>, Gurbachan Bhullar's travelogue "<i>Ek Amreeka
Eh Vi'</i>, Swarajbir's play '<i>Kallar'</i>, Atamjit's play <i>'Mangu
Comrade'</i>,Nand Singh Mehta's autobiographical novel <i>'Suhe Rahan da
Safar'</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The
400-page first part of '<i>Aahan'</i> has been published 17 years after
Gurdial Singh’s last novel '<i>Parsa'</i> was published. Its second part
should have come by now, but seems to have been delayed. This novel
also narrates the story of British colonial power's destruction of the
peasantry and a village Karamgarh near Jaitu. Set after the Praja Mandal
movement in the 1936-40 period, the novel also depicts the cruelties of the
colonial police at its worst. When peasants have nothing to eat due to a locust
attack that destroys crops in the whole village, the British masters are bent
upon charging annual land tax from peasants.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Gurbachan
Bhullar's travelogue of America is an example of objective observation of a
country about which there are a lot of prejudices. Written in an interesting
style, I liked the book a lot, but was surprised with Bhullar's depiction of
how Khalistanis had overtaken the Ghadar party's Stockton Gurdwara and dumped
all the Ghadarite fighters’ photographs, which did not create any ripples in
Punjab, even among the Leftists.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Government
occupation of Yugantar Ashram – the Ghadar Party HQ in San Francisco -- not
being opened daily is another shocking fact that did not seem to have bothered
anyone. It should be protested strongly in my view in India and abroad by all
right-thinking Punjabis and Indians.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Swarajbir's
play focuses on pauperisation of Punjab's peasantry in recent times
and their fate in foreign countries, where they try to escape. Though realistic,
this play is not as impactful as his earlier plays, such as <i>Dharamguru</i> and <i>Krishna.</i> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Atamjit's
play opens our eyes to the great Indian freedom fighter in Kenya-Makhan Singh,
whose sacrifices were recognised even by Jomo Kenyatta, the first President of
independent Kenya, but whose role was soon to be forgotten by Kenya as well as
India. This play has a good look at history, but Atamjit has unnecessarily
tried to undermine the character of a revolutionary by making his character overplay
the Gandhian philosophy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Nand
Singh Mehta's <i>Suhe Rahan da Safar-</i>Trails of Red Path is neither an
autobiography nor a novel. It would have been better if he had
written plain memoirs of the Naxalite movement in the Bathinda area,
where he was an activist. Incidentally, I was an observer during some of his
narrations.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Apart
from Hindi, Punjabi and English readings, I kept on practicing Urdu reading by
way of Ibne Kanwal edited <i>'Muntakhib Ghazaliyat'</i>. This is a
collection of Urdu <i>ghazals,</i> from the beginning to the
contemporary period.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><b><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Philosophical
and Real Problem in Reading Books</span></b><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The
world of books is like an ocean, and no one can ever think of swimming through
all the waters, yet one is always tempted to read more and more. For
academic/professional/creative writers, it becomes even more difficult to
indulge in the luxury of just reading for pleasure. So, some hard choices need
to be made. A reading selection has to be made. I cannot finish reading my own
purchased books, even if I get 20 more years of healthy life. And I know that I
will have to donate most of my books to some good libraries, if I don't want
these to go waste. (I have already set up Bhagat Singh Archives and
Resource Centre in Delhi Archives in 2018, and am gifting nearly 2,000 books,
journals and other documents on freedom struggle)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Now
I want to write on some of these books. Very few academics have interest in
writing, especially on the history of the revolutionary stream of the freedom
movement. It is not my academic area or study, yet I find it more attractive
than my own professional area, literature. I have lost interest in fashionable
and abstract theories of the academic world, whether in literature or
social sciences, and just wish to record the hard facts/events of some aspects
of the freedom struggle, long neglected or written in a distorted manner by
vested interests.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">(Concluded)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 20.4pt;"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The writer is <i>a
retired Professor from JNU and Honorary Advisor to Bhagat Singh Archives and
Resource Centre, New Delhi. He writes on some important books for
Newsclick. <a href="https://www.newsclick.in/Books-Neglected-Aspects-Freedom-Struggle-Veritable-Treasure" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0178d4; text-decoration-line: none;">Prof.chaman@gmail.com</span></a></i><o:p></o:p></span></p><script type="text/javascript">
</script>
<script src="http://www.boxbe.com/scripts/widget_contactme.js?user=drchaman" type="text/javascript">
</script>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-79115805723741934142022-06-21T20:53:00.003+05:302022-06-21T23:00:37.825+05:30Bhagat Singh-Dutt letter to Home Member<section class="heading-block" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Mukta Mahee", sans-serif; font-size: 20px; padding-bottom: 30px;"><div class="container" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; width: calc(100% - 35px);"><div class="row" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; margin-left: -15px; margin-right: -15px;"><div class="col-lg-12 col-md-12 col-sm-12 news-detail-page-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; flex: 0 0 100%; max-width: 100%; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; position: relative; width: 955.933px;"><div class="share-info" style="border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-top: 2px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="row" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; margin-left: -15px; margin-right: -15px;"><div class="col-lg-5 col-md-12 col-sm-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; flex: 0 0 100%; max-width: 100%; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; position: relative; width: 955.933px;"><div class="time-share" style="align-items: flex-end; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: column; padding: 10px 0px;"><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #5a5a5a; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.43; margin: 0px 0px 5px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; padding-right: 5px;">ਪੋਸਟ ਦਾ ਸਮਾਂ:</span> <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #9f9f9f;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-calendar" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Font Awesome 5 Free"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1; padding-right: 5px; text-rendering: auto;"></span>Jun 15, 2022 </span><span class="time" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #9f9f9f;">06:13 AM (IST)</span></p></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #5a5a5a; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.43; margin: 0px 0px 5px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; padding-right: 5px;">ਅਪਡੇਟ ਦਾ ਸਮਾਂ :</span> <span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #9f9f9f; position: