MILITARIZATION
OF BHAGAT SINGH’S REVOLUTIONARY HERITAGE
The
following quote is from the first paragraph of Lenin’s great work; The State
and Revolution: The Marxist Theory of the State and the Tasks of the
Proletariat in the Revolution (2017) underlining a cardinal truth; how
rulers and their henchmen/women repress those ideologies and individuals who
strive to emancipate masses from the exploitative rules. This chameleon like
lot uses every trick in their criminal armoury.
“What is now happening
to Marx's theory has, in the course of history, happened repeatedly to the
theories of revolutionary thinkers and leaders of oppressed classes fighting
for emancipation. During the lifetime of great revolutionaries, the oppressing
classes constantly hounded them, received their theories with the most savage
malice, the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and
slander. After their death, attempts are made to convert them into harmless
icons, to canonize them, so to say, and to hallow their names to a certain
extent for the ‘consolation’ of the oppressed classes and with the object of
duping the latter, while at the same time robbing the revolutionary theory of
its substance, blunting its revolutionary edge and vulgarizing it. Today, the
bourgeoisie and the opportunists within the labor movement concur in this
doctoring of Marxism. They omit, obscure, or distort the revolutionary side of
this theory, its revolutionary soul. They push to the foreground and extol what
is or seems acceptable to the bourgeoisie.”
What
is happening to great martyr Bhagat Singh and his revolutionary heritage in
India is a living proof of the truthfulness of Lenin’s understanding of the
phenomenon. Since India is supposed to be ‘Vishwa Guru’ (spiritual teacher of
the world) we have added new sinister dimensions to it! The British rulers
hounded him (and his comrades) which culminated in his hanging on March 23,
1931 with Rajguru and Sukhdev. After Independence these were/are his supposedly ‘fans’ who converted him into harmless icon robbing
the substance of his revolutionary heritage or presented him as a hero of Jats
or Sikh. It could be witnessed in more than half a dozen Hindi movies on his
life. Even Hindutva gang which shamelessly colluded with the British rulers and
denigrated the whole tradition of martyrdom has the audacity to display his
photos in public.
The
newest foul, in fact, criminal addition goes beyond imagination of all those
who have read Bhagat Singh and are familiar with his commitments in his short eventful
life. This time Bhagat Singh is being offered as a package in the form of a
decorated book; a coffee table book to the Indian armed forces as an icon for
militarization of the Indian State not by someone inimical to Bhagat Singh, a
Communist revolutionary but by someone who is stated to be ‘a chronicler of Bhagat
Singh’s life’; Professor Chaman Lal whom I always regarded as a person who
genuinely believed in the ideals of great revolutionary!
He is a retired Professor from JNU, honorary advisor
to Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre, New Delhi, Dean,
Faculty of Languages, Panjab [sic] University Chandigarh and former President JNU Teachers Association. According
to his own description (‘Spreading Bhagat Singh’s ideas’, The Tribune,
December 3, 2022) he seems to be the most prolific author after Bhagat Singh of
latter’s writings:
“I
received author/editor's complimentary copies of 11th reprint of the book from
National Book Trust, New Delhi, few days before I got a copy of another book,
Jail Notebook, and other writings from another publisher leftword [sic],
mentioning it as 12th reprint…Marathi translation of Bhagat Singh's
complete writings from my edited book in Hindi of same title by Datta Desai was
released by late Supreme Court Justice, PB Sawant, during Bhagat Singh birth
centenary.
“Another
coincident is that Publication Division, Government of India, had released an
edited volume in Hindi of complete writings of Bhagat Singh, in 2007 in the
presence of two of his nephews and late Kuldip Nayar. This was updated into a
four volume edition, brought out in the beginning of celebrations of 75th
anniversary of independence. I was invited to write a biography-Life and Legend
of Bhagat Singh: A Pictorial Volume! I was more in collecting and researching
on Bhagat Singh's writings and was in a dilemma how to plan it since there were
already a number of biographies in print! It suddenly struck my mind that since
decades, I have been collecting documents, writings, images, etc., in order to
focus on the authenticity of Bhagat Singh's life and writings, I accepted the
invite and this book has just come out. The Bhagat Singh Reader is being
published by Harper Collins shortly, as I found more documents since its first
publication in 2019. In 2019, I had included 130 writings of Bhagat Singh along
with Jail Notebook and three more writings are being added to an upcoming
edition.”
