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The Bhagat Singh Reader,
by Chaman Lal.
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While Chaman Lal's efforts of recording history of Bhagat Singh are laudable, his politics is blinkered and it's unclear if that's due to a deliberate policy of abusing Hindus in name of secularism; abusing others can be dangerous, and perhaps it's also profitable to abuse Hindus with fraudulent accusations.
What isn't immediately clear but suddenly becomes so, is that there is a deliberate attempt to idolise, and what's more, create an Indian - purely "desi" - idol India to worship as a left icon; for while every Tom, dick and Harry of non Hindu cultures and faith is all too eager to accuse India, Hindus - and even those of other branches of their own faiths - as idol worshippers, reality is that people create and worship idols in every culture, every faith, and only very advanced level yogis can do without it; and one may say x or y is not an idol, or isn't subjected to worship, but that is merely by defining idol and worship in a narrow enough sense to fit such abuse of "other"s. For if one refers a person, a photograph, an image, a book, a statue, or a building of any nature, enough to be upset seriously when such an object - not a live person - is damaged, it's due to idol worship.
And just as congress in India has created two major and then a whole family as minor idols, so this idol worship is to be perpetual, left lacks or did one until now - for left might worship lenin and Mao, but they are meaningless for Indian population, and so politically useless to left in India, and politics of abusing Hindus isn't helping anyone.
So Chaman Lal on one hand accuses "communal forces" of trying to appropriate Bhagat Singh, while on the other attempting to hide this creation of, or raising a historical figure to, an idol, far more than an icon.
But fact is, he hasn't accused jihadists even factually of the massacres, genocides and worse, perpetrated across West Asia and Afghanistan, India and Pakistan, Europe and more; he knows as all so self labelled secular do that such criticism is dangerous to their lives, while abusing Hindus is not only safe, it's profitable.
And even more of a fact, which he falsified in stating that communal forces are trying to appropriate Bhagat Singh, is that perhaps the only group that can be said to do so is any khalistani terrorist groups and politicians. No Hindu or Muslim or anyone of any other religion has ever claimed that Bhagat Singh was either born as to converted to being one of them.
If he's respected by Indian regardless of his background or his ultimate beliefs, why should Chaman Lal take objection, unless he's trying not only to create a new god and an an idol thereof, but claiming that nobody else can touch this idol without converting first? This is a level of fanaticism not seen in another faith, unless one compares it to all non muslims being directed to drive onto another route, not one to Mecca, at a certain distance on the highway. And to a lesser extent, the necessity of obtaining permission from Vatican before one may visit Lourdes, purely for health reasons. (While Hinduism might ban "others" from entering a temple, nobody is prevented from buying or making an idol or image of the same deity, and making a corner in ones home for worship; in fact most Hindus have such a little temple at home, whether they go to temples or not; and Hindus not only don't object, they literally coukdnt care less, what someone else - outside ones own family - "believes". For Hinduism, Divine is not a matter if belief, but a matter of fact, not of demanding belief but offering knowledge thereof, and paths to arrive be united with the Divine.
That India respects Bhagat Singh for his patriotic life isn't to be labelled as appropriation; he was Indian, and that he fought for India is without any doubt. He could have been safe abroad, or in India, with no politics, but chose his path, and has respect for that, as do all those who gave their lives for India. Chaman Lal can label others and does, extremely abusively, but he's incorrect, and wrong.
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Here's a surprise.
"From the proceedings of the trial of the Lahore Conspiracy Case, it seems that some of the letters may still be in the police files of the case, which are still in the custody of the Government of Pakistan. From the letters recovered at Bhagat Singh’s father Kishan Singh’s house in Lahore, there are references to a letter from Rio De Janeiro (Brazil) in 1928 signed ‘AS’, taken away by the police, which indicates that Bhagat Singh was in touch with his uncle in exile at that time. Ghadarite revolutionary and late President of Desh Bhagat Yadgar Committee, Jalandhar, Baba Bhagat Singh Bilga, who spent some time with Ajit Singh in Brazil during his exile period, where he himself was Ghadar Party activist said that Bhagat Singh wrote three letters to Ajit Singh, his uncle in exile."
Surprise, because elsewhere, in his introduction, in another English language work on Bhagat Singh, Chaman Lal expresses regret about how, though his work in Hindi on the subject has far more material, the slavish attitude of people nevertheless gives more importance to everything in English and ignore works in other languages, however superior they are.
(Perhaps he should rethink his own, as well as that of his fellow leftists', attitude in this context, where they are vitriolic against India and her majority, her treasure of knowledge of antiquity, and the fact that her culture is a tradition living and flourishing since antiquity; the said attitude being no better than say, favouring destruction of ancient trees with several,millennia of life behind them, in favour of brand new fashionable varieties potted plants from locations foreign enough to be preferred by those born in atmosphere of slave mindset.)
But then, in this work he gives far more material than in his own work in Hindi on the subject!
Surely, in this era, he couldn't have found it too much trouble to issue, simultaneously, an improved edition of the Hindi work, if only on kindle version?
Or does it pay better to not do so?
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Bhagat Singh wrote and published an article comparing, the then young, two of the major leaders, Subhash Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru.
The article states that Subhash Chandra Bose is emotional, in his love of India, with less theoretical and intellectual basis, and Jawaharlal Nehru had more to offer, an intellectual basis and more of a knowledge of the world, especially having visited Russia after revolution. In this the editors conclude Bhagat Singh correct, as faulty a conclusion as it could get. This conclusion is, again, based on a blind following of leftist powers by the said editors.
Reality is, Subhash Chandra Bose risked his own life continuously from the moment he escaped, to when he brought an army consisting purely of Indian men and women into borders of India, fighting all the way from Singapore marching into Imphal. But more relevantly, according to a reply by Attlee when on a visit to independent India, it was due to Subhash Chandra Bose whose victories had changed Indian mindset that British were forced to flee precipitously, in such haste - specifically, due to strike on navy docks inspired by Subhash Chandra Bose's victories that made British fear a rebellion, and take flight.
Jawaharlal Nehru on the other hand wasn't elected PM of India, although he was the first PM; he was selected, and imposed, by Gandhi, who asked the elected PM, Sardar Patel, to step aside. This decision proved against interests of India. Gandhi advised independent India to not protest when pakis claimed an extra million square miles of territory in East, letting pakis have it; he went on a hunger strike, fasting unto death, if India did not give 55 millions of pounds to Pakistan, despite latter having attacked almost immediately after independence, and give this in midst of the said war, even despite certainty that the money was going towards arms and ammunition to kill more Indians. Jawaharlal Nehru and congress gave in.
Worst, Jawaharlal Nehru demanded army stop short of a decisive, complete victory in Kashmir, and took the matter to U.N. security council, and promised a U.N. inspected plebiscite, which fortunately did not play in favour of the jihadist Pakistan only because U.N. security council imposed a first condition about pakis withdrawal of forces, which Pakistan was never going to do - on the contrary, sending army trained terrorists, and army soldiers dressed in pyjamas, claiming they weren't pakis at all, but only locals.
And both editors, as well as Bhagat Singh, are simply incorrect in their assessment of Jawaharlal Nehru offering more intellectually than Subhash Chandra Bose, as evident ftom biography of the latter by a close relative and member of his family.
