Tuesday, 1 October 2013
Bhagat Singh birth anniversary celebrated in Pakistan
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/bhagat-singhs-birth-anniversary-celebrated-in-pakistan/articleshow/23267867.cms?intenttarget=no
On September the 28th 1907, a boy was born in a village near Lyallpur (now Faisalabad). He would grow up to inspire the subcontinent’s youth to fight for independence from the British. The irony is that a great part of his struggle was spent in what is now Pakistan, but after partition Pakistan overlooked his legacy. This young man is Lyallpur’s forgotten hero: Bhagat Singh Shaheed.
In the midst of Ramadan, I visited Singh’s birthplace, Bangay. It is located in the outskirts of Faisalabad city. Mohammad Iqbal Virk, the man whose father was allotted Bhagat Singh’s house and lands after migrating from India to Pakistan, showed me around the property.
Virk is well-versed in the life of Bhagat Singh and has kept many books, articles and photographs of the freedom fighter. His eyes lit up as he talked of the young Shaheed, going down the road of history. At the time of his death, Bhagat Singh was only 23 years old. He was born into a well-known family that had resisted British imperialism for generations. Thus it was hardly a surprise that Bhagat Singh became a freedom fighter.
In December 1928, Bhagat Singh and his colleagues had shot dead assistant superintendent of police, John Saunders, mistaking him for superintendent of police, J.A Scott.
The previous year, nationalist Lala Lajpat Rai had suffered fatal blows at the hands of Scott and the young men wanted to avenge his death. The assassins managed to successfully escape from Lahore. Then in April 1929, Bhagat Singh and a colleague hurled low-intensity bombs into the central legislative assembly before voluntarily surrendering to the police.
The British government accused Bhagat Singh of murdering Saunders. Whilst in jail, Bhagat Singh went on a hunger strike protesting against the unequal treatment of Indian and British prisoners. He lost much weight and was disabled from taking part in his trial.
A government-proposed amendment in the law would have allowed the courts to continue the trial in the absence of Bhagat Singh. Opposing the law, and defending Singh, Muhammad Ali Jinnah said: “The man who goes on hunger strike has a soul. He is moved by that soul and he believes in the justice of his cause; he is not an ordinary criminal who is guilty of cold-blooded, sordid, wicked crime.”
After failing to make the amendment in the law that day, the governor-general resorted to issuing an ordinance that would allow a tribunal to hold what would, in effect, be a sham trial.
Various historians have said the trial lacked impartiality and objectivity. Singh and his compatriots, Sukhdev and Rajguru, were hanged in the gallows of the Lahore Jail on the 23rd of March 1931. Their ashes were cremated at the Sutlej River.
Virk said he has tried to preserve Singh’s belongings to the best of his abilities. Yet, he regrettably admits, that much has been lost due to neglect and ignorance. Pair of wooden doors that lead to the courtyard in Virk’s house in Bangay were installed when Bhagat Singh lived here.
According to Virk, Bhagat Singh planted the sprawling tree in the courtyard. Next to the tree, the Shaheed’s name is inscribed on a blackboard with white paint.
Virk says Sikhs, usually from Canada, come to visit every year and take a bit of the soil from the tree with them. Virk has also kept a bulky, and rather perky blue, safe that he says was Bhagat Singh’s own.
When the Virk family first moved into the house, the women had torn pages out of Singh’s personal book collection to utilize as fuel to cook food, not aware of the historical value of what they were burning. A little far-removed from the house, down a spiraling narrow mud path, are the lush green fields that were used for agricultural purposes by the Singh family.
Now members of the Virk family looks after these lands and Muhammad Iqbal Virk prides himself on the chemical-free ‘pure’ crops he grows on Singh’s old lands.
Bhagat Singh attended the government primary school in the village. One of the classrooms, or rather the ruins of it, is said to have been Bhagat Singh’s classroom at the school. It has only three walls standing and no roof. One of the school’s grounds has disappeared and in its place now is a pool of stagnant rainwater, breeding the dreaded mosquito. Donkeys and cows graze the other ground – the one that isn’t flooded. It is tragically ironic that the school of such a well-read revolutionary has now been left to rot, with no one aware of either its existence or the need for its upkeep. Virk asked me to request the government, through my article, to look after the school.
The role that Bhagat Singh has been assigned in Pakistan’s historical narrative is very similar to the state of public schools in the country. We do not study him in schools and he has been conveniently left out of our textbooks, as if he is a mere irrelevance – an irritant in our pious Islamic Republic’s history of benevolent Muslim freedom fighters.
The result is political leaders, engineered by the same education system, who fail to see the crucial role played by Singh in the movement for independence. The rare public representatives, who do realise his role, brush it under the rug, fearing outrage from the Islamic parties if they try to glorify a hero that wasn’t a Muslim. Bhagat Singh’s house is virtually unknown to the citizens of Faisalabad, let alone the rest of Pakistan.
The government needs to preserve the history that hasn’t yet perished from Bangay. Not only is Bhagat Singh deserving of importance but also he can be a much-needed symbol for national unity that cuts across all differences of caste, class and religion. It is time for Lyallpur to remember her forgotten son.
Inqlab Zindabad=Mainstream-28th September 2013
http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article4473.html
MAINSTREAM, VOL LI, NO 41, SEPTEMBER 28, 2013
Inquilab Zindabad!
September 28, 2013 marks the immortal revolutionary martyr Bhagat Singh’s 106th birth anniversary. On this occasion we are publishing the following article written and sent for publication around March 23 this year to observe the eightysecond anniversary of Bhagat Singh’s martyrdom. It could not be published then for unavoidable reasons.
It is March 23 now on the clock, the most significant day for the revolutionary movement of not only India, but the whole of South Asia, at least as important for Pakistan as for India. The greatest martyr of both India and Pakistan held the head of dignity of the Indian nation of 1931 and revolutionary movement of the whole world high, with the resounding sounds of ‘Inquilab Zindabad!’ and ‘Down with Imperialism’. The event made British colonialism hang its head in shame before the brave three—Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev!
I am trying to imagine the three days of March 1931. On March 20, Bhagat Singh wrote to the Governor of Punjab, daring him to send a firing squad in order to shoot them, as they were ‘war prisoners’, since a war was on between the Indian nation and British colonialism. On March 22, Bhagat Singh wrote a letter to his comrades, exhorting them to continue the struggle, though they would face immense hardships; more than dying, living and struggling will be more difficult... And on the 23rd itself, I presume, all the three slept well at night, after singing revolutionary songs. They knew March 24 would be the day of their execution.
At the time of meeting, Pran Nath Mehta, their friend and advocate, brought the book on or by Lenin as sought by Bhagat Singh, a day earlier. In all likelihood Pran Nath Mehta must have informed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev that their families refused to avail themselves of the last meeting with them, though all the three families were present in Lahore that day for the last meeting. Rajguru’s poor mother travelled all the way from Maharashtra to be with her son. Sukhdev’s mother was there with Sukhdev’s uncle, Lala Achint Ram Thapar, who was like a father to Sukhdev after the death of his father earlier. The jail authorities refused permission to Lala Achint Ram to accompany them for the last meeting, because of ‘not being a blood relation’. To protest against this, all the three families refused to meet the three prisoners.
I was trying to gauge the pain of the three mothers, particularly of Rajguru’s poor mother, who came all the way from a village near Pune in Maharashtra, and had not got many chances to meet her son during the trial, being far away. At least Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev’s families had many chances to meet them, being in Punjab. Bhagat Singh was worried that at the last meeting his mother might cry, so he advised her not to come; however, she did come, but now showing exemplary courage bearing pain, all of them refused to see their sons for the last time, exposing the British colonial regime’s cruelty in its worst form.
Bhagat Singh could understood everything. When Bogha, the Dalit jail worker, came, Bhagat Singh asked him to cook lunch for them. In 1931, Bogha cried, he could not commit this ‘sin’ to cook for a ‘high caste’, but Bhagat Singh told him that before going to the gallows, he had to eat from the hands of ‘bebe’, they used to call Bogha, bebe (mother), since like the mother he cleansed their toilets. Bhagat Singh had his way and got his last food from ‘bebe’. Then he started reading Lenin and around four, the jail warder, Chatar Singh, requested them to have a bath, could not explain anything except crying. Bhagat Singh understood that the ‘time was up’, they got ready for the ‘last and final journey’. Bhagat Singh again continued reading Lenin’s book. When around six the jail staff came to fetch them, Bhagat Singh smiled and said: ‘Wait for a while, let me finish this page, a revolutionary is meeting another revolutionary, don’t spoil the beauty of their meeting.’ They waited!
