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Apr 28 2016 : The Times of India (Delhi) BHAGAT SINGH ROW

April 27, 2016, 10:57 pm
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Apr 28 2016 : The Times of India (Delhi)
BHAGAT SINGH ROW - Revolutionary terrorist not used to insult martyrhttp://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/index.aspx?eid=31808&dt=20160428
New Delhi
TIMES NEWS NETWORK


The late Bipan Chandra had co-authored India's Struggle for Independence in the late 1980s in which Bhagat Singh and some others were described as “revolutionary terrorists“.It's not new, yet it has outraged at least one member of Singh's extended family and some politicians; historians and other relatives, not so much. The most that the late historian can be accused of is adopting colonial lexicon.A Delhi University history teacher, declaring the `controversy'“nonsense“, explained, “Terrorism is how the state describes a particular form of resistance. It's standard in books but is also interrogated and compared with other forms of mobilising,“ she said.Historians now object to it on principle but don't believe the authors were “trying to denigrate“.
Chaman Lal, who's spent a lifetime documenting Singh's works, points to a 1931 letter. “Bhagat Singh had written, `I am not a terrorist and I never was, except perhaps in the beginning of my revolutionary career.' It was a common term,“ he said.Lal was Chandra's colleague at JNU and credits him with “bringing Bhagat Singh to notice as a thinker-revolutionary“. “Earlier, Singh was a brave freedom-fighter. Chandra's introduction to a special edition of Singh's `Why I am an Atheist', changed that. I, and dozens of others, built on the tradition he established,“ Lal said.
Abhitej Sandhu, Singh's grandnephew and cousin to Yadvinder Sandhu who complained, agreed: “He was one of the few to do justice to Shaheed-e-Azam.Every government wants symbolic ownership of his legacy . The meaning of terrorism has changed but it's too small an issue.The government should focus more on Bhagat Singh's thoughts, his ideas on the economy , for instance.“
The book is part of standard undergraduate reading lists, including DU's. “They (authors) have used terms of the colonial administrators. When writing history today, you shouldn't. Also, Singh had moved away from `terrorism'--which is, essentially using acts of terror to de-stabilise the ruling dispensation--and was different from late-19th-century terrorists,“ said historian R Gopinath. He dismissed the idea that the phrase was used maliciously. “Chandra told me to read Singh.“
This issue was raised during UPA rule too, observed Lal.“Chandra had clarified then that terrorist wasn't used as a negative term and that the more appropriate expression was `revolutionary nationalism'. This controversy is contrived, planned by the Right. These people don't read anything,“ he said.
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Bhagat Singh no 'terrorist': RSS has sadly killed India's tradition-The freedom fighter's ideas are totally inimical to those of the Modi regime.

May 5, 2016, 5:46 am
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Two of the three news channels, which were reported to the Delhi Police by the government for telecasting fake videos on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), were screaming two days ago that Bhagat Singh was called a terrorist by certain JNU historians. How dare they call "our national hero" a terrorist, they said.
Dinanath Batra of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), enthused by the success of his terror tactics during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, when he brought one of the biggest publishers in the world - Penguin - to its knees, getting thousands of copies of the world-renowned historian Wendy Doniger's book pulped, has now chosen another target for a possible pulping of a book from the same publisher.
This time around, his target is late professor Bipan Chandra and his colleagues Mridula and Aditya Mukherjee, Sucheta Mahajan and KN Panicker. Their crime: they called Bhagat Singh the revolutionary a terrorist.
For decades now, Chandra has been known to get Bhagat Singh into the focus of the national freedom struggle discourse, revealing the talent of the socialist revolutionary as a thinker at a very young age, bringing him at par with other national leaders or heroes of the freedom struggle.
It was his introduction to the late-1970s edition of Why I am an Atheist, which made Indian academia pay attention to Bhagat Singh the thinker. This was ignored till then despite memoirs of Bhagat Singh's comrades like Shiv Verma, Ajoy Ghosh, Rajaram Shastri, Sohan Singh Josh, Bejoy Kumar Sinha, Bhagwandas Mahaur and many more, who wrote about Bhagat Singh, the thinker, and how he was influenced by Marxism in detail.
Not only that, during his eight-year stint as the National Book Trust (NBT) chairman, despite few years of bad health, Chandra got Bhagat Singh's writings published in English, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati and in many other languages, which no other government agency did before him.
During his term at the NBT, Chandra got a number of books published on revolutionary freedom fighters like Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Kartar Singh Sarabha, Master Surya Sen and others, apart from hundred-plus books on the freedom struggle in general from most competent and eminent historians.
Chapter 20 of the book India's Struggle for Independence, co-authored by Chandra, is titled "Bhagat Singh, Surya Sen and the Revolutionary Terrorists". The book was published by Penguin for first time in 1988 and had gone through multiple editions since, as one of its most popular books, selling more than two lakh copies.
The book was translated in Hindi at the Delhi University and published by its "Hindi Implementation" publishing concern and was almost as popular as the English one, selling more than one lakh copies.
The book is recommended for reading for graduation and postgraduation in History by many universities and is one of most popular books for young IAS aspirants.
If there is any merit in Batra's argument, many of the current IAS officers have perhaps been "spoiled" by reading this book and now need to be scrutinised by the "nationalist" government for the "anti-national" thoughts that had entered their brains after reading such books to become an IAS.
Suddenly, after 28 years, it has come to the notice of a few news channels that such "anti-national" activity was going on, and they felt something had to be done. As they "fixed""anti-national" students of JNU, they must now fix these historians of JNU as well. Incidentally, the book was a product of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) project and written after interviewing 1,500 freedom fighters, of course, none would have been from the RSS, as it had nothing to do with freedom struggle!
What exactly do 13 pages of this book tell readers about "terrorist" Bhagat Singh. Here are few quotes from this small chapter of the book:
"Bhagat Singh and BK Dutt were tried in the assembly case. Later Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru and tens of other revolutionaries were tried in series of famous conspiracy cases. Their fearless and defiant attitude in the courts -everyday they entered the court room shouting slogans 'Inquilab Zindabad', 'Down, Down with Imperialism', 'Long live the Proletariat' and singing songs such as 'Sarfaroshi ki tammana ab hamare dil mein hai' and 'Mera rang de basanti chola'...
"A voracious reader, he was one of the most well read of political leaders of the time. He had devoured books in the Dwarkadas Library at Lahore on socialism... his shirt pockets always bulged with books which he constantly offered to lend his comrades. After his arrest he transformed the jail into a veritable university. (Pages 254-255)
"Bhagat Singh became a household name in the land and many persons all over the country wept and refused to eat food, attend schools, or carry on their daily work, when they heard of his hanging in March 1931." (Page 249-250)
Again on page 255 - "Bhagat Singh had already, before his arrest in 1929, abandoned his belief in terrorism and individual heroic action. He had turned to Marxism and had come to believe that popular based mass movements alone could lead to a successful revolution."
Further on same page - "Moreover... he declared: 'Apparently I have acted like a terrorist. But I am not a terrorist... Let me announce with all the strength at my command, that I am not a terrorist and I never was, except perhaps in the beginning of my revolutionary career. And I am convinced that we can not gain anything through those methods."
Few shorter quotes - "Bhagat Singh also saw the importance of freeing people from the mental bondage of religion and superstition. (Page 258)
"Bhagat Singh was a great innovator in two areas of politics. Being fully and consciously secular, he understood more clearly than many of his contemporaries, the danger that communalism posed to the nation and national movement. He told his audiences that communalism was as big an enemy as colonialism." (Page 257)
And on Master Surya Sen, Chandra wrote, "Surya Sen, a brilliant and inspiring organiser, was an unpretentious, soft-spoken and transparently sincere person. Possessed of immense personal courage, he was deeply humane in his approach. He was fond of saying 'Humanism is a special virtue of a revolutionary'. He was also very fond of poetry, being a great admirer of Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam." (Page 251)
Chandra was held in high regard by all the comrades of Bhagat Singh and Surya Sen - Bejoy Kumar Sinha, whose son was a student of Chandra, Shiv Verma, Sohan Singh Josh, Kalpna Dutt Joshi and many others. Now neo "historians", or rather killers of history and myth makers of Hindutva wish to vilify a personality like Chandra, who is revered by freedom fighters.
The reason is simple, Chandra brought the true essence of revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh to the fore - his anti-communalism, anti-capitalism, anti-feudalism, anti-colonialism, his Marxism and socialism - which pinches traitors who have based their policies on communalism, and so they scream at the top of their voice, labelling the JNU historians as anti-national.
Incidentally, Chandra in his first Bhagat Singh Chair memorial lecture at the JNU in April 2011, clarified that using the term "revolutionary terrorism" was in the context of the movement led by the Congress' and it carried no denigration of the revolutionaries, and even Bhagat Singh himself used the term for himself and their movement. Yet he opined that "revolutionary nationalism" would had been a more appropriate term. Since Chandra is no more, his co-authors have already written to the Delhi University vice-chancellor and publisher Penguin that they wish to replace the word "terrorism" with "nationalism" but without touching the word "revolutionary".
Self-appointed and RSS-anointed "historians" like Batra, backed by an equally "illustrious" Union human resources development minister like Smriti Irani, wish to destroy Indian secular education system and historical traditions by using the name of Bhagat Singh, whose ideas are totally inimical to those of the Narendra Modi regime.http://www.dailyo.in/politics/bhagat-singh-bipan-chandra-dinanath-batra-rss-smriti-irani-subhas-chandra-bose/story/1/10362.html
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Bhagat Singh: Why should we remember him today?

June 16, 2016, 8:02 am
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The People’s Hero: Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh

July 3, 2016, 1:04 am
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The People’s Hero: Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh

Disturbed to life by the atrocious massacre at Jallianwala Bagh in 1919, disillusioned by the national political leaders who recoiled the promising Non-Cooperation Movement in 1922, alarmed by the rising religious divisions and reactionary rhetoric in the mainstream politics, and motivated by the Bolshevik Revolution of workers and peasants of Russia of 1917, Bhagat Singh and his compatriots entered the political scene of India and became the icon of the aspirations of the people of India in no time. Their aim was to bring a revolution that would not only end the colonial British regime but would also lay the foundations of a system that shall combat all forms of injustices. It was for these crimes that Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev were hanged by the rulers of British colonialism on 23rd of March, 1931, at Lahore Camp Jail. Bhagat Singh was only 23 years old at the time of his hanging.
The colonial administration made it no secret that their enmity lied more with the ideals of Bhagat Singh rather than Bhagat Singh himself. Justice Medilton, who transported Bhagat Singh and B. K. Dutt for life in the Assembly Bomb Case, testified to the danger that the ideas of Bhagat Singh posed to the system based on manifest injustice: “These persons would enter the court with the cries of ‘Long Live the Revolution’ and ‘Long Live the Proletariat’ which shows clearly shows what sort of political ideology they cherish. In order to put a check in propagating these ideas, I transport them for life.” One can well imagine that Bhagat Singh must have received the Medilton’s comment with a broad smile. Once, during a court hearing when Bhagat Singh started laughing while chatting with one of his comrades, he ironically replied to inquiry of the Magistrate about the reason behind the amusement: “Dear Magistrate, if you can’t tolerate my laughing at the moment, what will happen to you when I laugh even on the scaffold?”
Bhagat Singh started his political journey when new lines were emerging in the Indian polity. On one hand, the religious jargon was being introduced in the political rhetoric at a mass scale and seculars like Jinnah were getting sidelined. On the other hand, the revolutionary ideas of Lenin and Bolshevik Revolution were trickling into India. Bhagat Singh, like many others who were already disillusioned by Gandhi, was attracted towards experiment of workers and peasants of Russia.
With this ideological motivation, the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), which was formed by Ashfaqullah Khan and Mahavir Singh in around 1925, became the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in 1928 primarily on the insistence of Bhagat Singh. Along with an express commitment towards socialism, the HSRA also proclaimed a broad internationalist vision of a World Order that would free humanity from the scourge of capitalism and imperialist wars. Naujawan Bharat Sabha (NBS) was founded in Lahore in 1926 as the open front of HSRA with object to expose reactionary politics and to promote religious harmony and secularism. In June 1928, Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev also organized a Lahore Students’ Union as auxiliary to NBS. The outlook of NBS was clearly popular. “Revolution by the masses and for the masses”, stated the Manifesto of the NBS. NBS made remarkable progress within a few months as its branches were organized all around India. It became so popular that it was banned by the British government in May of 1930.
In 1928, the all-White Simon Commission came to visit India in order to provide the further constitutional reforms. The Congress decided to boycott the Commission, and the HSRA decided to actively participate in the boycott demonstrations. One such demonstration, led by Lala Lajpat Rai was organized outside the Lahore Railway Station where the Commission was to arrive. Bhagat Singh and his compatriots were also a part of this protest. When the Police ordered baton-charge, the Superintendent of Police, J. A. Scott, targeted Lala Lajpat in particular who could not bear the severe injuries caused by the raining batons and died. The whole nation was infuriated at the death of Lala Lajpat.
HSRA decided to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai. On December 17, 1928, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekher Azad and Rajguru shot dead J. P. Saunders, a Police officer, mistaking him for Scott. Posters under-singed by the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army appeared across Lahore the same night that stated that “we are sorry for shedding human blood but it becomes necessary to bathe the altar of revolution with blood.”
After the assassination of Saunders, Bhagat immediately escaped for Calcutta where he attended the first All India Conference of Workers’ and Peasants’ Parties and the Calcutta session of the Congress, where the Communist Party made an illustrious entry by demanding the Congress to accept the goal of complete independence (which did not happen).
This was a time when the Communist Party was taking its roots in India in general and in the working class movement in particular. Naturally, the British government became apprehensive and rounded 31 prominent Communist and labor leaders in the famous Meerut Conspiracy Case. Repressive measures, like the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Bill, were brought to the floor of Central Legislative Assembly that threatened the democratic rights of the citizens of India.
HSRA decided to take action against the onslaught of British government. On April 8, 1929, Bhagat Singh and B. K. Dutt threw two bombs in the Assembly when Viceroy was supposed to enact the Trade Disputes Bill using his special powers against the will of the Assembly. These bombs were made especially for the occasion. As they were harmless and were not meant to kill anyone, no one was seriously injured. The bomb, as the leaflet thrown by Bhagat Singh in the name of HSRA, was “a loud voice to make the deaf hear”. Bhagat Singh and B. K. Dutt gave their arrests, as was pre- decided by the HSRA, so that they can use the trail in court to popularize the programme and ideology of the HSRA.
The struggle against British colonialism was taken to new scale in the court and in the jail. In the court room, the people of India met Bhagat Singh, the political thinker. In jail, the people of India witness the resilience of Bhagat Singh. The whole nation was awestruck by the hunger-strike that Bhagat Singh and his comrades managed to pull while protesting against the inhumane and discriminatory conditions meted out to the Indian political prisoners. This was a time, says Pattabhi Sitaramyya, official historian of the Congress, when “Bhagat Singh’s name was as widely known all over India and was as popular as Gandhi’s”. Bhagat Singh underwent a hunger-strike for more than 116 days, with one stretch of 97 days, despite the heavy and frequent torture inflicted by the Jail authorities. One of participants of the hunger-strike, Jatin Das, died on the 64th day of the strike.
As a political thinker, the jail years had a deep impact on the ideological development of Bhagat Singh. The presence of an impended trail, which was more of a propaganda forum for him, and an unending thirst for knowledge motivated Bhagat Singh to study hard. He read more than 144 books in jail and prepared extensive notes about his study in a prison diary. His thoughts matured with a serious study and he also criticized his own tactics. In a short message to students’ conference at Lahore, Bhagat Singh advised: “Comrades, Today, we can not ask the youth to take to pistols and bombs… the youth will have to spread to the far corners of the country. They have to awaken the crores of the slum-dwellers of industrial areas and villagers…” Writing about his revolutionary career, Bhagat Singh said: “Study” was the cry that reverberated in the corridors of my mind… the Romance of the violent methods alone which was so prominent amongst our predecessors, was replaced by serious ideas. No more mysticism, no more blind faith… use of force justifiable when resorted to as a matter of terrible necessity: non-violence as policy indispensable for all mass movements.”
When asked in court what he meant by revolution, Bhagat Singh famously replied: “A revolution does not necessarily involve sanguinary strife not is there any place in it for individual vendetta. It is not a bomb or pistol cult. By revolution we mean that the present order of things, which is based on manifest injustice, must be changed… By revolution we mean the ultimate establishment of the order of society… in which sovereignty of the proletariat should be recognized.”
After being awarded life imprisonment in the Assembly bomb case, Bhagat Singh was registered for what came to be known as the Second Lahore Conspiracy Case for the assassination of J. P. Saunders. A special tribunal was set-up for the trail of Bhagat Singh that was provided with the novel power of conducting an ex-parte trail. After what was termed by A. G. Noorani as “a farcical trail”, Bhagat Singh was sentenced to death.
Gandhi observed the injustices meted out to Bhagat Singh in jail and in the court rooms with a conspicuous silence. It was only after the death of Bhagat Singh that the Congress gave a statement, after much tension over wording, in “admiration of the bravery and sacrifice of the late Bhagat Singh and his comrades”. A. G. Noorani pointed out that Gandhi could have averted the death of Bhagat Singh during his talks with the Viceroy, Lord Irwin. Gandhi’s claims that he tried his best to persuade the Viceroy were found to be mere lies by the records that came to light four decades later.
Bhagat Singh, nevertheless, found a supporter in the mainstream politics and that was in Jinnah. Jinnah who was himself isolated by the encroachment of religion in politics at that time and considered it undesired rose in support of Bhagat Singh. In his incisive speech to the Constituent Assembly on September 12 and 14, 1929, Jinnah harshly condemned the criminal colonial rule and the Government’s actions against revolutionaries:
“The man who goes on hunger-strike has a soul. He is moved by the soul and he believes in the justice of his cause; he is not an ordinary criminal who is guilty of cold-blooded, sordid, wicked crime.
“What was he driving at? It is the system, this damnable system of Government, which is resented by the people.
“And the last words I wish to address the Government are, try and concentrate your mind on the root cause and the more you concentrate on the root cause, the less difficulties and inconveniences there will be for you to face, and thank Heaven that the money of the taxpayer will not be wasted in prosecuting men, nay citizens, who are fighting and struggling for the freedom of their country.”
In our part of the sub-continent, we conveniently forget the role played by non-Muslims in the struggle of liberation from the British colonialism. All non-Muslims are grouped in one category to be completely rejected by the rulers of Pakistan irrespective of their message and their history. The same fate met Bhagat Singh. That he was supported by Jinnah is a fact never mentioned in the corridors of power or in the text-books of Pakistan Studies. It is not surprising, though. Bhagat Singh, a symbol of resistance, could never be the hero of the government that is not based on the will of the people.
Although the times have changed, they do not appear to have changed a lot. The World, particularly Pakistan is still facing a number of problems that were essentially present in the times of Bhagat Singh as well. Hence, the legacy of Bhagat Singh remains with us in his uncompromising struggle against imperialism, unflinching resistance to communalism and caste oppression, unbending opposition to the bourgeois-landlord rule, and unswavering support for socialism as the best possible alternative before society.
Published in The Post (Vista) on Tuesday, March 25, 2008.
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July 3, 2016, 1:35 am
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A short publication history of Bhagat Singh's Jail Notebook
Web Exclusives
Chaman Lal
Vol. 48, Issue No. 42, 19 Oct, 2013
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Chaman Lal (prof.chaman@gmail.com) recently retired from the Centre for Indian Languages, School of Languages and Cultural Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
A biographer of Bhagat Singh and a chronicler of his works, writes about the publication history of Bhagat Singh’s “Jail Notebook”. This article is being published, when reports have talked about the possible release of the Notebook “for the first time” by the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. 
Almost anyone who is a serious admirer of the revolutionary Bhagat Singh would know about his “Jail Notebook” today; yet before 1981, hardly anyone other than Bhagat Singh’s closest family members knew about its existence. During the 50th anniversary of the martyrdom of Hindustan Socialist Republican Army activists Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev in 1981, Singh’s brother Kulbir Singh allowed a microfilm of the book to be made by the National Archives of India (NAI) and the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML). He did so on the condition that the Notebook should not be published. The Jail Notebook was put on exhibition at the National Archives of India along with other documents of the revolutionary movements. Both NAI and NMML then kept the Notebook for reference and consultation among their records.
Soon, a copy of the Notebook was provided to “Gurukul” in Inderprastha, Delhi by Kulbir Singh’s younger son Abhey Sandhu. This was the time when L V Mitrokhin, the Russian scholar on Indian history, visited Kulbir Singh many times and obtained either the whole or parts of Notebook, took it to Moscow and wrote about its significance. L V Mitrokhin’s writing on Bhagat Singh’s notebook soon enabled other Indian scholars to pay attention to it. This author had for the first time seen the Notebook in the NMML in 1984, took extensive notes from it, and started writing about it in newspapers and journals.
The Jail Notebook was part of a bagful of documents, which Bhagat Singh had handed over to Kumari Lajjawati, the secretary of the Bhagat Singh defence committee and later principal of a college in Jalandhar. She was instructed by Bhagat Singh to hand over this bag to his comrade Bejoy Kumar Sinha on his release from jail. Sinha was transported for life in the Lahore Conspiracy case and was released in 1938, when the Indian National Congress led governments came to power in many provinces. Lajjawati showed that bag to Lala Feroze Chand, editor of The People, and who himself was a committed socialist. Lala Feroze Chand published a few documents from those papers, including an abridged form of the “Letter To Young Political Workers” written in 2nd Februay 1931, the “Regarding Line of Defence In Hari Kishan's Case[1]” and “Why I am an Atheist” as part of the 27th September 1931 issue to commemorate Bhagat Singh’s first birth anniversary since his execution.
The last mentioned essay was lost during the Partition and many websites today are still carrying re-translated version of this essay from other Indian languages. I had reproduced The People’s first printed version of this essay in my latest book-Understanding Bhagat Singh which was released recently. The People in an editorial note had ascribed copyrights of the essay to S. Kishan Singh, father of Bhagat Singh. Bhagat Singh’s writings were being published from Bhagat Singh’s life time in many Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu and English papers, which were put into a volume for the first time by Virender Sandhu, the niece of Bhagat Singh and daughter of S. Kultar Singh, who was most close to Bhagat Singh’s heart. It was Virender Sandhu, who authored the most authoritative biography of Bhagat Singh’s whole family in 1968 in Hindi. Later Jagmohan Singh, another nephew of Bhagat Singh and son of Bibi Amar Kaur collected more documents and put them a volume in Punjabi titled Bhagat Singh ate Unna de saathiyhan de dastavez (Bhagat Singh and his comrades’ documents).
First Printed Version
Few years later, the monthly Indian Book Chronicle edited by Bhupinder Hooja in Jaipur started serialising the Jail Notebook of Bhagat Singh in 1992. Hooja had received its copy from his elder brother G B Kumar Hooja who had been the vice chancellor of Gurukul Kangri Haridwar (which must have obtained the Notebook’s copy from Gurukul Inderprastha). Bhupender Hooja, having reassured about the authenticity of the Notebook, then employed his resources with a lot of labour in annotating the sources of Bhagat Singh’s mentioned books, writers and quotations. The result was the release of the first printed edition of the Jail Notebook in 1994, which was released in the Jaipur Raj Bhavan by the then governor D P Chattopadhyaya[2]. The Jail Notebook got some good reviews in newspapers, but could not reach a mass readership as its publisher lacked a network of distribution and the book itself lacked enough aesthetic appeal. Yet its Hindi translation and other translations in Punjabi and other languages appeared after a few years, unfortunately without acknowledgment of Hooja’s work as the original editor and annotator.
After I joined the Jawaharlal Nehru University faculty in 2005, I convinced Leftword publications (based in New Delhi) to bring out a new edition of the Notebook and with Bhupinder Hooja’s permission, its new edition was brought out by Leftword in 2007. This was during the birth centenary of Bhagat Singh. The Notebook was supplemented with other essays (articles by Bhagat Singh and also articles on Bhagat  Singh such as by EV Ramasamy “Periyar”, and an introduction written by myself). Sudhanva Deshpande, the publisher of the book further improved the annotations, but the main credit of the book remained with Hooja.
The Marathi[3], (two) Bengali[4] and Urdu[5] translations of versions of the Notebook were published in 2007, 2009, 2012 and 2010 respectively. A scanned and printed edition of the Notebook, edited by Babar Singh (the son of Kulbir Singh) and K C Yadav was also published during the centenary year (priced at Rs 999) by Hope India Publications, Gurgaon.
 Abhey Sandhu, the younger son of Kulbir Singh, during the birth centenary year of Bhagat Singh, also got the Notebook published by both the Punjab and the Haryana government; in a scanned form by the former and in Punjabi and Hindi translations by the latter. These publications were not priced and were published by the public relations departments of both the governments for free distribution. When I was invited to address the Bhagat Singh youth awardees this year on 28th March at Mohali, I was pleasantly surprised to know that the awardees of the Punjab government were being gifted with a copy of the Jail Notebook. The government had pre-empted what I sought to suggest as part of my speech and I deeply appreciate this gesture.
I remember that there are multiple editions of the revolutionary Ram Prasad Bismil’s autobiography in Hindi and I was pleasantly surprised to see Swami Agnivesh bringing out the edition of that autobiography at just Rs 5 per copy and which his organisation distributed to school students almost free of cost. The Notebook is now part of the Government of India’s publication division;  as Shaheed Bhagat Singh:Dastavezon ke Aiene Men, released by the veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar in presence of Abhey Sandhu and Kiranjit Sandhu, two nephews of Bhagat Singh, on 19th December 2007, an anniversary of the martyrdom of the revolutionaries Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqualla Khan.
I understand that some more editions of the Notebook have also been brought out by other publishers and individuals, including by Abhey Sandhu himself. There is no harm in multiple editions of such inspiring books. It is only when someone makes the false claim that the “Jail Notebook is being published for the first time” that one should rightfully take umbrage.


[1] Hari Kishan was tried and executed by the British for shooting at the Punjab governor Geoffrey De Montmorrency at a convocation ceremony of the Punjab University at Lahore on 23rd December 1930.
[2] Hooja acknowledged three of us who had written on Bhagat Singh’s works before – Kamlesh Mohan from Chandigarh, Shiv Verma, the communist leader who was a comrade of Bhagat Singh from his HSRA days and me. All three of us had written on Bhagat Singh’s ideology and his works.
[3] The Marathi version was a translated form of my Hindi book – Bhagat Singh ke Sampooran Dastavez (2004).
[4] One Bengali version was translated from the Leftword edition of the Notebook.
[5] Some parts of the Notebook were published in Urdu in the Urdu version of my book – Bhagat Singh ke Syaasi Dastavez (2010)
- See more at: http://www.epw.in/journal/2013/42/web-exclusives/short-publication-history-bhagat-singhs-jail-notebook.html#sthash.nNqf1enn.dpuf

Since then more editions of Jail Notebook have come out. One in Kannada this very year-2016, one more by Yadwinder Sandhu, translated in Marathi as well. And the latest one edited by Harish Jain from Chandigarh, but none gave credit to late Sh. Bhupender Hooja except translated ones from mine compiled work by Leftword, in Hindi, Kannada and Bengali, where the credit, even agreement was signed with Bhupender Hooja, who is no more among us now. whose 1994 first publication of Jail Diary is pioneering work. 
  The original copy of Jail Notebook is still with Yadwinder Sandhu, grandson of Sh. Kulbir Singh, younger brother of Shaheed Bhagat Singh and grandfather of Abhitej Sandhu. Microfilmed copies are with National Archives and NMML and Supreme Court Musuem too has its digital copy.





















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Why BJP & RSS don't want Bhagat Singh to be honoured

August 16, 2016, 6:48 am
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Name game: Why BJP & RSS don't want Bhagat Singh to be honoured

In September 2015, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Chandigarh international airport, Akali Dal MP from Mohali area, Prem Singh Chandumajra, where the airport is actually located, publically reminded the PM about the airport being named after Shaheed Bhagat Singh.
Two governments involved in the construction of the airport - Punjab and Haryana - had agreed through unanimous resolutions in their respective assemblies to name the airport on Shaheed Bhagat Singh earlier in 2009-10, prior to the 2014 general elections.
The governments have had their differences but they were unanimous when it came to naming the airport on one of India's foremost freedom fighters and an idol of the Indian youth.

However after 2014 elections, when Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP Government took charge of Haryana, the new chief minister without even consulting his own cabinet, leave aside the Haryana Assembly, wrote to the civil aviation ministry to name the Chandigarh airport after RSS's unknown activist and former minister Mangal Sen's name.
He did not consult even his Punjab counterpart, where BJP forms part of the government as well.
This whole matter would have remained unknown to people, had Congress MP form Ludhiana, Ravinder Bittu, not asked a question in Parliament. After the minister's revelation it became a national issue.

NAME RIGHTS

There were dharnas, meetings, questions in Parliament and several protests. Dharnas were held in Chandigarh, and in January and February 2016 at Jantar Mantar New Delhi.
It was only after these spate of protests that the Haryana CM withdrew his recommendation and agreed to let the airport be named after Bhagat Singh and it was made public.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) rebel MP Dr Dharamvira Gandhi participated in all these dharnas. But to add weight to his protest, he even stood on his seat in Lok Sabha with a board demanding the airport be named after Bhagat Singh.
Later, led by Sitaram Yechury, General Secretary of CPM and Rajya Sabha member, all left MPs accompanied by Dharmavir Gandhi protested outside Parliament in front of Bhagat Singh's demanding that the issue be tackled in the last Parliament session.
Many other Parliamentarians like JD-U MP KC Tyagi came out to support the demand as well.

