"I am a man and all that affects mankind concerns me"- Bhagat Singh

 Bhagat Singh

a great reader and thinker was able to break the jail conditions. Officially he was not allowed for reading and writing. After long hunger strike he got the right of reading & writing included in Jail Manuals. Thus he maintained a notebook of 404 pages and kept notes & quotes from the books he read. His legacy prompted youth in India to begin fighting for Indian independence and also increased the rise of socialism in India.

Bhagat Singh was an Indian freedom fighter, most famous revolutionaries of Indian Independence Movement. He is also believed to be one of the earliest Marxists in India. The revolutionary was born on 27th September 1907 to a family, which had been earlier involved in revolutionary activities against British Raj in India. Bhagat Singh was born into a Sandhu family to Sardar Kishan Singh Sandhu and Vidyavati in the Khatkar Kalan village near Banga in the Lyallpur district of Punjab. Singh`s given name of Bhagat meant "devotee". The Hindu reformist Arya Samaj had a great influence on his father. His uncles, Ajit Singh and Swaran Singh, as well as his father were both part of the Ghadr Party led by Kartar Singh Sarabha. Ajit Singh was forced to flee to Iran because of pending cases against him while Swaran Singh was hanged.

The Jalianwala Bagh Massacre, which took place in Punjab in 1919, had a deep impact on the child mind of Bhagat Singh. In 1920, Mahatma Gandhi initiated the Non-Cooperation Movement. The teenage Bhagat at his tender age of 13 became an active participant with a great hope that Gandhi would bring freedom in India. But the little Bhagat was disappointed with Gandhiji`s decision to call off this movement following the `Chauri Chaura` riot in 1922. Bhagat Singh openly defied the British and followed Gandhi`s wishes by burning his government-school books and any British-imported clothing.

The attention of members of the Punjab Hindi Sahitya Sammelan including its General Secretary Professor Bhim Sen Vidyalanka moved towards Bhagat Singh in 1923 when Bhagat famously won an essay competition set by the Punjab Hindi Sahitya Sammelan. At this age At this age, he quoted famous Punjabi literature and discussed the "Problems of the Punjab". He read a lot of poetry and literature which was written by Punjabi writers and his favourite poet was an Indian freedom fighter Allama Iqbal from Sialkot.

In his teenage years, Bhagat Singh started studying at the National College in Lahore, but ran away from home to escape early marriage, and became a member of the organization "Naujawan Bharat Sabha" translated to `Youth Society of India`. In the Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Singh and his fellow revolutionaries grew popular amongst the youth. He also joined the `Hindustan Republican Association` at the request of Professor Vidyalankar, which was then headed by Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan. He also wrote for and edited Urdu and Punjabi newspapers published from Amritsar. A meeting of various revolutionaries from across India was called at Delhi under the banner of the "Kirti Kissan Party" in September 1928. Bhagat Singh was the secretary of the meet. His later revolutionary activities were carried out as a leader of this association. The capture and hanging of the main HRA Leaders also allowed him and Sukhdev to be quickly promoted to higher ranks in the party.

On October 30 1928, Lala Lajpat Rai led the protest in a silent non-violent march against the commission, which was created by the British government under Sir John Simon to report on the current political situation in India. The police responded with violence and Lala Lajpat Rai severely beaten by the police chief. Bhagat Singh eyewitnessed this event and vowed to take revange. With other revolutionaries Shivaram Rajguru, Jai Gopal and Sukhdev Thapar he joined in a plot to kill the police chief. Jai Gopal was supposed to indentify the chief and signal for Singh to shoot. However, in a case of mistaken identity, Gopal signalled Singh on the appearance of J. P. Saunders, a Deputy Superintendent of Police. Thus, Saunders, instead of Scott, was shot. He quickly left Lahore to escape the police. To avoid recognition, he shaved his beard and cut his hair, a violation of one of the sacred tenets of Sikhism.