All three, arm-in-arm and singing, started moving towards the gallows. Bhagat Singh’s weight increased by ten pounds, with the expectation of execution (mind ‘expectation’ and not ‘apprehension’), as he was so happy and excited to sacrifice his life for the country and its people, in order to awaken them. I sometimes wonder whether we shall celebrate March 23 with happiness or express sorrow as many people do. Bhagat Singh would have said: ‘Celebrate your struggles on this day, don’t spread gloom, be cheerful and strong!’
At 7 pm or around that time they were at the gallows. Bhagat Singh refused to wear the black cloth on his face and told the British officer: ‘You are lucky to see how happily Indians go to the gallows for the nation.’
Saddam Hussein was not the first to go to the gallows with uncovered face; Bhagat Singh was the first one to do so.
And what did the British do after the executions were over? Scared of the anger of the people gathered at the jail gate, and the news spread fast, they mutilated the bodies by cutting them into pieces, put those into sacks, took those from the back gate towards Hussainiwala, and burnt the bodies with kerosene oil with some Pandit/Granthi around from Kasur. A large number of people walking by foot collected the half-burnt body-pieces, brought those to Lahore and a lakh of people joined the funeral march to the banks of the Ravi in Lahore on March 24 evening. Thus ended the saga of one of the bravest men and patriots of history at the age of 23 years and five months plus, whose slogan ‘Inquilab Zindabad!’ became the war-cry of the freedom struggle after their martyrdom.
‘Inquilab Zindabad!’ II—Long Live Revolution!
Writing ‘Inquilab Zindabad!’ on March 23, I wrote that I would write part two of it. So now I am trying to jot it down. I wish to share here what brought me close to Bhagat Singh in my life.
After passing the Matriculation in my home town Rampura Phul with rather low marks, I was almost lost in the wilderness. There was no college in those days in the town and my father was not in a position to support my college education in nearby towns, Bhatinda or Barnala, at an equal distance of 30 kilometres on opposite sides, where the colleges were located.
My father, a petty trader, always under some debt, did not join as a school teacher, being middle pass in his days, due to ‘little pay’, and had no such sensitivity to educate his children by all means. Under the circumstances, the Public Library of Rampura Phul took me out of my pensive state by opening a whole new world of literary creativity before me. It started with Munshi Prem Chand’s Godan, and I could never settle for a lower level of literary creation. That’s why Punjabi novels did not attract me as much as Hindi ones and translations of Indian and world classics in Hindi. After a while, I became a member of the Hind Pocket Books, Delhi’s scheme of ‘Readers Club’, getting nine rupees worth books for eight rupees, with free postage. And one book for one rupee by Manmath Nath Gupta, Bharat Ke Krantikari having 16 sketches, including that of Bhagat Singh; this was my first encounter with the revolutionary freedom fighters. Manmath Nath Gupta was himself a part of the Kakori Conspiracy Case and got life conviction though being just 15 years or so at that time. I was so impressed that I started translating the book into my mother-tongue, Punjabi. By that time I had done the JBT, teachers training course, and passed Prabhakar (Honours in Hindi) examination as a private candidate, securing the first position in Punjab. This got me a job as a Hindi teacher in a Government High School in Poohla village of Bhatinda district.
These sketches were serialised in Desh Bhagat Yaadan, the fortnightly brought out by the legendary Ghadarite, Baba Gurmukh Singh Lalton, from Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall, Jalandhar. Some of the pieces were published also in Preetlari, and Aarsee, respected literary journals.
Till that time I could read and understand books in Hindi and Punjabi only, English was a distant dream yet. So I read many books in these languages on the revolutionary heroes and got particularly enchanted with Bhagat Singh. Perhaps the first meeting on Bhagat Singh I attended was on March 23, 1969 in the Public Library, Bhatinda on his martyrdom day, which was addressed by the well-known Punjabi short-story writer and joint editor of Preetlari, Navtej Singh, with his father Gurbux Singh Preetlari at that time.
But I had to struggle a lot, while doing a job, passed graduation privately and even MA Part-I privately. I joined Panjab University, Chandigarh to complete MA Part-II in Hindi. This opened a new path of life for me. Though I continued with my school job even after completing my MA, my teachers’ union activity and doing MA, Punjabi, again privately, kept me close to study about revolutionaries as well as a lot of creative Indian and world literature. Though I registered for Ph.D in Hindi with Prof Romesh Kuntal Megh, I could not proceed much. In this period, I became quite active in the Punjabi cultural movement and with some writings and translations to my credit, became known as Chaman Lal ‘Prabhakar’ in literary circles. Kumar Vikal, Mohan Bhandari and Bhushan, known as Dhianpuri at that time, and myself became part of a circle and by organising the Punjabi Sahit Sabha at Rampura Phul came in contact with the stalwarts of Punjabi literature as well, that is, Prof Mohan Singh, Sant Singh Sekhon, Gurdial Singh, etc. Paash, Waryam Sandhu, Surinder Hemjyoti, Ajmer Aulakh, Amarjit Chandan, Harbhajan Halwarvi, Attarjeet, Sant Ram Udasi, Lal Singh Dil, etc. were all part of the same stream at that time.
We worked together in the Panjabi Sahit Sabhiachar Manch, with guidance from the Nagi Reddy group of the ML movement in Punjab at that time. During the 1975 Emergency, I spent seven months in Bhatinda and Patiala jails.
In 1977, I joined the JNU for research and left the school job. Five years in the JNU as a student have been the best period of my life so far. After doing a Hindi officer’s job for sometime in Bombay, I had a short stint in journalism as a sub-editor in the Jansatta Hindi daily brought out by Prabhash Joshi, before getting a long-term job at Punjabi University, Patiala as an academic. Before leaving for Patiala, I completed editing Bhagat Singh aur Unke Sathiyon ke Dastavez with Jagmohan Singh for Rajkamal Publishers, Delhi, which got published in 1986, to become an all-time best-seller till now. From 1985 to 2002, I remained confined to literature and have many publications in Hindi, Punjabi and English, books as well as articles in journals/ newspapers.
Again after 2002, my interest returned to Bhagat Singh and this time I collected documents of Bhagat Singh alone with the title, Bhagat Singh ke Sampuran Dastavez (Complete Documents of Bhagat Singh).
The preface of the book was written by Kultar Singh, the younger brother of Bhagat Singh, and the book was released during the World Book Fair in Delhi in February 2004. This also became as much a hit as was the early collection. In the meantime, National Book Trust Chairman Prof Bipan Chandra asked me to write a monograph on Kartar Singh Sarabha, which I completed only after joining the JNU as a Professor in Hindi Translation in 2005. By this time, I got the Central Hindi Directorate award for translating Surjit Patar’s poetry in Hindi, Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize for translating Paash’s poetry in Hindi in 2002 and the Punjab Government’s Shiromani Hindi Sahitkar award in 2003.
By the time I joined the JNU, I had enough publications on Hindi and Punjabi literature, including those of criticism and translation, which were getting published every year. However, from 2006, my whole interest seemed to be concentrated on Bhagat Singh and other revolutionary heroes during the 75th martyr-dom anniversary (2006) and the 2007 birth centenary of Bhagat Singh. I became an active campaigner and writer on Bhagat Singh in this period, more at the non-official level, but some at the official level also. By impressing upon the Left parliamentary parties, which were suppor-ting the UPA Government in those days, I got the Bhagat Singh centenary included in official functions also, and this resulted in publication of Bhagat Singh’s documents from the Publications Division for the first time in 60 years. This was edited by me as Shaheed Bhagat Singh: Dastavezon ke Aaine Mein. Also I got Jail Notebook and Other Writings, with my introduction, published from Leftword, Delhi, which has got many reprints in paperback till now. The NBT also got Bhagat Singh ke Rajnitik Dastavez edited by me. On my own I prepared a book in Punjabi, my mother-tongue, Bhagat Singh: Vicharvan Inquilabi, published by Navyug Press, Delhi, the best in a Punjabi language publication. My own writings in Hindi on Bhagat Singh were published in 2009 under the title, Bhagat Singh, by Medha Books, Delhi. Another collection of my writings on Bhagat Singh, including some in EPW and Monthly Review, is now being published as Understanding Bhagat Singh from Aakar Books, Delhi. The Hindi literary monthly Gyanoudey also got a column on Indian revolutionaries from me during 2007, which is now ready to be published in book form any time. In Punjabi my book appeared as Inquilabi Itihas De Sunehari Panne in 2006, by Tarak Bharti Publishers, Barnala. During 2006-2010, I delivered fifty plus lectures on Bhagat Singh in different parts of the country and abroad. My NBT collection of Bhagat Singh’s documents has recently come out in Urdu translation also, which I hope reaches Pakistan. The Publications Division’s large collection of documents has also been translated in Urdu and is likely to be published soon.
