On atheism

Bhagat Singh’s revolutionary essay “Why I am an atheist” is widely read among the youth of the country and it punctures all attempts by the Hindu right wing to appropriate him.

“Open your eyes and see millions of people dying of hunger in slums and huts dirtier than the grim dungeons of prisons; just see the labourers patiently or say apathetically while the rich vampires suck their blood; bring to mind the wastage of human energy that will make a man with a little common sense shiver in horror. Just observe rich nations throwing their surplus produce into the sea instead of distributing it among the needy and deprived. There are palaces of kings built upon the foundations laid with human bones. Let them see all this and say “All is well in God’s Kingdom.” Why so? This is my question. You are silent,” he wrote in the essay before he was hanged in the Lahore jail at the age of 23, along with Shivaram Hari Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar on March 23, 1931.

Arrested in April 1929 for exploding bombs inside the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi along with Batukeshwar Dutt and implicated in the killing of a British police officer in Lahore, he spent two years in jail.

On revolution

During the trail, Dutt was represented by a counsel whereas Bhagat Singh chose to fight his own case with the help of a legal advisor. This is how they explained their understanding of revolution in the Court on June 6, 1929:

By ‘Revolution,’ we mean that the present order of things, which is based on manifest injustice must change. Producers or labourers, in spite of being the most necessary element of society, are robbed by their exploiters of their labour and deprived of their elementary rights. The peasant who grows corn for all, starves with his family; the weaver who supplies the world market with textile fabrics, has not enough to cover his own and his children’s bodies; masons, smiths and carpenters who raise magnificent palaces, live like pariahs in the slums. The capitalists and exploiters, the parasites of society, squander millions on their whims.

On casteism

Bhagat Singh wrote on caste discrimination in a separate article, “… It is often said that untouchables do not keep themselves clean. The reason for this is simple – they are poor. Solve their poverty. The poor from the high caste too do not live any cleaner. … Councils and Assemblies need to push for freedom of untouchables to use schools-colleges, wells and roads. But in a legislative where a lot of fuss is created over issues like religion and bill against child-marriage, how can they muster courage to enrol untouchables among themselves? That’s why we believe that untouchables must have their own elected representatives. They must demand greater rights for themselves.”

Tributes poured in for him on his birth anniversary from political leaders to Bollywood personalities and civil society. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted this morning, “I bow to the brave Shaheed Bhagat Singh on his Jayanti. His greatness and exemplary courage inspires generations of Indians.”

A twitter user wrote: “Happy Birthday Shaheed Bhagat Singh. We need you. India is in crisis again, this time our own people are killing India. We need that revolution again We need you again. Come back if you can.”

Here’s is a collection of birthday wishes to the legendry freedom fighter on his birth anniversary