relative;"><span class="far fa-clock" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Font Awesome 5 Free"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1; padding-right: 5px; text-rendering: auto; top: 2px;"></span>6 ਦਿਨ ਪਹਿਲਾਂ</span></p></li></ul><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px;"><a style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.43;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-eye" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Font Awesome 5 Free"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 900; line-height: 1; padding-right: 5px; text-rendering: auto;"></span>360</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px;"><a style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.43;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-comments" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Font Awesome 5 Free"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 900; line-height: 1; padding-right: 5px; text-rendering: auto;"></span><span class="fb-comments-count fb_comments_count_zero_fluid_desktop" data-href="https://punjabitribuneonline.com/news/musings/neglected-letter-from-bhagat-singh-and-bk-dutt-158713" fb-iframe-plugin-query="app_id=521479865080405&container_width=0&count=true&height=100&href=https%3A%2F%2Fpunjabitribuneonline.com%2Fnews%2Fmusings%2Fneglected-letter-from-bhagat-singh-and-bk-dutt-158713&locale=en_US&sdk=joey&version=v5.0&width=550" fb-xfbml-state="parsed" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="fb_comments_count" style="box-sizing: border-box;">0</span></span></a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px;"><a style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.43;"><span class="far fa-thumbs-up" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Font Awesome 5 Free"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 1; padding-right: 5px; text-rendering: auto;"></span>1</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px;"><a style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.43;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><span class="far fa-thumbs-down" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: "Font Awesome 5 Free"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 1; padding-right: 5px; text-rendering: auto; top: 2px;"></span>0</span></a></li></ul></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></section><div class="container news-detail-page" id="content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: "Mukta Mahee", sans-serif; font-size: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; width: calc(100% - 35px);"><div class="row" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; margin-left: -15px; margin-right: -15px;"><div class="col-lg-8 col-md-12 col-sm-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; max-width: 66.6667%; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; position: relative; width: 637.283px;"><div class="news-area" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow: hidden;"><div class="img-container-detail" style="background-color: initial; background: linear-gradient(0deg, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.5), rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.5)) 0% 0% / cover, url("https://punjabitribuneimages.blob.core.windows.net/gallary-content/2022/6/2022_6$largeimg_1735363028.jpg"); box-sizing: border-box; overflow: hidden; text-align: center;"><img alt="ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਅਤੇ ਬੀਕੇ ਦੱਤ ਦਾ ਅਣਗੌਲਿਆ ਖਤ" class="img-fluid top-img" src="https://punjabitribuneimages.blob.core.windows.net/gallary-content/2022/6/2022_6$largeimg_1735363028.jpg" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; height: 300px; margin: 0px; max-height: 402px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></div><div class="row" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; margin-left: -15px; margin-right: -15px;"><div class="col-lg-12 col-md-12 col-sm-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; flex: 0 0 100%; max-width: 100%; padding-left: 15px; padding-right: 15px; position: relative; width: 637.283px;"><div class="story-desc" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #313131; font-size: 18px; padding-top: 20px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-weight: bolder; margin-bottom: 5px;">ਚਮਨ ਲਾਲ</span></span></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">14 ਜੁਲਾਈ 1929 ਦੇ ਐਤਵਾਰ ਦੇ ਅੰਗਰੇਜ਼ੀ ਟ੍ਰਿਬਿਊਨ ਵਿਚ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਅਤੇ ਬੀਕੇ ਦੱਤ ਦਾ ਭਾਰਤ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਦੇ ਗ੍ਰਹਿ ਮੈਂਬਰ ਦੇ ਨਾਂ ਆਪਣੀ ਭੁੱਖ ਹੜਤਾਲ ਬਾਰੇ ਲਿਖਿਆ ਖਤ ਛਪਿਆ ਹੈ। ਨਹਿਰੂ ਯਾਦਗਾਰੀ ਮਿਊਜ਼ੀਅਮ ਅਤੇ ਲਾਇਬ੍ਰੇਰੀ ਵਿਚੋਂ ਹਾਸਲ ਕੀਤੇ ਇਸ ਖਤ ਦਾ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਅਨੁਵਾਦ ਆਜ਼ਾਦੀ ਦੇ 75ਵੇਂ ਵਰ੍ਹੇ ਦੌਰਾਨ ਪਹਿਲੀ ਵਾਰ ਕੀਤਾ ਜਾ ਰਿਹਾ ਹੈ। ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਦੇ ਕਈ ਖਤ ਉਨ੍ਹੀਂ ਦਿਨੀਂ ਕਈ ਅਖਬਾਰਾਂ ਵਿਚ ਛਪਦੇ ਰਹੇ, ਕੁਝ ਨੂੰ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਦੇ ਦਸਤਾਵੇਜ਼ਾਂ ਦੀਆਂ ਸੰਗ੍ਰਹਿ ਕੀਤੀਆਂ ਕਿਤਾਬਾਂ ਵਿਚ ਸਾਂਭ ਲਿਆ ਗਿਆ ਪਰ ਕੁਝ ਲਿਖਤਾਂ ਅਜੇ ਵੀ ਖੋਜ ਕਰਤਾਵਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਲੱਭ ਜਾਂਦੀਆਂ ਹਨ। ਇਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਵਿਚੋਂ ਇਹ ਖਤ ਵੀ ਇਕ ਹੈ। ਅੱਜ ਕੱਲ੍ਹ ਦੇਸ਼-ਧ੍ਰੋਹ ਕਾਨੂੰਨ ਖਤਮ ਕਰਨ ਦੇ ਸੁਪਰੀਮ ਕੋਰਟ ਦੇ ਸੁਝਾਅ ਦੇ ਪ੍ਰਸੰਗ ਵਿਚ ਇਸ ਖਤ ਦਾ ਖਾਸ ਮਹੱਤਵ ਹੈ, ਕਿਉਂਕਿ ਇਸ ਖਤ ਵਿਚ ਵੀ ਦੇਸ਼-ਧ੍ਰੋਹ ਦੇ ਕੇਸਾਂ ਵਿਚ ਜੇਲ੍ਹਾਂ ਵਿਚ ਬੰਦ ਦੇਸ਼ ਭਗਤਾਂ ਦਾ ਜ਼ਿਕਰ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਨੇ ਕੀਤਾ ਹੈ:</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-weight: bolder; margin-bottom: 5px;">ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਅਤੇ ਦੱਤ ਨੇ ਗ੍ਰਹਿ ਮੈਂਬਰ ਨੂੰ ਖਤ ਭੇਜਿਆ</span></em></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-weight: bolder; margin-bottom: 5px;">“ਸਿਆਸੀ ਕੈਦੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਇੱਕੋ ਜਗ੍ਹਾ ਇਕੱਠੇ ਰੱਖਿਆ ਜਾਵੇ।”</span></em></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-weight: bolder; margin-bottom: 5px;">“ਸਾਨੂੰ ਨਹਾਉਣ ਧੋਣ ਦੀਆਂ ਚੀਜ਼ਾਂ ਦਿੱਤੀਆਂ ਜਾਣ।”</span></em></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-weight: bolder; margin-bottom: 5px;">ਲਾਹੌਰ, 12 ਜੁਲਾਈ</span></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">ਹੇਠਾਂ ਉਸ ਖਤ ਦੀ ਪੂਰੀ ਇਬਾਰਤ ਹੈ ਜੋ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਅਤੇ ਬੀਕੇ ਦੱਤ ਨੇ ਆਪਣੀਆਂ ਮੰਗਾਂ ਬਾਰੇ ਸਪੈਸ਼ਲ ਮੈਜਿਸਟਰੇਟ (ਲਾਹੌਰ ਸਾਜ਼ਿਸ਼ ਕੇਸ 1929), ਲਾਹੌਰ ਰਾਹੀਂ ਭਾਰਤ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਦੇ ਗ੍ਰਹਿ ਮੈਂਬਰ ਨੂੰ ਭੇਜਿਆ, ਹੁਣ (ਦੋਵੇਂ) ਭੁੱਖ ਹੜਤਾਲ ’ਤੇ ਹਨ।</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-weight: bolder; margin-bottom: 5px;">ਜਨਾਬ, -</span>ਸਾਨੂੰ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਅਤੇ ਬੀਕੇ ਦੱਤ ਨੂੰ 19 ਅਪਰੈਲ (8 ਅਪਰੈਲ)* 1929 ਦੇ ਦਿੱਲੀ ਅਸੈਂਬਲੀ ਬੰਬ ਕੇਸ ਵਿਚ ਉਮਰ ਕੈਦ ਹੋਈ ਹੈ। ਜਦ ਤਕ ਅਸੀਂ ਦਿੱਲੀ ਵਿਚ ਮੁਕੱਦਮੇ ਅਧੀਨ ਕੈਦੀ ਸੀ, ਸਾਡੇ ਨਾਲ ਜੇਲ੍ਹ ਵਿਚ ਬੜਾ ਚੰਗਾ ਸਲੂਕ ਕੀਤਾ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਸੀ ਅਤੇ ਬੜੀ ਚੰਗੀ ਖੁਰਾਕ ਦਿੱਤੀ ਜਾਂਦੀ ਸੀ ਪਰ ਜਦੋਂ ਤੋਂ ਸਾਡੀ ਤਬਦੀਲੀ ਕ੍ਰਮਵਾਰ ਮੀਆਂਵਾਲੀ ਅਤੇ ਲਾਹੌਰ ਕੇਂਦਰੀ ਜੇਲ੍ਹ ਵਿਚ ਹੋਈ ਹੈ ,ਸਾਡੇ ਨਾਲ ਆਮ ਮੁਜਰਿਮਾਂ ਵਰਗਾ ਸਲੂਕ ਕੀਤਾ ਜਾ ਰਿਹਾ ਹੈ। ਤਬਦੀਲੀ ਦੇ ਪਹਿਲੇ ਹੀ ਦਿਨ ਅਸੀਂ ਉੱਚ ਅਧਿਕਾਰੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਖਤ ਲਿਖ ਕੇ ਚੰਗੀ ਖੁਰਾਕ ਅਤੇ ਕੁਝ ਹੋਰ ਸਹੂਲਤਾਂ ਦੀ ਮੰਗ ਕੀਤੀ ਸੀ ਅਤੇ ਉਸ ਦਿਨ ਤੋਂ ਹੀ ਅਸੀਂ ਜੇਲ੍ਹ ਦਾ ਖਾਣਾ ਨਹੀਂ ਖਾ ਰਹੇ।**</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">ਸਾਡੀਆਂ ਮੰਗਾਂ ਨਿਮਨ ਅਨੁਸਾਰ ਹਨ:-</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">1. ਸਾਨੂੰ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਕੈਦੀਆਂ ਦੇ ਤੌਰ ’ਤੇ ਚੰਗੀ ਖੁਰਾਕ ਦਿੱਤੀ ਜਾਵੇ ਅਤੇ ਸਾਡੀ ਖੁਰਾਕ ਦਾ ਪੱਧਰ ਘੱਟੋ-ਘੱਟ ਯੂਰੋਪੀਅਨ ਕੈਦੀਆਂ ਦੇ ਬਰਾਬਰ ਹੋਵੇ। (ਬਰਾਬਰ ਹੋਣ ਦਾ ਅਰਥ ਉਹੋ ਖੁਰਾਕ ਨਹੀਂ, ਸਾਡੀ ਮੰਗ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਖੁਰਾਕ ਦਾ ਪੱਧਰ ਉਸ ਦੇ ਬਰਾਬਰ ਹੋਣ ਚਾਹੀਦਾ ਹੈ)।</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">2. ਸਾਨੂੰ ਸਖਤ ਅਤੇ ਸ਼ਾਨ ਦੇ ਖਿਲਾਫ਼ ਮੁਸ਼ੱਕਤ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ ਮਜਬੂਰ ਨਾ ਕੀਤਾ ਜਾਵੇ।