Why did I get so involved with this theme? As part of the Left and democratic movement, I realised that one needs to have heroes from one’s own tradition to have emotional appeal among the masses. Bhagat Singh is one such hero, who has mass appeal, and who had the best enlightened Leftist ideas during the freedom movement. Bhagat Singh, like Che Guevara, is an ideal hero for not only India, but South Asia as a whole, as Che Guevara is for the whole of Latin America and both together for the whole world. The other reason was to place Bhagat Singh in the proper ideological perspective. He was just projected as a brave, fearless patriot, but despite his writings being available, he was not projected as a clear socialist revolutionary thinker, to some extent deliberately. Prof Bipan Chandra brought out his ideological position clearly in the 1970s. I took it further by bringing into light his writings in focus, so that the people could know him directly from his writings.
I have more material to focus on him, like the official documents from the National Archives including intelligence reports, which I want to use in a book, Bhagat Singh: Through Colonial and Nationalist Perspectives. I have a desire to get a complete set of articles published in the Mainstream journal in book form as Bhagat Singh in Mainstream which could prove to be the best collection of articles on Bhagat Singh. I am working now on my magnum opus, Bhagat Singh Reader, assigned to me by Penguin India for the international edition. It may be completed this year. This will present Bhagat Singh’s complete documents in English at the international level. And this will provide me with the greatest satisfaction of my life, as and when it comes out.
It is March 23 now on the clock, the most significant day for the revolutionary movement of not only India, but the whole of South Asia, at least as important for Pakistan as for India. The greatest martyr of both India and Pakistan held the head of dignity of the Indian nation of 1931 and revolutionary movement of the whole world high, with the resounding sounds of ‘Inquilab Zindabad!’ and ‘Down with Imperialism’. The event made British colonialism hang its head in shame before the brave three—Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev!
I am trying to imagine the three days of March 1931. On March 20, Bhagat Singh wrote to the Governor of Punjab, daring him to send a firing squad in order to shoot them, as they were ‘war prisoners’, since a war was on between the Indian nation and British colonialism. On March 22, Bhagat Singh wrote a letter to his comrades, exhorting them to continue the struggle, though they would face immense hardships; more than dying, living and struggling will be more difficult... And on the 23rd itself, I presume, all the three slept well at night, after singing revolutionary songs. They knew March 24 would be the day of their execution.
At the time of meeting, Pran Nath Mehta, their friend and advocate, brought the book on or by Lenin as sought by Bhagat Singh, a day earlier. In all likelihood Pran Nath Mehta must have informed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev that their families refused to avail themselves of the last meeting with them, though all the three families were present in Lahore that day for the last meeting. Rajguru’s poor mother travelled all the way from Maharashtra to be with her son. Sukhdev’s mother was there with Sukhdev’s uncle, Lala Achint Ram Thapar, who was like a father to Sukhdev after the death of his father earlier. The jail authorities refused permission to Lala Achint Ram to accompany them for the last meeting, because of ‘not being a blood relation’. To protest against this, all the three families refused to meet the three prisoners.
I was trying to gauge the pain of the three mothers, particularly of Rajguru’s poor mother, who came all the way from a village near Pune in Maharashtra, and had not got many chances to meet her son during the trial, being far away. At least Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev’s families had many chances to meet them, being in Punjab. Bhagat Singh was worried that at the last meeting his mother might cry, so he advised her not to come; however, she did come, but now showing exemplary courage bearing pain, all of them refused to see their sons for the last time, exposing the British colonial regime’s cruelty in its worst form.
Bhagat Singh could understood everything. When Bogha, the Dalit jail worker, came, Bhagat Singh asked him to cook lunch for them. In 1931, Bogha cried, he could not commit this ‘sin’ to cook for a ‘high caste’, but Bhagat Singh told him that before going to the gallows, he had to eat from the hands of ‘bebe’, they used to call Bogha, bebe (mother), since like the mother he cleansed their toilets. Bhagat Singh had his way and got his last food from ‘bebe’. Then he started reading Lenin and around four, the jail warder, Chatar Singh, requested them to have a bath, could not explain anything except crying. Bhagat Singh understood that the ‘time was up’, they got ready for the ‘last and final journey’. Bhagat Singh again continued reading Lenin’s book. When around six the jail staff came to fetch them, Bhagat Singh smiled and said: ‘Wait for a while, let me finish this page, a revolutionary is meeting another revolutionary, don’t spoil the beauty of their meeting.’ They waited!
All three, arm-in-arm and singing, started moving towards the gallows. Bhagat Singh’s weight increased by ten pounds, with the expectation of execution (mind ‘expectation’ and not ‘apprehension’), as he was so happy and excited to sacrifice his life for the country and its people, in order to awaken them. I sometimes wonder whether we shall celebrate March 23 with happiness or express sorrow as many people do. Bhagat Singh would have said: ‘Celebrate your struggles on this day, don’t spread gloom, be cheerful and strong!’
At 7 pm or around that time they were at the gallows. Bhagat Singh refused to wear the black cloth on his face and told the British officer: ‘You are lucky to see how happily Indians go to the gallows for the nation.’
Saddam Hussein was not the first to go to the gallows with uncovered face; Bhagat Singh was the first one to do so.
And what did the British do after the executions were over? Scared of the anger of the people gathered at the jail gate, and the news spread fast, they mutilated the bodies by cutting them into pieces, put those into sacks, took those from the back gate towards Hussainiwala, and burnt the bodies with kerosene oil with some Pandit/Granthi around from Kasur. A large number of people walking by foot collected the half-burnt body-pieces, brought those to Lahore and a lakh of people joined the funeral march to the banks of the Ravi in Lahore on March 24 evening. Thus ended the saga of one of the bravest men and patriots of history at the age of 23 years and five months plus, whose slogan ‘Inquilab Zindabad!’ became the war-cry of the freedom struggle after their martyrdom.
‘Inquilab Zindabad!’ II—Long Live Revolution!
Writing ‘Inquilab Zindabad!’ on March 23, I wrote that I would write part two of it. So now I am trying to jot it down. I wish to share here what brought me close to Bhagat Singh in my life.
After passing the Matriculation in my home town Rampura Phul with rather low marks, I was almost lost in the wilderness. There was no college in those days in the town and my father was not in a position to support my college education in nearby towns, Bhatinda or Barnala, at an equal distance of 30 kilometres on opposite sides, where the colleges were located.
My father, a petty trader, always under some debt, did not join as a school teacher, being middle pass in his days, due to ‘little pay’, and had no such sensitivity to educate his children by all means. Under the circumstances, the Public Library of Rampura Phul took me out of my pensive state by opening a whole new world of literary creativity before me. It started with Munshi Prem Chand’s Godan, and I could never settle for a lower level of literary creation. That’s why Punjabi novels did not attract me as much as Hindi ones and translations of Indian and world classics in Hindi. After a while, I became a member of the Hind Pocket Books, Delhi’s scheme of ‘Readers Club’, getting nine rupees worth books for eight rupees, with free postage. And one book for one rupee by Manmath Nath Gupta, Bharat Ke Krantikari having 16 sketches, including that of Bhagat Singh; this was my first encounter with the revolutionary freedom fighters. Manmath Nath Gupta was himself a part of the Kakori Conspiracy Case and got life conviction though being just 15 years or so at that time. I was so impressed that I started translating the book into my mother-tongue, Punjabi. By that time I had done the JBT, teachers training course, and passed Prabhakar (Honours in Hindi) examination as a private candidate, securing the first position in Punjab. This got me a job as a Hindi teacher in a Government High School in Poohla village of Bhatinda district.
These sketches were serialised in Desh Bhagat Yaadan, the fortnightly brought out by the legendary Ghadarite, Baba Gurmukh Singh Lalton, from Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall, Jalandhar. Some of the pieces were published also in Preetlari, and Aarsee, respected literary journals.
Till that time I could read and understand books in Hindi and Punjabi only, English was a distant dream yet. So I read many books in these languages on the revolutionary heroes and got particularly enchanted with Bhagat Singh. Perhaps the first meeting on Bhagat Singh I attended was on March 23, 1969 in the Public Library, Bhatinda on his martyrdom day, which was addressed by the well-known Punjabi short-story writer and joint editor of Preetlari, Navtej Singh, with his father Gurbux Singh Preetlari at that time.