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Worth note - it is Bismil saying
"Now the question will arise that knowing everything beforehand, why did I send an apology, a mercy petition, and appeal after appeal? The only reason seems to me is that politics is a game of chess. ... "
And this is far from unknown to the opposition of the day, that is, since 2014; after all, it's a very thin pretence that Gandhi was a truthful holy man incapable of hurting anyone, to cover up the reality that he was a politician, just a tad more successful at most politicians do, but not as much as he's credited with by congress and co; that is, he was neither the only nor the major reason for independence, nor was he father of the nation as India exists now. Latter was far more responsibility of Sardar Patel, whom Gandhi swept aside despite being elected PM by elected representatives; as for independence, as Attlee told press when on a visit to independent India, Gandhi they could manage, but it was Subhash Chandra Bose affecting India that made them take flight in a hurry, after his arriving in borders of India with his army, resulting in the navy dock strike.
But chief point here in mentioning these words of Bismil is the continuous abuse meted out to Veer Savarkar by the current opposition, for his appeal. Even apart from the question of the imprisonment of Savarkar being not comparable in any way with that of Gandhi or Nehru who were kept more like state visitors while Savarkar was tortured in Andaman, these words of Bismil are a key.
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Amongst the freedom struggle warriors written about by Bhagat Singh and his comrades, there is an unexpected one - that of V. G. Pingle.
It's significant that, while names of his Bengal comrades are known, his has been wiped out - congress inherited the fear and hatred of Marathi bravehearts, whether from colonial rulers or due to Gandhi's politics of wiping out legacies of other, greater, leaders and being against his great predecessor Tilak who was of the same community as Pingle it was communal politics of congress that worked, is uncertain; probably both, and more. Crazy yo appease all enemies of Hindus, Gandhi is known to have spoken of not only such great personae as Shivaji and Maharana Pratap, but also of Hindi Gods Raam and Krishna, in language that woukd have been considered blasphemous and heretic, if Hinduism were ruled by an institution like church of Rome, with burning at stake as an immediate consequence for the abusive politician.
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CONTENTS
A Note on Compilation and Editing
Introduction
Section – 1
Letters/Telegrams
Letters from School
Letter from College
Letters from Revolutionary Life
Letters to the Colonial Administration/Judiciary from Jail
Political Letters from Jail
Personal Letters from Jail
Telegrams from Jail
Section – 2
Posters/Notices/Leaflets
Section – 3
Court Statements
Section – 4 Essays, Articles and Sketches
Essays, Articles and Sketches in Various Journals
Sketches of Indian Revolutionaries in Kirti, Maharathi, Pratap and Prabha
Thirty-five Sketches from Phansi Ank of Chand
Section – 5 The Jail Notebook A Short History of the Publication of the Jail Notebook A Martyr’s Notebook The Jail Notebook References Appendices Manifestos Drafted in Consultation with Bhagat Singh Manifesto of Naujawan Bharat Sabha Manifesto of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association Language-wise Details of Bhagat Singh’s Writings Life Events of Bhagat Singh Genealogy Ordinance by Viceroy Lahore Conspiracy Case Judgement Privy Council Judgement
Newly Found Material Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments and Sources of Documents
Photographic Inserts
About the Book
About the Author Copyright
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A Note on Compilation and Editing
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"... Manmath Nath Gupta, a convicted revolutionary in the Kakori Case, who later turned into a historian of the Indian revolutionary movement during the freedom struggle and wrote the Hindi book Bharat Ke Krantikari (Revolutionaries of India) (Reference 1). I translated the book into Punjabi in the early 70s, and from there my interest was further piqued – even though I was a student of Hindi literature and worked mainly in Hindi literature and translation, revolutionary movements and the lives of revolutionaries were always on my mind. ... "
"Bhagat Singh went beyond the tradition of the early revolutionaries and gave an ideological direction to the whole movement, which had been missing earlier. ...
"Before Bhagat Singh, the revolutionary movement was the study of the bravery, fearlessness, and patriotism of the revolutionaries. With Bhagat Singh, it took an entirely different turn and became a study of the ideas of the revolutionaries, and not just about their brave actions.
"To study ideas, one needs documents and physical records of their thoughts and actions. Bhagat Singh became the first such Indian revolutionary, who like the socialist revolutionaries from around the world, would write and record his thoughts. Bhagat Singh was just sixteen when he wrote his first essay available to us, apart from the few letters he had written earlier to family members. His first published essay, ‘The Problem of Language and Script in Punjab’, was published ten years later in a Hindi journal Hindi Sandesh in 1933. He wrote it for a competition and won the first prize of Rs 50, which in those days would be close to Rs 5000 of today. But from his very first essay to the last, none among those discovered till now are in Bhagat Singh’s own handwriting. Most essays or sketches, are found in print form and almost all are attributed to fictitious names; one hardly finds any printed essay remotely associated with his real name. For example in an essay in the Delhi-based Hindi journal Maharathi one finds the mention of a writer B.S. Sindhu. One can identify this as Bhagat Singh Sindhu, as his family clan title was Sindhu. ... Interestingly, when his niece, Veerendra, took to writing the family biography and edited his documents, she took the same title ‘Sindhu’- Veerendra Sindhu and not Sindhu, as is popular (Reference 3)! The only documents found in Bhagat Singh’s own handwriting are either letters or the Jail Notebook. Though not all letters are preserved well, quite a few letters are still conserved, including the oldest ones which he wrote to members of his family at the age of fourteen in 1921.
"Bhagat Singh’s writing life and active revolutionary life run simultaneously. He joined the revolutionary movement at the age of sixteen in 1923 and had less than seven years to achieve his goals of the revolution. During this time, he not only carried out political revolutionary acts – which are referred to in the introduction to the book – but also wrote prolifically. He travelled a lot all over India and spent a lot of time reading the best books from all over the world, be it history, politics, economics, or literature. Bhagat Singh wrote in four languages – Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, and English. He had a good command over Sanskrit, as he had studied it in school, all the more encouraged by his grandfather, Arjun Singh. He understood Bengali very well, and could recite verses by poets such as Nazrul Islam and Tagore fluently in Bengali. At one time, he was learning Persian as well. He wrote more than 130 documents in seven years, covering nearly 400 hundred pages! He wrote more than fifty letters, apart from numerous court statements, pamphlets, essays and sketches. Yet, it is believed by many, on the basis of the accounts of one of his comrades in jail, that Bhagat Singh wrote four more books in jail – these manuscripts were smuggled out but are yet to be found!
"The 59 letters available and presented in this book are in all four languages – Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and English. Letters from his school period are in Urdu and Punjabi. Urdu was the primary medium of instruction in schools those days, and also commonly used in the socio-political life among all the three communities of Punjab – Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus. One can see from his three letters to his grandfather, Arjun Singh, which are all in Urdu, that Bhagat Singh had a good command over the language. However, in the two letters written in Punjabi to his aunt, Hukam Kaur, one can see many spelling and grammatical errors. This is perhaps, due to the fact that Bhagat Singh had learned Punjabi on his own in the year 1921, when the Nankana Sahib tragedy took place, in which innocent devotee Sikhs were killed at the hands of Mahant cohorts, supported by the British colonial government, and there was a massive movement against the Mahants and the British government. Bhagat Singh wore a black turban in protest and served food to processions passing through his village Chak No. 105, to cross over to Nankana Sahib, which was a few miles away from his village. As he left home to take part in revolutionary activities at that time, Bhagat Singh wrote his first political letter to his father in Urdu. From all his writings one can see that Bhagat Singh was most comfortable in writing Urdu and he wrote most of his letters that were of personal nature to family members in Urdu. In his first Hindi essay in 1923, which he wrote when he was sixteen years old, one can observe its literary flavour, showing how much command he had over Hindi as well. Since he had studied Sanskrit is school, two essays in Hindi – written and published in 1924 and 1925 in the Calcutta-based Hindi journal Matwala – ‘Vishwa Prem (Universal Love)’ and ‘Yuvak (Youth)’, are penned in such a Sanskritized form of Hindi, that it is a challenging task to translate these essays, particularly ‘Yuvak’. On the other hand, his writings in the Punjabi magazine Kirti are in very simple language; in fact, they are written in everyday conversational style, which indicates that Bhagat Singh never became too well-versed with the highbrow literary style of writing in Punjabi. One does not know the form of language he used for these same essays in the Urdu Kirti, which was also simultaneously published, as Urdu Kirti files have still not been consulted by scholars.
