CHAPTER 14
REMINISCENCES AND REFLECTION
Sardar Bhagat Singh was a handsome young man, tall—5 ft. 10 inches, and well-built. He had a musical voice and could sing with emotion. One day, just after the sentences in the Assembly Bomb Case had been pronounced, his counsel, Mr. Asaf Ali with his wife, went to interview him. Bhagat Singh was locked up in a cell, and was in fetters. While they were approaching the cell, they heard a soft sweet voice singing in accompaniment of a twinkling metallic sound. Softly they approached, and lo ! they found Bhagat Singh the anarchist singing like a child and ringing his fetters in tune with the song.
He had a heart, full of emotion and sympathy. Even in the characters of a fiction he used to take extra-ordinary interest, and used to suffer and enjoy -with them. In the Special Magistrate's Court, he began to read aloud to us the beautiful novel, "Seven that were hanged" by Leonoid Andrieve. There is one character in it who shuddered at the idea of execution. He used to utter the words, '•'I shall not be hanged", and began to believe in it. When Sardar Bhagat Singh was reading out the last scene in the life of this weak condemned man, who was uttering the words, "I shall not be hanged" even while being led to -the scaffold, he smiled and was full of tears. We listeners could not help being affected by the sympathetic tears of one, who had triumphed over the idea of death, for one who was succumbing before it.
Bhagat Singh was an extremely well-read man and his special sphere of study was socialism. The batch of youngmen that figured in the Lahore Conspiracy Case was essentially an intellectual one. But even in this group Bhagat Singh predominated for his intellectual ascendancy. Though socialism was his special subject, he had deeply studied the history of the Russian revolutionary movement from its beginning in the early 19th century to the October Revolution .of 1917. It is generally believed that very few in India could be compared to him in the knowledge of this special subject. The economic experiment in Russia under the Bolshevik regime also greatly interested him.
He read fiction also with interest. But his favorite works of fiction were of a politico-economic nature. He had no interest in novels of high society life, or those merely confined to love or other human passions. In the jail he had-begun to read the works of Charles Dickens which he liked very much. Some of his favorite works of fiction were : "Boston," "Jungle", "Oil", "Cry for Justice" ( not fiction ) by Upton Sinclair ;"Eternal City" by Hall Caine, of which. many portions of the speeches by Romily he had by heart; Reed's "Ten Day's that shook the world" ; Ropshin's "What never happened" ; "Mother" by Maxim Gorky ; "Career of a nihilist" by Stepniak whose "Birth of Russian Democracy" he regarded as the best of the early Russian revolutionary history , Oscar Wilde's "Vera or the Nihilists”, and so forth.
Ever since he began to read communistic literature, Bhagat Singh tried to adapt his life to communistic principles. Kropotkin's "Memoirs" had great influence on him; but it was Michail Bakunin who really transformed his life. As all ideas of God are antagonistic to communistic principles, he tried to banish from his mind any belief in the existence of God. Outwardly he always declared. himself to be an atheist. Whether he was really so from the bottom of his heart is a question that can not be definitely settled now. Perhaps he was successful in gaining victory over the idea of God. When he was arrested in connexion with the Dussehra Bomb Outrage in 1926, and was locked up day and night in a small cell, and subjected to all sorts of refined torture, his faith in athiesm was put to a severe test. Further studies for the next three years, only confirmed his ideas about the nonexistence of God.
{ Shahid Bhagat Singh's autobiographical article " why I am Athiest" can be read http://www.shahidbhagatsingh.org/index.asp?link=atheist . : editor}
Except for a short period as a reaction against the executions in the Kakori Conspiracy Case, Bhagat Singh was never a terrorist. His whole faith consisted in mass action, action for the masses and by the masses. He believed that the 'Congress, consisted as it was of land lords, capitalists and rich lawyers, could never launch that action which would lead to complete economic freedom for the masses. "Gandhiji is a kind-hearted philanthropist," he used to say, "and it is not philanthropy that is needed, but a dynamic scientific social force." According to him what was needed most was a band of selfless young men who would organize and work for that social revolution.
He further believed that in order to initiate the young men in the gospel .of this mission, an appeal would have force only when it was delivered from the platform of the gallows, and he himself undertook to deliver that appeal. His statement in the Assembly Bomb Case was only that appeal, and it went straight to the hearts of thousands of young men, and women too.