COUNTER TACTICS

But then, the RSS cannot possibly let people think that they had insulted freedom fighters - then their whole agenda of chanting names of revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad to fool its cadres - would have been exposed.
Instead, they came up with a clever tactic. They announced a policy of 'not naming' airports on personalities and just keeping the names of cities.
One could still understand this new policy if it was without mala fide intention and brought about after naming the Chandigrah airport on Bhagat Singh, as it had been decided by the two state governments.
But the main ploy was to suppress Bhagat Singh's name which RSS could not appropriate like Sardar Patel or Madan Mohan Malviya in their designed Hindutva code.
By making this clever move, the RSS put the issue of naming the Chandigarh airport into cold storage.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

India has more than 135 domestic, international and other types of airports. Out of which nearly twenty or so are named on historic personalities of the nation and the state concerned, honouring people's love and respects for those personalities.
Incidentally, none of the airports are named after Mahatma Gandhi or Jawaharlal Nehru. Let us see how the major airports in the country are named.
West Bengal
The state's most important airport - the one in Kolkata - is called Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport. Another airport in West Bengal at Asansol-Durgapur is also named appropriately as Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport.
Uttar Pradesh
Moving to the largest state of Uttar Pradesh, Varanasi airport in the PM's constituency is justifiably named Lal Bahadur Airport and the international airport of in the capital city of Lucknow is called Chaudhary Charan Singh International airport.
Bihar
In Bihar, Patna airport is called Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan International Airport.
Madhya Pradesh
In Madhya Pradesh they have the Raja Bhoj International Airport at Bhopal, while at Indore airport is called Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar Airport.
Rajasthan
The airport in Rajasthan's Udaipur is called Maharana Pratap Airport.
Maharashtra
Maharashtra has its two big airports named after great historic personalities. Mumbai airport is called Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and the Nagpur one is called Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Airport. Both are rather appropriately named.
Gujarat
Moving to Gujarat, the Ahmedabad airport is called the Sardar Patel International Airport.
Jharkhand
The Ranchi airport is appropriately called Birsa Munda Airport.
Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana
The airport in Bengaluru is called Kempegowda International Airport and the Hyderabad airport, now in Telangana, is called Rajiv Gandhi International Airport.
In Andhra Pradesh at Puttaparthi, the airport is named after Satya Sai.
New Delhi
The New Delhi airport is called Indira Gandhi International Airport. That makes two major airports in the country being named after members from the famous family, but strangely, there isn't a single airport yet that is named after Jawaharlal Nehru.
Had the rulers been wiser they would named Delhi airport - Jawaharlal Nehru International Airport.
Any airport in the world should be named after the best personality of the country, like in America where the New York airport is named after JF Kennedy.
No one has better credentials than the first and longest serving prime minister, freedom fighter and the leader of the Non-Alignment movement Jawaharlal Nehru.The airport in the country capital should not have been named after anyone other than him.
Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Andaman's and Nicobar's Port Blair is named expectedly as Veer Savarkar Airport.
Chattisgarh
Chhattisgarh capital Raipur airport is called Swami Vivekananda airport.
Jammu & Kashmir
In Jammu and Kashmir, the Leh airport is called Kushak Bakula International Airport.
Assam
Assam's Guwahati airport is called Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport.
Odisha
The airport in Bhubaneshwar is named - Biju Patnaik International Airport.
Punjab
In Punjab, the Amritsar international airport is called Sree Guru Ramdasji International Airport honouring the Guru as the founder of the city. Wikipedia, however, shows the Chandigarh airport to be named - Shaheed S Bhagat Singh International Airport.
Clearly, wrong information based on the Punjab and Haryana governments' earlier decision has made it to the Wikipedia page.
The Central government has not released a formal notification yet and is playing spoil sport at the behest of RSS, who does not want socialist Bhagat Singh to get any national recognition as a freedom fighter.

THE SPECTRE OF BHAGAT SINGH

Not a single university, out of the 250 plus government ones and nearly 500 private ones, is named after Bhagat Singh despite him being the most popular youth icon.
Such is the hypocrisy of Indian political parties, who keep on chanting Bhagat Singh's name day and night, but just to deceive people.
One can see from all major states have their airports named after their local, but nationally known, heroes. Only Tamil Nadu and Kerala do not have airports named after heir heroes like Periyar, C N Annadurai or Kamraj or Sree Narayana Guru or even EMS Namboodripad.
In most of the Hindi speaking states - UP, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Rajasthan etc - have airports named after their local/national heroes.
But can one accept that Raja Bhoj, Ahilya Devi Holkar, Chaudhary Charan Singh, Kushak Bakula or Gopinath Bordoloi in Assam, Biju Patnaik in Odisha, Kempegowda in Karnataka are better known nationally than Bhagat Singh?
Maharashtra and West Bengal have named their airports after national heroes - Subhas Bose, Nazrul Islam, Shivaji and Dr Ambedkar, so has Jharkhand on Birsa Munda, Bihar on JP, Gujarat on Sardar Patel and Chhattisgarh on Swami Vivekananda, even though he was not their nationally known state hero.
In the Andamans there were many martyrs in the Cellular Jail or as it is better known - Kala Pani - but its airport was not named on any of them.
Let Indian Parliament members and citizens speak up if they think that Bhagat Singh is not in the league of national heroes like Subhas Bose, Dr Ambedkar, Birsa Munda, JP, Sardar Patel or Swami Vivekananda.
If different airports in the country can be named after such national personalities - then why is Bhagat Singh's name being degraded and insulted by not naming the Chandigarh airport after him?
Had Punjab and Haryana in 2009-2010 not decided to name the Chandigarh airport after Bhagat Singh - it would not have been an issue for the Punjabis in particular and Indians in general.
But after the decision was taken, it was not implemented just because the Haryana government, along with the Central one, decided to push the RSS agenda that did not want Bhagat Singh to be given honour and respect.
Not implementing the decision is nothing but an insult to Punjab and to the Indian youth who love Bhagat Singh.
Chaman Lal is retired Professor from JNU, New Delhi and is known for his books on Bhagat Singh in many languages, the latest being Understanding Bhagat Singh
Edited by Jhinuk Sen
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Savarkar, Bhagat Singh and .....

August 19, 2016, 8:16 am
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http://www.frontierweekly.com/articles/vol-49/49-6/49-6-Savarkar.html

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Rejoinder

Savarkar, Bhagat Singh and .....

Chaman Lal

Frontier in its June 5-11, 2016 issue has published three articles related to Bhagat Singh. First is comparison of two petitions sent by Veer Savarkar in 1913 and other by Bhagat Singh on 20th March 1931, to British colonial authorities. These petitions have been quite viral on social media also and an online journal published it earlier.
In second article I M Sharma, a well-known author/editor of many books on Indian revolutionaries and movements, has protested over denigration of Savarkar by way of this comparison.
In third article taken from Veer Savarkar website, Bhagat Singh has been shown as publisher of one of editions of Savarkar's book—'First war of Indian Independence'.
While I M Sharma has every right to hold his views on Savarkar, however as a matter of interpretation of history, historic events and historical personalities, others also have the right to view Savarkar, as they think him to be, of course with the evidence of facts and documents. Everywhere in the world, there have been many personalities, who were revolutionaries in early phase. Veer Savarkar in his earlier phase, when he wrote 'First War of Independence' in Marathi in 1907 to mark 50lh anniversary of 1857, was secular and he acknowledged the role of last emperor of India Bahadur Shah Zafar despite his old age and other Muslim warriors of the struggle. In 1909, Savarkar also encouraged and patronized Madan Lal Dhingra to kill Curzon Wylie in London, which he did and got hanged on 17th August 1909. Mahatma Gandhi in fact wrote 'Hind Swaraj' in response to Dhingra's killing of Wylie and he framed his ideas of non-violence as against revolutionary violence to achieve Indian freedom. However after his return to India and arrest with long incarceration in Andaman's jail, Savarkar changed his views and turned communal in his outlook. He never took part in hunger strikes done by other revolutionaries in Andaman's jail in which many revolutionaries sacrificed their lives like Mahavir Singh, an associate of Bhagat Singh, Ramrakha, a Ghadarite revolutionary, many Bengali revolutionaries, in whose memory 'Shaheed Park' is created just in front of Andaman jail. Surprisingly, the earlier NDA Govt. put even Savarkar's statue in this park along with the real martyrs of Andaman jail. Only NDA/BJP/RSS can explain that how Savarkar, who died a normal death after independence, being remained an accused in Mahatma Gandhi assassination case and acquitted only due to 'lack of clinching evidence', hence remained 'suspect', was made out to be a 'martyr' with other real martyrs of Andaman!
Savarkar's later role as corumunalist and his role in Gandhi assassination, despite not being convicted, has certainly degraded his status as 'revolutionary' and people have right to condemn him for that role. His abject apologies to British colonial regimes, not once, but many times and his willingness to be part of colonial policy of 'Divide and Rule', by helping colonialists with his communal agenda of dividing Indian society, certainly cannot add to his status as 'Revolutionary', which I M Sharma has tried to defend, without any substance.
Savarkar website claims that Bhagat Singh published his book is again devoid of fact/truth. Bhagat Singh was born only in 1907, first edition of book came out around the time. Book was banned in India but was available to Indian revolutionaries, if Lal Hardyal has published its edition that could have reached India as well and could be in possession of revolutionaries. Bhagat Singh and his fellow revolutionaries certainly eulogised this book and must have distributed, but there is no record to show in the form of printed book found anywhere to support the claim that he published it. Bhagat Singh translated and published Irish revolutionary Dan Breed's autobiography in Hindi which was published by Pratap Press Kanpur in 1926 at the cost of one anna only. He also probably translated Sachindernath Sanyal's classic book-Bandi Jivan in Punjabi, whose advertisements are found in Punjabi journal Kirti, with which Bhagat Singh was associated in editorial staff and wrote for it also till 1928.
RSS as per its habit of rumour/lie making has also claimed that Bhagat Singh visited its Nagpur office to meet its supreme K B Hedegwar, has never been confirmed from any reliable source, from his own writings or memoirs of his co-fighters.
There is nothing on record to show that either RSS/Hedgewar or Veer Savarkar expressed any anguish on the hanging of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev in March 1931, no resolution published in any of their publications or other Indian papers, whereas from Mahatma Gandhi to Periyar-Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Subhas Bose, Madan Mohan Malviya and so many other Congress men are on record through their statements in many Indian journals, of expressing their anguish and disapproval/condemnation of British colonial regime on their execution. With what face RSS tries to appropriate Bhagat Singh or other revolutionaries' legacy by cooked up stories!
I M Sharma has also mentioned 'Bhagat Singh's death wish' and Gandhi fulfilling it by not pressing upon British colonial authorities, for commutation of his sentence. Here again, I M Sharma has very poor understanding of Bhagat Singh's insistence on not getting his execution waived. He reluctantly signed petition to Privy Council for review of his death sentence, only on the understanding that it will earn revolutionaries time to become more popular among Indian masses and they will rise to demand their release and they did rise. But Bhagat Singh told his close associate Bejoy Kumar Sinha in Lahore jail—'Dekho Bhai fansi rukni nahin chahiye'—Look brother execution must not be waived and he desired them to be hanged when people's resistance reaches at peak and that is how it happened. Bhagat Singh knew that all paths for revolution were closed for them at that moment and he wanted to make people rise for Indian freedom struggle and he thought their execution will serve this purpose. He proved right in his assessment, it was not his 'death wish', but political assessment and tactic to make even his death to be costlier like 'a death heavier than mountains', for British colonialism. I M Sharma has done no justice to Bhagat Singh's martyrdom by his own volition to make Indian people rise up for freedom struggle, by using term 'death wish'. Che Guevara taunted his CIA hired killer to 'shoot me coward', when he was wavering in shooting him and had to be given a full bottle of alcohol to get him completely drunk in order to make him shoot Che. Was Che having 'death wish', when he shouted at his killer 'to shoot him'?!
Mahatma Gandhi was reluctant from the very beginning to intervene into the matter of Bhagat Singh and his execution, due to his so-called belief in 'non-violence' philosophy, but Gandhi failed even to be true to his own philosophy of non-violence, by not opposing 'death sentence' as principled position of his philosophy, if nothing else! Of course he was worried at Bhagat Singh's abnormal popularity among Indian masses, which could have threaten his own 'one man hegemony' in Indian Congress politics, had Bhagat Singh been allowed to live!
prof.chaman@gmail.com
Mobile no. : 09646494538 / 09868774820
Frontier
Vol. 49, No.6, Aug 14 - 20, 2016
- See more at: http://www.frontierweekly.com/articles/vol-49/49-6/49-6-Savarkar.html#sthash.0huxrfRP.dpuf
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How a new book on Chittagong revolt keeps the forgotten war alive

September 14, 2016, 8:20 am
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http://www.dailyo.in/tag/the-last-of-the-rebels/1/35008.html

The Last of the Rebels: Ananda and his Masterda, bilingual (English and Bengali), Piyul Mukherjee and and Nivedita Patnaik, pages 142(English)+, price 399/Rupees, ed.2016, Bushfire Publishers Mumbai and Kolkata.
     A Teenager’s eye witness account of Chittagong uprising 1930: Armed Rebellion and Indian freedom struggle
  