"Interestingly almost all his jail writings, written between 8 April 1929 and 22 March 1931, are in English; barring letters written to family and friends. Even though Bhagat Singh had not studied beyond the F.A. (Faculty of Arts) Programme of college, he had a powerful command over the English language; so much so that at a court-hearing in the Delhi Bombing Case, the judge told Bhagat Singh’s counsel, Asaf Ali, that he suspected it was him and not Bhagat Singh who was drafting the ‘statements’ by the accused! The counsel had to clarify that he was reading whatever was handed over to him by his clients; such was the flair of Bhagat Singh’s language. Historian V.N. Datta, has even speculated in his book, Gandhi and Bhagat Singh that perhaps Nehru was drafting or polishing the statements given by Bhagat Singh and his comrades (Reference 4)."
" ... Whatever is available in Bhagat Singh’s own handwriting – letters and the Jail Notebook are indisputable. But what has been available to us in a printed form needs some explanation. Very few people know that many of his documents were in fact published during his lifetime; only the names Bhagat Singh used were fictitious due to the fear of state oppression. Bhagat Singh worked as a member of the staff of many journals and papers like the Punjabi and Urdu Kirti, the Hindi daily Pratap , and the Delhi-based Hindi journal Arjun between 1923-1928, in the time period prior to his arrest. His writings in Hindi were published in Arjun, Maharathi and Matwala . His essays in Kirti were published under the name ‘Vidrohi’ and in Pratap he used the pen name ‘Balwant’. He wrote nearly thirty-seven sketches on the lives of revolutionaries, out of the total forty-eight sketches published in ‘Phansi Ank’ (Gallows Issue) issue of the Allahabad-based Hindi monthly Chand in November 1928. Many of these sketches were translated from the Punjabi journal Kirti by Shiv Verma, who wrote a few sketches himself. Shiv Verma also improved a few sketches of the Babbar Akali movement written by Bhagat Singh. In 1977, Bhagat Singh’s niece, Veerendra Sindhu, published all the sketches from the issue of ‘Phansi Ank’ under Bhagat Singh’s name – Mere Krantikari Saathi (My Revolutionary Comrades) (Reference 5), unaware of the fact that Shiv Verma and Bhagat Singh had jointly prepared the issue in November 1928 while sitting at the home of its editor, Ramrakh Singh Sehgal, in Allahabad. But there were a lot of questions regarding the authorship, especially from Manmath Nath Gupta. In response to Manmath Nath Gupta’s persistent queries regarding the authorship of these sketches, Shiv Verma finally clarified – out of a total of forty-eight sketches, Bhagat Singh was definitely the author of twenty-eight sketches relating to the Ghadar Party and Punjab, while details on authorship of the sketches on the Babbar Akali were still open to debate, which meant that Bhagat Singh and Shiv Verma can be considered joint authors of these nine sketches, and Shiv Verma is the author of ten sketches (Reference 6). A few of his letters from jail were published in papers like the Tribune from Lahore. Many more published his letters immediately after his execution; papers and journals like the Lahore-based the People, the Urdu Bande Matram, the Hindi Bhavishya, and Abhyuodey from Allahabad, the Kanpur-based Pratap, and Prabha from Kanpur, the Calcutta-based Hindu Panch. Others published his writings through Kumari Lajjawati of the Bhagat Singh Defence Committee, or sent in by some of his family members and friends. Three of his famous documents – the ‘On Harikishan Trial’,‘Why I am an Atheist’ and ‘Letter to Young Political Workers’ were published in the year 1931 itself."
"Many of the documents have more than one name; for example in many documents relating to the jail administration and judicial courts, the letters are signed by both Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt, his co-accused in the Delhi Bomb Case. One or two documents relating to the Lahore Conspiracy Case also carry the signatures of more than one person. Pamphlets and posters are issued in the name of ‘Kartar Singh’, the alias used by Chandra Shekhar Azad, who was also the Commander-in-Chief of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA). But all these documents were drafted by Bhagat Singh, though in consultation with his comrades. Out of the entire group, it was Bhagat Singh who developed a competence and flair in English writing. So, the authorship of all these documents is attributed to Bhagat Singh, who was considered the ideological leader of the revolutionary group, even when some of these had many signatories and names."
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November 09, 2021 - November 09, 2021.
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Introduction
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" ... Bhagat Singh did not complete even twenty-three-and-a-half years of his life, for he was executed by the British colonial government in Lahore on 23 March 1931. Yet, his popularity soared so high that historian, activist, and member of the Congress party, Pattabhi Sitaramayya acknowledged that Bhagat Singh’s popularity was equal to that of Mahatma Gandhi at one time. Mahatma Gandhi lived a long life and had enough time to leave his impact on both South African and Indian society; but Bhagat Singh, in his short life and even shorter seven years of political life, made an immense impact on Indian people.
"In fact, this assassination itself was the result of the heated atmosphere all around; the visit by the Simon Commission to India met with mass boycott and processions led by national leaders all around. In Lahore, the youth had convinced leader and freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai to lead the anti-Simon Commission protests. He led the procession on 30 October 1928, and became a victim of police oppression and violence when he was hits by lathis by John Saunders on the orders of Senior Superintendent of Police, James Scott. Due to that brutal lathi charge, Lala Lajpat Rai later declared in a public meeting held at Mori Gate that ‘every lathi on my body would prove to be the last nail in the coffin of British rule in India!’1 On 17 November 1928, Lala Lajpat Rai died due to the wounds he suffered at the lathi charge. Basanti Devi, widow of the radical nationalist Chittranjan Das, rallied the youth of the country and asked in anguish whether youth of the country were dead, that they could not avenge the death of the ‘tallest’ nationalist leader at the hands of petty police official of the colonial Raj. She touched a raw nerve and the HSRA took up the challenge, despite promising to leave the path of violence three months ago in its early September 1928 meeting at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground, Delhi. In this meeting, the Hindustan Republican Association rechristened itself to Hindustan Socialist Republican Association and decided to pursue the cause of socialist revolution in India by working with mass organisations of peasants, youth, students, and workers.
"Responding to Basanti Devi’s call, the HSRA decided to punish James Scott, who was responsible for ordering the attack on Lala Lajpat Rai. Bhagat Singh and Rajguru were chosen to shoot Scott. Jai Gopal was to identify him and Chandra Shekhar Azad was to provide cover to the whole team during the operation. Bhagat Singh was supposed to shoot first, but he stopped at the last minute. As Jai Gopal gave the signal identifying the British officer, Rajguru immediately took the shot; while Bhagat Singh tried to intervene by saying, ‘Panditji, he is not Scott!’. But before Bhagat Singh could complete his sentence, Saunders was already shot by Rajguru. Bhagat Singh had no option but to pump more bullets into Saunders’ fallen body to ensure he did not survive. The task was complete and the revolutionaries owned up to this assassination with posters all over Lahore by the next morning.
"But this action also sealed the fate of Bhagat Singh, who himself was absolutely convinced that he was going to be put to the gallows whenever he was arrested for this case. So, with a razor-sharp mind and with crystal-clear perception, Bhagat Singh decided to perform as many spectacular revolutionary acts as possible in the short duration of his remaining lifetime. In fact, he drew a clear plan of his life and actions, and it involved the most powerful of the British colonial authority."
" ... The day of his birth, news arrived that his father Kishan Singh and two uncles, the revolutionary Ajit Singh and Swarn Singh, had been released from prison. However, Swarn Singh died shortly after his release and Ajit Singh, who was also the founder of Bharat Mata Society along with Lala Lajpat Rai, was forced to flee the country in 1909. Ajit Singh spent his exiled life mostly in Latin America, continuing his revolutionary activities for the freedom of the country and returned to India at the invitation of Nehru himself, who was leading the interim government in March 1947. In fact, Ajit Singh tried to get Bhagat Singh out of the country as he knew about his nephew’s revolutionary activities. According to Baba Bhagat Singh Bilga, the veteran Ghadarite revolutionary who lived in Argentina in the 1930s, Ajit Singh had three letters of Bhagat Singh with him, which were later given to someone for safekeeping, but were subsequently lost.
"... at the age of twelve, Bhagat Singh visited Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar in April 1919, after the massacre of people and brought back a fistful of the ‘blood-soaked sand’. ... "
" ... on 20 February 1921, more than 140 devout Sikhs were killed by Mahant Narain Dass in collaboration with the British authorities at Gurudwara Nankana Sahib. ... "
"At the young age of fifteen, Bhagat Singh was already questioning his father about the withdrawal of the Non-Cooperation Movement by Mahatma Gandhi on the pretext of the Chauri Chaura incident. In fact, this withdrawal in 1922 had disillusioned the youth and revolutionaries all over India. Chandra Shekhar Azad, too, who had earlier been flogged in Benaras for shouting ‘Mahatama Gandhi ki jai (All hail Mahatma Gandhi)!’ was also very bitter at this development and later during his revolutionary activities would never trust Gandhi. Most of these young revolutionaries had associations with leaders like Chittaranjan Das, Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, Lala Lajpat Rai, Madan Mohan Malviya and many others, but none of the revolutionaries claimed a closeness to Gandhi; even though there had been some correspondence between Sukhdev and Gandhi. Gandhi had replied to Sukhdev’s letter written before his execution, given to him through ‘Young India’.6 To be fair, Gandhi received the letter, though written earlier, only after Sukhdev’s execution along with Bhagat Singh and Rajguru.7
"In a way, the withdrawal of the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1922 gave a renewed impetus to the revolutionary movement throughout the country; even though pockets of the revolution already existed in Bengal in the form of groups like Anushilan and Yugantar, H.R.A in Uttar Pradesh, etc. Hence, Bhagat Singh reached Kanpur in 1923, after informing his father through a letter that his life is dedicated to the nation and so could not think of marrying.8 His teacher at the National College, Jai Chander Vidyalankar, had given an introduction letter for Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, editor of Pratap, and also a Congress leader. Bhagat Singh not only joined the Hindi paper but also joined the underground revolutionary organization Hindustan Republican Association, organized by Sachindra Nath Sanyal, the author of Bandi Jivan,9 who, had already gone through one round of transportation to the Andamans. Bhagat Singh had met him at Lahore. It was at Kanpur that Bhagat Singh met Bejoy Kumar Sinha, Shiv Verma, Jai Dev Kapoor, B.K. Dutt and Ajay Ghosh, who were all revolutionary comrades of the HRA. Sukhdev and Bhagwati Charn Vohra were his comrades in Lahore. For about six months, Bhagat Singh wrote for Pratap under the pen name of ‘Balwant’, worked for flood relief and also performed the duties of a headmaster in a national school at Shadipur village near Aligarh. But he returned to Lahore after hearing the news of his grandmother’s illness and getting the assurance that no one would talk to him about marriage anymore. By the age of sixteen, Bhagat Singh had matured a lot; in 1924. His Hindi essay on the language issue in Punjab won a prize in a competition. In the next two years, he wrote the essays ‘Vishv Prem’ and ‘Yuvak’ for the Matwala, both under the pseudonym ‘Balwant Singh’. In 1926, his article, ‘Holi ke din rakat ke Chhinte (Drops of blood on Holi)’, written on the execution of six Babbar Akali revolutionaries, was published under the name ‘One Punjabi Youth’. Four years later, he wrote ‘Why I am an Atheist’, and referred to the development of his ideas by saying that he had become an atheist by the end of 1926 itself, when he was yet to be nineteen years of age and that these changes in his personality had taken place in the backdrop of a lot of Marxist literature being available at the Dwarkadas Library at Lahore, where Bhagat Singh had become a voracious reader from 1924 onwards."
" ... When the Simon Commission came to India, the Naujwan Bharat Sabha was more active than ever in Punjab. During this time, the NBS had many differences with Lala Lajpat Rai, due to Lalaji’s association with communal elements and an altercation led to Lala Lajpat Rai angrily shutting the doors of his house to Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Bhagwati Charan Vohra. Despite this, they requested Lala Lajpat Rai to lead the demonstration against Simon Commission, when he was visiting Lahore on 30 October 1928.
"Many comrades of the HSRA went underground due to their involvement in the Kakori Rail Robbery Case, particularly Chandra Shekhar Azad. After that, because of their involvement in the Saunders murder, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev also went underground. Soon after, Bhagat Singh escaped to Calcutta along with Durga Bhabhi.16 There he remained in touch with delegates of the Congress session like Sohan Singh Josh and also some Bengali revolutionaries like Jatinder Nath Das, a Bengali revolutionary who agreed to come to Lahore to train other comrades in bomb-making techniques. At this point, the HSRA was in a fix, on the one hand, while adopting a socialist perspective of Indian liberation, they wanted to focus upon organizing workers, peasants, students and youth; on the other hand, the Saunders murder case and other cases against them could not allow them to work openly. Neither could they take cover of the Congress for open political work as they had serious and fundamental differences with the party. The only option Bhagat Singh could visualize in such a binding situation was to awaken the countrymen by their revolutionary activities, but with a minimum loss of life. The ultimate goal was to sacrifice their own lives in such a manner that the whole country would become aware of their goals and ideas. At the same time, Bhagat Singh also wanted to remove the terrorist tag that was attached to their organization and themselves. For this, they wanted to use platforms from where their voice could reach millions of people.
"Many knew the danger Bhagat Singh’s life was in. Shaukat Usmani mentions in his autobiography how during one of his visits to Moscow, Soviet supremo Joseph Stalin had asked him to send Bhagat Singh to Soviet Union. Seeing Bhagat Singh growing into a full-fledged socialist revolutionary, Jawaharlal Nehru, too, wished to send Bhagat Singh to Moscow, and was even ready to fund his trip as he told Chandra Shekhar Azad. Bhagat Singh’s uncle, Ajit Singh, had also wished Bhagat Singh to come to him in South America. But Bhagat Singh and his comrades were destined to die for the country.
"Bhagat Singh knew that what they could not achieve by living for a long time, they would achieve by sacrificing their lives in the prime of their youth – in such a manner their sacrifices would become the focus of the attention for a large number of their countrymen. By shooting Saunders in broad daylight, HSRA had moved in this direction. This incident inspired millions of countrymen; and the consequent death of Lala Lajpat Rai, due to police brutality incited the revolutionaries. By killing Saunders, the HSRA and Bhagat Singh came into centre focus of the nation’s political scene; though Bhagat Singh made it absolutely clear in one of his court statements that they ‘bore no personal grudge or malice against anyone’ and went on to say, ‘we hold human life sacred beyond words, and would sooner lay our lives in the service of humanity than injure anyone else.’17 Jawaharlal Nehru had very aptly underlined the popularity of Bhagat Singh being responsible for ‘vindicating the honour of Lala Lajpat Rai and the nation’ in his autobiography in this context."
"When Jatinder Nath Das came to Lahore, bomb factories were set up in Agra, Lahore, Saharanpur, and Rohtak, in some rented houses. The bombs were tested in the forests in Jhansi and near the banks of the river Ravi in Lahore; incidentally Bhagwati Charan Vohra, a senior and ideologically strong member of the group, lost his life here during a bomb testing on 28 May 1930. The group had planned to get Bhagat Singh freed from jail, but the death of Vohra put a stop to this plan.19 The bomb that was used in the Delhi Central Assembly on 8 April 1929 was put together at Agra and was ready by January 1929.20 In another police version, the bomb thrown in the Delhi Assembly was from the Lahore factory. To further encourage the people’s enthusiastic response to Saunders’ murder, Bhagat Singh wanted another such equally spectacular event to take place. At that time, the British were bent upon notifying the Public Safety Bill and Trade Disputes Bill as law in spite of stiff opposition from the public and from members of the Central Assembly. And so, it was decided to throw ‘harmless’ bombs into the Central Assembly that would create noise, but do no damage to human lives. The idea was discussed in the central committee meeting of the HSRA; Sukhdev was absent from this meeting. Bhagat Singh’s proposed his own name for it, but was rejected as everyone knew he was bound to be trapped in the Saunders’ murder case and the party did not want to lose leadership in such a crucial time. When Sukhdev came to know of the decision, he became upset and angry at Bhagat Singh and taunted him for ‘trying to save his life’. They met again and Bhagat Singh insisted that not only would he go for the job; he along with his other comrade would get themselves arrested after the act.21 B.K. Dutt was to accompany him. The members of the party wanted them to escape after the act, but reluctantly agreed to Bhagat Singh’s proposals. Bhagat Singh went on to observe the entry and exit of the Central Assembly along with Jai Dev Kapoor, who was to accompany him to the building but leave before the bomb blast. Dr Saifudin Kitchlew, a member of the Central Assembly, had recognized Bhagat Singh there despite the fact that he had shaved off his beard in this period. This plan was inspired by a similar plan acted out by France’s revolutionary Auguste Vaillant in the French Parliament to focus attention on the poverty of the people, which had a famous one-liner, ‘It needs explosion to make the deaf hear’. Bhagat Singh was influenced by Vaillant’s act, who was also put to gallows in 1893 for his actions. That famous line was also the first sentence of the pamphlet thrown by Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt in the Central Assembly, after they had thrown two bombs over the empty benches of the Central Assembly. But the explosion did create a commotion in the Assembly and only few members like Pandit Motilal Nehru, Madan Mohan Malviya and Muhammad Ali Jinnah could keep their calm by remaining standing on their seats. Most of the others, including the Home Secretary ran helter skelter, some even hiding under the benches; and here the two historic slogans came into existence on the Indian political horizon – ‘Inqilab Zindabad (Long Live Revolution)’ and ‘Samrajyavad Ka Nash Ho (Down with Imperialism)’. In time these slogans, particularly Inqlab Zindabad, became a part of not only revolutionary groups but was adopted by many other organizations including the Congress. Of course, right-wing organizations such as the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha would never touch this slogan. In fact, Inqilab Zindabad, was an international slogan of the working-class movement. There were attempts to translate it in Hindi as ‘Kranti Chirjivi Ho’, but it did not catch the imagination of people. Inqilab Zindabad, not only caught the imagination of the Hindi-speaking population of India but also spread from Agartala to Chennai to Srinagar to Mumbai. Not only that, this slogan spread beyond India’s borders too, as it became popular in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and many other countries. Bhagat Singh felt rightly proud that ‘in his small life, he has made this slogan reach crores of Indians’.22 The slogan, Inqalab Zindabad, finally replaced ‘Vande Matram’, which was a popular slogan of the nationalist movement since 1905. Though this slogan was coined by Hasrat Mohani, it became popular due to Bhagat Singh and any objective analysis of his contribution to the national movement would be giving the masses the slogan of Inqilab Zindabad.
""Shiv Verma, is his introduction to the Selected Writings of Shaheed Bhagat Singh has drawn attention to his article ‘Ideology and Development of the Revolutionary Movement "From Chapekars to Bhagat Singh’. This is a significant analysis of the Indian revolutionary movement. There had been sporadic rebellions or revolutionary activities against the British from 1757 onwards, when they had won the Battle of Plassey and started controlling India in bits and pieces through the East India Company – tribal revolts in Bihar and Jharkhand like those of Tilka Manjhi, Sido-Kanu and others took place even before the First Battle of Independence of 1857. Shiv Verma traces the entry of revolutionaries into the freedom struggle from the time of the Chapekar Brothers in Poona in 1897. ... "
He forgets Vasudev Balawanta Phadake, and he forgets that British admitted that they weren't secure as long as Maratha Empire wasn't defeated - that is, Peshwas still ruled and were formidable.
"" ... It was the time when Bal Gangadhar Tilak dominated the national scene, he used to expose the British colonial state machinery’s anti-people role through his Marathi newspaper Kesri. During that time there was outbreak of plague in Pune, and to contain the plague the British government created a Special Plague Committee (SPC), of which British officer Walter Charles Rand was appointed as Chairman. But soon, Rand enforced many oppressive measures on the Indian population. Seeing this, the Chapekar brothers shot Rand and another officer, Lt Ayers on 22 June 1897. They were sent to the gallows following the assassination. But the distinct feature of these earliest revolutionaries was that they were inspired by strong religious sentiments of Hinduism. The situation was the same in Bengal. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s novel Anand Math published in 1882, contained the nationalist song Vande Matram, which was the war cry of the Sanyasi revolutionaries. This kind of nationalist trend continued with Savarker in Maharashtra, so was Anushilan Samiti in Bengal. Hence, between 1897 to 1913, Shiv Verma sees the first phase as a ‘phase of revolutionary movement inspired by Hindu religion’. There were many who fought for the revolution. Khudi Ram Bose and Praful Chaki gave their lives for the cause in 1908 in Bihar and Bengal, while Madan Lal Dhingra, inspired by Savarkar, shot Colonel Wyle in London and got executed in 1909. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipan Chandra Pal, and Aurobindo Ghosh all drew their inspiration from religion. Though Aurobindo Ghosh’s brother, Barinder Kumar Ghosh, and Swami Vivekanand’s brother, Dr Bhupender Nath Dutt, in their later life overstepped narrow religious vision of nationalism and adopted a more advanced and progressive socialist vision of nationalism in their later life."
Both Shiv Kumar Verma and Chaman Lal are low brained slaves, who, like many of their ilk, thought they'd go with a road less trodden so as to be not competing with a mob of Macaulay's brown shins, and merely chose left instead of West, and previous colonial invader regimes of over a millennium, instead of the last one, to devote themselves to, and abuse Hinduism blindly, while saying not a word against any atrocities perpetrated by the two minorities affiliated with the erstwhile colonial empires, of either British or pre British occupation of India of well over millennium and a half.