</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">3. ਉਹ ਸਾਰੀਆਂ ਕਿਤਾਬਾਂ ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ’ਤੇ ਪਾਬੰਦੀ ਨਹੀਂ ਲੱਗੀ, ਦੇ ਨਾਲ ਨਾਲ ਲਿਖਣ ਸਮੱਗਰੀ ਬਿਨਾਂ ਰੋਕ ਟੋਕ ਦਿੱਤੀ ਜਾਵੇ।</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">4. ਘੱਟੋ-ਘੱਟ ਇੱਕ ਮਿਆਰੀ ਰੋਜ਼ਾਨਾ ਅਖਬਾਰ ਹਰ ਜੇਲ੍ਹ ਵਿਚ ਹਰ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਕੈਦੀ ਨੂੰ ਦਿੱਤਾ ਜਾਵੇ।</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">5. ਹਰ ਜੇਲ੍ਹ ਵਿਚ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਕੈਦੀਆਂ ਦਾ ਆਪਣਾ ਖਾਸ ਵਾਰਡ ਹੋਵੇ ਜਿੱਥੇ ਯੂਰੋਪੀਅਨ ਕੈਦੀਆਂ ਵਾਲੀਆਂ ਸਾਰੀਆਂ ਸਹੂਲਤਾਂ ਹੋਣ ਅਤੇ ਇੱਕ ਜੇਲ੍ਹ ਦੇ ਸਾਰੇ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਕੈਦੀ ਉਸ ਵਾਰਡ ਵਿਚ ਇਕੱਠੇ ਰੱਖੇ ਜਾਣ।</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">6. ਸਾਡੀਆਂ ਨਹਾਉਣ ਧੋਣ ਦੀਆਂ ਸਾਰੀਆਂ ਲੋੜਾਂ ਪੂਰੀਆਂ ਕੀਤੀਆਂ ਜਾਣ।</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">7. ਬਿਹਤਰ ਕੱਪੜੇ।</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">ਅਸੀਂ ਉੱਪਰ ਆਪਣੀਆਂ ਸਾਰੀਆਂ ਮੰਗਾਂ ਸਪਸ਼ਟ ਕਰ ਦਿੱਤੀਆਂ ਹਨ।</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">ਇਹ ਸਾਰੀਆਂ ਬਿਲਕੁਲ ਵਾਜਬ ਮੰਗਾਂ ਹਨ। ਜੇਲ੍ਹ ਅਧਿਕਾਰੀਆਂ ਨੇ ਇੱਕ ਦਿਨ ਸਾਨੂੰ ਦੱਸਿਆ ਕਿ ਉੱਚ ਅਧਿਕਾਰੀਆਂ ਨੇ ਇਹ ਮੰਗਾਂ ਮੰਨਣ ਤੋਂ ਇਨਕਾਰ ਕਰ ਦਿੱਤਾ ਹੈ।</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">ਇਸ ਤੋਂ ਇਲਾਵਾ ਜਬਰੀ ਖੁਰਾਕ ਦੇਣ ਸਮੇਂ ਸਾਡੇ ਨਾਲ ਬੜਾ ਭੈੜਾ ਸਲੂਕ ਕੀਤਾ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਹੈ। 10 ਜੂਨ (10 ਜੁਲਾਈ)*** ਨੂੰ ਜਬਰੀ ਖੁਰਾਕ ਦੇਣ ਸਮੇਂ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ 15 ਮਿੰਟ ਬੇਹੋਸ਼ ਪਿਆ ਰਿਹਾ। ਇਸ ਲਈ ਅਸੀਂ ਤੁਹਾਨੂੰ ਬੇਨਤੀ ਕਰਦੇ ਹਨ ਕਿ ਜਬਰੀ ਖੁਰਾਕ ਦੇਣੀ ਤੁਰੰਤ ਬੰਦ ਕੀਤੀ ਜਾਵੇ।</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">ਇਸ ਦੇ ਨਾਲ ਹੀ ਅਸੀਂ ਤੁਹਾਡਾ ਧਿਆਨ ਪੰਡਿਤ ਜਗਤ ਨਾਰਾਇਣ ਅਤੇ ਕੇਬੀ ਹਾਫਿਜ਼ ਹਿਦਾਇਤ ਹੁਸੈਨ ਦੀਆਂ ਯੂਪੀ ਜੇਲ੍ਹ ਕਮੇਟੀ ਦੀਆਂ ਸਿਫ਼ਾਰਿਸ਼ਾਂ ਵਲ ਖਿੱਚਣ ਦੀ ਵੀ ਇਜਾਜ਼ਤ ਚਾਹੁੰਦੇ ਹਾਂ। ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੇ ਸਿਫ਼ਾਰਿਸ਼ ਕੀਤੀ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਸਿਆਸੀ ਕੈਦੀਆਂ ਨਾਲ ‘ਬਿਹਤਰ ਕਲਾਸ ਕੈਦੀਆਂ’ ਵਾਲਾ ਸਲੂਕ ਕੀਤਾ ਜਾਵੇ।</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">ਅਸੀਂ ਗੁਜ਼ਾਰਿਸ਼ ਕਰਦੇ ਹਾਂ ਕਿ ਕਿਰਪਾ ਕਰਕੇ ਜਲਦੀ ਤੋਂ ਜਲਦੀ ਸਾਡੀਆਂ ਮੰਗਾਂ ’ਤੇ ਵਿਚਾਰ ਕੀਤਾ ਜਾਵੇ।</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-align: right; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-weight: bolder; margin-bottom: 5px;">ਅਸੀਂ ਹਾਂ</span></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-align: right; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-weight: bolder; margin-bottom: 5px;">(ਦਸਤਖਤ) ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ</span></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-align: right; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-weight: bolder; margin-bottom: 5px;">(ਦਸਤਖਤ) ਬੀਕੇ ਦੱਤ</span></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-weight: bolder; margin-bottom: 5px;">ਨੋਟ (NB) -</span>‘ਸਿਆਸੀ ਕੈਦੀਆਂ’ ਤੋਂ ਸਾਡਾ ਭਾਵ ਹੈ ਉਹ ਸਾਰੇ ਲੋਕ ਜਿਹੜੇ ਰਿਆਸਤ/ਸਟੇਟ ਖਿਲਾਫ ਕੇਸਾਂ ਵਿਚ ਸਜ਼ਾਯਾਫ਼ਤਾ ਹਨ, ਮਿਸਾਲ ਦੇ ਤੌਰ ’ਤੇ ਉਹ ਲੋਕ ਜੋ 1915-17 ਵਾਲੇ ਲਾਹੌਰ ਸਾਜ਼ਿਸ਼ ਕੇਸਾਂ, ਕਾਕੋਰੀ ਸਾਜ਼ਿਸ਼ ਕੇਸ ਅਤੇ ਦੇਸ਼-ਧ੍ਰੋਹ ਮਾਮਲਿਆਂ ਵਿਚ ਸਜ਼ਾਯਾਫ਼ਤਾ ਹਨ। - ਫਰੀ ਪ੍ਰੈੱਸ****</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-weight: bolder; margin-bottom: 5px;">ਹਵਾਲੇ:</span></p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">*ਦਿੱਲੀ ਅਸੈਂਬਲੀ ਬੰਬ ਕਾਂਡ 8 ਅਪਰੈਲ 1929 ਨੂੰ ਵਾਪਰਿਆ ਸੀ ਅਤੇ ਇਸ ਦਾ ਫੈਸਲਾ 12 ਜੂਨ ਨੂੰ ਹੋਇਆ ਸੀ। ਸੋ, ਇੱਥੇ ਤਰੀਖ 19 ਅਪਰੈਲ ਦੀ ਬਜਾਇ 8 ਅਪਰੈਲ ਜਾਂ 12 ਜੂਨ ਹੋਣੀ ਚਾਹੀਦੀ ਸੀ।</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">**ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਅਤੇ ਬੀਕੇ ਦੱਤ ਨੇ 14-15 ਜਨਵਰੀ 1929 ਨੂੰ ਰੇਲ ਗੱਡੀ ਵਿਚ ਮੀਆਂਵਾਲੀ ਅਤੇ ਲਾਹੌਰ ਲਿਜਾਂਦੇ ਸਮੇਂ ਹੀ ਆਮ ਮੁਜਰਿਮਾਂ ਵਾਲੇ ਸਲੂਕ ਖਿਲਾਫ ਭੁੱਖ ਹੜਤਾਲ ਸ਼ੁਰੂ ਕਰ ਦਿੱਤੀ ਸੀ। ਜਦੋਂ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਨੂੰ 10 ਜੁਲਾਈ 1929 ਨੂੰ ਮੀਆਂਵਾਲੀ ਜੇਲ੍ਹ ਤੋਂ ਲਿਆ ਕੇ ਲਾਹੌਰ ਸਾਜ਼ਿਸ਼ ਕੇਸ ਸ਼ੁਰੂ ਹੋਣ ਸਮੇਂ ਲਾਹੌਰ ਅਦਾਲਤ ਵਿਚ ਵਿਚ ਪੇਸ਼ ਕੀਤਾ ਗਿਆ ਸੀ ਤਾਂ ਭੁੱਖ ਹੜਤਾਲ ਕਾਰਨ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਸਟਰੈਚਰ ’ਤੇ ਅਦਾਲਤ ਵਿਚ ਲਿਆਂਦਾ ਗਿਆ ਸੀ। 13 ਜੁਲਾਈ 1929 ਤੋਂ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਅਤੇ ਬੀਕੇ ਦੱਤ ਦੀ ਭੁੱਖ ਹੜਤਾਲ ਦੀ ਹਮਾਇਤ ਵਿਚ ਲਾਹੌਰ ਸਾਜਿ਼ਸ਼ ਕੇਸ ਦੇ ਸਾਰੇ ਕੈਦੀਆਂ ਨੇ ਭੁੱਖ ਹੜਤਾਲ ਸ਼ੁਰੂ ਕਰ ਦਿੱਤੀ ਸੀ ਜਿਸ ਵਿਚ 13 ਸਤੰਬਰ 1929 ਨੂੰ ਜਤਿੰਦਰ ਨਾਥ ਦਾਸ ਸ਼ਹੀਦ ਹੋ ਗਏ ਸਨ।</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">***ਖ਼ਬਰ ਵਿਚ ਲਿਖੀ 10 ਜੂਨ ਤਾਰੀਖ ਵੀ ਅਸਲ ਵਿਚ 10 ਜੁਲਾਈ ਹੈ ਜਿਸ ਦਿਨ ਅਦਾਲਤੀ ਪੇਸ਼ੀ ਤੋਂ ਬਾਅਦ ਸ਼ਾਇਦ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਨੂੰ ਜਬਰੀ ਖੁਰਾਕ ਦਿੱਤੀ ਗਈ ਸੀ।</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;">****ਇਹ ਖ਼ਬਰ ਫਰੀ ਪ੍ਰੈੱਸ ਏਜੰਸੀ ਨੇ ਜਾਰੀ ਕੀਤੀ ਸੀ।</p> <p style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: Khula, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 2; margin: 0px 0px 20px; width: 607.283px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; font-weight: bolder; margin-bottom: 5px;">(ਅਨੁਵਾਦ ਤੇ ਪੇਸ਼ਕਾਰੀ: ਚਮਨ ਲਾਲ ਜੋ ਜਵਾਹਰ ਲਾਲ ਨਹਿਰੂ ਯੂਨੀਵਰਸਿਟੀ ਦੇ ਸਾਬਕਾ ਪ੍ਰੋਫੈਸਰ ਅਤੇ ਭਗਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਆਰਕਾਇਵਸ ਨਵੀਂ ਦਿੱਲੀ ਦੇ ਆਨਰੇਰੀ ਸਲਾਹਕਾਰ ਹਨ।</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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</script>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-43829612292673843912022-05-29T21:41:00.002+05:302022-05-29T21:41:46.768+05:30Fidel Castro on Cuban Revolution<div class="news-article-details" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 148, 23); box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "open sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><div class="taxonomy" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h1 style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 27px; font-weight: bolder; line-height: 1.1; margin: 10px 0px; outline-offset: -2px; outline: -webkit-focus-ring-color auto 5px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;">Boo<a href="https://www.newsclick.in/new-book-cover-fascinating-life-fidel-castro-words" id="label" rel="bookmark" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #030b12; outline-offset: -2px; outline: -webkit-focus-ring-color auto 5px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;">k that Covers the Fascinating Life of Fidel Castro in His Own Words</a></h1></div><div class="article-subtitle" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 20px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 10px;"><div class="field field--name-field-subtitle field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field--item" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 148, 23); box-sizing: border-box;">Though focused on the issue of religion, the book actually narrates the story of Castro's life as well as the story of the Cuban revolution.</div></div><div class="author clearfix" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(145, 148, 23); box-sizing: border-box; display: table; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 4px 0px;"><div class="author-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: table-row; float: left;"><div class="author-details" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d3554; display: inline-block; font-weight: 700;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/author/Chaman%20Lal" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d3554; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Chaman Lal</a></span></div> <div class="authored-date" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d3554; display: inline-block; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 5px;"><time style="box-sizing: border-box;">28 May 2022</time></div><div class="translated-by" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #919417;"></div></div></div></div><div class="article-inner-wrap" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "open sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 15px;"><div class="col-md-9" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; min-height: 