      Chittagong revolt of 1930 has been one of most important revolutionary movement during freedom struggle. It exploded on 18th April 1930 and by 1934 it has given many martyrs for the country, the last one being the leader of the movement Master Surya Sen, who was executed in January 1934. But scores of the revolutionaries lived around and had long lives as the Ghadarite Babas of 1915. Incidentally both got together in Andaman’s and other jails for long incarcerations and both movements survivors joined Communist mostly and few Congress party, but none joined so called ‘nationalist’ RSS!
     Many survivors of the movement wrote their memoirs and helping historians to analyse the movement with authentic documentation. Anant Singh, Kalpana Dutt and few more had memoirs, though some remained untranslated from Bengali, such as Anant Singh’s memoirs, but some like Kalpana Dutt memoirs got into English and in some other languages further. Two films ‘Chittagong’ and ‘Khelenge Ji Jaan Se’ were made on the basis of these memoirs and other books.
      Ananda Gupta’s memoir are latest addition to memoirs on Chittagong. Ananda Gupta who joined the movement as teenager like many more, had lived abroad mostly in UK to get treatment for the illness given by prolonged jail term had spoken to his family members, who gave these memoirs a shape in bilingual book-English and Bengali in one volume-a rarity in publication world. Again, though there is certain publication house name, but it looks like self-publication of 2016. It is co-authored by mother-daughter duo of Nivedita Patnaik and Piyul Mukhrejee. Mother doing Bengali text and daughter-the trained sociologist Dr. Piyul Mukhrejee doing the English text and editing job.
  Foreword of this memoir is written by Subrata Bose, nephew of Netaji Subhas Bose, who carried forward Netaji ideas of Forward Bloc as part of it and remained member Parliament from the party. Subrato Bose’s father Sarat Chander Bose as an eminent lawyer and socialist to the core, had rendered all help to Chittagong revolutionary movement and its prisoners in jail later. Subrata Bose in his brief foreword has quoted British Secretary of State for India between 1931-35 Sir Samuel Hoare-‘In the battle for India’s freedom, the Chittagong uprising of 1930 turned the tide, and brought in its wake a rising and a clamour for immediate independence.’
   Subrata Bose has appreciated Chittagong revolutionaries as ‘ youthful revolutionaries, who in their love for the freedom of their nation, allowed their own lives to be put at stake, facing the most vindictive torture imaginable without complaint. Their sacrifice has just no parallel anywhere. They are the unvanquished children of Mother India.”(Foreword)
      Subrata Bose appreciated the bilingual publication of the book as to reach more readers.
      Subrata Bose wrote perhaps the last public text of his life in this forward, as after writing this on 11th January 2016, he passed away on 20th January after just nine days.
      In the Preface to English part of the book (this reader can’t read Bengali), one of the authors Piyul Mukherjee has introduced Ananda Gupta as one of ‘clutch of teenagers’, who participated the Chittagong armoury raid in 1930. Chittagong is called Chattogram in Bengali and is now in Bangladesh. Ananda Gupta was caught in an action after few months of outbreak in French territory of Chandannagar by notorious police commissioner Charles Tegart with the mature leaders of the movement Ganesh Ghosh and Loknath Bal, while one of their youngest comrade and Anand’s closest friend Jeebon Ghoshal lost his life to British bullets. Ananda was sentenced to transportations for life to Andamans after two years in 1932, though he was not even adult then. Anand Gupta spent total of sixteen years in jail and was released just a year prior to independence in 1946. His body was wrecked inside jail by asthma. He has to go to England for treatment as Indian doctors were unable to treat him. Ananda had no money and was supported by his wife and author Piyul’s aunty (Meshi), sister of her mother and co-author of the book Nivedita. She had laboured hard in England to get treatment for her husband, who also joined to work after he recovered from his serious ailments.
   Ananda Gupta was born on 26th September 1916 and was just fourteen years of age when he joined with many more of his age lads to Masterda Surjyo Sen’s army for Indian freedom, he passed away in December 2005. This volume has been brought out as Ananda Gupta’s birth centenary year dedication to him. Kolkata’s Shaheed Surjya Sen Bhavan and Biplab Teertha Chattogram Smriti Sansthan has been associated with the publication of this volume. The book originally is in Bengali and Nivedita Patnaik has reproduced Ananda Gupt’s memoirs of Chittagong days faithfully told in Bengali language. Piyul Mukherjee has done its English version. The book is dedicated to Banimashi Sunada Gupta, Ananda Gupta’s wife. Anjan Gupta the only child of Ananda Gupta has also remained involved with the book as told by Piyul in her introduction.
    Book is divided into ten chapters including Preface and afterword added by six appendices. In introductions authors give brief account of Chittagong revolt as ‘A Forgotten Chapter’ and describe Ananda Gupta as disciple of Masterda, as he was lovably called-Surya Sen or Surjyo Sen in Bengali. Introduction also refers to Anada Gupta’s journey to Andamans in 1997, fifty years after the independence at the invitation of then President K R Narayanan, only second time in his life-first as prisoner and now as ‘honoured prisoner’! Authors tell about the reminiscence of their beloved Ananda Gupta.
   Chapter one begins with Ananda Gupta’s memoirs in his own words and first one is his meeting with Master da. He was interviewed by Surya Sen after his recruitment to revolutionary group in 1929, at the age of 13 years! Surya Sen explained the ‘jubok biplobi’-young rebel the world vision of revolution, inspired by Irish nationalists and Easter uprising.
   In second chapter recounts the details of 18th April 1930, the day of Chittagong armoury raid. Ananda was assigned he job of driving revolutionaries to the target.They destroyed the telegraph machine led by Ambikada. Ganesh Ghosh was designated as ‘Field Marshal’. Four days later was the famous Jalalabad battle. Both were historic in Masterda’s life. Most touching is the description of young revolutionaries martyrdom, falling first was Hargopal(Tegra) Bal, then the youngest martyr Nirmal Lala, his young voice calling Vande Matram before falling. Many more fell.
  In third chapter ‘Feni Encounter ‘ is recounted and how Ganesh Ghosh escaped by posing rural folk –‘dehati log’ from police, who was asking for Ganesh Ghosh and Anant Singh!
  Fourth chapter is description of savage killings at Chandernagar, where Ananda and others had taken refuge in French territory, though close to Calcutta. These four-Ganesh Ghosh, Ananda, Lokenath Bal and Jeebon Ghoshal, the last fell to bullets, while three were arrested on 1st September 1930 by Charles Tegart in illegal attack in foreign territory. Fifth Chapter describes the life in incarceration, how Ganesh Ghosh and Anant Singh and others went through brutal tortures, but did not break in spirits. How at such young age Ananda refused to eat good food given by authorities in jail, unless all other prisoners were having the same has been described both by Ananda in his memoirs and Anant Singh in his own memoirs. He narrates the corruption inside jails as well. Ananda Gupta gives break up of his jail incarcerations as-Five years in Andamans, Two years during trial at Chittagong, six years in various other jails-Hooghly, Lal Bazar, Dhaka, Chittagong, Midnapore and Alipore, three years under ‘house arrest’ at Siuri-a total of 16 years. Andamans cell of jail was 13”into7” feet in size with a small window at ten feet height. Due to rigorous imprisonment, they were made to do hard labour-from morning till evening, they were served a tasteless coarse meal. In this long chapter Ananda mentions 1933 hunger strike of prisoners, (in which many like Mahavir Prasad, Bhagat Singh’s comrade died-not mentioned by Ananda), conditions changed for better. How Karl Marx’s The Capital reached inside jail that is also narrated in humorous mood. The shocking news of Masterda hanging in 1934, making them stunned with sadness. The humanist behaviour of Irish doctor Colonel Fischer is also underlined, same doctor sent him to England after his release, as he had set up private practice in Calcutta after he left Andamans.
   Sixth chapter of the memoirs focuses upon ‘Shri Sarat Bose and His Patriotic Love-Overwhelming personality of Netaji Subhas Bose has somewhat overshadowed his elder brother Sarat Chander Bose’s role in freedom struggle, who was stronger than his younger brother in many respects and more committed socialist in ideas. It was Sarat Chander Bose who defended Chittagong revolutionaries in courts, not only he defended them, he helped them in various other ways, by liberally funding them, even offering to help in escape from prison etc. Sarat Chander Bose was member of Bengal legislative assembly at the time of partition and he stood for united Bengal along with then Chief minister of Bengal Suhrawardi, their resolution of United Bengal was defeated by Congress and Communist party at the time which voted for division of Bengal on communal lines, a most unfortunate division against the principles of language and culture based unity of people. In fact Jinnah was prepared to accept Bengal and Punjab as unified independent nations, as in Punjab assembly also then chief minister Khizr Hyat Khan Tiwana and Congress leader Gopi Chang Bhargav were in favour of United Punjab, as independent nation like as Bengal could have been. Had these two nations came into being at that time with big population, the whole political scene in South Asia would have been different! The massacre of one million people and cross migration of ten million people in Punjab and migration in Bengal would not have occurred and kind of communal cauldron South Asia is going through today, may not have occurred. The principle of language and culture based people’s unity could have been established which was thrown to wind on the basis of religious differences, which is still causing maximum damage to South Asian nations! Sarat Chander Bose was visionary and had Subhas Bose also been on political scene at that time, the history of Bengal would have been different!

Seventh chapter is focused on interesting meeting with Charlie Chaplin, who had met Gandhi in London and Ananda was so much impressed by him that he made a special meeting arrangement with Charlie during one of his journeys and the meeting proved to be pleasant and much longer than fixed five minutes, as Charlie Chaplin was keen to listen to Indian revolutionary!
Eighth chapter is description of release from jail and after life, in which Ananda joins Jyoti Basu and other in prisoner release movement. In afterword Ananda feels his wish fulfilled of visiting Andamans in 1997 at President Narayanan’s invitation. He was honoured by President on 30thDecember 1997 and passed away on 8th December 2005, after eight years. Masterda’s flame remained alight all his life and at the age of 81 years, he told, given the chance, he would do it again and never regretted despite failure of Chittagong movement.
  In appendices, first focuses upon family members of Ananda, which begins with grandfather Rajeshwar Gupta, whose ‘Prasad Bhavan’ was on a hillock in Chittagong. Mother Manorma Devi had great impact on Ananda, his elder bother Debprasad Gupta-Debu was martyred in Chittagong uprising. Second appendix traces the history of Bengal through Timeline from 7th Century AD, focusing more on twentieth century and renaissance movement including Bipan Pal, Tagore family, Aurbinodo Ghosh, revolutionary youth like Khudiram Bose, Chittranjan Das like radical nationalists role in it. Third appendix is sketch written of Master Surya Sen by Ananda Gupta in 1993. Fourth focuses upon American war of independence and Irish rebellion, which had impacted Chittagong revolutionaries. Fifth underlines differences between Gandhi and Tagore on social issues and sixth is Tagore’s concern about revolutionaries.
    English part of the book concludes with bibliography of important publications on Chittagong uprising. These include-Memoirs of Anant Singh in Bengali-Chattogram Jubo Bidroho-two parts. Others include Manoshi Bhattacharya’s 2012 book Chittagong Summer of 1930 and Manini Chatterjee’s Do and Die of 1999.
         Nivedita Patnaik and her daughter Piyul Mukherjee have done a commendable job to preserve the memories of their close kin Ananda Gupta, which are much important to understand the participation of teenagers in revolutionary movements of India and it continues in post-independence period also.

 
      



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Shaheed Bhagat Singh :Complete Writings in Urdu-Read here

September 21, 2016, 8:05 am
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French edition of ‘Why I Am an Atheist’-2016-Courtesy Fred Racine

September 26, 2016, 6:38 am
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What could be better greetings on Bhagat Singh birth anniversary then receiving this book in French from Fred Racine-
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Why Che Guevara and Bhagat Singh are most loveable youth icons!

October 24, 2016, 8:50 am
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     http://www.dailyo.in/politics/bhagat-singh-che-guevara-british-colonialism-cuban-revolution-batista/story/1/13289.html
                                                                               
                     Few days ago Indian and Pakistani youth celebrated Bhagat Singh’s 110th birth anniversary on 28th September and few days from now the whole world youth will be remembering Che Guevara on 9th October, completing 49 years of his martyrdom at the hands of US supported Bolivian reactionary regime in 1967.
     While Che Guevara became symbol of resistance to US imperialism from early seventies in the height of Vietnam War and by the passing of time and with publication of his writings became more and more fascinating hero of the youth world over. Bhagat Singh phenomenon among Indian youth was there since his martyrdom in 1931, but it is only in digital times that his image as hero has travelled beyond India. Pakistan youth and liberal intelligentsia are now equally enamoured of him and claim him to be Pakistan’s hero. Left intelligentsia world over is now recognising Bhagat Singh also as much a hero, as Che Guevara is!
     How both these youth icons have sustained and expanded as hero image among youth? Bhagat Singh lived between 1907 and 1931 for just twenty three years five months, whereas Che Guevara lived from 1928 to 1967 for 39 years. Bhagat Singh got seven years plus political life, whereas Che’s political life was started from the age of 23 years, when as a student of medicine, he travelled around South America on his motor cycle with a friend Alberto Grenado in 1951 for 8000 kilometres.  Journey took Guevara through Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and Miami, Florida, for 20 days, before returning home to Buenos Aires. They spend nine months in this travel and spent some time in leper colony in Peru. The sight of crushing poverty, hunger in rural areas made him think of liberation of South America. Prior to this he took a solo journey in Northern Argentine for 4500 kilometres alone on an engine fitted bicycle in 1950. In 1953, he completed his medical studies and officially became Dr. Ernesto Che Guevara!
        Ernesto Guevara was born in Argentine on 14th June 1928 in a well to do family. But he got enlightened atmosphere at home to grow intellectually. He got asthma from his childhood, which did not leave him till the end of his life, yet he excelled in swimming, football, golf and was untiring cyclist! Ernesto was born three years before Bhagat Singh was hanged by British colonialists.
          Bhagat Singh also got political awareness from his family, whose grandfather, father and two uncles were part of freedom struggle of India and there were lot of books and journals at his home in many languages, which made him grow into a multi lingual personality. Bhagat Singh’s early life was also shaped by Punjab peasants suffering from debt, against which his Uncle Ajit Singh and Lala Lajpat Rai were organising resistance movement. Bhagat Singh became full blown political activist at the age of 16 years only when revolutionaries formed Hindustan Republican Association(HRA), which five years later turned into Hindustan Socialist Republican Association/Army(HSRA) due to ideological colour given to it by Bhagat Singh by his deep study of Marxism and Soviet revolution of 1917.
    Che Guevara after 1951 motor cycle trip, started again on July 7, 1953, Guevara this time to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. On December 10, 1953, before leaving for Guatemala, Guevara sent an update to his Aunt Beatriz from San José, Costa Rica. In the letter Guevara speaks of traversing through the dominion of the United Fruit Company; a journey which convinced him that Company's capitalist system was a terrible one. In Guatemala he saw the overthrow of democratically elected President Arbenz’s government by American supported local right-wing forces in 1954. Guevara himself was eager to fight on behalf of Arbenz and joined an armed militia organized by the Communist Youth for that purpose, but frustrated with the group's inaction, he soon returned to medical duties. Following the coup, he again volunteered to fight, but soon after, Arbenz took refuge in the Mexican Embassy and told his foreign supporters to leave the country. Guevara's repeated calls to resist were noted by supporters of the coup, and he was marked for murder. He had to seek shelter in Argentine embassy, before he could get safe passage to Mexico. He worked as doctor in Mexico, where he met Castro brothers in 1955, who were trying to organise Cuban revolution from Mexico. Castro had attempted revolution in Cuba in July 26th 1953 movement by attacking military garrison in Moncada and were sentenced for long jail terms. They were released after two plus years and had come over to Mexico. Che Guevara joined with them here and they set out on leaking cruise Granma with 82 fighters for Cuba through sea on 25th November 1956. While reaching mountains of Sierra Maestra in Cuba, Cuban dictator Batista forces had killed most of them, only 22 remaining met after many days in mountains and Che Guevara was put in command second to Fidel Castro and within two years they made the world’s most amazing revolution and captured power on 1stJanuary 1959. Batista and his supporters fled to Miami in US. Che himself liberated Santa Clara with just 400 hundred soldiers from ten times army of Batista! This is world’s only example of 82 men army throwing 80 thousand army of Batista regime in just two years time!
           Che Guevara helped Cuban revolution succeed, he was one of senior minister in Castro cabinet, yet his heart was in revolution, he wished to make in whole of Latin America. Most of all he wished to make in his birth country Argentina, where one of his Cuban comrade went but lost life too soon. He was feeling restless and went to Congo and other African countries to help national liberation movements. Later in 1966, he decided to go to Bolivia and try Cuban like revolution, where a Communist party already existed, but which was divided in Moscow and Beijing camps and did not help Che. Che tried on his own to organise the guerrillas force, despite suffering from his asthma all the time, but failed due to heavy odds. US supported Bolivian dictator Barrientos got him killed brutally after he was captured on 8th October. One day Che was in captivity, he was tortured most cruelly, but he kept his head high all the time and it was his manner of facing death, that made him immortal and hero of the world youth. He wrote his own epitaph earlier-‘Whereverdeath may surprise us, let it be welcome, provided that this our battle cry may have reached some receptive ear and another hand may be extended to wield our weapons.’
    Che Guevara was true internationalist, born in Argentina, fought in Guatemala and Congo, made revolution in Cuba and died in Bolivia while making revolution.
        Che Guevara in his sixteen years active life did so much, apart from making Cuban revolution and trying revolution in Congo, Africa and Bolivia, he wrote so much. His Motorcycle Diaries, Bolivian diaries, Guerrilla Warfare, Congo Diary, Cuba and the road to Socialism, Che Guevara Reader-which included number of his speeches, letters and interviews, Global Justice, n Marx and Engels and many more writings show the remarkable mind of Che. Five of his children survived him, some of them are now known figures in Cuba. Che’s personal collection of books included books by Jawaharlal Nehru as well, whom he met during a visit to Indian and Pakistan. He was probably not aware of Bhagat Singh’s writings, whom he would had loved like he loved Castro!
     Jail Notebook of Bhagat Singh from 12th September 1929 to undated time before 23rd March 1931 and Bolivian Diaries of Che Guevara from 7th November 1966 to 7th October 1967, just a day before his capture, though different make interesting reading. While Bhagat Singh was taking notes of world classic books on literature, history and political economy, Che was taking critical notes of his revolutionary activities. Both were voracious readers and would be found reading in most odd conditions of underground life. Both faced death in a most honourable manner. Bhagat Singh writing to Lieutenant Governor of Punjab to shoot them being ‘war prisoners’ and Che exhorting the killer to tell-‘shoot coward…’! Both were warm hearted and friendly personalities. Memoirs of comrades and friends of both have narrated number of incidents of their warmth.
     Both were the best sons of humanity produced so far-that is why both still inspire love and respect among youth!