While in the jail and in the condemned cell, Bhagat Singh passed his time in reading books and writing. He prepared a comprehensive almanac of .those who had ended their lives in the gallows, giving a short account of all the individuals, with suitable mottos for all. The mottos were written from memory, and show how well-read Bhagat Singh was; they also testify to his habit of committing to memory all noble and inspiring pieces of literature. He had by heart the whole of the first number of the first volume of his "Revolutionary" closely printed four full pages of matter, written, printed and published by the Hindusthan Republican Association and distributed throughout India and Burma in February, 1925.
{ Read at http://www.shahidbhagatsingh.org/index.asp?link=revolutionary : editor}
Another big and painstaking book that he commenced and finished in the jail was a detailed history of the revolutionary movement in India. It is marvelous how he procured contraband and rare literature even inside the jail. It was a big book, and if it is published, it will show how deeply studied he was in this sphere. For this purpose he had learnt Bengali and he utilized for his book the revolutionary literature in Bengali to the fullest extent.
Even from his condemned cell he was able to send out an important message to the Youth Leaguers in the Lahore Session in 1929. He was also able to send out drafts for some of the revolutionary pamphlets, notably the "philosophy of the Bomb' Only a short time before his execution, he drafted and sent out a statement for "Young Political Workers," which may be regarded as his last will and testament to the nation.
{ These documents can be read 1. Message to students http://www.shahidbhagatsingh.org/index.asp?link=student_conference
2. Philosophy of Bomb http://www.shahidbhagatsingh.org/index.asp?link=bomb
3. To Young political Workers http://www.shahidbhagatsingh.org/index.asp?link=political_workers : editor}
As a socialist, Bhagat Singh had a true international outlook. That there was no tinge of provincialism in him is a fact that is common to all revolutionaries. But he had gone beyond that and left nationalism also behind in his stand as a man ; free from the shackles of Geography and language. For the Indian revolutionaries, the appeal of nationalism and patriotism have a supreme charm, and it was no small matter for Bhagat Singh to have come out of the confines of nationalism to take his stand as an internationalist.
From the moment of his arrest till the twilight on the evening of 23rd March, when Bhagat Singh stepped out of his cell to commence his glorious and final journey, there was not a moment in his life when any gloomy thought ever entered into his mind. When pressed by his relatives and even Government Officials to submit a petition for mercy, Bhagat Singh not only refused to do anything of the sort but in a dignified letter to the Local Government, maintained that he was a revolutionary soldier fighting for the emancipation of his country, "If the Government thought that a truce had been effected between it self and the people of India," he wrote— "then it is legitimate that the soldiers of freedom should be set free. But if it thought that the state of war continued, then they may easily kill us." His only request was that instead of being hanged, they might be shot dead by a squad of soldiers, as was only befitting Soldiers of war.
{ This letter to Governor can be read here : http://www.shahidbhagatsingh.org/index.asp?link=bhagat_petition : editor}
As has been truly said in the "People" :—"Bhagat Singh is not only one more martyr, for thousands today he is The Martyr. And that tribute is deserved, too. But few can embrace martyrdom rejoicingly. Those who can keep - their spirit at top-notch week after week, month after month for a protracted period of two years, with vicissitudes of all sorts, are rare even amongst martyrs. Mere youthful impulsiveness or enthusiasm, or a momentary idealistic conquest could not carry one through such an ordeal. Bhagat Singh remained as indifferent to legal appeals and to those for a reprieve as he remained to the trial itself. It needed a martyr's mettle with a good deal of a tough philosophy of life. Bhagat Singh had both of these in abundance.
"Nothing in recent memory so captured the popular imagination as did the romance of Bhagat Singh. He has already become a legend and a short of legendary 'hero. Indian youth justly feels proud of him. His unique courage, his lofty idealism, his undaunted spirit would remain a light-house to guide many a ..straying soul.
"Bhagat Singh's fearlessness and sacrifice electrified the political atmosphere at a time lethargy had set in. The cry "Long Live Revolution" was popularized by him. He raised it in a British court of law, and the echoes are heard to-day every day in every Indian street. Though Bhagat Singh is dead, when people cry or hear 'Long Live Revolution,' the other cry, 'Long Live Bhagat Singh' is ever implied therein."
Back to Index Next Appendix - Statement in Assembly Case