1px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 35px; position: relative; width: 682.5px;"><div class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 30px;"><div class="field field--name-field-cover-media-image field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field--item" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field--item" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><img alt="New Book Covers the Fascinating Life of Fidel Castro in His Own Words" class="img-responsive" height="484" loading="lazy" src="https://www.newsclick.in/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_885/public/2022-05/fidel1.PNG?itok=W8dBpPjy" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" title="New Book Covers the Fascinating Life of Fidel Castro in His Own Words" typeof="foaf:Image" width="885" /></div></div></div><div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.7em; margin-top: 20px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">Following is an essay on <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Fidel and the Religion-Conversations with Frei Betto, People’s Publishing House, Delhi, 1</em><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">st</em><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"> ed. 1987, pages 276</em>.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">These are Fidel Castro's conversations with the Brazilian Dominican Friar, a practising Catholic who believes in socialism. Cuban culture minister Armando Hart has introduced this conversation. In 'Paths to a Meeting', Frei Betto has narrated the background of these conversations, which he planned in 1979 as a book to be called-'Faith in Socialism'.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">The success of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua with faithful Christians participating in it, where Frei was invited as an advisor, encouraged him to work on this book. Lot many priests like Father Miguel D Escoto, the foreign minister, were part of the revolutionary government, whose ideal was Cuba.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">He first met Fidel Castro at the house of Nicaraguan Vice President Sergio Ramirez in July 1980. Fidel encouraged him to freely discuss Bible and Christian ideas with him without getting 'irritate' as Frei apprehended and told him that 'at no time the Cuban revolution has been inspired by anti-religious feelings'. Castro addressed Chilean clergy in 1971 during the Allende period, and in Jamaica, also he addressed a Protestant audience in 1977. In Nicaragua, there was unity between Christians and Marxists during the revolutionary struggle.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">Frei visited Cuba 12 times from 1981 to 1985 and had 23 hours of recorded interviews from May 23 to May 26 in four days, an average of almost six hours a day of conversation. He wrote this note immediately after the conclusion of the interview on May 29 1985.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">Book has two parts. The first part, titled 'Chronicle of a Visit' includes Castro talking to many people during the visit of Algerian President Chadli Bendje did and with some other guests, like a group of Brazilians, meeting Brazilian journalist Joelmir Beting. Fidel has the courtesy of even personally driving down Beting and Bretto to their hotel one night at the conclusion of their meeting.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">The first part has seven chapters and is spread into 45 pages. It comes out from this part that Fidel is a good cook, and later in comparison with Che Guevara, in the second part of the book, he comments-'I am a better cook (Che). I am not going to say that I am a better revolutionary, but I am definitely a better cook than Che was.' (Page 268) Fidel informs that they have one lakh independent farmers in Cuba, holding private land, but other farmers joining cooperatives have many better-living conditions. Castro also emphasises manual labour and students going for it one month per year.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">Part II is the major part of the book, spread over four chapters and 220 pages. Every chapter is an account of one night's interview, most of the interviews were conducted in the evening or rather a late evening, and some continued past midnight. On the first day, May 23, 1985, at the beginning of the interview, Frei informs that perhaps for the first-time head of a socialist state has been granted an exclusive interview on the topic of religion.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) of Nicaragua did issue a document on religion in 1980. In the first part of the interview, Castro speaks about his family, his childhood, his religious training in school etc. Castro says that his mother Lina and father Angel were faithful religious people, but more so his mother. He was born on a farm called Biran, but there was no church. Castro's father was a Spaniard from Galicia and had settled in Cuba, working there. Castro's parents were from poor backgrounds, though later his father bought enough land.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">Castro refers to Cuba's first war of independence against Spain in 1895, which ended with the defeat of the Spanish colonial regime in 1898; Castro describes Cuba to be 'the Vietnam of the 19th century'. Castro's father died on October 21 1956, before the triumph of the Cuban revolution, and his mother died after the revolution on August 6 1963. Castro describes how Christmas was celebrated in his house in his childhood. Castro was born on August 13, 1926, and his armed struggle started at the age of 26 years on July 26, 1952, with an attack on Moncada, the struggle got the name the ‘26th July Movement’.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">His father bought 800 hundred hectares of land, of which 400 hundred hectares were surrendered after the revolution as per the new law of land-owning limit. There was no church in Castro’s village, he was baptised in Santiago de Cuba at the age of 5 or six years. He was named Fidel-the faithful one, on his godfather's name. Castro's aunts and grandmother had strong beliefs. Castro was the third child of her mother's second marriage, out of seven in total. Children from the first marriage were also known to them.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">Castro has four sisters and two more brothers. He was put in school in Santiago de Cuba, staying at the house of his godfather. Castro listened to the Three wise Men stories from his family—Caspar, Melchoir and Balthazar-mythical stories. He was not happy in-home, later was shifted to boarding school La Salle for four years, which gave Castro satisfaction. He had his religious training in school and enjoyed his Christmas vacation of two weeks at his home. He was a good athlete at school and good in his studies as well.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">Castro makes an interesting observation about martyrdom here-'Conviction is what makes martyrs. I don't think that anybody becomes a martyr simply because he expects a reward or fears punishment. I don’t think anybody behaves heroically for such a reason.’ Castro had his high schooling in Colegio de Belen School in Havana, he graduated from high school in 1945 at 19 years. He first heard about communism in school as a ‘terrible thing’. He excelled in sports, and academics. His school certificate recorded—</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">“Fidel Castro Ruz (1942-45)- He distinguished himself in all subjects related to Letters. A top student and member of the congregation, he was an outstanding athlete, always courageously and proudly defending the school's colours. He won the admiration and affection of all. We are sure that, after his law studies, he will make a brilliant name for himself. Fidel has what it takes and will make something of his life."