*Chaman Lal is retired Professor of JNU, New Delhi and author of few books on Bhagat Singh. He can be reached at prof.chaman@gmail.com
09868774820/09646494538
H. no 2690, Urban Estate, Phase-2, Patiala(Punjab)-147002
                 
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Revolutionary Legacy of Bhagat Singh-in French Translation-L'Héritage révolutionnaire de Bhagat Singh

October 31, 2016, 1:09 am
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L'Héritage révolutionnaire de Bhagat Singh.

CHAMAN LAL,
Economical and political Weekly, 28/07/2007, extraits.

               La vie de Bhagat Singh ( 28 Septembre 1907-23 Mars 1931,), son oeuvre et sa pensée ont été marqués par une lutte sans compromis contre  le colonialisme et l'impérialisme, ainsi que par une opposition radicale au capitalisme, au communalisme[1] et au système des castes. Cet article est un compte rendu enthousiaste de sa vie et son activité révolutionnaire, de ses idéaux, ses opinions et son héritage.  
 Au moment (2007) où le pays se prépare à commémorer le centième anniversaire de la naissance de Bhagat Singh, la référence à son engagement et celui de ses camrades semble plus que jamais indispensable aujourd'hui, peut-être plus qu'à tout autre moment de la vie de l'Inde depuis 1947. 
 L'Inde et d'autres pays, sont aujourd'hui toujours confrontés à des pressions qui menacent leurs indépendances dans la conduite de leurs politiques étrangères, ainsi que dans l'élaboration de politiques nationales en fonction des besoins de leurs peuples. En ces temps difficiles, nous nous remémorons Bhagat Singh et Che Guevara, qui ont tous deux lutté contre toutes les formes d' impérialisme et de colonialisme.
Alors que l'histoire de Che Guevara est connue dans le monde entier, l'histoire de la lutte de Bhagat Singh[2] contre l' impérialisme britannique se doit d'être racontée; car elle peut inspirer les gens en lutte à travers le monde, comme la saga du Che a pu le faire.
Le 8 Avril 1929 Bhagat Singh et BK Dutt lancèrent des bombes non-létales ( qui ne visaient pas à tuer) en vue de «faire entendre les sourds» dans l'enceinte de l'Assemblée Centrale, appelée Parlement aujourd'hui. A cette occasion, deux slogans interpellèrent pour toujours l'imaginaire des Indiens « Inquilab Zindabad!» (Vive la Révolution!) et «Down with Imperialism!»( A bas l'Impérialisme!). En fait, ces deux slogans découlaient d'une volonté de changer l'orientation des perspectives critiques dans le mouvement révolutionnaire indien, et ils ont peu à peu remplacé l'ancien slogan populaire des révolutionnaires «Bande Mataram»[3]. Ce ne fut pas seulement un changement au niveau linguistique, du sanskrit à un mélange d'hindustani et d'anglais, mais un signe de la propagation certaine d'une réelle conscience critique dans le mouvement révolutionnaire du pays. Et l'un des catalyseurs de ce changement ne fût nul autre que Bhagat Singh, qui à ce moment là, grâce à son expérience du mouvement révolutionnaire et une étude méthodologique du mouvement révolutionnaire dans le monde entier, en particulier de l'expérience soviétique, avait atteint la conclusion qu'il ne suffit pas de «libérer notre Mère Inde des chaînes de l'esclavage étranger », mais qu'il apparaissait beaucoup plus important de comprendre l'ensemble des systèmes d'asservissement et d' exploitation au sein d' autres nations, à savoir les mécanismes et les leviers de l' impérialisme, puis de cerner l'aiguillon pour le briser. Bhagat Singh avait entrepris cette étude dès l'âge de 14 ou 15 ans. A aucun autre moment de la vie de l' Inde depuis 1947, la référence à ces deux mots d'ordre de Bhagat Singh  n'a paru si précieuse qu'aujourd'hui, contre les assauts d'un impérialisme plus vicieux encore que dans le passé.

 1.Les premières influences

                 Bhagat Singh est né le 28 Septembre 1907, à Lyallpur Banga au Pendjab, maintenant située au Pakistan, une heureuse coïncidence puisque c’est ce même jour qu’on appris les libérations des geôles britanniques de son père Kishan Singh, et de deux de ses oncles, le révolutionnaire Ajit Singh et le jeune Swarn Singh. Swarn, qui avait contracté la tuberculose en prison, mourût peu après sa libération à l'âge de 24 ans. Son oncle révolutionnaire Ajit Singh, le fondateur de la Bharat Mata Society[4], ainsi que Lala Lajpat Rai[5], furent forcés de quitter le pays en 1909, lorsque Bhagat Singh était âgé de deux ans, pour ne revenir que lorsque l' Inde se trouva aux portes de l'indépendance et de mourir le jour même de l' indépendance (le 15 Août  1947) à Dalhousie, en Himachal Pradesh.
À l'âge de 12 ans, Bhagat Singh visita Jallianwala Bagh à Amritsar après le massacre d'innocents en Avril 1919 [6], et en ramena chez lui du «sable imbibé de sang». À l'âge de 14 ans, en 1921, alors qu'il étudiait à Lahore, il informa son grand-père des préparatifs réalisés par les travailleurs des chemins de fer en vue d'une importante grève. Bhagat Singh rejoignit le National College de Lahore à 15 ans. Auparavant, il avait accueilli des travailleurs en lutte du parti Akali[7] dans son village, après le massacre du 4 février 1921, quand Mahant Narain Dass, en collaboration avec les autorités britanniques, avaient tué 140 Sikhs dévots au Gurdwara Nankana Sahib.
Soucieux des penchants révolutionnaires de plus en plus marqués chez Bhagat Singh, sa famille, et en particulier son père, crurent pouvoir «l'assagir par le mariage »! Il vivait déjà auprès de deux jeunes femmes, la veuve de son jeune oncle Swarn Singh et Bibi Harnam Kaur, épouse de son  oncle révolutionnaire exilé, Ajit Singh. Si le mariage n'avait pu pas «contrôler» Ajit Singh, comment aurait-il pu « l'assagir ? » Bhagat Singh? Il était sensible aux souffrances de ses deux tantes, et était particulièrement attaché à sa tante Harnam Kaur, épouse de Ajit Singh. Selon l'un de ses proches camarades de classe, Jaidev Gupta, Bhagat Singh a été confié à Harnam Kaur comme un «fils» , tandis que son mari Ajit Singh vivait en exil pour un période indéterminée. Bhagat Singh, en tout cas, était comme le fils politique d' Ajit Singh, avec qui il partageait un lien étroit malgré son absence. Philosophiquement et poltiquement, Ajit Singh était plus avancé que la direction du Parti du Congrès[8] au Pendjab, notamment dans sa conception de la liberté pour l' Inde. Il était aussi beaucoup plus révolutionnaire que la direction du Congrès, cherchant à éveiller et à organiser la paysannerie à la base contre son exploitation économique par les grands propriétaires féodaux et le système colonial. Bhagat Singh est allé au-delà des réflexions aiguisées de son oncle et a adopté la vision marxiste de la libération comme une fin nécessaire.
À l'âge de 15 ans , Bhagat Singh interrogea son père sur le retrait du Mahatma Gandhi du mouvement de Non-coopération après les Incidents Chauri Chaura[9]. En effet, l'échec du mouvement de Non-coopération après Chauri Chaura en 1922 avait durablement marqué les jeunes et les révolutionnaires de toute l' Inde. Chandra Shekhar Azad, qui a été fouetté pour avoir crié « Mahatma Gandhi Ki Jai ?» (« Qui est ce Gandhi? »), fit partie des jeunes, très amers de ces évolutions, qui plus tard, au cours de leurs activités révolutionnaires, ne pourraient plus jamais faire confiance à Gandhi. Ils furent associés dans la lutte anticoloniale à CR Dass, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, Lala Lajpat Rai et Madan Mohan Malviya, mais pas à Gandhi, bien qu'une correspondance avec lui exista. Gandhi ne répondit à la lettre de Sukhdev dans Young India, également intitulée « Who is this Gandhi ? » (« Qui est ce Gandhi ? »), qu'après l'exécution de ce dernier par les Britanniques. Pour être juste, Gandhi ne reçut la lettre, écrite bien plus tôt, qu'après les exécutions de Sukhdev, Bhagat Singh et Raj Guru. D'une certaine manière, le retrait du mouvement de Non-coopération en 1922 a redonné une impulsion au mouvement révolutionnaire dans tout le pays, notamment dans des groupes déjà existants au Bengale comme Ahushilan et Yugantar, ou l'Hindustan Republican Association (HRA)[10] dans les Provinces Unies, etc.
Bhagat Singh atteint Kanpur en 1923, après avoir informé par lettre son père, qu'il dédiait sa vie à la nation et qu'il ne pouvait penser à se marier. Son professeur à la National College, Jai Chander Vidyalankar avait écrit une lettre d'introduction de Bhagat Singh à Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, rédacteur en chef du journal Pratap[11]à Kanpur et président du Congrès dans les Provinces - Unies. Bhagat Singh n'a alors pas seulement travaillé pour Pratap, il a également rejoint l'organisation révolutionnaire clandestine, l'Hindustan Republican Association, dirigée par Sachinder Nath Sanyal, l'auteur de « Bandi Jivan »[12](Une Vie de Captivité ) , qui avait préalablement été incarcéré dans les îles Andamans. Bhagat Singh l'avait rencontré à Lahore. Il était aussi à Kanpur lorsque Bhagat Singh rencontra Bejoy Kumar Sinha, Shiv Verma, Jaider Kapoor, BK Dutt et Ajay Ghosh.
Sukhdev et Bhagwati Charn Vohra étaient ses camarades à Lahore. Après avoir passé environ six mois à écrire dans Pratap, sous le nom de plume de Balwant, assumant également partiellement les fonctions de directeur dans une école nationale autour de Aligarh, Bhagat Singh revînt à Lahore après la maladie de sa grand - mère afin d' obtenir l' assurance que plus personne dans sa famille ne lui parle de mariage.
À l'âge de 17 ans, Bhagat Singh avait tant mûri intellectuellement, qu'il écrivit un essai imprimé en Hindi sur la question de la langue du/au Pendjab. En 1924 et 1925, il écrivit 'Vishv Prem' ( « L' amour avec le monde»)  et « Yuvak », qui ont été publiés dans Matwala, tous deux sous le nom de Balwant Singh. Son article de 1926 sur l'exécution des six Babbar Akali révolutionnaires[13] intitulé «ke Holi din rakat ke Chinte » (« Pluies de sang pour Holi») a été publié sous la signature d'«un jeune Pendjabi ».
 Dans «Pourquoi je suis un athée », écrit en 1930, Bhagat Singh évoque son cheminement vers l' athéisme à la fin de 1926, alors qu'il n'a pas encore 19 ans. Avec pour toile de fond, la littérature marxiste de la Bibliothèque Dwarka Dass à Lahore, où Bhagat Singh  devint un vorace lecteur à partir de 1924. Il ne s'est d'ailleurs pas contenté de devenir seulement un athée, cherchant toujours des idées radicales pour la libération et l'émancipation humaine. Il devint un marxiste engagé, notamment dans ses contacts avec le groupe Kirti des révolutionnaires Ghadrites/Ghadars[14] du Pendjab. Il publia régulièrement des articles dans le journal Kirti sur diverses questions comme «leCommunalisme et sa solution », « le Problème de l' Intouchabilité», « La religion et  notre lutte de libération», etc.
S'il cultivait des différences avec les Ghadrites/Ghadars révolutionnaires, elles ne reposaient que sur l'élaboration même ​​du programme du parti révolutionnaire. Bhagat Singh et ses camarades étaient convaincus que pour réveiller le pays de son sommeil, la jeunesse se devait d'opérer certaines actions révolutionnaires, nationalistes et audacieuses, et de procéder à des sacrifices pour faire avancer le mouvement anti-colonial.