But I had to struggle a lot, while doing a job, passed graduation privately and even MA Part-I privately. I joined Panjab University, Chandigarh to complete MA Part-II in Hindi. This opened a new path of life for me. Though I continued with my school job even after completing my MA, my teachers’ union activity and doing MA, Punjabi, again privately, kept me close to study about revolutionaries as well as a lot of creative Indian and world literature. Though I registered for Ph.D in Hindi with Prof Romesh Kuntal Megh, I could not proceed much. In this period, I became quite active in the Punjabi cultural movement and with some writings and translations to my credit, became known as Chaman Lal ‘Prabhakar’ in literary circles. Kumar Vikal, Mohan Bhandari and Bhushan, known as Dhianpuri at that time, and myself became part of a circle and by organising the Punjabi Sahit Sabha at Rampura Phul came in contact with the stalwarts of Punjabi literature as well, that is, Prof Mohan Singh, Sant Singh Sekhon, Gurdial Singh, etc. Paash, Waryam Sandhu, Surinder Hemjyoti, Ajmer Aulakh, Amarjit Chandan, Harbhajan Halwarvi, Attarjeet, Sant Ram Udasi, Lal Singh Dil, etc. were all part of the same stream at that time.
We worked together in the Panjabi Sahit Sabhiachar Manch, with guidance from the Nagi Reddy group of the ML movement in Punjab at that time. During the 1975 Emergency, I spent seven months in Bhatinda and Patiala jails.
In 1977, I joined the JNU for research and left the school job. Five years in the JNU as a student have been the best period of my life so far. After doing a Hindi officer’s job for sometime in Bombay, I had a short stint in journalism as a sub-editor in the Jansatta Hindi daily brought out by Prabhash Joshi, before getting a long-term job at Punjabi University, Patiala as an academic. Before leaving for Patiala, I completed editing Bhagat Singh aur Unke Sathiyon ke Dastavez with Jagmohan Singh for Rajkamal Publishers, Delhi, which got published in 1986, to become an all-time best-seller till now. From 1985 to 2002, I remained confined to literature and have many publications in Hindi, Punjabi and English, books as well as articles in journals/ newspapers.
Again after 2002, my interest returned to Bhagat Singh and this time I collected documents of Bhagat Singh alone with the title, Bhagat Singh ke Sampuran Dastavez (Complete Documents of Bhagat Singh).
The preface of the book was written by Kultar Singh, the younger brother of Bhagat Singh, and the book was released during the World Book Fair in Delhi in February 2004. This also became as much a hit as was the early collection. In the meantime, National Book Trust Chairman Prof Bipan Chandra asked me to write a monograph on Kartar Singh Sarabha, which I completed only after joining the JNU as a Professor in Hindi Translation in 2005. By this time, I got the Central Hindi Directorate award for translating Surjit Patar’s poetry in Hindi, Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize for translating Paash’s poetry in Hindi in 2002 and the Punjab Government’s Shiromani Hindi Sahitkar award in 2003.
By the time I joined the JNU, I had enough publications on Hindi and Punjabi literature, including those of criticism and translation, which were getting published every year. However, from 2006, my whole interest seemed to be concentrated on Bhagat Singh and other revolutionary heroes during the 75th martyr-dom anniversary (2006) and the 2007 birth centenary of Bhagat Singh. I became an active campaigner and writer on Bhagat Singh in this period, more at the non-official level, but some at the official level also. By impressing upon the Left parliamentary parties, which were suppor-ting the UPA Government in those days, I got the Bhagat Singh centenary included in official functions also, and this resulted in publication of Bhagat Singh’s documents from the Publications Division for the first time in 60 years. This was edited by me as Shaheed Bhagat Singh: Dastavezon ke Aaine Mein. Also I got Jail Notebook and Other Writings, with my introduction, published from Leftword, Delhi, which has got many reprints in paperback till now. The NBT also got Bhagat Singh ke Rajnitik Dastavez edited by me. On my own I prepared a book in Punjabi, my mother-tongue, Bhagat Singh: Vicharvan Inquilabi, published by Navyug Press, Delhi, the best in a Punjabi language publication. My own writings in Hindi on Bhagat Singh were published in 2009 under the title, Bhagat Singh, by Medha Books, Delhi. Another collection of my writings on Bhagat Singh, including some in EPW and Monthly Review, is now being published as Understanding Bhagat Singh from Aakar Books, Delhi. The Hindi literary monthly Gyanoudey also got a column on Indian revolutionaries from me during 2007, which is now ready to be published in book form any time. In Punjabi my book appeared as Inquilabi Itihas De Sunehari Panne in 2006, by Tarak Bharti Publishers, Barnala. During 2006-2010, I delivered fifty plus lectures on Bhagat Singh in different parts of the country and abroad. My NBT collection of Bhagat Singh’s documents has recently come out in Urdu translation also, which I hope reaches Pakistan. The Publications Division’s large collection of documents has also been translated in Urdu and is likely to be published soon.
Why did I get so involved with this theme? As part of the Left and democratic movement, I realised that one needs to have heroes from one’s own tradition to have emotional appeal among the masses. Bhagat Singh is one such hero, who has mass appeal, and who had the best enlightened Leftist ideas during the freedom movement. Bhagat Singh, like Che Guevara, is an ideal hero for not only India, but South Asia as a whole, as Che Guevara is for the whole of Latin America and both together for the whole world. The other reason was to place Bhagat Singh in the proper ideological perspective. He was just projected as a brave, fearless patriot, but despite his writings being available, he was not projected as a clear socialist revolutionary thinker, to some extent deliberately. Prof Bipan Chandra brought out his ideological position clearly in the 1970s. I took it further by bringing into light his writings in focus, so that the people could know him directly from his writings.
I have more material to focus on him, like the official documents from the National Archives including intelligence reports, which I want to use in a book, Bhagat Singh: Through Colonial and Nationalist Perspectives. I have a desire to get a complete set of articles published in the Mainstream journal in book form as Bhagat Singh in Mainstream which could prove to be the best collection of articles on Bhagat Singh. I am working now on my magnum opus, Bhagat Singh Reader, assigned to me by Penguin India for the international edition. It may be completed this year. This will present Bhagat Singh’s complete documents in English at the international level. And this will provide me with the greatest satisfaction of my life, as and when it comes out.
Monday, 26 August 2013
Saturday, 24 August 2013
How much Free we Are?-PTC discussion on 15th August
dISCUSSION ON THE EVE OF iNDEPENDENCE DAY ON PTC NEWS CHANNEL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmMab9H6OmI&feature=youtu.be
PTC News Discussion on Bhagat Singh with Bhagat Singh nephews
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRXpXvY13HM&feature=youtu.be 03- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWV9yfNyazg&feature=youtu.behttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMoW0_Dv3NU&feature=youtu.be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRXpXvY13HM&feature=youtu.be- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mb664RyJ3g&feature=youtu.be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsbEDxZCPmw&feature=youtu.be
Thursday, 15 August 2013
Gandhi VS. Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries-serious debate-Philosophy of the Bomb
https://www.facebook.com/notes/chaman-lal-jnu/gandhi-vs-bhagat-singh-and-other-revolutionaries-serious-debate-philo
sophy-of-th/10151868899133413
Philosophy of the Bomb. (Hindi)
[In the national struggle for freedom, Gandhiji was always one step ahead of the British government in criticizing the revolutionaries. On the 23rd of December, 1929 the revolutionaries tried to blow up the train of the pillar of British imperialism, the Viceroy; an attempt that failed. Gandhiji wrote a pungent essay ‘Bomb ki Pooja’ (‘Cult of the Bomb’) on this incident in which he referred to the Viceroy as a well-wisher of the country and the youth as the obstacle in the path of freedom. In response to this, Bhagwati Charan Vohra wrote an essay ‘The Philosophy of the Bomb’ Bhagat Singh gave finishing touches to the essay in jail. On the 26th of January 1930, it was distributed all over the country – Editor] According to Virender Sandhu, niece of Bhagat Singh and first compiler of Bhagat Singh’s documents, this document was sent from jail, as per Jitendernath Sanyal, first biographer of Bhagat Singh, who was sentenced to two years imprisonment for writing this biography. However according to Shiv Verma, this was drafted by Bhagwati Charan Vohra and Bhagat Singh’s another family member thinks that it was finalized by Bhagat Singh in jail.
Just consider recent events. Especially, the attempt made to blow up the special train of the Viceroy on the 23rd of December, 1929, the resolution passed by the Congress to criticize the incident, and the essays written by Gandhi ji in Young India make it clear that the Indian Congress are in perfect accord with Gandhi ji and have launched a dreadful agitation against Indian revolutionaries. A constant propaganda is being carried out against the revolutionaries through public speeches and pamphlets. It has been done either deliberately or through ignorance, but misinformation is being spread against the revolutionaries and they have been misunderstood. But revolutionaries are not afraid of criticism of their principles or their activities. They rather welcome criticism as they consider it a golden opportunity to explain to the people the basic principles and noble ideals that are an inspiration and continuous source of strength for them. It is hoped that this essay will help the world to become aware of what the revolutionaries are, and they will be rescued from the canards spread about them.