</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">After joining the University, Fidel acquired Marxist ideology; he was a firm follower of Jose Marti. Batista made a military coup in Cuba on March 10, 1952, and on July 26, 1952, Castro made an armed insurrection, which failed. The first part of the interview concluded at 3.00 am, starting from 9.00 pm, six hours before.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">The second part of the interview started on May 24 1985 at 4.45 pm Frei refers to Christian participants in July 26 movement, such as Frank Paise and Jose Antonio Echeverria. Castro told how much they respected their faith and gave an example of how he chastised his comrades at the death of Echevveria, when from his will, his invocation to God was left out. In this chapter, the attack on Moncada is detailed; about 120 men attacked Moncada.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">In the clash, 1,000 soldiers countered the attack, and only 2 or 3 comrades were killed in the initial clash. But Batista army brutally murdered 70 rebels after arresting them. Castro could also have been killed, but a black lieutenant did not allow his men to shoot them. In fact, he even praised Castro's men by saying-you are brave boys, brave-, later, the lieutenant was blamed for not killing and discharged from the army. Later after the revolution, he was made Captain and in charge of the President's security. His name was Padro Sarria. He died in 1972 from cancer.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">Castro spent 22 months in prison in the Isle of Pines, now named the Isle of Youth, 19 months, he was kept in solitary confinement. Father Sardinas from church joined the Sierra Maestra guerrilla struggle in 1956. After the revolution, one judge Urrutia was made provisional President of Cuba, but he clashed with the revolutionaries. Castro was named Prime Minister, he resigned, and in public debate, Urrutia had to face embarrassment, and he resigned. Later a prestigious comrade was named President, and then many radical laws were passed. Castro tells-'Values and morals are man's spiritual values.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">Castro refers to how priests and churches were tried to be used by the CIA against the revolution, and three priests participated in the invasion of Cuba in the Bay of Pigs in 1961. They could have been executed but were treated leniently. The Communist Party of Cuba came into existence in 1965 from Integrated Revolutionary Organisations.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">Eighty-two men waged war in 1956-57, a first major battle in January 1957 by 22 comrades, won the first battle. When they won the war on January 1 1, 959, Castro had just 3,000 men who defeated Batista's 80,000-strong army. People's Socialist Party (PSP) was more homogenous. Socialism was proclaimed at the time of the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. Castro described relations with the church as 'A period of coexistence and mutual respect between the party and the churches.' (Page 171).</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">The conversation concluded at 10 pm, more than six hours after it started.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">The third conversation started on May 25 at 8 pm Castro exposed 'gentleman' Pinochet, allegedly a 'devout' man, who is responsible for thousands of deaths, murders, tortures or missing people in Chile. Castro tells the proud role of one lakh teachers and thousands of doctors working in other countries as missionaries. Castro also praises nuns who are taking care of old people's homes in Cuba with much austerity, like model communists.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">They talk about Father Ernesto Cardenal, a Sandinista poet and writer, a much-respected personality of Nicaragua. Castro emphasises the need to improve works of revolution and defines them as a work of art. They discuss the positive role of Liberation Theology in Latin American countries like Guatemala, Peru, Brazil, El Salvador and others in promoting revolutionary ideas, which were described as subversive by US rulers. Church described as the oldest institution, 2000 years old, Buddhism and Hinduism may be older, but they are not institutions.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">The discussion concluded at 11 pm, the first time in just three hours.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">The fourth and last part of the interview took place on Sunday, May 26, 1985, at 7 pm Castro gifted a copy of his school certificate as a memento to Frei. They discuss the proposed visit of the Pope, which Castro is ready to welcome. Frei asks a question on religion as the 'Opiate’ of the people. Castro explains the phenomenon in detail and opines that it is possible for Christians to be Marxists, but they have to be honest in ending the exploitation of man by man and struggle for equal distribution of social wealth.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">Here Castro also refers to the first social revolution of the modern period-French revolution, with a three-word slogan-Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, but exposes the myth of the slogan in practice in the capitalist system. Castro opines that the achievement of the spirit of this slogan is possible only in a Socialist society. Castro also exposes the myth of ancient Greek and Roman democracy by detailing the unknown facts about the number of slaves, more than the Greek/Roman own population and only high classes participating in debates; reference to Nero also came while Rome was burning, and he was playing the lyre! Slavery was abolished in Cuba and Brazil in 1886.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">Then they talk about 'hatred', and Castro explained that either Marx or Lenin, Marti or he, never hated persons. They hated only the system; it reminds Bhagat Singh's famous court statement mentioning this very concept. Castro underlines the fact that he hates fascism and Nazism. They also note the fact that during imperialism's most cruel period, in the First World War first, 20 million people and in a second world war, more than 50 million people lost their lives and underlines the fact that the Imperialist system was to be blamed for this, which needs to be smashed as a system.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">Frei also questions love and the 'export' of revolution. Castro explains that revolution can never be exported. Only ideas that travel the world over, not the physical forces can go and make a revolution. Revolution is made by internal forces and mechanisms only. They talk about Che Guevara as well, the kind of fond relationship Che and Castro had with each other. Castro brings out the exceptional qualities of Che, his leadership quality, intellectual characteristics, and courage; he was so daring that he had to be held back by Castro.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">Che had great moral integrity, was a man of profound ideas, an untiring worker, and was rigorous and methodical in fulfilling his duties. 'He was one of the greatest figures of his generation in Latin America, and nobody could tell how much he would have accomplished if he'd survived'. The same comment may be true for Bhagat Singh in the context of India. Che went to Congo, Zaire, Tanzania and then Bolivia. They talk about other revolutionary heroes like Camilo, who died young at 27 in 1959.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">The book concludes with the fact - 82 men's expedition arrived in Cuba on December 2, 1956. After the first hard setbacks, 14-15-16 men regrouped-Fidel and Raul Castro, Che and Camilo among them and made a historic revolution in Cuba on January 1 1959, the most wonderful event, even more, interesting than October 1917 and 1949 Russian and Chinese revolutions!.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;">Though focused on the issue of religion, the book actually narrates the story of Castro's life as well as the story of the Cuban revolution. This is a very good book to follow.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding-bottom: 1em;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Chaman Lal is a retired Professor from JNU and Honorary Advisor to Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, New Delhi. The views are personal.</span></em></p></div></div></div></div><script src="http://www.boxbe.com/scripts/widget_contactme.js?user=drchaman" type="text/javascript">