The British government enacted the Defence of India Act to give more power to the police, in the face of actions by the revolutionaries. The purpose of the Act was to combat revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh. The Act was defeated in the council only by one vote. In response to this act, the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association planned to explode a bomb in the assembly where the ordinance was going to be passed. It was decided that Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt, another revolutionary, would throw the bombs in the assembly. On April 8, 1929, Singh and Dutt threw bombs onto the corridors of the assembly and shouted "Inquilab Zindabad!" ("Long Live the Revolution!"). This was followed by a shower of leaflets stating that it takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear. The bomb neither killed nor injured anyone. Singh and Dutt gave themselves up for arrest after the bomb. He and Dutt were sentenced to `Transportation for Life` for the bombing on June 12, 1929.

After his arrest, the British came to know of his involvement in the murder case of J.P.Saunders. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev were charged with the murder. Intelligent Bhagat Singh did not missed a fraction of time to use the court as a tool to publicize his cause for the independence of India. He admitted to the murder and made statements against the British rule during the trial. The case was ordered to be carried out without members of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association present at the hearing. This created an uproar amongst Singh`s supporters as he could no longer publicise his views.

This revolutionary young man with other prisoners launched a hunger strke in the jail. The reason was that British murderers and thieves were treated better than the Indian political prisoners as they were meant to be given better rights by law. They were advocating for the rights of prisoners and undertrails, a decent standard of food as well as better clothing and other hygienic necessities. He also demanded that political prisoners should not be forced to do any labour or undignified work. This hunger strike lasted for 63 days and ended with the submission of British power to an overpowering force, Bhagat Singh,with this he gained much popularity among the common Indians. Before the strike his popularity was limited mainly to the Punjab region.

Bhagat Singh used to maintain diary while in jail . Eventually he made to fill 404 pages. The diary was a precious one as he made numerous notes relating to the quotations and popular sayings of various people whose vies he supported, prominent were of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Political thought of Bhagat Singh`s evolved gradually from Gandhian nationalism to revolutionary Marxism. By the end of 1928, he and his comrades renamed their organization the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. After going through the teachings of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Lenin he came to believe that, India with such a large and diverse population could only survive properly under a socialist regime. These ideals had been introduced to him during his time at the National College at Lahore and he believed that India should re-enact the Russian revolution. He believed that the rich would only get richer and the poor would only get poorer in the case if India did not adopt the socialistic approach. This, and his militant methods, put him at odds with Gandhi and members of the Congress. He became the first socialist leader in India to make any gain. Even today, socialist leaders sometimes refer back to him as the founder of Indian socialism.

To him "The aim of life is no more to control mind, but to develop it harmoniously, not to achieve salvation here after, but to make the best use of it here below, and not to realise truth, beauty and good only in contemplation, but also in-the actual experience of daily life; social progress depends not upon the ennoblement of the few but on the enrichment democracy or universal brotherhod can be achieved only when there is an equality of opportunity in the social, political and individual life." The comments in his diary led to an understanding of the philosophical thinking of Bhagat Singh. He wrote a pamphlet entitled "Why I am an Atheist" in which he discusses and advocates the philosophy of atheism during his time in a condemned cell in 1931. This pamphlet was a result of some criticism by fellow revolutionaries on his failure to acknowledge religion and God while in a condemned cell. He was also being accused of vanity by not accepting God in the face of death. He supported his own beliefs and claimed that he used to be a firm believer in The Almighty, but could not bring himself to believe the myths and beliefs that others held close to their hearts. In this pamphlet, he acknowledged the fact that religion made death easier, but also said that unproved philosophy is a sign of human weakness.

Bhagat Singh was known for his appreciation of martyrdom. His mentor as a young boy was Kartar Singh Sarabha, an Indian freedom fighter and a leading luminary of the Ghadar Party. Singh is himself considered a martyr by many Indians for acting to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai, also considered a martyr. In the leaflet he threw in the Central Assembly on 8th April 1929, he stated that `It is easy to kill individuals but you cannot kill the ideas. Great empires crumbled while the ideas survived`. After engaging in studies on the Russian Revolution, he wanted to die so that his death would inspire the youth of India to unite and fight the British Empire. While in prison, Bhagat Singh and two others had written a letter to the Viceroy asking him to treat them as prisoners of war and hence to execute them by firing squad and not by hanging. Prannath Mehta, Bhagat Singh`s friend, visited him in the jail on March 20, four days before his execution, with a draft letter for clemency, but he declined to sign it.