2. Adoption de l' ordre du jour socialiste

              En 1928, Bhagat Singh, mais aussi Sukhdev et Bhagwati Charan Vohra au Pendjab ainsi que Bejoy Kumar Sinha, Shiv Verma et Jaidev Kapoor en Uttar Pradesh s'accordèrent sur la nécessité d'un ordre du jour socialiste pour leur parti révolutionnaire. Ils appelèrent à une réunion d'urgence du comité central de l' HRA les 8 et 9 Septembre 1928  au Ferozeshah Kotla à Delhi, où , après de longues délibérations et à la suggestion de Bhagat Singh, soutenu par Sukhdev, Bejoy Kumar Sinha, Shiv Verma et Jaidev Kapoor, le HRA a été rebaptisé Association socialiste républicaine Hindustani (HSRA). L'ajout du mot socialiste n'était pas seulement ornemental comme cela fut le cas pour/sous Indira Gandhi pendant l'état d'urgence dans les années 1970, qui ne fit qu'ajouter le terme socialiste au préambule de la Constitution indienne. Ce fut un changement longuement réfléchi qui visait à transformer la finalité de la révolution indienne, et qui reçut l'approbation de Chandra Shekhar Azad lui-même, qui bien que peu instruit du projet, se reposait sur son entière confiance en Bhagat Singh.
Avant la constitution du HSRA en 1928, Bhagat Singh s'était déjà formé au travail d' organisation des masses. Le Naujawan Bharat Sabha (NBS) avait été formé en 1926 sur le schéma des organisations de jeunesse en Italie, inspirées par Mazzini et Garibaldi. Bhagat Singh en fut le secrétaire général et Bhagwati Charan Vohra  le secrétaire à la propagande. Entre autres activités, le NBS  développa des lieux de recueillement où les photos de patriotes décédés étaient illuminées à la lanterne. Ils furent particulièrement touchés par le sacrifice de Kartar Singh Sarabha[15], exécuté au jeune âge de 19 ans en 1915 à Lahore et dont Bhagat Singh avait toujours une photographie dans la poche. À toutes leurs réunions publiques ils décoraient d'une guirlande la photo de Sarabha sur l'estrade. Au cours de cette période, les Révolutionnaires Ghadrites de retour de Moscou et solidement formés à la théorie communiste, avaient formé le groupe Kirti. Santokh Singh  créa Kirti, un journal en pendjabi dans lequel écrivit également Bhagat Singh. Par la suite Sohan Singh Josh en devint le rédacteur en chef après le décès soudain de Santokh Singh.
Bhagat Singh travailla pendant une longue période avec la rédaction de Kirti, et fut aussi en contact avec Sohan Singh Jos en ce qui concernait les activités du NBS. Même avant la formation du NBS à Lahore, Bhagat Singh eut des liens avec les premiers communistes du pays à Kanpur, qui était alors une ville ouvrière. Il y rencontra alors notamment des communistes tels que Satyabhakat, Radha Mohan Gokulji et Shaukat Usmani.
Bhagat Singh fit  concrètement parti du mouvement communiste en Inde depuis sa création, ses activités ultérieures en attestant. Bien sûr, il n'était pas formellement membre du parti communiste, qui n'en était alors qu'à son émergence. Mais il avait rencontré Muzzafar Ahmad, l' un des fondateurs du parti communiste, qui était venu à Lahore après sa sortie de prison dans l'affaire de la conspiration de Kanpur en 1924[16]. Ainsi Bhagat Singh n'eût aucune réserve à se joindre au parti communiste, au moment même où il tentait avec ses proches camarades de développer leur propre organisation révolutionnaire, le HSRA. Il leur apparut clairement que le HSRA devait appuyer les masses, qu'elles soient constituées d' ouvriers, de paysans, d'étudiants ou d' autres sections potentiellement révolutionnaires de la société.
 Compte tenu de la conscience politique encore incertaine de l'Indien de la rue , quelques actions exemplaires et tranchantes furent nécessaires pour réveiller les masses de leur sommeil et lancer un soulèvement puissant contre le colonialisme britannique. Sohan Singh Josh avait ainsi judicieusement articulé le fruit de ses quatre réunions avec Bhagat Singh. Mais à la suite de la formation du HSRA en Septembre 1928, certains développements politiques l'empêchèrent de se transformer en noyau véritable d'un ensemble d'organisations de masse.
Cependant, en dehors du NBS, des organisations de masse telles que le Lahore Students  Union, Union Bal Students et Bal Bharat Sabha s'étaient constituées. Il est intéressant de noter ici que le NBS avait contribué à la formation du Bal Bharat Sabha, une organisation de jeunes souvent âgés de 12 à 16 ans. Aucun historien ne semble encore avoir prêté attention à cet aspect intéressant de la lutte pour la liberté. Le président du Bal Bharat Sabhaà Amritsar, Kahan Chand, âgé lui de seulement 11 ans, fut soumis à trois mois d'un rigoureux emprisonnement. Et Yash, âgé de seulement 10 ans, qui allait devenir plus tard l'éditeur renommé du quotidien en ourdou Milap, fut secrétaire du Bal Bharat Sabha. Il fut poursuivi pour trois chefs d' accusation, dont notamment son soutien au parti du  Congrès de la ville de Lahore et au NBS. 1192 mineurs de moins de 15 ans furent ainsi condamnés pour leurs activités politiques. Outre le Bal Bharat Sabha, l'Union Bal Students joua alors également un grand rôle dans l'agiation anti-coloniale. À l'époque, Bhagat Singh incitait les jeunes Pendjabis à se joindre à ces organisations, et même les dirigeants du Congrès de Lahore furent  marqués par sa personnalité magnétique. Le petit-fils de Lala Lajpat Rai, Baldev Raj, était le secrétaire de l'Union BalStudents, et Dyanat Rai son président. La ferveur anti-coloniale générée par Bhagat Singh et ses camarades ne cessait de s'accroître.

3. Pris par la Répression Coloniale

             Alarmée par son impact et son influence sur ​​les jeunes, la police de Lahore arrêta Bhagat Singh en mai 1927, sous le prétexte de son implication dans l'affaire de la bombe Dussehra[17], en octobre 1926. Il fut maintenu en prison pendant environ six semaines. C'est durant cette période que Bhagat Singh élabora des projets de manifestations de masse au  Pendjab, mais avant que ces activités ne trouvent une dynamique et un momentum, la Commission Simon[18] se déplaça en Inde. En dépit de ses divergences avec Lala Lajpat Rai, notamment en raison de son association avec des éléments communalistes, il lui fut demandé d'organiser la manifestation coordonnée par le NBS contre la Commission Simon le 30 octobre 1928. Bhagat Singh ne fut lui-même pas présent à cette manifestation, mais les militants du NBS fournissaient une protection/escorte à Lalaji ( Lala Lajpat Rai), lorsqu' un affrontement avec les policiers britanniques eut lieu. Le surintendant de la police (SP) de la ville de Lahore, Scott, ordonna une charge de lathis[19] et son adjoint, Saunders se déchaîna personnellement sur Lalaji, le rouant de coups et entraînant sa mort quelques jours plus tard, le 17 novembre 1928.
En réponse, Basanti Devi, la veuve de C.R. Das , exhorta la jeunesse de tout le pays à venger l'insulte faite à la nation par l'assassinat de Lalaji. Bhagat Singh ne pouvait pas manquer pareille occasion; le HSRA  décida de faire disparaître Scott, qui était le commanditaire de la mort de Lalaji. Bhagat Singh et Rajguru furent choisis pour assassiner le Super Intendant Scott, Jai Gopal pour l'identifier et Chandra Shekhar Azad pour fournir une couverture à l'équipe entière. Bhagat Singh était censé ouvrir le feu le premier, mais le jour venu, au signal donné par Jai Gopal ayant identifié l'officier britannique, Rajguru tira immédiatement sur lui, tandis que Bhagat Singh essaya d' interpeler Azad en lui disant : "Panditji, Ce n' est pas Scott mais S..." (« Proceedings of Lahore Conspiracy Case » dans les Notes de Sukhdev). Mais avant qu'il ne puisse finir sa phrase, ce fut bien l'adjoint Saunders qui était abattu par Rajguru, toujours désireux de s'illustrer et de se couvrir d'honneur. Bhagat Singh n'eut d' autres options que de vider encore trois ou quatre autres balles dans le corps de Saunders pour veiller à ce qu'il ne survive pas.
Des affiches parurent spontanément dans Lahore le lendemain matin, célébrant les révolutionnaires ayant commis l'assassinat de Saunders, qui était physiquement responsable de la mort de Lalaji, et constituait comme Scott un symbole du pouvoir colonial. Cet acte scella le sort de Bhagat Singh, qui comprenait bien qu'il allait être exécuté après son arrestation et le procès. Il décida alors d'effectuer le plus grand nombre possible d'actes révolutionnaires, dans le court laps de vie qu'il lui restait.
De nombreux camarades du HSRA devinrent clandestins après leur implication dans l'affaire de l'attentat ferroviaire à Kakori[20], en particulier Chandra Shekhar Azad. Après l'assassinat de Saunders, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev et d' autres durent également entrer en clandestinité. Bhagat Singh s'échappa à Calcutta avec Durga Bhabhi où il fut en contact avec certains révolutionnaires bengalis, parmi lesquels Jatinder Nath qui accepta d'aller à Lahore pour former d' autres camarades aux techniques de fabrication d'explosifs.
À ce stade, l'HSRA en était arrivé à une conclusion: après avoir adopté une perspective socialiste de libération indienne, ils voulaient maintenant se concentrer plus encore sur l' organisation des travailleurs, des paysans, des étudiants et des jeunes, mais l'assassinat de Saunders et certaines affaires antérieures ne leur permettait pas de travailler ouvertement. Ils ne pouvaient pas non plus prendre comme couverture le parti du Congrès pour le travail politique ouvert, tant ils avaient de différences fondamentales avec ce parti.
Dans une telle situation, la seule option, pour lui–même comme pour le HSRA, était d'éveiller les gens à l' engagement révolutionnaire, mais avec un minimum de morts/pertes, puis de sacrifier leurs propres vies de telle manière que tout le pays prenne réellement conscience de leurs objectifs et leurs idées. Bhagat Singh voulut également supprimer/se défaire de l'adjectif « terroriste », appliqué tant à l'organisation, qu'à ses membres. Pour cela, il voulait utiliser des plates-formes, d'où leurs voix pourraient atteindre des millions de personnes. Bhagat Singh comprenait bien qu'en sacrifiant leur vie à la fleur de leur jeunesse, ils se devaient de pouvoir inspirer en retour un grand nombre de leurs compatriotes et camarades. Par la revendication de l'assassinat de Saunders en plein jour, le HSRA défendait aussi très sérieusement cette position. Bhagat Singh, lors de ses interrogatoires, confirma évidemment n'agir sans rancune personnelle ou malveillance orientée.

4. « Faire entendre les sourds »

            Jatin Das[21] vint à Lahore et les bombes furent fabriquées dans des maisons louées. Constatant l'accueil enthousiaste de l' assassinat de Saunders par la population, Bhagat Singh voulait entreprendre une autre initiative tout aussi spectaculaire. Le gouvernement colonial britannique était alors résolument décidé à légiférer et entériner le projet de loi sur la sécurité publique et les projets de loi commerciaux, en dépit d' une forte opposition des masses et des membres de l'Assemblée Centrale. Bhagat Singh et ses camarades décidèrent de jeter des bombes inoffensives destinées uniquement à causer un grand bruit dans l'Assemblée Centrale.
La question fut discutée au comité central du HSRA en l'absence de Sukhdev. La proposition de Bhagat Singh de remplacer ce dernier ? pour l'action fut rejetée, sachant qu'il aurait déjà à subir les conséquences de l' assassinat de Saunders, le parti ne voulant pas perdre un leader de sa stature à un moment aussi crucial. Lorsque Sukhdev apprit la décision, et malgré son étroite amitié pour Bhagat Singh, il lui reprocha, contrarié, d'« essayer de sauver sa peau», alors qu'il savait pertinemment que personne d'autre ne pouvait mieux défendre la cause du parti que lui. Le comité central se réunit à nouveau et Bhagat Singh insista pour faire partie de l'équipe et se faire arrêter après l'opération. Le comité aurait préféré qu'ils s'échappent après l'intervention mais accepta à contrecoeur les modalités proposées de Bhagat Singh.
 L'entreprise fut inspirée par la geste similaire d'un révolutionnaire au Parlement français[22] afin d' attirer l'attention sur la pauvreté du peuple au son du bon-mot devenu célèbre, « Il y a besoin d' une explosion pour faire entendre les sourds ». C'était également la première phrase de brochures qu'éparpillèrent Bhagat Singh et BK Dutt à travers l'Assemblée Centrale après avoir jeté les deux bombes inoffensives sur des bancs vides du Parlement. Mais l'explosion créa une grande confusion/panique dans l' Assemblée et seuls quelques membres comme Pandit Motilal Nehru, Madan Mohan Malviya et Jinnah[23] réussirent à garder leur calme en restant debout sur ​​leurs sièges. Les autres, y compris le secrétaire de l'Assemblée/le ministre de l'intérieur, coururent pêle-mêle, quelques-uns se cachant même sous les bancs. Et voici l'origine des deux slogans historiques « Inquilab Zindabad !» (Long Live Revolution!) et « Samrajyavad Ka Nash Ho! » (A bas l'Impérialisme !); au fil du temps, ces slogans, et particulièrement «Inquilab Zindabad!» fut repris par nombres de groupes révolutionnaires, mais  aussi par la plupart de toutes les autres organisations, y compris le Congrès. Bien entendu, la Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), le Hindu Mahasabha[24] et autres organisations communalistes et ultra-nationalistes n'eurent jamais quoi que ce soit à voir avec ce slogan.
En fait, «Inquilab Zindabad!» est une traduction de « Long Live Revolution! », un slogan internationaliste de la classe ouvrière. Il fut précédemment traduit en hindi par «Kranti Chirjivi Ho», mais il n'eut pas la même emprise sur l'imaginaire du peuple. «Inquilab Zindabad!» s'est non seulement inscrit dans l'imaginaire des peuples de langue hindi, mais fut ensuite repris à travers toute l'Inde d' Agartala à Chennai, et de Srinagar à Mumbai. Il devint extrêmement populaire dans le sous-continent Indien et dans certains pays alentours. Bhagat Singh se réjouît à juste titre «d'avoir, au cours de sa courte vie, popularisé ce slogan auprès de centaines de millions d' Indiens ». «Inquilab Zindabad!», remplaça finalement le «Bande Mataram», qui fut le slogan le plus populaire du mouvement nationaliste et anti-colonial de 1905 à ce fameux 8 Avril 1929. 5. Dan

5. Devant la Cour et en Prison.es

       L' explosion à l'Assemblée avait été très méticuleusement planifiée. Des photographies de Bhagat Singh et Dutt avait été prises avant l'action, des copies de la déclaration publiée à l'occasion furent imprimées en abondance et la presse les obtint  le jour même, le 8 Avril 1929. Les agents de police britanniques eurent peur de les arrêter alors que deux d'entre eux étaient munis de pistolets, mais tout en criant les slogans, ils déposèrent leurs pistolets sur une table, indiquant ainsi à la police qu'ils étaient prêts à être arrêtés. Les officiers de police ne les arrêtèrent effectivement que lorsqu'ils eurent mis leurs armes de côté, alors qu'entre-temps, Jaidev Kapoor avait réussi à quitter la salle de l' Assemblée.
L' objectif immédiat du groupe révolutionnaire avait été atteint et la tâche suivante consistait  maintenant à diffuser le message de la révolution parmi leurs compatriotes. Bhagat Singh avait à nouveau un plan clairement échafaudé. Ils ne se défendraient pas devant les tribunaux britanniques, mais les utiliseraient plutôt comme des plates-formes pour diffuser leur message en y faisant des déclarations politiques. Ils ne prirent pas de défenseurs, mais acceptèrent tout de même  les conseils d' avocats. L' avocat nationaliste Asaf Ali les assista, et ce fut lui qui lut le 6 juin 1929, la déclaration historique de Bhagat Singh et BK Dutt durant les audiences devant la cour où ils étaient jugés dans l'affaire des bombes au Parlement de Delhi.
Cette déclaration est un document  politique qui explique les objectifs et les objectifs du mouvement révolutionnaire en termes lucides (Shiv Verma (ed), Selected Writings of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, National Book Center, New Delhi, 1986, p 71[25]): « Nous prétendons humblement n'être rien d'autre que des bons connaisseurs de l'histoire et de la condition de notre pays et de ses aspirations. Nous méprisons l' hypocrisie. Notre pratique et nos protestations sont depuis toujours inscrites contre l' Institution Coloniale, qui, depuis son émergence, a constamment révélé non seulement son inutilité, mais aussi son implacable penchant pour l' injustice. Plus nous y avons réfléchi, et plus profondément nous avons été convaincus qu' elle existe précisément pour démontrer au monde entier l' humiliation de l' Inde et son impuissance, symbolisant la domination castratrice d'un régime autocratique mondialement irrésistible[26]. (...) Des résolutions solennelles passées devant l' Assemblée Centrale ont été dédaigneusement vilipendées et abrogées par le soi-disant Parlement Indien.
Bhagat Singh et Dutt clarifièrent leur but: «Nous sommes décidés à supporter notre peine et assumer nos actes, en faisant entendre aux exploiteurs impérialistes qu' ils ne peuvent tuer nos idées par l'écrasement des individus. Même en écrasant deux éléments insignifiants, vous ne pourrez détruire la volonté d'une nation. »  (ibid, p 73). Et ils provoquèrent la puissance coloniale en l'interrogeant : « Est-ce des ordonnances et des projets de loi sécuritaires que peuvent émerger les flammes de la liberté en Inde?  En multipliant les cas de conspirations forgés de toutes pièces, vous procédez à l'incarcération de ces jeunes hommes, qui chérissent tous un grand idéal, ne voulant pas qu'ils participent à la marche de la révolution. Mais un avertissement en temps opportun, s'il n'est pas ignoré, peut aider à prévenir la perte de nombreuses vies et les souffrances communes. Nous avons  tout tenté pour fournir cet avertissement et notre devoir est maintenant fait »(ibid, pp 73-74).
Bhagat Singh et Dutt expliquèrent dans leur déclaration comment ils avaient volontairement jeté les bombes inoffensives dans des espaces vides où les sièges étaient vacants, afin de ne nuire à personne, les seuls dommages ayant été causés aux bancs vides ainsi que de légères brûlures et abrasions pour moins d'une demi-douzaine de personnes. Et comme ils furent invités par la cour à expliciter  ce qu'ils entendaient par le terme de révolution,  Bhagat Singh développa alors le concept de révolution (presque) dans la terminologie marxiste. Il critiqua l'essor du capitalisme industriel et impérial et s'inscrivit pour la mise en place de la dictature du prolétariat, comme réalisation effective de l' idéal de la révolution. Et pourtant, il rappela aussi à la puissance coloniale britannique la formule marxiste qui reconnaît « la transition pacifique possible si les avertissements en temps opportun sont pris en compte par la puissance qui domine » . Il conclut à nouveau sa déclaration avec le slogan « Long Live Revolution! ».
En fait, le concept de révolution irradiait tant Bhagat Singh que toute son attention et son énergie se focalisaient à clarifier pour lui-même, et pour ses camarades et compatriotes, les mécanismes de la puissance impérialiste. Lorsque Ramanand Chatterjee, rédacteur en chef de la Modern Review ridiculisa le slogan « Long Live Revolution! », Bhagat Singh et Dutt lui répondirent par une lettre, qui fut publié dans le Tribune du 24 Décembre, 1929: « La Révolution ne nécessite pas forcément de conflits sanguinaires. Ce n'est pas un culte de la bombe et du pistolet !De simples moyens peuvent permettre de réels exploits. ...Une rébellion n' est pas une révolution. Mais elle peut finalement conduire à cette fin »  (Shiv Verma (ed), p 81). Bhagat Singh définit ainsi la révolution comme «le désir inné de changements vers toujours plus de justice et de solidarité » , souhaitant que             «l' esprit de la révolution soit toujours en mesure d' imprégner l'âme de l' humanité, afin que les forces réactionnaires ne puissent accumuler la puissance nécessaire à la poursuite de leur éternelle marche en avant. »
 Deux objectifs importaient à Bhagat Singh et ses camarades devant les tribunaux et en prison: (i) Pouvoir critiquer le colonialisme britannique à travers les tribunaux, en les utilisant comme des caisses de résonances pour diffuser leurs idées; (ii) Pouvoir exposer les brutalités du colonialisme en prison, par le recours à des grèves de la faim qui attireraient l'attention du peuple. Les autorités britanniques n' ignoraient pas ces plans, mais elles furent surprises par l' abnégation et la détermination de Bhagat Singh et de ses camarades dans le box des accusés.
 Bhagat Singh visait enfin sans cesse son propre développement idéologique. Il reste rare de voir un homme sur le point d'aller à la potence, se plonger profondément dans une étude sérieuse de l' histoire révolutionnaire du monde, et ce,  dans des circonstances toujours plus difficiles. Au cours de la préparation de ses interventions pour les audiences devant la cour, sa sérieuse étude du marxisme lui profita. Même durant les grèves de la faim organisées collectivement pendant des mois, même  lorsqu'il fut brutalement battu par la police et qu'il devait soigner ses blessures en prison, il étudia toujours, écrivit abondamment et pris sans relâche des notes à propos des livres qu'il lisait.

6. Les manuscrits écrits en prison . Les Cahiers de Prison. « The Jail Notebook ».

             Bhagat Singh  rédigea quatre manuscrits en prison : (i) « L' Idéal du Socialisme», (ii)« Autobiographie», (iii) « L' Histoire des Mouvements Révolutionnaires en Inde », et, (iv)«A la Porte de la Mort». Selon Shiv Verma, ces manuscrits furent extraits clandestinement de prison par Kumari Lajjawati, de Jalandhar, qui les remit à Bejoy Kumar Sinha en 1938, après sa sortie de la prison Port Blair des îles Andaman. Sinha les confia lui-même à un ami pour qu' il les préserve/conserve précieusement, mais celui-ci détruisit finalement les manuscrits, craignant une descente de police. Le manuscrit de « Jail Notebook » fut  cependant recueilli par Kulbir Singh, ou un autre des membres de la famille de Bhagat Singh.
 Kumari Lajjawati, activiste du Congrès et secrétaire du comité de défense de Bhagat Singh, lui rendit très fréquemment visite à la prison de Lahore  pour discuter des aspects juridiques de l'affaire. Dans une interview au  Nehru Museum Memorial et à la Cellule d' histoire orale de sa bibliothèque, elle rappela qu' elle avait soumis les documents confiés par Bhagat Singh à Feroze Chand, l'éditeur du journal People, le journal créé par Lala Lajpat Rai à Lahore. Feroze Chand put sélectionner ce qu'il voulait pour publication dans People[27]. Il choisit certains articles et renvoya les autres à Kumari Lajjawati, qui les transmit finalement à Bejoy Kumar Sinha en 1938. Feroze Chand publia «Pourquoi je suis athée» dans le numéro du 27 septembre 1931 de People. Avant cela, dans son numéro du 29 Mars 1931, juste après l' exécution, People publia des extraits du désormais célèbre «Lettre aux jeunes travailleurs politiques ». Il semble que Feroze Chand ait également sélectionné, ce fut mentionné par Shiv Verma, «A la Porte de la Mort» et  d'autres documents, dont la « Lettre sur la Peine de Mort », confiée au jeune révolutionnaire Harikishan, qui furent également publiées par People.                           L' indifférence relative accordée aux documents, considérés comme si précieux, étonne aujourd'hui. Que ni Kumari Lajjawati, ni Feroze Chand, ni même Bejoy Kumar Sinha, qui reçut solennellement la garde des documents sur les instructions de Bhagat Singh lui-même, n'aient pris la peine de se pencher sérieusement sur ces documents reste troublant.
Néanmoins, l' essentiel de la pensée de Bhagat Singh peut ainsi être saisi sur la base de ces documents, si substantiels soient-ils. Il est difficile               d' imaginer que Bhagat Singh ait pu écrire quatre livres à part entière en aussi peu de temps (environ deux ans, du 8 Avril 1929 au 23 mars 1931), alors qu' il était également impliqué dans les grèves de la faim et les audiences au tribunal . Sur les quatre titres mentionnés, deux semblent être liés, à savoir son « Autobiographie » et «A la Porte de la Mort». Les deux autres titres, auraient constitués de courtes brochures, si elles avaient été conclues,
mais écrire une histoire exhaustive des mouvements révolutionnaires en Inde semble improbable, au vu des circonstances difficiles des deux dernières années de sa vie.
 Cependant, on a également retrouvé des notes manuscrites pour l'écriture d' un livre sur «La Théorie de l'État»[28], pour lequel il avait pris des notes très détaillées, retrouvées dans « Jail Notebook [29]». Dans ce livre, Bhagat Singh aurait voulu retracer l'évolution historique de l' Etat jusqu'à l' Etat socialiste moderne. S' il avait eu le temps d'écrire ce livre, c' eût peut-être été une importante contribution à l'analyse marxiste de l'Etat.
Le manuscrit qui survécût, et dont la première version publiée en 1994 fut éditée par l'énergique Bhupender Hooja, est un document important en soi. Ce n' est pas un carnet de notes comme les cahiers de prison de Gramsci ou des carnets philosophiques comme ceux de Lénine, ni même un journal comme les journaux de Che Guevara. Ce n' est d'ailleurs pas du tout un journal; ce sont des notes réellement singulières sur les livres lus par Bhagat Singh en prison, avant son exécution. En plus d'être importantes par les sélections qu' elles proposent, ces notes sont un indicateur objectif du développement des idées de Bhagat Singh. Elles sont aussi le reflet d' une extrême sensibilité esthétique, abordant des classiques littéraires du monde entier. Ces citations montrent que Bhagat Singh fut un révolutionnaire d' une rare sensibilité. Pendant ses études comme par la suite, son goût pour les films fut aussi mentionné par plusieurs de ses amis proches et camarades. Il adorait les films de Charlie Chaplin, mais aussi des films comme « La Case de l'Oncle Tom » ou « Les Trois Mousquetaires ». En plus d'être un bon chanteur, il appris le théâtre et les arts dramatiques au collège, ainsi que la littérature et d'autres formes d'art comme la poésie. Ce fut sans doute la raison pour laquelle le révolutionnaire vétéran, Ram Saran Dass lui demanda d'écrire une introduction à sa collection de poésie « Dreamland ».
Il est également intéressant de relever que bien avant que  le « Jail Notebook » n' aitttiré l'attention des chercheurs en Inde, il a été discuté en détail par l'indianiste soviétique, L.V. Mitrokhin dans son livre de 1981, « Lénine et L' Inde », dont la traduction en hindi a été publié en 1990. Dans ce livre, tout un chapitre est intitulé  « Les derniers jours de Bhagat Singh ». Dans ce livre, apparaissent des références à des études antérieures telles que         l' article de A.V. Raikov, intitulé «Bhagat Singh et son héritage idéologique».  Mitrokhin  avait d'ailleurs inclus «Les Livres lus par Bhagat Singh », dans la publication de 1971 de  « Lénine et l'Inde ». Ces publications russes, furent les premières à tenter une évaluation objective du développement intellectuel de Bhagat Singh, placé dans la tradition de  pensée marxiste et de ses grilles de lecture.
 J' avais lu le manuscrit de Bhagat Singh « Jail Notebook» au Mémorial Nehru Museum and Library (NMML) en 1984, et ait rapidement commencé à écrire à ce sujet dans les journaux en hindi, regrettant qu'il reste encore inédit. Le NMML en avait obtenu une copie du frère cadet de Bhagat Singh, Kulbir Singh, à condition de «ne pas la publier ». C' est seulement fin 1992 que Bhupender Hooja, le rédacteur en chef du Indian Book ChronicleàJaipur, en a commencé l'édition sous forme de chroniques dans son mensuel. Rassuré par nos recherches quant à son authenticité, il publia « Jail Notebook » avec des notes éditoriales sous forme de livre en 1994 à Jaipur. Malgré quelques bonnes critiques, et son importance comme document historique, le « Jail Notebook » n'a pas obtenu l'attention qu'il méritait. Ironiquement, les traductions du manuscrit parues en hindi et en d'autres langues ne donnèrent aucun crédit au minutieux travail d' annotations effectuées par Bhupender Hooja.
Espérons que sa nouvelle édition aiguise aujourd'hui de manière féconde l'attention des historiens, des étudiants révolutionnaires, des mouvements pour la liberté en Inde et des acteurs politiques. Ce document doit être lu en relation à d'autres documents importants de Bhagat Singh  comme «Pourquoi je suis athée»[30],  « Déclarations à la Cour»,«Lettre à de Jeunes travailleurs politiques », etc., qui ont acquis le statut de documents classiques du mouvement révolutionnaire Indien. En effet, dans le « Jail Notebook », les citations extraites de livres, autres que les classiques littéraires, sont un véritable guide pour le développement de la pensée politique démocratique, des classiques de la Grèce antique au meilleur des écrits marxistes.  Le « Jail Notebook », se conclut, le jour de sa mort, par une ultime note sur un livre de Lénine à moitié commencé. Le poète révolutionnaire Pendjabi Paash écrivit un hommage appuyé au Bhagat Singh des derniers instants,  appelant « les jeunes Indiens à reprendre le livre de Lénine là où celui-ci l'avait laissé, au dernier jour de sa vie ».

7. L' Arme politique de la Grève de la faim

                Les grèves de la faim menées par Bhagat Singh et ses camarades de prison furent longues et sans compromis, à l'image de celle entreprise par leur cher camarade Jatin Das, mort le 13 septembre 1929, le jour de son soixante-troisième jour de grève de la faim. L'alimentation forcée et le gavage au  lait endommagèrent les poumons de Jatin mais il refusa d'abandonner son jeûne malgré les appels de ses collègues,  déclarant qu'il voulait sciemment faire don de sa vie pour la liberté de l'Inde. Bhagat Singh et Dutt  poursuivirent leur grève de la faim après la mort de Jatin, la brisant seulement la première semaine d'Octobre 1929, après un jeûne de 115 jours. Bhagat Singh entreprit une autre série de grèves de la faim pendant les audiences sur l' assassinat de Saunders, où ils furent brutalement battus sur les ordres du juge britannique qui présidait la cour, provoquant l'ire du juge indien Agha Haider, qui se désolidarisa et fut renvoyé du tribunal.
Bhagat Singh et ses camarades ont utilisé la grève de la faim comme une arme politique redoutable. La force morale de la grève de la faim, l'abnégation qu 'elle implique, ont influé et agissent encore dans toutes les sociétés. La différence entre un kamikaze et un gréviste de la faim est que le kamikaze, tout en donnant sa vie pour la cause qui lui est chère, prend  la vie des autres  et  perd la sympathie des gens, alors qu' un gréviste de la faim ne nuit qu'à sa santé, et même en sacrifiant sa vie, ne pique que la conscience de la nation. Bhagat Singh et ses camarades en étaient conscients et ils l' utilisèrent le plus possible, pour ne pas être considérés que comme des tueurs ou des terroristes. Preuve de maturité politique[31], l' arme de la faim grève reste aujourd'hui très efficace, à condition que la personne qui l'observe, incarne et porte la force morale de la cause qu'elle défend.