</script>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-3704413066204937512022-05-16T23:29:00.001+05:302022-05-16T23:29:49.908+05:30A Classic Book on the History of Human Liberation | NewsClick<a href="https://www.newsclick.in/A-classic-book-history-human-liberation">https://www.newsclick.in/A-classic-book-history-human-liberation</a><br /><script src="http://www.boxbe.com/scripts/widget_contactme.js?user=drchaman" type="text/javascript">
</script><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><figure class="wp-block-image" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; margin: 4rem auto; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;"><img alt="A Classic Book on the History of Human Liberation " scale="0" src="https://www.newsclick.in/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_885/public/2022-05/clr%20j2.jpg?itok=-oLi21x7" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-radius: inherit; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; font-size: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: bottom; word-break: break-word;" title="A Classic Book on the History of Human Liberation " /></figure><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;"><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; word-break: break-word;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;">Image Courtesy: New Socialist</span></em></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; word-break: break-word;">James, C L R, ‘The Black Jacobins’-Toussaint L’Ourverture and the San Domingo Revolution, second revised edition, October 1989, Vintage Books(Random House), New York, first ed. 1963, pages 426, price $16.</em></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">This is a classic book of the first revolution in the Third World. This is the story of the 1791-1803 Haitian revolution, which became a model for liberation movements later. Author C.L.R. James was born in 1901 in Trinidad. The first Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago, Eric Williams, was James’s pupil. James wrote on cricket, apart from writing on revolutionary movements and fiction. He wrote on Herman Melville in 1953, a novel <em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; word-break: break-word;">Minty Alley </em>in 1927, <em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; word-break: break-word;">World Revolution</em> (1937), <em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; word-break: break-word;">A History of Negro Revolt </em>(1977), <em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; word-break: break-word;">Notes on Dialectics</em> (1980), and <em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; word-break: break-word;">At the Rendezvous of Victory</em> (1984). C</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">James was foremost a Marxist in the Caribbean region and tried his hand in Trinidad politics, but was not successful. His pupil Williams even detained him. Before his death in 1989, James was awarded the highest award of Trinidad &Tobago — The Trinity Cross – that at last recognised his contribution to Trinidad’s society.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">James had dedicated his book on Haiti’s revolution to his British friends, Harry and Elizabeth Spencer. A map of Haiti and its surroundings has been given in the beginning of the book. In the Preface to the 1963 Vintage edition, James mentioned that this book was written in 1938. The publisher has not been mentioned. In the 1963 edition, after the Cuban liberation of 1959, James added the chapter, ‘From Toussaint L’Ouverture to Fidel Castro’, looking at future of Caribbean nations in the Cuban socialist model. But, the dream of James has still not been realised in the Caribbean.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">In Preface to first 1938 edition, James has referred to the importance of San Domingo for France. In 1789, the French Revolution took place, Bastille and Jacobin became iconic names. Inspired by the events in their master country, France, the slaves revolted against French occupation in 1791 in Haiti, so James called them ‘Black Jacobin’.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">The struggle of the San Domingo slaves took 12 years to succeed. The defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1803 led to the establishment of the Negro state of Haiti, the first free Black or Negro state. All other Black states in Africa or South America/Caribbean were still under colonial control of Spain, France, England, Dutch or Portugal. The hero of this revolt was the gifted slave, Toussaint L’Ouverture.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">Apart from the two prefaces, James has written the Prologue for the book and 13 chapters. The bibliography is exhaustive, an index is given and the appendix is in the prior mentioned essay, ‘From Toussaint L’ Ouverture to Fidel Castro’. In the Prologue, James has given a brief background of the region, where Christopher Columbus first landed on the island of San Salvador, looking for gold. Local Red Indians directed him to Haiti, a large island, rich in the yellow metal. Spaniards annexed this island in early 16th century. Slavery was introduced. Later, France, Spain and Britain slaughtered each other for 30 years to possess this island in the region. France got a larger part of the island in the 17th century. More and more slaves were brought from Africa and the human drain from Africa ran into millions.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">In the first chapter of the book, ‘The Property’, James depicts the establishment of slavery and the conditions in which the slaves lived. They worked for 18 hours a day and, as per James, “worked like animals, the slaves were housed like animals “(page 10). For the smallest of faults, the slaves received the harshest punishment. Whipping was common, a piece of hot wood was placed on buttocks of a victim, salt, pepper, citron, cinders, hot ashes were poured on bleeding wounds. Slaves were tied with irons on their hands and feet, logs of wood tied behind to carry wherever they walked. Blowing of a slave was — ‘to burn a little powder in the arse of a nigger’. But in the midnight celebrations of their African cult, Voodoo, they would sing—Eh! Eh! Bomba! heu! heu!.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">The song meant—‘we swear to destroy the whites and all they possess; let us die rather than fail to keep this vow’—and they died in hundreds, as the vow could not be kept!</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">A literary opponent of slavery was Abbe Raynal, who even before the French Revolution, called for the slave revolution. He was a priest and wrote a book on the exploitation of oppressed people by the white masters. This book inspired Toussaint to make a revolution in Haiti.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">In the second chapter, ‘The owners’, James depicts the human and natural resources of Haiti. Port-au-Prince was the official capital of the colony, and even today is the capital of the country. James explains the demography of the island. There were blacks, whites and Mulattos – the offspring of black-white couples. Mulattos were in a better condition than the Blacks. The San Domingo Blacks heard about the French Revolution exploding; Bastille, the symbol of feudal reaction, was stormed in July 1789.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;"> ‘Parliament and Property’ is the title of the third chapter. In 1790, a colonial assembly was held. Mulatto and Blacks sometimes united against the Whites, while sometimes the Mulattoes did not support Blacks, rather they supported the French occupants. In France’s national assembly, a group called ‘Friends of the Negro’ was formed. Lots of struggles took place, and one liberal Mullato leader, Oge, was tortured to death by the Whites.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">In fourth chapter, The San Diego Masses Begin’, the slave rebellion explodes. Toussaint joined the rebellion one month later. Four months of insurrection came to a dead end. Even good liberals–Friends of the Negro — did not do anything to abolish slavery. In fifth and continuing chapter, ‘And the Paris Masses Complete’, about 6,000 thousand men sailed from France in 15 ships to crush the slave revolt. On August 29, 1793, slavery was abolished by Sonthanax. Toussaint’s forces were growing now, and he did not respond to French overtures, but after the French Assembly passed the decree for abolition of slavery, Toussaint joined the French under threat from British forces.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">‘The Rise of Toussaint’ is the sixth chapter, which shows the power of Toussaint, who was advising French Governor Laveaux, but who ignored his advice and capitulated. In seventh chapter, ‘The Mulattoes Try and Fail’, Laveaux was arrested by Mulattoes, released by Toussaint, who was proclaimed as ‘Assistant to the Governor’. In the eighth chapter, ‘The White Slave Owners Again’, there are episodes of intrigues in the ruling sections, Sonotheaux, was a friend of Blacks, but was dictatorial. Toussaint was liked by all– Blacks, Whites and Mulattoes.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">‘The Expulsion of the British’ is the title of the ninth chapter. In the three-year war in West Indies, Britian lost 80,000 men. ‘Toussaint seizes the Power’ is title of 10th chapter. By 1800, Toussaint was victorious, he was a master of the whole island, though there were internecine killings among Blacks. ‘The Black Consul’ is the 11th chapter. Toussaint in his control tried to develop the island, gave it a constitution in which the Church was subordinate to the State.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">‘The Bourgeoisie Prepares to Restore Slavery; is 12th chapter. It is about the time of reversal; Napoleon Bonaparte was on the rise and he hated the Blacks. Toussaint committed blunders, but his failure, according to James “was failure of enlightenment and not of darkness” (page 288).</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">The final and 13th chapter is the longest, ‘The War of Independence’. This is history of deceits, forgery and bravery. Toussaint was arrested after failures, which was a shock to the whole population. Bonaparte restored slavery in Guadeloupe. That was an alarm for Haiti. Governor Leclerc Charles Belair and his wife were arrested, condemned and shot. Leclerc died. His successor Rochambeau drowned so many people in the Bay of La Cap, and 1,500 dogs were unleashed to hunt the Blacks.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">It was Dessalines from among the Blacks who faced the crisis. A boy of 19, he told the oppressors that “you don’t know how to die. See how to die”. He set himself ablaze and got burnt without uttering a groan. It reminds one of Guru Arjun Dev on a hot plate and Bhagat Singh on the gallows. A woman shamed her Black chief husband and took a rope to hang herself, rather than let the oppressors hang her!</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">In prison, Toussaint was made to die with torture, hunger and insults. He died on April 7, 1803.On November 29, 1803, Dessalines made the proclamation of liberation of Haiti. On December 31, the new state was named Haiti. In 1805, the Whites were massacred in Haiti. Dessalines was crowned in October 1804.</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">The book’s appendix is written equally passionately and focuses on Trinidad, the Caribbean and West Indies’ glorious tradition of anti-colonial struggles. The author refers to many novels and poems to indicate that West Indies should follow Castro. He quotes from Aime’ Cesaire’s poem:</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;"><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; word-break: break-word;">But the work of man is only just beginning</em></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;"><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; word-break: break-word;">And it remains to man to conquer all</em></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;"><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; word-break: break-word;">The violence entrenched in the recesses of his passion</em></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;"><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; word-break: break-word;">And no race possesses the monopoly of beauty,</em></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;"><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; word-break: break-word;">Of intelligence, of force, and there</em></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;"><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; word-break: break-word;"> Is a place for all at the rendezvous</em></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;"><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; word-break: break-word;"> of victory………</em></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;">Truly, a great and essential book to understand human history!</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Josefin Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 27.3px; line-height: 1.476; margin: 0px auto 1.25em; max-width: 58rem; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; width: calc(100% - 4rem); word-break: break-word;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: none; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; word-break: break-word;">Chaman Lal is a retired Professor from JNU and Honorary Advisor to Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, New Delhi. He was a visiting Professor to The University of West Indies in Trinidad during 2011. The views are personal.</em></span></p></div><div><br /></div>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5116979557909488890.post-26569652684736977662022-05-06T22:44:00.001+05:302022-05-06T22:44:50.975+05:30The Execution of Bhagat Singh: Legal Heresies of the Raj <script type="text/javascript">