After his hanging, youths in regions around Northern India rioted in protest against the British Raj. Thus Bhagat Singh`s desire to inspire thousands of youths to assist the Indian independence movement. Bhagat Singh`s contribution to Indian society in particular is sown in the future of socialism in India acknowledged by The Communist Party of India (Marxist) itself. To celebrate the centenary of his birth, a group of intellectuals have set up an institution to commemorate Singh and his ideals. Several popular Bollywood films have been made capturing the life and times of Bhagat Singh. The oldest was "Shaheed" in 1965, starring Manoj Kumar as Singh. Two major films about Singh were released in 2002, "23rd March 1931: Shaheed" and "The Legend of Bhagat Singh". The patriotic Urdu and Hindi songs, "Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna "(translated as "the desire to sacrifice") and "Mera Rang De Basanti Chola" ("my saffron-colored cloak"; saffron referring to the Sikh color of sacrifice), while created by Ram Prasad Bismil, are largely associated to Bhagat Singh`s martyrdom.

This legendary martyr Bhagat Singh is often been accused of being too eager to die, as opposed to staying alive and continuing his movement. Some lament that he may have done much more for India had he stayed alive. Ajay Ghosh was one of the close comrade and co-accused in the Lahore conspiracy case. In his word "Like a meteor, Bhagat Singh appeared in the political sky for a brief period. Before he passed away, he had become the cynosure of millions of eyes and the symbol of the spirit and aspirations of a new India, dauntless in the face of death, determined to smash imperialist rule and raise on its ruins the edifice of a free people`s state in this great land of ours."

India's Secular Saint

"I want to avoid violence non-violence is the first article of my faith" -- Mahatma Gandhi, 1922

Mahatama Gandhi with his Charkha

Mahatma Ghandi's political philosophy on non-violence is shattered by the recent Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests -- how much of his historic influence remains on the sub-continent?
On January 30, 1948, a few months after the independence of India in which he had played the chief role, Mohandas Gandhi walked to his evening prayers in Delhi. A young man named Nathuram Godse pushed his way through the crowd around Gandhi and crouched to kiss his feet. As Godse was pulled away by guards, he drew a gun and shot Gandhi three times. Gandhi fell dying, his final words, "Hai Rama!" -- "O God!"
So died a great Asian, also known in India and around the world by the title "Mahatma", a Hindi word meaning "of great soul" or "revered one".
Lord Mountbatten, the last British Viceroy of India, said Gandhi would go down in history as "on par with Buddha and Jesus Christ", and Albert Einstein, philosopher and Nobel Prize science winner, said "Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth." Fifty years after Gandhi's death the nation he created is the world's largest democracy, with the secret ballot, a free press and an independent judiciary.
Karamchand Mohandas Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, the third son and the last of four children of well-to-do Hindu parents, at Porbandor on the north-west coast of India. His family was of the Bania sub-caste, traditionally working merchants and traders. When Gandhi was born, India was the "jewel in the crown" of the British Empire. Around 60,000 British troops, supported by 200,000 locally enlisted soldiers, called sepoys, maintained British power. The country, then with a population of 350 million, second only to China, was administered by only 2000 or so British civil servants, career administrators who often spent their working lives in India, as their parents had before. The cultures of India date back 3000 years and the country was divided by scores of languages, religions and castes. When the American writer Mark Twain visited India a century ago he called it "the country of a hundred nations and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods".
Gandhi grew up in a traditional Hindu family. His mother Putili Ba strongly influenced his moral, social and religious beliefs.