Let us begin by considering the question of violence and non-violence. In our opinion, these words have been used wrongly, and this is an injustice to the cause of both the parties, because these words do not help elucidate the principles of either of the two parties. Violence means the use of force for injustice but that is not the aim of the revolutionaries, and on the other hand, the commonly understood meaning of non-violence is the principle of spiritual strength. It is used to achieve individual and national rights. It is hoped that causing pain to oneself will cause a change of heart in the adversary.
When a revolutionary accepts certain things as his right, then he demands them; he offers arguments in favour of his demands, aspires to win them with all the energy of spiritual force, endures great agony to procure them; he is present to make the highest sacrifice for them and he uses all his physical energy in its support. You may choose to call his efforts by whatever name you please but you cannot refer to them as violence, because by doing so, you are violating the dictionary meaning given to it. Satyagraha means to ‘aagraah’ that is, plead for ‘satya’ that is, truth. Why call only for spiritual force for its acceptance? Why should physical force not be used for it as well? The revolutionaries believe in the use of both their physical and moral force in attaining liberation, but those who use moral force think that physical force is forbidden. So the question is not whether you want violence or non-violence but whether you are willing to use both physical and moral force or moral force alone, to attain your goal.
The revolutionaries believe that the country can get liberation only through a revolution. The revolution that they are trying for and its form that is manifest before them does not merely mean that there should be an armed struggle between the foreign rulers and their compradors on one side and the revolutionaries on the other; but along with the armed struggle, the doors of a new social structure should be freed for the nation. The revolution will put an end to capitalism, class system and the system that gives greater rights to only a select few. It will enable the nation to stand on her feet and this will lead to a birth of a new nation and a new socieity. The most important thing the revolution will do is that it will establish a rule of the working and the peasant class and finish all socially undesirable elements that have seized the political power in the country.
The revolutionary sees the sprouting of the seed of progressiveness in the nascent generation of today that is shackled by mental slavery and religious obscurantism and in the eagerness of this nascent society to break free of these shackles. As the youth begins to understand his own psychology, the picture of the slavery of the nation will become clearer to him and his desire to free his country will grow stronger. And this chain will continue till the youth becomes a blend of justice, anger and anguish and begins to kill those who perpetrate injustice. In this manner, terrorism will be born in the country. Terrorism is not complete revolution, and even revolution is incomplete without terrorism. It is a vital limb of revolution. An analysis of any revolution that has taken place in history will prove this principle. Terrorism strikes terror in the heart of the oppressor and gives strength to the oppressed people to react. Those who are of unstable) emotions derive strength from it and it builds self-confidence in them. This leads to the true aim of revolution to come before the world, because this is evidence that makes one believe in a keen aspiration for the liberation of the country. As it has been happening in other countries, similarly in India, terrorism will acquire the form of revolution and finally it is revolution that will bring social, political and economic liberation to the country.
So this is the ideology of a revolutionary in which he believes and which he wants to attain for his country. To attain this truth he uses both open and covert underground methods. In this manner, the experience of the tussle struggle between the ruler and the people that has been going on for a century in this world, is a beacon to show the path in order to reach that goal. The methods that the revolutionary believes in, have never failed.
What was the Congress doing in the meantime? They have declared a change in their goal from ‘Swarajya’/Self Rule) to ‘Poorna Swatantra’ ‘Complete Freedom’. This declaration will lead anyone to conclude that the Congress has not declared a war against British rule but against the revolutionaries. In this context, the first blow dealt by the Congress was the resolution, in which they denounced the attempt to blow up the special train of the Viceroy on the 23rd of December, 1929. And it was Gandhi ji who prepared the draft of the proposal and bent all his energy into getting the resolution passed. The result was that it could be passed with a majority of only 31 votes in a total strength of 1913 members. Was there any political integrity in this wafer thin majority? In this context, we only present Chaudhrani Sarla Devi’s views. She was a lifelong devotee of Congress. Answering a question related to this issue she said, “I’ve learnt from the talk that I’ve had with Mahatma Gandhi’s followers that they were unable to express their thoughts independently due to their devotion to Mahatma Gandhi and were unable to give their vote to oppose the resolution that Mahatma ji had formulated. As far as the argument of Gandhiji is concerned, we shall discuss it later. Whatever arguments he has put forward are, by and large, an expanded form of the speeches given in the Congress.
In the matter of this unfortunate resolution, there is one important factor that we cannot ignore, that it is self-evident that the Congress abides by the principle of non-violence and has propagated for it for the past ten years. Despite all this, bitter words were exchanged during the speeches made in support of the resolution. They called the revolutionaries cowards and their activities hateful. One of the gentlemen even went to the extent of issuing a threat, saying that if they wanted Gandhi ji to lead them, then they would have to pass the resolution unanimously. Despite all these efforts, the resolution could be passed with only a few votes. This proves without doubt that the people of the country supported the revolutionaries in sufficient numbers. In a way Gandhi ji deserves our congratulations for turning the spotlight on this topic, and in this manner showing the world that the Congress, considered to be a fortress of non-violence is, if not completely, partially at least, with the revolutionaries rather than with the Congress.
The victory that Gandhi ji won in this regard was a failure in a way and now with ‘The Cult of the Bomb’ he made another attack on the revolutionaries. Before saying anything further about this, let us reflect upon this essay. He has highlighted three things in this essay – his faith, his ideas and his point of view. We shall not analyze his faith because there is no place for reason in a matter of faith. However, we shall analyze point by point what Gandhi ji refers to as violence, and against which he has presented his arguments.
Gandhi ji thinks that his assumption that the emotion of violence has not touched a majority of the Indians and non-violence has become their political weapon is a correct one. His travel around the country recently has led him to come to believe this, but the experience of his journey should not let him fall under this illusion. This is certainly true that the (Congress) leader keeps his visit limited to where the mail train can take him comfortably, whereas Gandhi ji has extended the radius of his visit till where the motor car can take him. During this journey he resided at the residences of rich people only. Most of the time during this journey was spent in listening to his own praises being sung in meetings organized by his devotees, occasionally bestowing an audience to the illiterate masses in meetings whom he claims to understand very well, but this very thing goes contrary to his argument that he is familiar with the thoughts of the common people.
No person can understand the thoughts of the common people only by appearing on stages and preaching. He can only claim that he has presented his views on a variety of topics before those people. Did Gandhi ji, in all these years, ever try to enter the social life of the common public? Did he ever, at sundown ever sit in front of a community place(chaupal/sathh) in the heart of any village to listen to the thoughts of a peasant? Did he ever spend an evening with a worker working in a factory to understand his views? But we have done so and we can claim that we know the common people. We assure Gandhi ji that the ordinary Indian, like an ordinary person, does not really understand the spiritual emotion of non-violence and the precept of ‘love thy enemy’. This is the law of nature – you have a friend, you love your friend, sometimes so much that you even give up your life for your friend. You have an enemy; you don’t keep any kind of relationship with him. This principle of the revolutionaries is totally true, simple and straightforward, and this eternal truth has come from the time of Adam and Eve and no one has ever had a difficulty in understanding this. We are saying this from our own personal experience. That day is not far when people will gather in thousands to give a concrete shape to the revolutionary ideology.
Gandhi ji declares that through ahimsa or non-violence and torturing one’s own self, he hopes to one day change the heart of the foreign rulers and convert them to his way of thinking. Now he has dedicated his life to this magical social message of love. He propagates this with unfailing faith, just as some of his devotees have done. But can they tell us how many of India’s enemies have they been able to convert to friends of India? How many O’Dwyers, Dyers, and Reading and Irwin have been converted into friends of India? If not even one of them, then how can India accept this ideology that he would be able to convince England through ahimsa non violence to grant freedom to India?
If the bombs had exploded in the proper manner under the train of the Viceroy, then one of the following two things would have definitely happened – either the Viceroy would have been grievously wounded, or died. In such a situation, the meeting between the Viceroy and the leaders of the political parties would not have taken place, this attempt would have come to naught, and this would only have benefited the nation. The contemptible attempts of the leaders hovering around the Viceregal House to beg for Home Rule even after the challenge in the Calcutta Congress would have failed. If the bombs had exploded properly, then one enemy of India would have been given just punishement. Those who filed the Meerut and Lahore Conspiracy Cases, and of the Bhusawal Conspiracy/Case, can appear in a friendly light only to the enemies of India. Irwin succeeded in destroying the united opposition in the entire nation against the Simon Commission only after the political sagacity of Gandhi and Nehru. Today Congress is internally divided. Who but the Viceroy or his sycophants/ are responsible for our misfortune? Despite this, there are people in our country who think of them as India’s friends.