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</script><div><br /></div><div><div>.</div><div>New Bhagat Singh Book Rebuts British Rule of Law in Colonial India</div><div>The Execution of Bhagat Singh: Legal Heresies of the Raj exposes the legendary freedom fighter’s sham trial.</div><div><a href="https://www.newsclick.in/new-bhagat-singh-book-rebuts-british-rule-law-colonial-india">https://www.newsclick.in/new-bhagat-singh-book-rebuts-british-rule-law-colonial-india</a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>From the beginning of the 21st century, there has been a significant interest among foreign scholars in British, American and some other international universities to do research on Bhagat Singh and his comrades.</div><div><br /></div><div>Kama Maclean and Chris Moffat’s research-based books have already contributed to the literature on Singh. Daniel Elam and Christopher Pinney are other important names on the list of contributors. Among Indian researchers abroad, Neeti Nair and Maia Ramnath are continuously researching Indian revolutionary movements. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, Satvinder Singh Juss, who is from a Punjabi background and is a law professor and practising barrister in London, has joined the list. His book The Execution of Bhagat Singh: Legal Heresies of the Raj is another study on the sham trial of Singh after the earlier celebrated book by AG Noorani The Trial of Bhagat Singh: Politics of Justice, which was published in 1996.</div><div><br /></div><div>On the flap on Juss’s book, Kim A. Wagner, known for his book on Jallianwala Bagh, has hit the nail with his short comment: “The book offers a powerful rebuttal of the tired cliché that the British introduced the rule of law in colonial India.”</div><div><br /></div><div>A 2006 book titled The Blood Never Dried: A People’s History of the British Empire, written by John Newsinger, mentions the so-called justice system of British colonial rule in Asian and African countries, where so much human blood was splintered to continue the imperial loot that it never dried as a poetic phrase used by British poet Earnest Jones in his celebrated poem The Revolt of Hindostan, based on the 1857 Indian war of Independence.</div><div><br /></div><div>Juss’s book was first published by Amberley Publishing in the UK in 2020 and its Indian edition was published by HarperCollins Publishers India in 2021. The title to the preface of the book’s Indian edition is ‘Why Bhagat Singh Matters’ and begins by referring to the historic and the largest labour protest in history of 125, 000 farmers. Subsequently, Juss refers to Singh’s uncle Ajit Singh, who led a similar farmer’s protest against anti-farmer laws in 1907.</div><div><br /></div><div>The author in his preface refers to the April 8, 1929, arrest of Singh (and Batukeshwar Dutt) after they hurled bombs at the Central Legislative Assembly, Delhi, as a watershed moment in his life. He refers to Singh’s jail notebook and other writings and the book on Vladimir Lenin read by him a few hours before his execution. </div><div><br /></div><div>The contents of the book include a prologue and 11 chapters apart from appendices, notes and a bibliography. The appendices include eight pages of details of Singh’s case files in the Punjab Archives, Lahore, not known before and many letters and other documents reproduced in scanned form, which are a valuable part of the book.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the prologue, the author refers to the story of the tomb of Anarkali inside Punjab Archives, to which he mistakenly describes as ‘The Bhagat Singh Archives’. Yes, 134 case files of the Lahore conspiracy case are part of the Punjab archives, the brief details of which are shared for the first time in the appendix of this book.</div><div><br /></div><div>Many open addresses of revolutionaries as well as secret ones are also referred—such as a factory on Ravi Road, a rented house in Gwal Mandi, another house in Mozang and one place in Kashmir building on Mac Leod Road. A journalist Amara Ahmad was planning to research the footsteps of Singh in Lahore at one time though the present status of her research is not known. Ironically, Juss was given full access to the otherwise inaccessible Punjab Archives, Lahore, but was denied similar access to the National Archives of India because of his non-resident Indian status as he describes in his prologue. </div><div><br /></div><div>Every chapter of the book begins with a suitable Urdu couplet with an English translation—such as from Habib Jalib, Akbar Allahabadi, Faiz, Sahir Ludhianvi, etc. The first chapter, ‘Coercive Colonial Legalism’, brings out the so-called justice of the colonial regime, which itself was based on the principle of coercion of Indian or any colonised people, the features of which are detailed in this chapter.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another chapter ‘The Slipper and the Magistrate’ narrates how Premdatta Verma, the youngest co-accused in the Lahore conspiracy case, threw a slipper at approver Jai Gopal, provoked by his gestures. Later, the revolutionaries were brutally attacked in front of Magistrate Pandit Sri Kishen, who was acting more as an executive magistrate than a judicial one.</div><div><br /></div><div>A full chapter is devoted to the glorious hunger strike/s by the revolutionaries during which Jatin Das died on September 13, 1929. Muhammad Ali Jinnah had commenced his speech at the Central Assembly on September 12 by mentioning Das.</div><div><br /></div><div>The book also mentions how the British were introducing ordinances arbitrarily when they were not able to get them passed in the Assembly as they had more nominated members than elected ones. The Indian resistance, whether in the Assembly or at courts by nationalist advocates at the Lahore Bar, is also presented in great detail.</div><div><br /></div><div>One full chapter “‘Inquilabi’ Justice Agha Haider” mentions the great role played by Saharanpur-born Justice Agha Haider, who was nominated as a member of the Special Tribunal in May 1930 and was fair to the Lahore conspiracy accused as a High Court judge. Justice Haider threw away the man sent by the British to bribe him to convict the accused. Finally, the colonial rulers got rid of Justice Haider through Chief Justice of Punjab High Court, Sir Shadi Lal, on the excuse of the reorganisation of the tribunal.</div><div><br /></div><div>Justice Haider later became a member of the UP Assembly and a condolence resolution passed by the Assembly is given as an appendix. Justice Haider, born in 1876, died on February 5, 1947, a few months before independence. His descendants still live in the same house in Saharanpur as the family decided not to migrate to Pakistan during the Partition.</div><div><br /></div><div>Singh’s sham trial is exposed as it was held in the absence of the accused and in heresies of the Raj, it is underlined that the judgement was predetermined. To quote the author, “In fact, the Tribunal’s bias is clear from how badly the judgement was drafted.” (Page 179)</div><div><br /></div><div>The Execution of Bhagat Singh is one of the better books written on the legendary revolutionary and freedom fighter in the last decade or so. The book also focuses on Singh’s personality as a Marxist thinker, which is an eyesore for the current Indian government trying to appropriate him as a popular icon but sans his revolutionary thought.</div><div><br /></div><div>Singh’s power even after his death is so overwhelming that despite the government’s best efforts to suppress his revolutionary thought, it became the strength of the historic movement of farmers against the three farm laws. The farmers got inspiration and strength from Singh’s revolutionary ideas and emerged victorious. Even after his execution, Bhagat Singh lives more powerfully as he himself had foreseen while consciously choosing martyrdom—Juss’s book underlines this strength.</div></div>Chaman Lalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06315377469941455169noreply@blogger.com0