Bhagat Singh

Influence of Sikhism on Sardar Bhagat singh

Bhagat Singh (1907[ – 23 March 1931) was an Indian revolutionary who was influential in the Indian independence movement. Born into a Punjabi Sikh family which had earlier been involved in the freedom movement against the British Raj, he studied Sikh Gurus and European revolutionary movements as a teenager and was attracted to revolutionary ideologies. He worked with several revolutionary organisations and became prominent in the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), which changed its name to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in 1928.

Sardar Bhagat Singh

Origin

Bhagat Singh was born in 1907 to Kishan Singh and Vidyavati at Chak No. 105, GB, Banga village, Jaranwala Tehsil in the Lyallpur district of the Punjab Province of British India. His family members were Sandhu Jatt Sikhs; some had been active in Indian Independence movements, others had served in Maharaja Ranjit Singh's army. His ancestral village was Khatkar Kalan, near the town of Banga in Nawanshahr district (now renamed Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar) of the Punjab.

Mata Vidyavati, Uncle Ajit Singh, and father Kishan singh

Early Influences

His family was politically active. His grandfather, father and uncles were members of the Ghadar Party, led by Kartar Singh Sarabha and Har Dayal. This influenced Bhagat Singh's early childhood. He grew up getting inspired by the Sikh Guru Gobind Singh which shaped his revolutionary philosophy. His idol was the Sikh revolutionary Kartar singh Sarabha of the Gadar movement.

In 1923, Singh joined the National College in Lahore, where he also participated in extra-curricular activities like the dramatics society. In 1923, he won an essay competition set by the Punjab Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, writing on the teachings of Sikh Gurus and how Punjabis are disowning their mother tongue Punjabi over Hindi and Urdu.  Here are some excerpts from his essay that reflects his deep faith in teachings of Sikh Gurus:

When the Sikh Gurus started establishing their new order along with the preaching of their beliefs, they felt the need of a new literature and this inspired Guru Angad Dev ji to evolve the Gurmukhi script. Centuries of continuous warfare and Muslim invasions had dried up the literature of Punjab. The Hindi language was at the verge of extinction. He adopted the Kashmiri script in his search for an Indian language. Later the Adi Granth was compiled by Guru Arjun Dev ji. They took a far-reaching and useful step in this act of creating their own script and literature to perpetuate their beliefs. Afterwards, as situations changed, the flow of literature also changed. The ceaseless sacrifices and sufferings of the Gurus changed the situation. Whereas we find devotion and self-oblivion in the preaching of the first Guru, and experience a sense of self-effacement in the following couplet:

Nanak nanhe ho rahe, jaisi nanhi doob, Aur ghas jari jaat hai, doob khoob ki khoob.

(Nanak asks all to be as humble and insignificant as the doob grass. While all other grasses are burnt down, doob  continues to flourish.) 

We find a sense of fellow-feeling and helpfulness for the oppressed in the preaching of Guru Teg Bahadur ji:

Baanh jinhan di pakadiye, sir dijiye baanhi na chhodye

Guru Teg Bahadur bolya, dharati pai dharam na chodye.

(Whomsoever you provide protection, you should be prepared to sacrifice yourself but not that protection. Guru Teg Bahadur asks you not to forsake your religion on this earth.) 

After his sacrifice, suddenly, we sense a warrior spirit in the preaching of Guru Gobind Singh ji. When he realized that a mere spiritual devotion could not do anything, he turned Sikh community into a community of saint warriors by synthesizing spiritualism and fighting. We find in his poems (literature) a new spirit. He writes:

Je tohi prem khelan da chav, sir dhar tali gali mori aav, 

Je it maarag pair dharijai, sir dijai kaan no dijai.

(If you are interested in playing the game of love, put your head on your palm and then only enter my lane. In case you put your feet on this path don't fall back, even if you have to loose your life.) And then:

Soora so pahchaniye, je lade deen ke het, 

Purja-purja kat mare, kabhu na chhade khet.

(Only he is brave who fights for the cause of the poor. He may be cut into pieces and may be killed, but he should not leave the field.) 

Link to full  article: https://www.marxists.org/archive/bhagat-singh/1923/x01/x01.htm 

Young Bhagat Singh in College (4th from right standing row)

He laments the disowning of Punjabi language by Punjabi Hindus and Muslims in favor of Hindi and Urdu:

Punjabi should have been the language of Punjab, like other provinces, but since this has not happened, as this question is a spontaneous question, Muslims have adopted Urdu. Muslims totally lack Indianness, therefore they want to propagate Arabic script and Persian language. While failing to understand the importance of Indianness in the whole of India, they fail to understand the importance of one language, which could only be Hindi. That is why they keep repeating the demand for Urdu like a parrot and take an isolated position. 