Professor
holds the copyright of all the above mentioned books. He missed mentioning few
Hindi editions of Bhagat Singh’s writings copyrighted to him. This inventory of
Professor Chaman Lal’s writings of/on Bhagat Singh is quite impressive. After
its perusal it is natural to assume that Professor genuinely believes in the
ideals of Bhagat Singh whose writings were based on deep academic research.
Bhagat Singh was a voracious reader who did not let die his thirst for
knowledge despite high-handed censorship and unspeakable hardships of the jail
life. In fact, he and his comrades resorted to hunger strike for 116 days at
Mianwali Jail (now in Pakistan) demanding supply of books and status of
political prisoners in 1929 in the course of which Jatindra Nath Das was
martyred. Bhagat Singh was in Jail for
716 days out of which 167 days as death prisoner. In this period he read 143
foreign published English books and 159
Indian published books (English 54, Hindi 63, Punjabi 7,
Urdu 28, Bengali 17 and Marathi 3.
Professor
also shared the following information with 2 exclamations that
“I was
invited to write a biography-Life and Legend of Bhagat Singh: A Pictorial
Volume! I was more in collecting and researching on Bhagat Singh's writings and
was in a dilemma how to plan it since there were already a number of
biographies in print! It suddenly struck my mind that since decades, I have
been collecting documents, writings, images, etc, in order to focus on the
authenticity of Bhagat Singh's life and writings, I accepted the invite and
this book has just come out.”
Who
invited him to accomplish this task and when it was released has not been made
clear by him. However, a perusal of the official site of the Publication
Division of Government of India unravels the reality. It was planned in January
2022, an e-tender floated on August 4, 2022 and printing work awarded on August
17. It must have been out in last November. It is priced INR 895 with Chaman
Lal mentioned as author on the cover (only hard bound edition available
presently).
There is
no record of release of this book but author does inform where it was first
discussed. According to him:
“It was
a bit perplexing for me when I got a call from Sports University, Patiala, Vice
Chancellor, Lieutenant General JS Cheema (Retd), inviting me to be part of a
discussion panel in a session on Bhagat Singh in Military Literary [Literature]
Festival, as I could not see any connection, since the festival concentrates
more on defence related books and matters, national and international. Among
other panellists, he named Mahavir Chakra awardee, Maj Gen Sheonan Singh
(Retd), who is a nephew of Bhagat Singh…Among all close relations of Bhagat
Singh, he is one of most well read about Bhagat Singh and his ideas, as Ranbir
Singh, his father and younger brother of Bhagat Singh, had penned a biography
of the great martyr in Urdu!”
Professor
is reported to have told the top brass of the Indian army, the 4th most
powerful army in the world, on the last day of the Military Literature Festival
at Chandigarh [The Times of India, Chandigarh, December 5] that “Bhagat
Singh was a socialist revolutionary…by calling only patriot and fearless,
attempts are made to reduce his stature…Governments are not interested beyond
his stories and photographs”.
There
can be no objection to the Indian Army deliberating on Bhagat Singh or
releasing books on his valour. But it is highly ‘perplexing’ (resorting to the
term used by Professor himself while accepting the invitation for the Military
Festival) that he was allowed to say what he told about Bhagat Singh to the
military personnel. It could happen only if Indian Military was changing its
character from Indian State’s armed organ to people’s army. The reality is that
it is committed to serve loyally the interests of the pro-rich Indian ruling
elite which believes that slogan INQUILAB ZINDABAD preaches violence and
refuses to accord the status of martyr to Bhagat Singh and others who laid down
their lives during the freedom struggle. It is also to be noted that writings
of Bhagat Singh are part of the archives or museums and not part of academic syllabuses at any level.
It is
sad that while joining the Military
Literature Festival Professor as a chronicler of Bhagat Singh brazenly
overlooked that Bhagat Singh while in Jail read an amazing book by a German
revolutionary academician Karl Liebknecht (1871-1919) titled Militarism
& Anti-Militarism (1907). Karl was assassinated with Rosa Luxemburg on
January 15, 1919 by a killing squad of the German reactionary ruling classes.