In short, both attempt to fool others whether they fool themselves or otherwise, that they are secular - they are slaves of India hating powers and aligned minorities.
"In Punjab, Ajit Singh, an uncle of Bhagat Singh, formed the revolutionary society, Bharat Mata Society, which focussed upon the exploitation of the peasants. Ajit Singh’s comrade, Punjabi nationalist poet, Lala Banke Dayal, created the song ‘Pagri Sambhal Jatta (Take care of your turban, O peasant)’, which would become the war cry in Punjab. First sung in March 1907, Banke Dayal was imprisoned for writing this song. Ironically, even now, the peasants of Punjab are facing the same problem of indebtedness that they did in the early twentieth century, with farmer suicides being reported every so often."
"Their plight was brought into focus by Malcolm Darling in 1928 in his classic book, The Punjab Peasant in Prosperity and Debt, which Bhagat Singh probably read as he asked for it to be sent to the Lahore jail for another friend Dr Alam."
But Chaman Lal carries on propaganda of their false agenda.
"Shiv Verma had rightly focused upon the formation of the Ghadar Party in America as the beginning of the secular nationalist movement from 1914 onwards; ... "
And he's writing this with the anti Hindu stance, despite all the known atrocities by jihadists of a number of organisations, not only in Afghanistan and West Asia but in Europe, India and of course, in and by Pakistan.
" ... although the process of the party’s growth was on from 1909 itself when Ajit Singh was forced to leave the country and go into exile. Revolutionaries like Lala Hardyal, Tarak Nath Das and G.D. Kumar were either writing pamphlets or bringing out papers in India and abroad; which finally led to the formation of Ghadar Party. Earlier known by the popular name of the Hindi Association of Pacific Coast, the Ghadar Party came into being on 21 April 1913 under the presidentship of Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna and Lala Hardyal as the general secretary, and its paper Ghadar was started from 1 November 1913. Ghadar was initially in Urdu, but later editions came out in many more languages like Punjabi, Hindi, and Gujarati. The organization was named as the Ghadar Party to appropriate the legacy of the 1857 Ghadar Movement and to give new respectability to the word ‘Ghadar’ after being discredited by British colonialists. The party’s headquarters was in San Francisco and was named as Yugantar Ashram; again to appropriate the Yugantar revolutionary movement of Bengal. The organization, and the movement at large, had a large number of Punjabis, followed by Bengalis, and a few members from Uttar Pradesh and southern India. The Ghadar Party gave a call to liberate India from the British through armed struggle and even gave a date of liberation 21 February 1915; later changed to 19 February."
Interesting choice of first date.
"That the movement did not succeed was due to various factors, but the Ghadar Party revolutionized the tradition of revolutionary movements in India, which for the first time after 1857 was inclusive of people from all religious communities. There was not only Kartar Singh Sarabha, the youngest martyr and hero of the movement, but also martyrs and activists from different parts of the country like Vishnu Ganesh Pingle, Rehmat Ali Wajidke, Tarak Nath Das, Champak Raman Pillai, D Chenchiah and Maulvi Barkatullah. The movement had a true pan-India character and a modern secular perception. The movement later reorganized itself and took the shape of the first Communist groups in Punjab, to which Bhagat Singh was directly related. In fact, Bhagat Singh’s personality and ideas were majorly shaped by the tradition of his uncle Ajit Singh and by the Ghadar Party."
They conveniently forget, or have never comprehended, a vital, key, factor in what they mistakenly or fraudulently portray as Hindu disdain or non inclusiveness in India, versus opposite trend brought in by the gadar party. It's precisely that gadar party was an association of migrants from india in U.S. over a century ago, when there simply weren't that many migrants from india in U.S., or U.K. or anywhere. So people who'd migrated from india were likely to mix more with "other"s, unlike back at home, where they had people more like themselves to feel at ease with. This is not that different from people on a train in India, where they begin chats within a few minutes of the train departure, and chat and share food until the arrival, when they separate - without any goodbyes, much less an exchange of addresses.
Back in India, unlike what Chaman Lal and Shiv Verma portray fraudulently, it wasn't Hindu superiority versus muslims kept out - it's rather that people hadn't forgotten centuries of Hindus being butchered by Muslims, and if Chaman Lal were to pay attention to internet, he'll find pakis still boasting of this; it's reality of not merely of recent over a millennium and half of history of India, but as recent as 1990 in Kashmir and of several other regions within India where a muslim majority threatens forcing Hindus to leave homes.
Even Khushwant Singh mentions how muslims, whether in his home village now in Pakistan, or in college in Lahore or Delhi, woukd keep to themselves despite his efforts, not mix with others; and recent events in Pakistan bear witness to this, as thry do after Taliban takeover in Afghanistan too.
But if people like Chaman Lal and Shiv Verma are determined to put blinkers and pretend to be asleep or blind, they can't be forced to admit seeing reality. They'll only shout about Hindus and abuse great Hindu personae, because it's safe, unlike speaking truthfully of reality about jihadist agenda, and perhaps pays well too.
" ... The Chittagong Revolt of 1932 was one such revolutionary movement which is comparable to the earlier Ghadar Movement. Led by the legendary Master Surjya Sen, inclusive of both Anushilan and Yugantar factions, the Chittagong Revolt had given the call of ‘Do and Die’, much before Gandhi had given call of ‘Do or Die’ in 1942. The Chittagong Revolt led to the martyrdom of the young revolutionary Preeti Lata Wadedar, apart from other martyrs ... "
"In 1940, Udham Singh, inspired by Bhagat Singh shot dead Michael O’Dwyer, who was responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and of other oppressions in Punjab in 1919. Udham Singh was hanged in London in 1940. The Quit India movement of 1942 also freed certain areas of Ballia from British yoke for few days. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s Azad Hind Fauj’s march towards India’s freedom and the 1946 Navy revolt are all a part of the glorious legacy of India’s revolutionary movements. But the distinctive feature of all revolutionary movements was that was after Bhagat Singh and the HSRA, all movements have been secular and democratic to the core and broadly leftist in thought. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was helped out of India by none other than Bhagat Ram Talwar in Kabul, a Ghadarite sympathizer and brother of martyr Harikishan.
"Returning to Bhagat Singh’s story, there were two things on his agenda while in jail; to expose British colonialism by using the courts as a platform for spreading their ideas to a wider audience and to expose the brutalities of the British in jail by resorting to hunger strikes in jail, and thus drawing public attention. Bhagat Singh was successful in achieving both these ends. The third thing on his agenda was his own ideological development. It was amazing to see a man who was about to go to the gallows immersing himself deep into the most serious study of world revolutionary history, that too in such trying circumstances. Bhagat Singh did not have the privilege to go to library or bookshops, or to buy books at will and then visit coffee houses to discuss new ideas. He was instead always preparing court statements, in which his serious study of Marxism helped, or organizing hunger strikes for months together, spending time with his comrades, being brutally beaten up in courts by police and then nursing his wounds in jail, alongside studying and taking notes from the books he read in prison.