Then comes the turn of the Sikhs. Their whole literature is in the Gurumukhi script. Hindi is very much there as a component, but Punjabi constitutes the main component. Therefore, the Sikhs adopted Punjabi written in Gurmukhi as their language. They could not leave that at any cost.  

The Arya Samaj emerged on the other side. Swami Dayanand propagated the feeling for the spread of Hindi throughout Bharatvarsha. Hindi became a religious component of the Arya Samaj movement. These religious attachments benefited the language in one way. That is , while Sikh staunchness secured Punjabi, the insistence of Arya Samajists helped Hindi secure a place of its own.

Bhagat Singh hand-cuffed in prison

The Akali Morcha took Punjab like a tornado and received wider public support for the access and management of Sikh Gurdwaras. Bhagat Singh participated in the movement actively. A warrant for the arrest of Bhagat Singh was issued because he had accorded a welcome to one of the jathas, but he managed to elude the police and spent five months under the assumed name of Balwant Singh in Delhi, where he worked in a daily paper Vir Arjun.

In 1925-26 Bhagat Singh was at Kanpur, working under Ganesh Shankar Vidharthi in the Hindi weekly Partap. While at Kanpur he wrote this article, signing it Ek Punjabi Yuvak (a Punjabi youth), about the martyrs of Babbar Akali movement. It was published in Pratap on March 15, 1926.

ON THE DAY OF HOLI, FEBRUARY 27, 1926, WHEN WE were getting high on our enjoyment, a terrible thing was happening in a corner of this great province. When you will hear it, you will shudder ! You will tremble ! On that day, six brave Babbar Akalis were hanged in the Lahore Central Jail. Shri kishan Singhji Gadagajja, Shri Santa Singhji, Shri Dilip Sinhghji, Shri Nand Singhji, Shri Karam Singhji and Shri Dharam Singhji, had been showing a great indifference to the trial for the last two years, which speaks of their fond waiting for this day. After months, the judge gave his verdict. Five to be hanged, many for life imprisonment or exile, and sentences of very long imprisonments. The accused heroes thundered. Even the skies echoed with their triumphant slogans.

Link to full article: http://www.shahidbhagatsingh.org/index.asp?link=day_of_holi 

Influence of Marxism and Atheism

Bhagat Singh was disappointing when the Hindu–Muslim riots that broke out after Gandhi disbanded the Non-Cooperation Movement. He did not understand how members of these two groups, initially united in fighting against the British, could be at each other's throats because of their religious differences. At this point, Singh conceded his religious beliefs in favor of the revolutionaries' struggle for independence, and began studying the works of Bakunin, Lenin, Trotsky – all atheist revolutionaries.

Bhagat Singh as Revolutionary

While in prison in 1930–31, Bhagat Singh was approached by Bhai Randhir Singh, a fellow inmate, and a Sikh leader who would later found the Akhand Kirtani Jatha. It pained him to learn that Bhagat Singh was a non-believer. He somehow managed to see Bhagat Singh in the condemned cell and tried to convince him about the existence of God. Bhai Sahib challenged Bhagat Singh: "You are giddy with fame and have developed an ego which is standing like a black curtain between you and the God."

Bhai Sahib Bhai Randhir Singh

Bhagat Singh wrote an essay entitled "Why I am an Atheist" to address the question of whether his atheism was born out of vanity. In the essay, he defended his own beliefs and said 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. He acknowledged the fact that he is affected by ego and vanity, and that the religion made death easier, but also said that unproven philosophy is a sign of human weakness.

A NEW QUESTION HAS CROPPED UP. IS IT DUE TO vanity that I do not believe in the existence of an omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient God? I had never imagined that I would ever have to confront such a question. But conversation with some friends has given me a hint that certain of my friends - if I am do not claiming too much in thinking them to be so - are inclined to conclude from the brief contact they have had with me, that it was too much on my part to deny the existence of God and that there was a certain amount of vanity that actuated my disbelief. Well, the problem is a serious one. I do not boast to be quite above these human traits. I am a man and nothing more. None can claim to be more. I also have this weakness in me. Vanity does form a part of my nature. That this is true up to a certain extent, I do not deny. This may amount to egotism. There is vanity in me in as much as our cult as opposed to other popular creeds is concerned. Vanity, or to be more precise "Ahankar", is the excess of undue pride in one's self. Whether it is such an undue pride that has led me to atheism or whether it is after very careful study of the subject and after much consideration that I have come to disbelieve in God, is a question that I intend to discuss here.

He continues:

"Later on I began to live with my father. He is a liberal in as much as the orthodoxy of religions is concerned. It was through his teachings that I aspired to devote my life to the cause of freedom. But he is not an atheist. He is a firm believer. He used to encourage me for offering prayers daily. So this how I was brought up. In the Non-Cooperation days I joined the National College. It was there that I began to think liberally and discuss and criticize all the religious problem, even about God. But still I was a devout believer. By that time I had begun to preserve the unshorn and unclipped long hair but I could never believe all mythology and doctrines of Sikhism or any other religion. But I had a firm faith in God's existence."

He however felt that he had gone so far and found it difficult to submit himself to God:

"Let us see how I carry on. One friend asked me to pray. When informed of my atheism, he said: "During your last days you will begin to believe." I said: "No, dear Sir, it shall not be. I will think that to be an act of degradation and demoralization on my part. For selfish motives I am not going to pray." Readers and friends: Is this "vanity"? If it is, I stand for it."

Bhai Sahib Bhai Randhir Singh ji also mentions his meeting with Bhagat Singh in Lahore jail in his autobiography:

At last the day came. It was 6 pm on 4 October, 1930. The news of my release was announced and everyone was very happy about it. I was sitting in a blissful solitude within my cell. All the patriots rushed towards my cell to break the news to me and congratulate me.  When I went out of these prison wards, I met Mohammed Akbar near the central dome. I told him that it was time that he should fulfill his promise. He smiled and said that he had already made arrangement for the meeting with Bhagat Singh. “You could now meet him for full two hours.  

Bhagat Singh was taking his daily stroll in the prison compound. He had been told about the permission granted for this meeting. On seeing me he came running towards me. I was standing outside the fence of the courtyard. He came close to the fence and greeted me with great love and affection, bowing low out of reverence. I also folded my hands and greeted him warmly. Bhagat Singh was so overwhelmed by the joy of meeting after months of anxious moments, that tears rolled down his eyes.  

He told me that he is prepared to abide by my wishes. He said, "I am really ashamed and am prepared to tell you frankly that I removed my hair and beard under pressing circumstances. It was for the service of the country that my companions compelled me to give up the Sikh appearance and disguise myself."   

 I was glad to see Bhagat Singh repentant and humble in his present attitude towards our articles of faith. I was deeply impressed by his frank statement of facts. I told him, " 

“The ideal of a true patriot is never to seek such petty joys of empty credits. For the joy of getting worldly praise, you did not hesitate to fall from a higher spiritual ideal of becoming an apostate from Sikhi, nor did you ever repent over this fall from a much higher ideal. All that you have achieved by this wrong step is some trumpeting of your name and heroism by some papers. You gave up the Guru’s personality for false glory and empty ambition. If you felt that you made a mistake, you should have repented and come back to the Khalsa ideal by maintaining a Sikh-like appearance again. Why did you not do it?” 

Bhagat Singh: “I might have kept the Sikh identity again, but then I would have lost the friendship and sympathy of my comrades. Secondly; I would not have got so much publicity as I am getting now. The Sikh papers had very limited circulation. It is the non-Sikh papers which publicized my name widely and it is through them I have acquired all the glory associated with my name. It is a fact that if I had maintained the Sikh appearance and if I had professed myself to be a practicing Sikh and kept hair and beard unshorn, the non-Sikh papers would not have written a word about me, just as they did not write a word about you and your companions.” 

On hearing this, Bhagat Singh was deeply moved and said: “The ideal of Sikhism is no doubt very high. I also drifted in the same passion for personal glory. But today I have realized that all these things are idle exhibition of vanity, conceit and self-glorification. But there is one more fact, and I would be committing a sin if I conceal it from you. I kept hair and beard merely because there was a long standing tradition in our family to do so. I am very proud to be called a Sikh. But the hard fact is that I was never religious at heart. You will excuse me if I tell you in quite plain terms that at heart I am an atheist. I still do not believe in God.   

Randhir Singh: “I am very happy that you have revealed the truth of your inner state of mind and have not concealed what is really in your heart. It is absolutely useless to keep religious symbols like hair and beard while you are an atheist at heart, nor would I be proud of making you do such a thing. I am no more anxious about your coming back to Sikh form, nor am I sorry that you do not have hair and beard.”  

Speechless, he bowed low, as if some unknown power had taken possession of him. For quite sometime he remained absorbed in deep silence. I shook him with my hands and helped him to stand. On his face, there was a strange glow. He came nearer me and, stretching his hands through the fence, he tried to touch my feet. I held his hands in mine and said that only the Guru’s feet are worth worshiping, not human feet."

Bhagat Singh remained an Atheist but did not cut his hair after meeting Bhai Sahib.

Funeral of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev

Here are some rare pictures from Bhagat Singh archives, thanks to the efforts of Prof. Chaman Lal of Jaawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

Newspaper heading on Bhagat singh execution

Some artifacts of the martyrs 

Letter to his Aunt from prison in Gurmukhi (Note ek Ongkar)

Shirt of Bhagat singh

Bhagat Singh's shoes

A postcard from prison 

Execution confirmation by Jail Superintendent