This book is a great work of academic research combined with his experiences in
the revolutionary movements not only in Germany but in whole of Europe. This
peerless work on militarism traces roots of militarism under capitalism and
fore-warned the coming of the World War I. According to Karl militarism is not
only a project for saving the Fatherland from foreign enemies but also controls
colonies and crush the ‘internal enemy’; the rising tide of working class,
peasantry and youth movements against the repressive rule.
In a
chapter titled ‘Sins of Militarism’ Karl discusses how under militarism soldiers are ill-treated,
people have to bear the cost of financing it, “it is rule of the sword and
rifle against strikes”, army is used as “a tool against the proletariat in the
political struggle” and is “danger to peace” and “proletarian revolution”. The
book ends with a list of tactics to be used fighting militarism.
We
should not be foolish enough to believe that Indian military establishment is
developing love for a Socialist revolutionary, Bhagat Singh who combined two
mottos together; Down with Imperialism and Long Live Revolution. Professor was
allowed to introduce Bhagat Singh in a military-literary conclave held in
Punjab as year-long (2020-21) historic farmers struggle used Bhagat Singh (his
visuals as well as writings) as the most prominent tools of resistance against
all kinds of repressive acts of the Modi regime. Bhagat Singh needs to be
converted into a harmless icon, blunting his revolutionary edge and adopt him
as a hero who laid down his life for the country without going into the
question; country for whom!
I will
be the last person to believe that Professor Chaman Lal had any illusion that
he would bring about change of heart of the participants or those who invited
him to this Military Literature Festival. His pictorial book coinciding with
this festival will bring him more laurels, more royalty; may even get him a
mention in Guinness Book of World Records as the most prolific author (or compiler)
on Bhagat Singh.
It
brings me to a serious ethical issue concerning writings, contemporary photos
and records of Bhagat Singh, his comrades and the family. Professor has been
chronicling/remodeling writings of Bhagat Singh and his contemporary material
in book forms assigning to himself as copyright owner. Furthermore, nobody
knows under what authority the copyright of Bhagat Singh’s writings published
by Government of India publication houses and edited by Professor have been
appropriated by the former. Forget about revolutionary morality even bourgeois
morality demands that if descendants of Bhagat Singh have not claimed ownership
of his writings (a great gesture) these belong to all those who love and follow
him. Professor should have retained copyright of his introductions to the
books, if any. I remember a Hindi edition of Bhagat Singh’s writings titled as
‘Bhagat Singh aur unke Sathiyon ke Dastavez’ [Documents of Bhagat Singh and his
comrades] jointly edited by Bhagat Singh’s nephew (sister’s son) Dr. Jagmohan
Singh and Professor Chama Lal copyright of which was assigned to a committee formed
to collect revolutionary’s unearthed documents.
I
will end by reminding Professor Chaman Lal, a dear friend that his obsession
with selling Bhagat Singh has landed him into the category of the lot referred
to by Lenin above. Shockingly, the title of his latest book on Bhagat Singh
which coincided with the military festival at Chandigarh describes Bhagat Singh
a LEGEND. As a renowned linguist he is expected to know the meaning of the
term. According to almost all English dictionaries it means a story from the past that is believed by many people
but cannot be proved to be true. In Hindi too it is defined as pracheen
kathaa jiskaa satey yaa asatey hona prasangkik naheen hae (an ancient story whose being true or untrue is
not relevant). The ruling classes need a Bhagat Singh who happened sometime in
the past, to be worshipped as a saint having no relevance in the present times;
a harmless icons devoid of revolutionary side of his theory as stated by
Lenin. Only this kind of Bhagat Singh is acceptable to the rulers and Professor
Chaman Lal is facilitating it.
[I
received above mentioned The Tribune piece penned by Professor Chaman Lal on
December 19 and immediately wrote a protest note to him which read “Unbelievable
that you were involved in this!” Since there was no response I decided to pen
this piece.]
Shamsul
Islam
December
23, 2022
notoinjustice@gmail.com