"He was also writing during that time, as mentioned by Shiv Verma in his preface. There are mentions of four manuscripts drafted by Bhagat Singh while he was in jail; the first was The Ideal of Socialism, second one was an autobiography, third was History of Revolutionary Movements in India, and the last, At the Door of Death. According to Shiv Verma, these manuscripts were smuggled through Kumari Lajjawati, who then handed them over to Bejoy Kumar Sinha in 1938 after his release from the Andaman jail. Sinha passed these manuscripts on to a friend for safe custody, who destroyed the manuscripts in fear of a police raid at some stage.26 However, the manuscript of Jail Notebook was collected by Kulbir Singh or some other member of Bhagat Singh’s family. ... Bhagat Singh’s father was also keen to acquire or at least see the papers written by his son, but he was strictly refused by Lajjawati, purportedly on the instructions of Bhagat Singh himself. The strange part of this whole saga of indifference to the documents, considered so valuable now, is that neither Kumari Lajjawat nor Feroze Chand, or even Bejoy Kumar Sinha, who was given the custodianship of those papers at the instructions of Bhagat Singh himself, took the trouble to take a serious look through the papers and at least note down their contents. What seems certain is that Bhagat Singh’s thought had come to light broadly through the papers and that an evaluation of his thought process can be made on the basis of the retrieved documents, which are quite substantial."
" ... The Punjabi revolutionary poet Paash, had paid apt tribute to Bhagat Singh on his last moments by saying, ‘The Indian youth need to read the next page of Lenin’s book, folded by Bhagat Singh on the last day of his life’."
" ... Jatinder Nath Das lost his life on 13 September 1929 on the sixty-third day of his fast unto death. Jatinder Nath Das’ health was beyond redemption, the forcible feeding of milk had burst his lungs, and despite appeals to break his fast by his other colleagues few days earlier, he had refused to give up, with the clear understanding and declaration that he was consciously giving up his life for the nation. Bhagat Singh, B.K. Dutt and a few more of their comrades had continued their fast even after his death, breaking it only in the first week of October, making at that time, a record of a 111-days long fast. Bhagat Singh undertook another hunger strike against the tribunal hearing in the Saunders Murder Case when they were brutally beaten up on the orders of Presiding Judge Coldstream.28 The second hunger strike observed in February 1930 lasted for sixteen days. The third and last hunger strike was done by Bhagat Singh from 28 July to 22 August; this information only came to light after his new letters were discovered in the Supreme Court exhibition titled ‘The Trial of Bhagat Singh’. These letters were first published by me in the 15 August 2011 issue of the Hindu. Bhagat Singh and B.K. Dutt cumulatively almost observed five months of hunger strike in less than two years of imprisonment."
"Scared of the huge gathering at the Lahore Central Jail, the British jail officials executed them at 7 p.m. on 23 March (As per execution notifications issued by British authorities, which were displayed for the first time by Punjab Archives Lahore in March 2018 in an exhibition). But the news could not be withheld from the people of Lahore. The rally was about to end when the news of executions came out and the people rushed to the gates of jail. Scared, the British officials cut the still-warm bodies of the martyrs in pieces and after filling these in sacks, took these away from the back exit of the jail towards the Sutlej River bank near Ferozepur. This was all done under the cover of the night. The British officials got a Granthi and a pandit from Ferozepur town to perform the religious rituals. The bodies were burnt with kerosene in an alarming hurry in the jungle near Ganda Singh Walla village. People from Ferozepur and Lahore came searching for the bodies and before the dawn of 24 March, they were able to locate the place, out of which some unburnt and half-burnt bones, the smell of kerosene, and stains of blood came out. In anguish and anger, the people collected these body parts and reached Lahore, and the three martyrs were given a proper cremation on the banks of the river Ravi, where earlier Lala Lajpat Rai had been cremated.29 Thousands of people joined the funeral procession and memorial meeting that was held later in Minto Park near the river bank. The Congress party in Punjab at that time formed a fact-finding committee to enquire after the mistreatment of the dead bodies of the martyrs. Newspapers in those days, particularly Bhavishya from Allahabad, had highlighted the committee’s hearing but the report was either not released or remain dumped in the Congress papers. While the Kanpur riots, report of the Congress, which took place after the execution had drawn national attention and its reprint has even been published by the National Book Trust, it is strange that no one ever even remembers the Congress party’s fact-finding report about the mistreatment of the bodies by the British colonial authorities. The Kanpur riots, which started after the execution of Bhagat Singh and his comrades, unfortunately took on a communal colour and tragically took the life of Congress leader, nationalist journalist and admirer of Bhagat Singh, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi.
"This was also the condition of the martyr’s memorial. The Naujwan Bharat Sabha had formed a memorial committee to build a suitable memorial for the martyrs, which was sabotaged by the Congress party through Bhagat Singh’s father, Kishan Singh, with the promise that the Congress party would build a grander, national memorial for the martyrs.30 That later a memorial near Ferozepur called Hussainiwala was built had no relevance at that time to the national movement. Lahore was the hub of the national movement, it was the place where Bhagat Singh and his comrades had spent their lives in political action, and it was where they were executed and cremated. The most logical thing would have been to build a memorial in memory of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru at the banks of the river Ravi, which would had been a source of inspiration for the youth of Punjab; perhaps, this could have even proved as a deterrent to the division of Punjab."
"An intellectual like Jawaharlal Nehru would not have admired Bhagat Singh if he had not seen the spark of intellectual quest in him for socialist ideas. However, a few years after his death, he has been limited to the figurehead of a ‘brave hero and martyr’, while knowingly or unwittingly suppressing his ideas. Popular images like the one where he is a young gun-toting man with a turned-up moustache in a yellow turban, make him look like a fearsome and reckless person. In fact, Bhagat Singh in real life never wore a yellow or saffron turban, he was always dressed in a white khadi kurta and pyjama and a white turban. There are just four ‘real’ photographs of him; in two he is wearing a white turban, in one he is sitting on a cot with his hair open, and in the fourth and most famous photograph, clicked just before he went on to throw a bomb in the Assembly in April 1929, he is wearing a hat and looking straight into the camera. The photographer from Kashmiri Gate had later appeared in court as a prosecution witness. The photograph was published for the first time in the 12 April 1929 issue of the Lahore-based Bande Matram and then in the 18 April 1929 issue of the Hindustan Times of Delhi; both of these are now part of the National Archives of India at New Delhi. All other photographs available, including the one with the yellow turban, are either fake or paintings. Unfortunately, even the Central and State governments keep promoting these fake photographs."
"Till now, while almost all his complete writings have been available in languages like Hindi, Urdu and Marathi in single volumes. Few other Indian languages and English have only some of his selected writings available. For the first time, all his available documents and writings are being made available through this HarperCollins edition of The Bhagat Singh Reader. In fact, this volume is more comprehensive than all other previous editions of Bhagat Singh’s writings, some of which are not available even in earlier published ‘complete’ documents in Hindi or Punjabi. Of course, translations done by Bhagat Singh of some books in Hindi or Punjabi are not included here. Bhagat Singh translated Bandi Jivan of Sachindra Nath Sanyal in Punjabi and also translated Dan Breen’s My Fight for Irish Freedom in Hindi. He probably got Veer Savarkar’s First Indian War of Independence reprinted in Hindi, which was earlier banned by the British regime. Savarkar’s book was originally written in Marathi and it was non-controversial at that time as it even recognized the role of Muslims in its text. ... "
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Section – 1
Letters/Telegrams
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Letters from School
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Here are some letters written by young boy Bhagat Singh to his family, in their natural language spoken at home, a mix of Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi. His later writings showed a competence in Hindi and English equally well, but in writing to family he returns to - naturally enough - home language.
Chaman Lal mentions them as Urdu to his grandfather and Punjabi to his aunt, but presumably he means the difference of two scripts. Here we give them from another work on Bhagat Singh, where they're given in Devanaagarie script, so the original language of each is maintained.
"[शहीद भगत सिंह का जन्म 28 सितम्बर, 1907 को हुआ। उस समय उनके चाचा स. अजीत सिंह को लाला लाजपत राय के साथ किसान-आन्दोलन का प्रतिनिधित्व करने पर अंग्रेज सरकार ने मांडले (बर्मा) में निर्वासित कर रखा था। जनता के रोष के आगे झुकते हुए नवम्बर, 1907 को उन्हें रिहा किया गया। पिता स. किशन सिंह को अंग्रेज सरकार ने नेपाल से पकड़ा था और छोड़ दिया था। सबसे छोटे चाचा स. स्वर्ण सिंह पर कई मुकदमे बनाए गए थे, और वे जमानत पर रिहा हुए थे। इस सारी खुशी से दादी ने, भगत सिंह को ‘भागाँवाला’ मान लिया था। बाबा अर्जुन सिंह ने अपने पोते का पालन-पोषण अपनी देखरेख में किया। वे शुरू से ही उसके भीतर सामाजिक चेतना और तर्क-शक्ति के विकास के लिए प्रयत्नशील थे, और उसे सामाजिक बराबरी और प्रगति के विचारों से परिचित करा रहे थे। भगत सिंह की पहले चार साल की पढ़ाई अपने गाँव बंगा चक्क नं. 105 गुगैरा ब्रांच (अब लायलपुर, पाकिस्तान) में हुई और आगे पढ़ने के लिए वे पिताजी के पास लाहौर आ गए। 1916-17 में जब भगत सिंह लाहौर पहुँचे तो चारों ओर गदर पार्टी के शहीदों के कीर्तिगान गूँज रहे थे। यह भगत सिंह का पहला खत है, जब वे छठी कक्षा में पढ़ रहे थे। उनका यह पत्र दादा अर्जुन सिंह को सम्बोधित है, जो उन दिनों गाँव खटकड़ कलाँ आए हुए थे। पत्र उर्दू में है।—सं.]"
"लाहौर, 22 जुलाई, 1918
"पूज्य बाबाजी,
"नमस्ते।
"अर्ज़ यह है कि आपका खत मिला, पढ़कर दिल खुश हुआ। इम्तिहान की बात ये हैं कि मैंने पहले इसलिए नहीं लिखा था क्योंकि हमें बताया नहीं गया था। अब हमें अंग्रेजी और संस्कृत का नतीजा बताया गया है। उनमें मैं पास हूँ। संस्कृत में मेरे 150 नम्बरों में 110 नम्बर हैं। अंग्रेजी में 150 में से 68 नम्बर हैं। जो 150 में से 50 नम्बर ले जाए वह पास होता है। 68 नम्बरों को लेकर मैं अच्छी तरह पास हो गया हूँ। किसी किस्म की चिन्ता न करना। बाकी नहीं बताया गया। छुटि्टयाँ, 8 अगस्त को पहली छुट्टी होगी। आप कब आएँगे, लिखना।
"आपका आज्ञाकारी
"भगत सिंह"
"लाहौर, 14 नवम्बर, 1921
"मेरे पूज्य दादा साहब जी, नमस्ते। अर्ज़ यह है कि इस जगह खैरियत है और आपकी खैरियत श्री परमात्माजी से नेक मतलूब हूँ। अहवाल ये है कि मुद्दत से आपका कृपा-पत्र नहीं मिला। क्या सबब है? कुलबीर सिंह, कुलतार सिंह की खैरियत से जल्दी मुत्तला फरमाएँ। बेबे साहबा— अभी मोरांवाली से वापस नहीं आईं। बाकी सब खैरियत है।
"(कार्ड की दूसरी तरफ)
"माता जी को नमस्ते। चाची साहबा को नमस्ते। मंगू चमार अभी तक तो नहीं आया। मैंने एक पुरानी किताब मोल ली थी, जो कि बहुत सस्ती मिल गई थी।
"(कार्ड की लाइनों के बीच उल्टे रुख)
"आजकल रेलवे वाले हड़ताल की तैयारी कर रहे हैं। उम्मीद है कि अगले हफ्ते के बाद जल्द शुरू हो जाएगी।
"आपका ताबेदार
"भगत सिंह"
"(दादा को लिखे इस पत्र से पता चलता है कि उस समय चल रहे चर्चित असहयोग आन्दोलन का प्रभाव किस तरह जनता में जोर मार रहा था, जिसका असर भगत सिंह पर भी हुआ। वे उससे अनजाने न रह सके। साथ ही दादा को भी यह बताए बिना न रह सके कि जल्दी आरम्भ होनेवाली रेल-हड़ताल की भी उन्हें सूचना है। —सं.)"
"गुरुमुखी में लिखा पहला पत्र"
"[13 अप्रैल, 1919 के दिन जलियाँवाला बाग में अंग्रेजों ने बेरहम कत्लेआम किया। 12 वर्षीय भगत सिंह जब दूसरे दिन वहाँ पहुँचे और रक्त-सनी मिट्टी लेकर घर लौटे, तो कई सवाल उनके मन में थे। अपनी छोटी बहिन बीबी अमरकौर से उन्होंने अपने मन की बातें कीं।
"21 फरवरी, 1921 को महन्त नारायण दास ने ननकाना साहिब में 140 सिखों को बड़ी बेरहमी से मार डाला। बहुतों को ज़िन्दा ही जला दिया। लाहौर से अपने गाँव बंगा जाते समय भगत सिंह यह सारा मौका देख गए और 5 मार्च को हुई बड़ी कान्फ्रेन्स भी देखी। वे ननकाना साहिब से इस घटना सम्बन्धी एक कैलेंडर भी लेते गए थे। इस घटना से पूरे पंजाब के गाँवों में अंग्रेज सरकार के खिलाफ, जिसने महन्त की मदद की थी, एक जोरदार आन्दोलन उठा। हर गाँव में काली पगड़ियाँ बाँधने और पंजाबी पढ़ने का रिवाज चल पड़ा। भगत सिंह भी इसके प्रभाव में आए। भाई-बहिन—बीबी अमर कौर और भगत सिंह—ने पंजाबी पढ़नी व लिखनी सीखी। यह पत्र उसी समय का है, जो 1910 में जेल-यातनाओं से शहीद हुए चाचा स्वर्ण सिंह की धर्मपत्नी चाची हुक्म कौर को लिखा गया था। शब्द-जोड़ जैसे-के-तैसे दिए जा रहे हैं। गुरुमुखी लिपि में लिखा भगत सिंह का यह पहला पत्र है। बाद में पंजाबी में भगत सिंह ने बहुत-से लेख भी लिखे। —सं.]
"15 नवम्बर, 1921"
"मेरी परम प्यारी चाचीजी, नमस्ते। मुझे खत लिघ लिघने (लिखने) में देरी हो गई है। सो उम्मीद है कि आप माफ करोगे। भाइया जी (पिता किशन सिंह) दिल्ली गए हुए हैं। भेभे (बेबे—माँ) मोरांवाली को गई हुई है। बाकी सब राजी-खुशी हैं। बड़ी चाचीजी को मत्था टेकना। माता जी को मत्था टेकना, कुलबीर, कुलतार सिंह को सति श्री अकाल या नमस्ते। आपका आज्ञाकारी भगत सिंह"
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November 15, 2021 - November 15, 2021.
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