In 1894, Gandhi opposed legislation in British-ruled Natal which was intended to deprive Indians there of the right to vote for the National Assembly. He formed a committee, wrote to newspapers and petitioned officials. Gandhi collected 10,000 signatures against the legislation but had only a moral victory. The Assembly passed a law without mentioning Indians directly, but achieving the same discrimination.
The treatment of indentured Indian labourers was another Gandhi target. He petitioned government and wrote newspaper articles about their plight. When they had finished work contracts the labourers had to choose between returning to India, beginning a new indentured contract, or buying freedom at a cost equivalent to a year's pay. After many Gandhi petitions and articles, the British Viceroy of India complained to London about the treatment of his Indian subjects in South Africa. As a result the annual "tax" was reduced to about one month's pay, an improvement which proved Gandhi's actions and arguments had some effect in London, as well as in South Africa and India.
Although the Indian civil rights struggle progressed, the white community's racist treatment of Indians did not change.
Gandhi's next political target was a Transvaal law compelling Indians to register and be fingerprinted. About 3000 Indians held a protest meeting at which a Muslim merchant vowed to defy the law. Gandhi warned that this would risk jail and fines, but the entire audience vowed to resist. As a result only a few hundred of the 13,000 Indian community registered. Gandhi and his supporters were sentenced to two months in prison.

Gandhi blamed the violence on himself and fasted for three days, the first of his many political fasts. He decided that his non-violent strategies were unworkable until all Indians understood them. He set about teaching, with the Indian National Congress as his platform.
Most Congress members were well-to-do English speakers who wore European clothes and had been educated overseas. Their endless talk seemed to lead to little action, so Gandhi began changing Congress style and members. He symbolically rejected British rule by swapping his English suits for the dhoti, the traditional loincloth of the Indian labourer, and reverting to his native language, Gujarati. To spread his strategy of non-cooperation with British rule, Gandhi founded the National Volunteer Corps. Among those who joined was Jawaharlal Nehru, son of the president of the Congress and later the first Prime Minister of India. Nehru followed Gandhi's pilgrimage across India as he took his ideas to the millions. Everywhere they went volunteers taught villagers how to spin and weave their raw cotton into cloth. This symbolic action became a vivid image of Indian nationalism and the Gandhian politics of nonviolence. The spinning wheel is the central symbol of the national flag of modern India.

On April 6, 1930, the marchers reached the Arabian Sea, performed a purification ritual, gathered some salt and thereby broke the law. Thousands of Indians soon followed his lead and gathered sea salt. They also boycotted shops stocking British goods.
The colonial Government waited for the political heat and dust to recede but it persisted. Gandhi and Nehru were imprisoned. Some 2500 Gandhi volunteers gathered to raid a saltworks. Hundreds of Indian police, under British officers, clubbed them as they advanced but none resisted. The news of violence met by nonviolence spread around the world. Gandhi began to be a global name.
A few months later the British offered to talk with Gandhi about constitutional reform. He first insisted on repeal of the salt laws. Gandhi called off the campaign of civil disobedience and went to London to listen to the British. It was another symbolic victory -- the humble law student returned as a national leader and international figure. The talks led to nothing acceptable to Gandhi. He wrote to the Viceroy: "On bended knee I asked for bread, and you gave me stone instead."
Gandhi resumed his campaigns, was sent back to jail and Congress was outlawed. However, real reforms did finally begin four years later. Britain passed the historic Government of India Act, which allowed large areas to govern themselves with a degree of local independence.
Real power still remained under British control in Delhi, but Congress took the limited opportunity and won seats in the self-governing provinces. Ominously, the Muslim League won only five per cent of the Muslim vote and its leader, Mohamed Ali Jinnah, predicted a "Hindu" dictatorship over Muslims.

