Revolutionary ideas that live on (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 1: History
Prelims level: Bhagat Singh
Mains level: Describe his revolutionary leadership

Context

•  Bhagat Singh went to the gallows, along with two of his comrades, Sukhdev and Rajguru, on March 23, 1931.
•  Bhagat Singh stands out in bold relief as someone who, at a young age, defined nation and nationalism for us.
•  He 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. This veneration 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.
•  He imagined a world where “all of us being one and none is the other. It will really be a comforting time when the world will have no strangers.”
•  All those who are busy “othering” and creating strangers out of their own fellow citizens need to grapple with Bhagat Singh’s views, instead of merely glorifying him as a martyr.
•  He emphatically exclaimed that “as long as words like black and white, civilized and uncivilized, ruler and the ruled, rich and poor, touchable and untouchable, etc., are in vogue there was no scope for universal brotherhood”.
•  He went on to say, “We will have to campaign for equality and equity.
•  Will have to punish those who oppose the creation of such a world.” Among the heroes of our freedom struggle, he was perhaps the only one who had this vision at such a young age.
•  His strongest critique was of untouchability and communalism, which continue to torment us as a nation.
•  He was fiercely frank and bold enough to critically comment on the politics of senior leaders such as Lala Lajpat Rai and express his differences.
•  He was also conscious of the international revolutionary struggles and ideologies, which is evident in a series of articles he wrote on ‘Anarchism’.

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’.”

As a revolutionary leader

•  Singh was aware of international revolutionary struggles as well.
•  His three-part article on anarchism (1928), appeared before he authored his masterly essay, ‘Why I am an Atheist’.
•  Thus we can see here the evolution of his ideas on politics, society, religion and even faith in god.
•  While writing on anarchism, Bhagat Singh observed: “Our retrogressive thinking is destroying us.
•  We keep ourselves entangled in futile discussions about God and heaven, and remain busy in talking about the soul and God.
•  We are quick to dub Europe as capitalist and don’t think about their great ideas or pay any attention to them.
•  We love divinity and remain aloof from the world.”

Conclusion

•  This is what an anarchist stood for, Singh reaffirmed; he was not a blood-thirsty young man who believed in the bomb and the pistol, as the colonial government labelled all revolutionaries.
•  Today, we need to remember his revolutionary ideas.
•  Mere valorisation of his nationalism and ultimate sacrifice is true but sadly incomplete.
•  In these rancorous times, his intellectual bequest should be a beacon to build a new India.

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General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

Prelims Questions:

Q1. In the context of macroeconomics, marginal propensity to consume (MPC) refers to

(a) fraction of total additional income that people use for consumption.
(b) fraction of total consumption that is incurred on basic necessities like food.
(c) fraction of income that is put into savings for future consumption.
(d) fraction of income that is incurred on capital investment

Answer: A
Mains Questions:
Q1. Bhagat Singh’s intellectual bequest should be a beacon of light to build a new India. Comment.