There would also be people in this country who have no allegiance to the Congress or have no hopes from the Congress. If Gandhi ji counts the revolutionaries amongst this group, then he does them an injustice. They are well aware that the Congress has done significant work in creating awareness among the people. It has given rise to a desire for freedom in the common people, but it is their firm belief till there are people of ‘extraordinary’ calibre like Sen Gupta in the Congress, who talks of the hand of the secret service/ in the bombing of the Viceroy’s train, and people like Ansari, who don’t have any understanding of politics and use illogical and irrational arguments instead of offering cogent arguments and say that no nation has won freedom through a bomb – till the time such ideas dominate the decisions of the Congress, till then the country can expect very little from it. The revolutionary is lying in wait for a day when this fad of ahimsanon violence will come to an end in the Congress and they will stand shoulder to shoulder with the revolutionaries towards the collective goal of complete freedom. This year the Congress has accepted this principle that the revolutionaries have believed in for the past 25 years. We shall hope that next year they will also support their methods of attaining freedom.
Gandhi ji argues that whenever violence was used, military expenditure went up. If he is pointing towards the activities of the revolutionaries for the last 25 yers, then we challenge his words and de..mand that he back his words with facts with statistics. On the other hand we feel that the consequence of their experiments with ahimsa non violence and satyagraha, which cannot be equated with the freedom struggle, has affected the beaureaucraticeconomy. The consequences of frequent agitations be they violent or non-violent, successful or unsuccessful, will be felt on India’s economy. .
We fail to understand why Gandhi ji unnecessarily involves us in the various constitutional reforms. He never took the least bit of interest in the Morley-Minto Reforms, Montague Reforms, or several other reforms, nor ever agitated for them. It was before the agitators that the British government threw these constitutional crumbs so that they could be misguided from the right path. This was a bribe offered by the British government to them to cooperate with them, to destroy the revolutionaries from roots. Gandhi ji demands for them these, as he refers to them, toys for India, to amuse people who agitate from time to time, Home Rule, Self-Rule, Responsible Governemnt, Full Responsible Government/, Colonial Self-Rule, and other constitutional epithets, that are all slavery. The aim of the revolutionaries is not reform of the government; they raised the level of freedom high long ago, and they are offering sacrifices for this unhesitatingly for the attainment of this goal. They claim that their sacrifices have transformed the thinking of the common masses. With their efforts, they have taken the country far ahead on the path to freedom, and even those who differ from them in the political field, accept this as true.
According to Gandhi ji, violence obstructs the path of progress and postpones the day of attaining freedom, and in response to this we can give several such examples, where nations that used violence became socially progressive and achieved political independence. Let us take the example of Russia and Turkey. Both used violent methods and attained power only through an armed revolution. Even afterwards, due to the social reforms, the people there made rapid progress. Only by the example of Afghanistan, can one not prove a political premise/.That is an exception.
In Gandhi ji’s views, the awareness created among the public during the Non-Cooperation Movement was the result of the message of ahimsa non violence, but this belief is flawed, and to credit ahimsa non violence for it, is a mistake, because wherever there has been a raising of public consciousness, it has been through directaction. For example, it is through powerful public agitation that the peasants and workers were made aware in Russia. No one had preached ahimsa non violence to them; in fact we will go so far as to say that it is because of ahimsa non violence and Gandhi ji’s policy of compromise that caused those powers to crack that had been united with the slogan of a collective front. This is arguedthat battling political injustice with the weapon of ahimsa non violence is possible, but one can only sum up one’s views on this topic and say that this is a strange idea which hasnever not been put to test yet.
The weapon of ahimsa non violence proved unsuccessful in winning the justifiable rights that Indians in South Africa deserved. It even proved unsuccessful in winning self-rule for India whereas a huge army of National Congress volunteers kept striving for it and more than a crore&quarter rupees was spent on it. In the recent Bardoli Satyagraha the inefficacy of it, has been proved. On this occasion, the leaders of the Satyagraha, Gandhi and Patel were unsuccessful in securing even the minimum rights which they had assured the peasants of achieving. Apart from these, we are not aware of any other national agitation. Till now this ahimsa non violence has won only one blessing and that is of failure. In such a situation it is hardly surprising that the country has refuted their experiment. In fact, the form of Satyagraha that Gandhi ji is promtoing is a kind of agitation, an opposition, for which the natural consequence is compromise, as has been witnessed first hand. So the sooner we understand that there can be no pact between liberation and slavery, the better it would be.
Gandhi ji believes that we are entering a new age. But in the constitution of the Congress, this is mere word-play, that is, to call Swarajya, ‘complete freedom’ does not start a new age. That will actually be a great day when the Congress will decide to start an all-India agitation, with universally accepted revolutionary ideals as its basis. Till such time it is laughable to hold the banner of freedom. In this issue, we are in agreement with Chaudhrani Sarla Devi’s views that she expressed in an interview with a newspaper correspondent. She said – ‘To unfurl the flag of freedom at one minute past midnight on the night of the 31st of December, 1929 is strange. The G.O.C, Assistant G.O.C, and the other people knew well that the decision to unfurl the flag of freedom hung in the balance till midnight, because if the Viceroy or Secretary of State had sent the message that India had been grantecolonial/ self-rule, then even at 59 minutes past 11 the situation could have changed.” This makes it evident that the goal of attainment of complete freedom was never the heart-felt desire of the leaders, but like the tantrum of a spoilt brat. What would have been appropriate for the Indian National Congress was to have first attained freedom and then to make the announcement. The truth is that now instead of colonial swarajya/, the Congress spokespersons will beat the drum of complete freedom before the public. Now they will tell the people that they should be ready for the struggle, in which one side will offer punches but the other will only just endure them till the time he is so badly beaten that he can no longer get up. Can this be called struggle and can this win the freedom of the country? For any nation it is good to keep the aim of complete attainment of goals, but it is also necessary along with it that to reach this aim, those methods should be used that are able, and those have been used before, otherwise we face the danger of becoming a laughing stock in the eyes of the world.
Gandhi ji has urged all intellectuals to stop supporting the revolutionaries and to criticize their activities so that they can understand the harm that has been caused by the violent actitives of such neglected patriots. How easy it is to insult people and call them votaries of trite arguments, in the same way, to criticize them and tell the public not to support them, so that they are forced to scatter and postpone their activities, all this become easy, to do especially for such a person, who enjoys the confidence of some of the influential people of the public. Gandhi ji all his life interacted with masses, but it is a sad fact that he neither understands the psychology of the revolutionaries, nor wishes to do so. The principle that is dear to the revolutionaries is a priceless one. A person who becomes a revolutionary carries his head on his palm and is ready to lay down his life in an instant and not for fun. He makes a sacrifice and renunciation not to win the sympathy and applause of the public. He follows this path because his conscience encourages him to do so; his soul inspires him for this.
A revolutionary places the maximum belief in reason. He believes in logic and nothing but logic. Any swear words or criticism, even if it comes from the highest source, cannot deflect him from striving for his chosen aim. It is sheer foolishness to believe that he would abandon his goal if the public does not support him or if his work is not appreciated. Several revolutionaries, whose work has come in for heavy criticism from the constitutional agitators, did not care two hoots and went to the gallows. If you want the revolutionaries to postpone their activities, then what should happen is that you should prove the truth of your logic through argument. This is the one and only way, and no one should have any doubt regarding any other thing. Revolutionaries are definitely not going to surrender to threats.
We request every patriot to join us in all seriousness in this war. Let no man use psychological experiments like ahimsa non violence and other such strange methods and play with the freedom of the country. Freedom is the breath of the country. Our slavery is shameful for us, who knows when we will have the wisdom and the courage to rid ourselves of it and become free? Of what use are our ancient civilization and a glorious heritage if we don’t have pride in our own self any more to prevent ourselves from bowing to foreign slavery, a foreign banner and emperor?
Is it not a crime that Britain has imposed an immoral rule over India? Made us beggars and sucked the blood out of us. In the name of one rac and of humanity, they have humiliated and exploited us. Do the people still want us to forget our humiliation and forgive the British rulers? We shall avenge this; and this will be a fitting revenge of the people upon the rulers. Let cowards turn their backs and cling to a policy of appeasement in the hope of peace. We don’t seek mercy in alms from anyone; nor shall we forgive anyone. Our war shall continue till either victory or death. Long live the revolution!
Kartar Singh
President
Friday, 19 July 2013
Gadar party monuments in USA
http://www.epw.in/web-exclusives/gadar-party-centenary-year.html#.Ued9b4xK3tM.twitter
It has been a hundred years since the Gadar party was launched in March 1913, in the United States by a band of fiery young Indian expatriates with the aim of waging an armed struggle against British rulers in India. To commemorate the party’s centennial, the author recommends that the Indian government should take some concrete steps to create awareness about the party and the radical and revolutionary movement it unleashed.
The Gadar party was formed in the United States in the early twentieth century by migrant Indians, mostly Punjabis. However, the party also included Indians from all parts of India such as Darisi Chenchiah and Champak Raman Pillai from South, Vishnu Ganesh Pingle and Sadashiv Pandurang Khankhoje from West India, Jatinder Lahiri and Taraknath Das from East India, Maulvi Barkatullah and Pandit Permanand Jhansi from Central India and many more. In March 1913, in a meeting at St. Jones, the party was established as the “Hindi Association of Pacific Coast”under the leadership of Lala Har Dayal with Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna as its president. However, it became popularly known as the Gadar Party after it launched its journal “Gadar”on 1 November, 1913, in Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and other Indian languages from its headquarters the Yugantar Ashramin in San Francisco. The building which housed the headquarters is now named as the “Gadar Memorial”. The party took its name Gadar to consciously identify itself with the first war of Independence in 1857, which the British termed the “Gadar”(revolt). Though the party’s planned “Gadar” in India failed to take off in February 1915, more than a hundred Gadar activists paid with their lives, 41 being shot in Singapore alone on 15 February, 1915. Hundreds were imprisoned for long terms with many being sent to the “Kalapani”, as the jail in the Andamans was known. The Gadar Movement was the most advanced secular democratic movement of its time whose tradition was upheld and appropriated by Bhagat Singh later with further addition of the socialist ideology.
I visited the Gadar memorial in San Francisco where I had been invited to deliver a lecture on the Gadar party hero Kartar Singh Sarabha on 22 May, 2011, to commemorate his birth anniversary. In addition to visiting this historic site, I got an opportunity to visit the Stockton Gurdwara where many meetings of the Gadar party were held, the Sacramento Cemetery, where not only the Gadar party senior activist Maulvi Barkatullah, but many other freedom fighters from Punjab have been buried as well, and the Holt farm of the Gadar party vice president Jawala Singh. These historic sites lie in a state of neglect, and I suggest that the Indian government should attempt to restore these sites and create awareness about the Gadar movement, particularly so since this is the centenary year of the party.
The Gadar Memorial
The Gadar Memorial is located at 5, Wood Street in San Francisco. Having been reconstructed, it has lost its heritage character, and even its original name ‒Yugantar Ashram‒ finds no reference anywhere. The name was adopted to identify with the early revolutionary movement in Bengal called “Yugantar”. The original name of the building was written in Urdu, Punjabi and English. Now only the changed name is painted on the front wall in English and Hindi with no Punjabi or Urdu version. The building was handed over to the government of India after the country attained independence, and the Gadar party was formally dissolved. Presently it is under the administrative control of the Consulate General of India, San Francisco. There is no proper care- taker of the building, and important documents and items related to the Gadar movement, including the artificial arm of Gadarite Harnam Singh Tundilat, (who lost his arm during the movement and became famous as “Tundilat” or “broken arm lord”) are displayed in glass cases without any lock and key. Most of the time this historic building remains closed, and when someone wants to visit it they need special permission from the Consulate.
This building should be rebuilt on lines of the original heritage building, and named again as the Yugantar Ashram. It should be converted into a library-cum-research centre on the model of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi, even if on a smaller scale. Further the Berkeley campus of the University of California should be involved in this project, and the memorial building should be leased to the University for establishing the Gadar archives and research centre. The Bancroft library of the University already has a Gadar archive with 20 boxes of documents and some digitised records. The Indian Government should also consider establishing the Kartar Singh Sarabha Chair at the University of California, Berkeley, where Sarabha was a student of science in 1912-13, and this Chair could well be linked with the Gadar memorial. Copies of all the documents relating to the Gadar movement, spread across countries where the Gadar party was either active, or had influence like US, Canada, India, Singapore, Philippines, China, Argentina, Brazil, Germany etc. should be brought to this research centre. This would be the best tribute to Sarabha and the Gadar party during its centenary celebrations.
The model of the ship Komagata Maru should also be displayed. A film ‘Continuous Journey’ made by Ali Kazmi on the Komagata Maru incident beautifully captures the moments from that period. This documentary should be shown and distributed throughout Indian schools and colleges during the centenary year.
The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library should acquire photo copies or the digitalised version of the Gadar Archives from the Bancroft library, University of California, Berkeley. Copies of documents housed in New York Public Library and other places in USA, Canada and other countries too should also be acquired. At the Nehru Memorial, a special section on the Gadar movement and the movement led by Bhagat Singh should be created as the two are inseparable from each other.
Stockton Gurudwara and Other Historic Sites
Sacramento Cemetery, where Maulvi Barkatullah’s and other Punjabi Muslim freedom fighters’ graves are found, a plaque with details should be put up by the Indian government. The caretaker of this cemetery, Patricia Hutchings is keen to know the details and willing to put them up. The Stockton Gurudwara where meetings of the Gadar party activists took place and where a hall still stands in the name of Gadari Babas, has been taken over by Khalistani sympathisers. A big banner “Khalistan Zindabad” with the photograph of Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale is displayed at the entrance of the Gurdwara. The pictures of the Gadar party heroes have been replaced by those of gun toting Khalistani “martyrs”, including the killers of Indira Gandhi and general Vaidya. Despite the existence of a prayer room, the Gadar hall has been converted into an additional prayer room with a copy of the Guru Granth Sahib residing there. The local Sikhs who run the Gurdwara are strongly influenced by the Khalistani movement and are ignorant of the glorious past of the Gadar movement. The Indian government can initiate an awareness campaign about the significance of the Gadar movement among local Sikhs/Punjabis and restore the image of the Gurudwara as a historic Gadar building.
At the Holt farm near Stockton, which belonged to the Gadarite Jawala Singh, an identifying plaque with details should be put up by the Indian government.
Above all emphasis should be placed on creating awareness and deepening knowledge of these historic events amongst the younger generations. The history of such events should be taught at schools, and books should be published and distributed in major Indian languages. In particular, the autobiography of the founding president of the Gadar party, Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna should be translated into all Indian languages and published, perhaps by the National Book Trust and documentaries and television serials could also be made on the Gadar movement. We should not let this opportunity to reclaim this great legacy of our anti-colonial past be lost to lethargy and bureaucratic delays. The Gadar movement was one of the most important events in the radicalisation of India’s freedom struggle and forgetting its history is to lose a part of our own identity.
Bhagat Singh on Face Book
The page-Che Guevara and Bhagat Singh' 'likes' has crossed 500 mark, now I feel bit satisfied.I felt frustrated in the beginning of creating page, expecting much wider response, which was rather poor in the beginning.I invite Che and Bhagat Singh admirers from all countries to post links of Che and Bhagat Singh's writings links and photos as well on this page and also on group-Admirers of Bhagat Singh and Che Guevara!This group has now touched 1100 member mark. Do 'like' page Che Guevara and Bhagat Singh' as well!
Thursday, 30 May 2013
Monday, 6 May 2013
Seema Chisti in Indian Express on Ghadar party centenary
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/from-us-the-effort-to-free-india-from-british/1105706/
P Chidambaram's bud-get speech had at least one entry whose significance could go beyond accounts. The Centre has decided to mark 100 years of the formation of the Ghadar Party this year and allocated funds to build and maintain its museum in San Francisco, apart from organising a series of programmes at home.The Ghadar Party's first office-bearers were chosen in Astoria on April 21, 1913 — the year before World War I, with British imperialism at its peak, and before the Soviet Union had been formed. A group of angry anarchists and socialists, some of them university students, some peasant-farmers and all based abroad, decided that the root cause of oppression of their fellow Indians was imperialism and they would fight it.
Inspired by 'Ghadar' of 1857, Karl Marx, and the spirit they then saw in the US for providing immigrants freedom and a platform to fight for what they felt was right, they ended up setting up the party in the University of Berkeley, California, and egged on thousands of immigrant workers to sail back to India and help "liberate" it. Pioneer leaders Lala Hardyal, Tarak Nath Das, Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna and Maulvi Barakatullah openly said their plan was actually to fight the British. And they arrived in India from California to do just that.