In February, 1947, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, a relative of the British royal family, was appointed the last Viceroy of India. He was glamourous but incompetent. The timing of many of his actions remains controversial. In essence, his critics say he moved too fast for safety.
Muslim leaders insisted that an independent Muslim state be created. The Congress Party conceded the territories Muslims wanted -- north-west and north-east India became Pakistan, a nation physically divided by 1500 kilometres of India. Independence for both nations came at midnight on August 14, 1947.
The achievement of independence created far more violence than the struggle for it. In the partition, Hindus fled Pakistan and Muslims fled India. About one million people died in the greatest mass movement in modern history as seven million people left their old homes for new nations. Gandhi saw his life of nonviolence culminating in mass violence. He could only react with fasting. In his last days, despair often exceeded elation.
India was independent but endangered. Between fasts, and between Hindu-Muslim truces, Gandhi visited the scenes of riot destruction, met refugees, talked with Nehru and grew weaker and sadder. He was 78. An extremist Hindu conspiracy to kill him was discovered and Gandhi declared, "If I die by the bullet of a mad man I must do so smiling. Should such a thing happen to me, you are not to shed one tear." Ten days later he was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic opposed to partition and millions wept.
Half a century on, India's independence and democracy are Gandhi's monuments. Although modern India -- where the computer is almost as common as the spinning wheel -- is not in his home-spun image, it is the world's largest democracy -- an achievement for which his lifelong sacrifice for freedom laid the foundations.

Note: Few informations are taken by the article written by Rebecca  Leathem.

क्या भारतीय राजनीती बदलेगी?

हेल्लो दोस्तों,
ये मेरा पहला ब्लॉग कमेन्ट है। आज कल ये बड़ी चर्चा का विषय बना हुआ है की क्या इंडियन पोलिटिक्स कभी बदल पायेगी? अगर हाँ तो कौन बदलेगा इसे? कोई युवा या फिर खुद ठीक तरह से चलने के काबिल ना होने के बावजूद देश को चलाने का दावा करने वाले हमारे माननीय वयोवृद्ध राजनेता? और अगर नहीं बदलेगी तो क्यों नहीं बदलेगी?
आज़ादी के बाद से ये सवाल उठता रहा है, अगर आज भारतीय राजनीती के सन्दर्भ में बात करे तो आज दो राष्ट्रीय पार्टियाँ नजर आती है,बीजेपी और कांग्रेस। कांग्रेस को हमने ६० साल मौका दिया और आज भी वही के वही है,बीच मे श्री अटल बिहारी वाजपेयी जी के नेतृत्व मे बीजेपी ने काफी उम्मीद जगाई पर आज वो अपने अस्तित्व को बचाने के लिए लडती नजर आती है।
अब बात आती है भारतीय युवा की,आज का युवा यानि gen नेक्स्ट, वाकई आजादी के बाद के ६२ साल के वक़्त में पहली बार युवा शक्ति इतनी मजबूत नज़र आती है, अपने लक्ष्य को पाने के लिए पहले से कही ज्यादा जागरूक दिखाई देती है।
आज के युवा को देश में हो रहे अपराध पर चिंता है तो क्रिकेट में इंडिया की हार का अफ़सोस भी। पर आज की राजनीती को पूरी तरह बदलने का जिम्मा क्या युवा पीढ़ी का है? क्या हिंदुस्तान के इतिहास की सबसे पुरानी और आज की रूलिंग पार्टी का काम केवल इस बहस का फायदा उठाकर राजनितिक रोटियां सकने का है?
खुद को युवा नेता बताकर जनता को गुमराह करने वाले १ बहुत बड़े राजनितिक घराने से सम्बन्ध रखने वाले नेता जी दलितों के घर खाना खाकर या कुछ देर बिताकर खुद को उनका शुभचिंतक बताते हे,मुंबई की लोकल ट्रेन के peak hours में पूरी बोगी खाली करवाकर उसमे सफ़र करने वाले ये नेता कहते है के हम जनता के शुभचिंतक है,उनकी पार्टी कहती है के ये युवा देश के अगले युवा नेता है,जबकि उम्र ४० साल है उनकी और अगले लोकसभा चुनाव में जब वो अपनी दावेदारी पेश करेंगे तो आप उनकी उम्र का अंदाजा लगा सकते है। अपनी मजबूत राजनेतिक पारिवारिक प्रष्ठभूमि का फायदा उठाते हुए वास्तविक युवा नेताओ को पीछे फेंक दिया है,।
आज का युवा अगर इन लोकलुभावन वादों,बातो से बच सका तो पूरी राजनीती तो नहीं पर कुछ परिवर्तन अवश्य आयेगा।

फिर मिलेंगे

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates