Bhagat Singh’s intellectual bequest should be a beacon of light to build a new India

• Bhagat Singh stands out in bold relief as someone who, at a young age, defined nation and nationalism for us.
• Bhagat Singh had an alternative framework of governance, which is strongly reflected in the corpus of writings that he has left behind.
• Sadly, we hardly care to revisit this serious intellectual inheritance and only venerate him as a martyr which is laudable but incomplete.

Incisive commentary

• Singh was barely 17 when he published his first article, in 1924, in Matwala, a Hindi magazine from Calcutta.
• The subject was ‘Universal Brotherhood’, which was not a very easy issue to write on at such a young age.
• Among the heroes of our freedom struggle, Bhagat Singh was perhaps the only one who had this vision at such a young age.
• Bhagat Singh strongest critique was of untouchability and communalism, which continue to torment us as a nation.
• Bhagat was also conscious of the international revolutionary struggles and ideologies, which is evident in a series of articles he wrote on ‘Anarchism’.
• Bhagat was aghast that we claimed to be a spiritual country, yet discriminated against fellow human beings while the materialist West had done away with such inhuman obscenities long ago.

Inclusiveness came first

• The decade of the 1920s saw a rise in communal politics, from both Hindu and Muslim groups.
• However, Bhagat Singh steadfastly remained committed to the idea of a plural and inclusive India.
• He founded the Naujawan Bharat Sabha in Lahore in 1926, whose manifesto said, “Religious superstitions and bigotry are a great hindrance in our progress. They have proved an obstacle in our way and we must do away with them. ‘The thing that cannot bear free thought must perish’.”
• We feel that the true well-wishers of India would follow these principles and save India from the suicidal path it is on at present.” None cared to listen to this voice of sanity then.
• Even now, many of us continue to peddle religion to promote political prospects.
• Bhagat Singh expressed his disenchantment with the politics of Lala Lajpat Rai, whom he and other youth otherwise venerated.
• Today, we need to remember Bhagat’s revolutionary ideas.
• Mere valorisation of his nationalism and ultimate sacrifice is true but sadly incomplete.
• In these rancorous times, Bhagat Singh’s intellectual bequest should be a beacon to build a new India.

The Hindu