Bhagat Singh: Relevance of his Ideas in Today's Time

Bhagat Singh: Relevance of his Ideas in Today's Time

By Avinash Agarwal 

UPSC GENERAL STUDIES: PAPER I (Modern Indian History: Significant Personalities)

Table of Content

Students and Politics

* Contemporary Events

* Bhagat Singh’s Views

Wars

* Contemporary Events

* Bhagat Singh’s Views

The Problem of Untouchability (Juxtaposing Bhagat Singh's views against present reality)

Religion and National Politics: What is the genesis of religious clashes?

Something to ponder over

Author’s Note

Students and Politics

Contemporary Events: When agitations at the Jawaharlal Nehru University were at their peak in February, Mohandas Pai, the former Infosys CFO and television expert on all and sundry, waded into the battle with an opinion piece on ndtv.com. Among other things, he sought to connect tax with academics, claiming that he (and by extension all taxpayers) was paying tax to fund students’ studies and not their politics. Stay away from politics altogether seemed to be the advice. Hunker down and hit the books à la Chatur Ramalingam of the movie 3 Idiots was the tone.

Bhagat Singh's Views: 

Bhagat Singh made the case for student political involvement succinctly and vigorously.

Bhagat Singh asked whether student involvement in welcoming a commission or viceroy, or students volunteering for the army—as had happened in England in World War I—are not political acts. Similarly, would we ask our students not attend a minister’s speech in their institution or in the event of a war or a national calamity, students not take time off to do national service?

Bhagat Singh talks of student political involvement also being a way to understand the conditions of the country and figuring out ways to improve things. Surely, that cannot be wrong.

(Note: Indian Constitution grants citizens the right to vote at the age of 18. How, then, can we ask students to not get involved in politics? Discussion, debate, mobilization will naturally be extended to college campuses.)

Wars

Contemporary Events: Given the current belligerent, jingoistic mood in the nation, what Bhagat Singh says about war is particularly thought-provoking. Can we truly claim that our wars today are not motivated by jingoism of the most puerile kind with “teaching them a lesson” seen as sufficient justification?

Bhagat Singh's Views: 

Bhagat Singh saw war as an “institution of the transitional period” till an equal society was created on the communist pattern. That he spoke against going into war motivated by a “primitive national or racial hatred” and instead argued for wars of liberation to give the toiling masses their due, is worth mulling over.

(It is important here to note that Bhagat Singh may have approved of Prime Minister's address in Kozhikode, inviting Pakistan for competition in eradication of poverty.)

With the benefit of hindsight that one has about communist regimes, it would be easy to dismiss his belief in the ideology. This is just as well. 

The Problem of Untouchability (Juxtaposing Bhagat Singh's views against present reality)

While castigating Hindu society for its treatment of lower castes, Bhagat Singh makes another important point which is really at the heart of his argument. He talks of India asking for rights from their rulers while unmindfully oppressing those “below” them in social status.

He points out that Indians are vocal in their demand for equal treatment in foreign countries while denying equal treatment to members of certain communities within. In this regard, one could perhaps allude to the outrage on social media and regular media that occurs every time Shah Rukh Khan is held back in a US airport.

The relative silence that accompanies incidents like in Una or the lynching on account of beef-eating only stands out in contrast. It is this kind of hypocrisy that Bhagat Singh sought to draw attention to.

Religion and National Politics: What is the genesis of religious clashes?

Referring to the Tolstoyan division of religion into three parts: essentials, philosophy and rituals, he sought to locate the genesis of religious clashes in the second and third parts, i.e., philosophy and rituals.

Philosophy in Tolstoy’s reckoning dealt with matters related to death, birth, rebirth, origins of the world and so on. It was an area of intense speculation and different religions viewed it differently and their differences in this sphere led to clashes.

Rituals were the nuts and bolts of religion, so to speak. They were practices that people followed in day-to-day lives. Given this situation, competing rituals led to disagreements and clashes. The point is not about who was to be held responsible, it was actually about holding the ritual as an end in itself.

One could perhaps find common ground in the essentials. All religions were remarkably similar in their essentials in Bhagat Singh’s view—they emphasized truth, love and charity. But in their philosophy and rituals, religions diverged and the disagreements that arose became irreconcilable beyond a point.

Aren’t the differences, especially in rituals, still a cause of tensions and clashes? Again going back to the beef issue, the issue of ‘beef-policing’ in Mewat, we see that differences in rituals can lead to flare ups.

Even as he became an atheist towards the latter part of his life, Bhagat Singh bore no ill will to those who chose to believe. Extrapolating this, it is likely that he may also have advocated tolerance for differences in rituals too.

Something to ponder over:

These are pertinent issues. Could the Bhagat Singh we love to idolize, dress up as and cheer in movies and plays provide us with sufficient impetus to make us think and bring lasting change.

Author's Note: I am grateful to Kathik Venkatesh for writing a beautiful piece in Mint (http://www.livemint.com/Sundayapp/wub3jPDUJXggzFNrljozfM/Ideas-for-a-truly-new-India-from-Bhagat-Singh.html) on the above issue which served as my source for the above paraphrased blog appropriate for Civil Services preparation.