Historians and scholars working on the Ghadar Party are heartened by the government effort, saying the unique movement will finally be given its place in history. Historian Harish K Puri, based in Ludhiana, says it is an important strain in India's nationalist legacy and must not be airbrushed only because it does not fit into the Gandhian Congress story.
"The fact that people who had gone out to earn their living through manual labour were able to identify the root problem of their hardships here, and make a connection with unfair attitudes to immigrants with colonialism, was a huge leap of ideas," Puri says. "Bhagat Singh, Chittagong, Netaji's INA, and the Naval Revolt of 1946 all owed a lot to the Ghadar Party idea and broke the back of the British in India."
Puri, who met Bhakna when the latter was 96, was "mesmerised by his spirit, Catholicism, broad vision and ability to conceive of a movement which believed in bringing Punjabi Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Marathis, Gujaratis all together, at a time when revivalist movements were on in almost all faiths. These people in divisive times developed the idea of 'desh'."
Puri recounts how the anarchists' ideas influenced the times. Tarak Nath in 1908 wrote to Leo Tolstoy about War and Peace, asking Tolstoy, complete with 10-year data on deaths due to hunger and famine in India, how this was any better than the war-related deaths Tolstoy was so eloquent about. "Tolstoy replied, and even Gandhi took note of that reply. This was the impact of those people."
Says Prof Chaman Lal of Jawaharlal Nehru University, who has travelled to most places connected with Ghadar and kept records, "What worries me is that either no one wants to talk about it as it does not fit into a goody-goody non-violence narrative we want to put out, or the wrong people try and appropriate it. Now, radical Sikh extremists try and portray them as Sikh radicals — while they were pious, they were the antithesis of identity games outside of 'desh'. Their message was the opposite."
Says Savitri Sawhney, the daughter of one of the Marathi revolutionaries of the time, Dr Pandurang Khankhoje, "At the Pravasi Bhartiya meet this year, two descendants of the Ghadar movement were to be honoured, but it was all changed at the last minute. The establishment suddenly didn't want to honour anybody outside the Gandhi-Nehru fold; they are still regarded as terrorists. This is wrong. They must find a place in popular memory."
Congress party representatives deny any deliberate effort to ignore the movement. If that was the case, they say, the PM would not otherwise have called it a "luminous spark" guiding the independence struggle at the Pravasi Divas at Kochi, "nor would he have released a commemorative stamp".
Says Prof Chaman Lal, "The Ghadar strain was left without takers after independence except communist parties, who see themselves in part as bearers of the ideas."
The US-Canada based Left-affiliated Indian Workers Association and its UK counterpart, the Indian Workers Association, are organising a series of meetings, seminars, rallies and plays by an Indian troupe over the next year to remind people of Ghadar, and of the fact that even Indian NRIs today owe much of the awareness and freedom to those who founded the party to fight the case for immigrant Asians, mostly Asian workers working in the West then.
A museum was set up in Jalandhar in 1955, principally by Ghadar revolutionaries released from the Andaman islands after serving life sentences.
Ghadar revolutionaries exercised a deep influence on those who came a decade later. Says Bhagat Singh's nephew Kiranjit Singh, "Ghadar hero Kartar Singh Sarabha was his hero and he carried a picture of his in his pocket at all times. Sarabha was executed when he was 19, and embedded in my uncle the philosophy of meeting your death with a smile, which he did." Says Prof Puri, "Bhagat Singh pored over the famous Ghadar Party trial case records in Lahore and we have his copy in the museum, with his notes scribbled in the margins."
- See more at: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/from-us-the-effort-to-free-india-from-british/1105706/0#sthash.GOhSrrif.dpuf
Inspired by 'Ghadar' of 1857, Karl Marx, and the spirit they then saw in the US for providing immigrants freedom and a platform to fight for what they felt was right, they ended up setting up the party in the University of Berkeley, California, and egged on thousands of immigrant workers to sail back to India and help "liberate" it. Pioneer leaders Lala Hardyal, Tarak Nath Das, Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna and Maulvi Barakatullah openly said their plan was actually to fight the British. And they arrived in India from California to do just that.
Historians and scholars working on the Ghadar Party are heartened by the government effort, saying the unique movement will finally be given its place in history. Historian Harish K Puri, based in Ludhiana, says it is an important strain in India's nationalist legacy and must not be airbrushed only because it does not fit into the Gandhian Congress story.
"The fact that people who had gone out to earn their living through manual labour were able to identify the root problem of their hardships here, and make a connection with unfair attitudes to immigrants with colonialism, was a huge leap of ideas," Puri says. "Bhagat Singh, Chittagong, Netaji's INA, and the Naval Revolt of 1946 all owed a lot to the Ghadar Party idea and broke the back of the British in India."
Puri, who met Bhakna when the latter was 96, was "mesmerised by his spirit, Catholicism, broad vision and ability to conceive of a movement which believed in bringing Punjabi Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Marathis, Gujaratis all together, at a time when revivalist movements were on in almost all faiths. These people in divisive times developed the idea of 'desh'."
Puri recounts how the anarchists' ideas influenced the times. Tarak Nath in 1908 wrote to Leo Tolstoy about War and Peace, asking Tolstoy, complete with 10-year data on deaths due to hunger and famine in India, how this was any better than the war-related deaths Tolstoy was so eloquent about. "Tolstoy replied, and even Gandhi took note of that reply. This was the impact of those people."
Says Prof Chaman Lal of Jawaharlal Nehru University, who has travelled to most places connected with Ghadar and kept records, "What worries me is that either no one wants to talk about it as it does not fit into a goody-goody non-violence narrative we want to put out, or the wrong people try and appropriate it. Now, radical Sikh extremists try and portray them as Sikh radicals — while they were pious, they were the antithesis of identity games outside of 'desh'. Their message was the opposite."
Says Savitri Sawhney, the daughter of one of the Marathi revolutionaries of the time, Dr Pandurang Khankhoje, "At the Pravasi Bhartiya meet this year, two descendants of the Ghadar movement were to be honoured, but it was all changed at the last minute. The establishment suddenly didn't want to honour anybody outside the Gandhi-Nehru fold; they are still regarded as terrorists. This is wrong. They must find a place in popular memory."
Congress party representatives deny any deliberate effort to ignore the movement. If that was the case, they say, the PM would not otherwise have called it a "luminous spark" guiding the independence struggle at the Pravasi Divas at Kochi, "nor would he have released a commemorative stamp".
Says Prof Chaman Lal, "The Ghadar strain was left without takers after independence except communist parties, who see themselves in part as bearers of the ideas."
The US-Canada based Left-affiliated Indian Workers Association and its UK counterpart, the Indian Workers Association, are organising a series of meetings, seminars, rallies and plays by an Indian troupe over the next year to remind people of Ghadar, and of the fact that even Indian NRIs today owe much of the awareness and freedom to those who founded the party to fight the case for immigrant Asians, mostly Asian workers working in the West then.
A museum was set up in Jalandhar in 1955, principally by Ghadar revolutionaries released from the Andaman islands after serving life sentences.
Ghadar revolutionaries exercised a deep influence on those who came a decade later. Says Bhagat Singh's nephew Kiranjit Singh, "Ghadar hero Kartar Singh Sarabha was his hero and he carried a picture of his in his pocket at all times. Sarabha was executed when he was 19, and embedded in my uncle the philosophy of meeting your death with a smile, which he did." Says Prof Puri, "Bhagat Singh pored over the famous Ghadar Party trial case records in Lahore and we have his copy in the museum, with his notes scribbled in the margins."
- See more at: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/from-us-the-effort-to-free-india-from-british/1105706/0#sthash.GOhSrrif.dpuf
Monday, 29 April 2013
Release of Understanding Bhagat Singh on 3rd May
To mark May Day, Karl Marx Birthday (5 May) and Ghadar Party Centenary (2013)
AAKAR BOOKS, DELHI
Cordially invite you to a book release and discussion on
UNDERSTANDING BHAGAT SINGH
By
Prof Chaman Lal
To be released by
Professor Randhir Singh, Eminent Thinker
at 3.30 pm on Friday, 3 May 2013
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (SSS- I) AUDITORIUM, JNU, NEW DELHI
CHAIR Prof G K Chadha, President (Vice Chancellor), South Asian University(SAU), New Delhi
GUEST OF HONOUR Prof S K Sopory, Vice Chancellor, JNU
SPEAKERS Prof Mushirul Hasan, Eminent Historian
Prof Manoranjan Mohanty, Eminent Political Scientist
MODERATOR
REVOLUTIONARY SONGS Nishant Natya Manch
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