(On Bhagat Singh’s death anniversary, this piece is being re-posted from our archives)
(Historian S Irfan Habib has recently put together some of the lesser known writings of Bhagat Singh. Habib is a noted Bhagat Singh scholar. This (below) is an essay by Bhagat Singh which Habib has included in his upcoming book, titled ‘Inquilab’)
Communal Riots and their Remedy
Kirti, Amritsar, June 1928
India, at present, is in a very pitiable condition. The followers of one religion have become sworn enemies of those of the other. These days, being a follower of one religion is to be the enemy of the other; if one doesn’t agree with this view, then one merely has to look at the latest incident of riots in Lahore: how Muslims murdered innocent Sikhs and Hindus, and how Sikhs also did not leave any stone unturned in murdering Muslims vengefully.
This was not done because the other was guilty, but because the other was a Hindu, a Sikh or a Muslim. Being a Sikh or Hindu was sufficient reason for Muslims to kill him.
Similarly, it seemed enough for a Hindu or a Sikh to kill a Muslim for his being Muslim alone. Only God can save India in such a situation. Indeed, under such circumstances, the future of India looks very dark.
Bloodshed & Political Bankruptcy
These religions have left the country in a lurch. And we don’t know when these communal riots will leave Bharat alone. These riots have hurled notoriety upon the clean image of India, and we have seen that every blind faith-filled person starts drifting with the flow. There is hardly any Hindu, Sikh or Muslim who keeps his mind cool. On the contrary, all these people having blind faith in one or the other religion pick up batons, swords and daggers to smash the heads of others. And after doing so, some kiss the noose while others are lodged in jails.
And with the bloodshed of these religious people, the English also start suppressing them mercilessly which in turn, makes the former even more determined.
On the face of it, communal leaders and newspapers are behind all these riots. Today, the leaders in India have come to that blind end where it is better to keep quiet. The same leaders who had wielded the responsibility of liberating the country and those who were crying out ‘common nationality’ and ‘Swaraj-Swaraj’, the same have remained hidden with their heads between their knees or begun drifting in the same flow.
There is no dearth of leaders hiding their heads. But too many leaders have also joined the communal wave. Look at any corner and hundreds would come out from under it.
There was a time when the leaders who wanted a common welfare plan were very few, and the wave of religion was so strong that they felt unable to prevent the accompanying bloodshed.
The leaders in India have become politically bankrupt.
Dirty News, Dirty Business
The second factor which added fuel to fire were the newspapers. The profession of journalism which was once regarded as a very noble one – now it has become evil. These people arouse public sentiment by writing bold headlines in the newspapers against one or the other and compel people to start fighting with one another. Not limited to just one or two places, riots started in many locations just because of the fact that local newspapers had written articles that stoked passions. Very few writers maintained their cool in such situations.
The actual duty of newspapers is to educate, to liberate people from narrow-mindedness, eradicate fundamentalism, to help in creating a sense of fraternity among people, and build a common nationalism in India.
But these papers behaved in a manner entirely antithetical to their duties. Their sole motive was to spread hysteria, preach narrow-mindedness, fundamentalism, instigate clashes and destroy the common heritage of India. That is why one is so pained to see the present condition of the country and one wonders what will happen to our country.
Why India’s Economy Needs to Improve
The people who remember the enthusiasm of the period of non-cooperation feel like crying on seeing this present condition of the country. Those were the days when freedom seemed very near but now Swaraj has become just a dream. And this was the third advantage that has been achieved by party partisanship.
The same bureaucracy which saw a great danger to its existence and seemed it would perish within days, has strengthened its roots so much that it is not a simple task now to shake it off.
If we wish to know the moot reason for these riots, we will find that it is an economic one. During the period of non-cooperation leaders and journalists had sacrificed a lot. Their economic condition had deteriorated.
After the non-cooperation movement became weak, the leaders of the movement also became irrelevant. The business of many communal leaders thus came to an end. Any activity that starts in this world has at its base the question of livelihood. It is the foremost principle among the three basic principles of Marx. Because of this principle, Tableeque, Takzeem and reformist organisations developed and this marked the beginnings of the state we now find ourselves in.
Any improvement in the matter of these riots is only possible if there is an improvement in the economic conditions of India. Bharat’s economic condition is so bad that someone can pay the other (a bribe) of four annas in order to get him defamed. When suffering from hunger and strife everybody is prepared to shun all principles. One is ready to do anything when confronted with the question of life or death. But it is very difficult to have economic improvement in such a state of affairs as the present. Because the government is an alien one and it doesn’t let the conditions of the Indians improve. We must, therefore, change it at any cost and till it is changed, we should not rest.
Building Class Consciousness
We need to inculcate class consciousness to prevent people from fighting. The poor workers and peasants should be clearly told that their foremost enemies are the capitalists and they should keep aloof from their maneuverings, and not be instigated by them. People all over the world have similar rights, whether they belong to any race, caste or creed. Your welfare lies in becoming united and trying to snatch the power from the government to take it in your hands.
You would lose nothing by doing so, instead, one day you would be liberated from your shackles and achieve economic freedom.
The people who are well-versed with Russian history know that in the days of the Czar the condition of Russia was even worse than India’s present condition; there were so many communities in the country and they were all fighting among themselves.
And when worker’s rule got established in Russia, the position changed altogether. Now no riots occur there, and everybody is considered a human being first and not a religious entity. During the period of the Czar, the financial condition of the people of Russia was very bad. This was the main reason behind the riots. But now the economic condition of the Russians has improved and class consciousness has become prevalent among them, so they don’t have any riots.
Does Everybody Love a Good Riot?
Riots are always replete with disheartening news but during the riots in Calcutta one good thing happened as well. The workers didn’t take any part in the riots and the trade unions even tried to pacify the violent mob. These people had become class conscious and knew to look out for their class interests. Class consciousness is the main tool which can help in preventing riots.
The happy news has come to us that Indian youths are shunning fanaticism, which preaches that one should fight another; the youth have learnt to see a person as a human being and Indian first before anything else.
It shows that the future of India is very bright and people should not dread these riots, rather they should create an atmosphere in which there would be no possibility of riots.
The martyrs of 1914–15 had separated religion from politics. They felt that religious people had their own obligations and no one could interfere with that. They also felt that religion should not intrude on politics because it does not allow people to work jointly for a common cause.
This is why they could stick together during the Ghadar movement, and Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims all sacrificed everything in that movement. Some Indian leaders have now emerged at the forefront who also wish to separate religion from politics. It is a very apt solution to avert all the clashes (that have been happening) and we too approve of this. If religion is separated from politics, then all of us can jointly initiate political activities, even though in matters of religion we might have many differences with each other.
We feel that the true well-wishers of India would follow these principles and save India from the suicidal path it is on at present.
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