8. Le Procès et l'exécution

       Bhagat Singh et ses camarades boycottèrent le procès de l'assassinat de Saunders. La façon dont le tribunal procéda à la condamnation à mort de Bhagat Singh, Rajguru et Sukhdev est soigneusement exposée dans le livre de A. G. Noorani « The Trial of Bhagat Singh ». Le procès comme la sentence des colons britanniques convergèrent pour exécuter les révolutionnaires Indiens. Bhagat Singh écrivit au gouverneur du Punjab, le 20 Mars 1931, trois jours avant leur exécution, pour qu'ils soient traités comme des prisonniers de guerre, car ils étaient selon lui en guerre contre l'impérialisme britannique et en tant que tel, « ils devaient être abattus plutôt que pendus ». Mais le pouvoir impérial britannique se révéla si lâche qu'il ne put même pas maintenir le calendrier normal de la pendaison, entre 6 et 7 heures du matin. Contre tous les normes internationales, ils pendirent Bhagat Singh, Rajguru et Sukhdev à 7 h  du soir le 23 mars 1931. Un  rassemblement considérable eut lieu ce jour-là à Lahore, organisé par le Naujawan Bharat Sabha, qui pensait que l' exécution aurait finalement lieu dans la matinée 24 Mars. Mais, par peur de la foule immense rassemblée à la prison centrale de Lahore, les autorités coloniales britanniques les exécutèrent à 7 h du soir le 23 Mars même. Mais le peuple de Lahore ne le sut pas tout de suite. Le rassemblement allait se terminer, lorsque la nouvelle des exécutions se répandit ; les gens se ruèrent furieusement vers les portes de la prison. Effrayés, les responsables britanniques brisèrent les corps des martyrs en morceaux, les emballèrent dans des sacs, et les emmenèrent à l'arrière des portes de la prison vers la rive du fleuve Sutlej près de Ferozepur. Les corps furent hâtivement brûlés dans du kérosène puis dispersés dans la jungle près du village de Ganda Singhwalla. Mais les gens de Ferozepur et de Lahore, angoissés et en colère, retrouvèrent le lieu de l'atroce crémation avant l'aube du 24 Mars, recueillirent les os à demi brûlé et les restes des condamnés, les ramenèrent à Lahore, où une crémation digne des trois martyrs  eut de nouveau lieu sur les berges de la rivière Ravi.
 Le Parti du Congrès au Pendjab forma un comité d'enquête pour déterminer précisément les mauvais traitements infligés aux corps morts/restes des martyrs. Certains journaux, en particulier Bhavishya à Allahabad, travaillèrent à alerter le comité des graves atteintes infligées aux condamnés, or le rapport ne parut finalement jamais dans le domaine public. Mais le Congrès publia ensuite un rapport sur les émeutes de Kanpur suivant l'exécution des martyrs qui attira l'attention nationale, et, alors qu' une réimpression en a récemment été publiée par le National Book Trust, il est étrange que personne n'ait jamais même fait référence au rapport d'enquête du Congrès sur le traitement des corps par les autorités coloniales britanniques. Les émeutes de Kanpur, qui commencèrent après l'exécution de Bhagat Singh et ses camarades, prirent malheureusement une couleur communaliste et coutèrent notamment la vie au leader du Congrès local, le journaliste nationaliste et admirateur de Bhagat Singh, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi.
Il en va de même en ce qui concerne l'érection d'un mémorial pour les martyrs. Le Naujawan Bharat Sabha avait formé un comité commémoratif pour construire un mémorial pour les martyrs, qui fut saboté par le Congrès. Lahore fut la plaque tournante du mouvement national et le lieu où Bhagat Singh et ses camarades se consacrèrent sans relâche à l'action politique; là qu'ils furent exécutés puis correctement incinérés, comme Lala Lajpat Rai. La logique aurait été de construire un mémorial commun à Lala Lajpat Rai, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev et Rajguru à Lahore, sur les rives de la rivière Ravi, ce qui aurait représenté une source d'inspiration pour la jeunesse du Pendjab.
  On peut toujours se demander aujourd'hui pourquoi aucun mémorial n'a été construit pour ces martyrs depuis plus de soixante-quinze ans, à Lahore ou sur les lieux de naissance de Bhagat Singh et Sukhdev à Lyalpur, maintenant Faisalabad au Pakistan. Il serait souhaitable que les Pakistanais et les Indiens dressent conjointement un mémorial approprié à Lahore, ainsi qu'à Faisalabad, en mémoire de Bhagat Singh. Il est peut-être le seul symbole de la résistance contre le colonialisme et l'impérialisme qui soit également respecté par le peuple pakistanais. Bhagat Singh constitue un des rares dénominateur commun entre des Pendjabis désormais fragmentés et divisés, et peut servir de symbole pour la résistance au capitalisme et à                       l' impérialisme.

9. Symbole de transformation révolutionnaire

Voici encore quelques aspects intéressants de la saga de Bhagat Singh. On sait qu'il entretenait de bons rapport avec les dirigeants nationaux des partis  que ce soit Subhash Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru, Lala Lajpat Rai, Madan Mohan Malviya, ou les autres. Malgré les différences radicales de stratégie et d'approche, ils restèrent toujours en contact, sauf avec Gandhi. Subhash Bose et Nehru appréciaient Bhagat Singh, bien que les dirigeants du Congrès et la jeunesse révolutionnaire incarnée par Bhagat aient souvent travaillé à contre-courant, en raison de leur stratégies et tactiques radicalement différentes dans la lutte pour la liberté. Lorsque Lala Lajpat Rai s' allia avec les forces communalistes, Bhagat Singh et ses camarades le fustigèrent ouvertement mais pourtant, ils ne rompirent pas avec lui. Motilal Nehru, Madan Mohan Malviya et Dewan Lal  condamnèrent les bombes non-létales jetées par Bhagat Singh dans l' Assemblée Centrale avec des mots très durs. Gandhi déclara que  « c'était l' acte fou de deux jeunes ».
 Bhagat Singh décrivit Dewan Lal comme un «pseudo-socialiste» dans ses célèbres déclarations devant la cour. Malgré cela les dirigeants nationaux se tinrent au côté des jeunes révolutionnaires dans les tribunaux, ou quand ils observèrent des grèves de la faim; ils voulaient tout de même leur sauver la vie. L' esprit du nationalisme lia ensemble les dirigeants nationaux et les jeunes révolutionnaires. Ils se critiquèrent les uns les autres avec amertume et rudesse, mais se réunirent aux moments de tensions contre l'oppression britannique.
 Un autre engagement marquant de Bhagat Singh et du mouvement révolutionnaire résida dans leur totale et féroce opposition au système des castes
et au communalisme[32], contrairement à Gandhi notamment. Si les mouvements dalits d'aujourd'hui[33] acceptent un chef de file national, hormis Bhimrao Ambedkar, c' est bien Bhagat Singh. Les écrits de Bhagat Singh et sa conduite lui ont irrévocablement valu l'amour et le soutien des masses dalits et intouchables. En prison, avant d'aller à la potence, Bhagat Singh n'était pas seulement en train de lire Lénine, il demanda une dernière fois de la nourriture à Bogha, l' employée dalit de la prison, pour qui il avait beaucoup d'affection. Il traita également l'éboueuse de la prison comme sa mère. De même lorsque Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev et Rajguru allèrent à la potence en riant et en chantant, Charat Singh et les autres prisonniers, toutes castes confondues, pleurèrent tout en criant « lnquilab Zindabad ! » .

 Nous nous devons ici de noter qu' aucune des organisations communautaristes, qu' elles soient Hindoues, Musulmanes ou Sikhes n' a alors prononcé un mot, ni esquissé la moindre action pour la défense de ces révolutionnaires. Il faut bien souligner que seul les mouvements de la Gauche ont vraiment essayé de maintenir et de s' imprégner de l'esprit du mouvement révolutionnaire dans notre pays. La(es) Gauche(s)[34] constitue la seule véritable héritière de l'aile révolutionnaire en lutte pour la liberté, mais aussi pour l'émancipation.
L'institution coloniale britannique prit fin après tant de massacres. Les Britanniques négocièrent l'indépendance avec le Parti du Congrès, lui transférant le pouvoir politique, tout en protégeant leurs intérêts économiques[35]. Ils ne purent se permettre de garder Bhagat Singh vivant, car il avait promis de prendre part au renversement complet du système d' exploitation impérialiste et capitaliste. Avec un groupe de moins d'une centaine de personnes, il fit vaciller vigoureusement le plus puissant empire sur terre, concernant/impliquant des millions de personnes. Pattabhi Sitaramaya, l' historien du Congrès, a dû admettre que Bhagat Singh n'était pas moins populaire aujourd'hui que le Mahatma Gandhi. Ce qui n'est pas un mince exploit pour un homme de moins de 24 ans, après seulement six à sept ans d' engagement politique.
Après avoir prononcé la peine de mort, Jaidev Kapoor demanda à Bhagat Singh « s'il regrettait d'affronter la mort aussi jeune? ». Celui-ci, après avoir d'abord ri à la question, répondit sérieusement: « Avançant sur la voie de la Révolution, parvenir à répandre et à faire comprendre le slogan «Inquilab Zindabad !» dans tout le pays, même au risque de la mort, voilà la pleine valeur de ma vie. Aujourd'hui, assis derrière les barreaux en attente du peloton d'exécution, j'entends ce slogan repris par des millions de personnes, comme symbole des forces motrices de la lutte jusqu'à la liberté, qui         s' attaqueront sans relâche à l' impérialisme et à la domination capitaliste.  Ils peuvent me tuer, mais ils ne peuvent tuer ni mes idées, ni leur parfum ».

Chaman Lal, extraits d 'un article d'Economical and Political Weekly, All India, du 28/07/2007








Notable revolutionaries in the anti-colonial movement.



Name
Birth
Death
Activity
Khudiram Bose
3 December 1889
11 August 1908
The Muzaffarpur killing
Chandra Shekhar Azad
23 July 1906
27 February 1931
Kakori Conspiracy
Ram Prasad Bismil
11 June 1897
19 December 1927
Kakori Conspiracy
Bhagat Singh
27/28 September 1907
23 March 1931
Central Assembly Bomb Case 1929
Udham Singh
26 December 1899
31 July 1940
Shooting in Caxton Hall
Hemu Kalani
23 March 1923
21 January 1943
Sabotage of Railway Track
Ashfaqulla Khan
22 October 1900
19 December 1927
Kakori Conspiracy
Sachindra Bakshi
25 December 1904
23 November 1984
Kakori Conspiracy
Manmath Nath Gupta
7 February 1908
26 October 2000
Kakori Conspiracy
Vasudev Balwant Phadke
4 November 1845
17 February 1883
Deccan Rebellion
Anant Laxman Kanhere
1891
19 April 1910
Shooting of British Officer Jackson
Krishnaji Gopal Karve
1887
19 April 1910
Shooting of British Officer Jackson
Ganesh Damodar Savarkar
13 June 1879
16 March 1945
Armed movement against the British
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
28 May 1883
26 February 1966
Father of Hindu Nationalism
Bagha Jatin
7 December 1879
10 September 1915
The Howrah-Sibpur conspiracy case, Hindu–German Conspiracy
Batukeshwar Dutt
18 November 1910
20 July 1965
Central Assembly Bomb Case 1929
Sukhdev Thapar
15 May 1907
23 March 1931
Central Assembly Bomb Case 1929
Shivaram Hari Rajguru
24 August 1908
23 March 1931
Murder of a British police officer, J. P. Saunders
Roshan Singh
22 January 1892
19 December 1927
Kakori conspiracy, Bamrauli Action
Pritilata Waddedar
5 May 1911
23 September 1932
Pahartali European Club attack
Jatindra Nath Das
27 October 1904
13 September 1929
Hunger strike and Lahore conspiracy case
Durgawati Devi (Durga Bhabi)
7 October 1907
15 October 1999
Running the bomb factory 'Himalayan Toilets'
Bhagwati Charan Vohra
4 July 1904
28 May 1930
Philosophy of Bomb
Madan Lal Dhingra
18 September 1883
17 August 1909
Curzon Wyllie's assassination
Alluri Sitarama Raju
1897
7 May 1924
Rampa Rebellion of 1922
Kushal Konwar
1905
15 June 1943
Train sabotage Sarupathar
Surya Sen (Masterda)
22 March 1894
12 January 1934
Chittagong Armoury Raid
Ananta Singh
1 December 1903
25 January 1979
Chittagong armoury raid
Sri Aurobindo Ghosh
15 August 1872
5 December 1950
Alipore Bomb Case
Rash Behari Bose
25 May 1886
21 January 1945
Indian National Army
Ubaidullah Sindhi
10 March 1872
22 August 1944
Silk Letter Conspiracy
Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee
1895
1969
Kakori Conspiracy
Baikuntha Shukla
1907
14 May 1934
Assassination of Phanindra Nath Ghosh, a government Approver
Ambika Chakrabarty
1892
6 March 1962
Chittagong armoury raid
Badal Gupta
1912
8 December 1930
Attack at Writers Building
Dinesh Gupta
6 December 1911
7 July 1931
Attack at Writers Building
Benoy Basu
11 September 1908
13 December 1930
Attack at Writers Building
Rajendra Lahiri
1901
17 December 1927
Kakori Conspiracy
Barindra Kumar Ghosh
5 January 1880
18 April 1959
Alipore Bomb Case
Prafulla Chaki
10 December 1888
1908
The Muzaffarpur killing
Ullaskar Dutta
16 April 1885
17 May 1965
Alipore Bomb Case
Hemchandra Kanungo
1871
1951
Alipore Bomb Case
Basawon Singh (Sinha)
23 March 1909
7 April 1989
Lahore conspiracy case
Bhavabhushan Mitra
1881
27 January 1970
Ghadar Mutiny
Bina Das
24 August 1911
26 December 1986
Attempted to Assassinate the Bengal Governor Stanley Jackson
Veer Bhai Kotwal
1 December 1912
2 January 1943
Kotwal Dasta, Quit India Movement
Rani Lakshmi Bai
19 November 1828
17 June 1858
For her Kingdom Jhansi Killing and insulting British official

En 1966, le Pendjab a été redécoupé pour permettre aux Sikhs d’accéder à la majorité démographique dans la province, conformément à la demande du principal parti régionaliste sikh, le Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Cette faveur fut accordée aux Sikhs en récompense au comportement héroïque de leurs soldats dans le conflit indo-pakistanais de 1965.


Du coté des peuples colonisés et dépendants, pour l’Inde, il y avait Nehru, pour l’Indonésie Mohammed Hatta. Pour le Machrek et la résistance syrienne, El Bakri aux cotés des délégués égyptiens et palestiniens. Pour l’Afrique subsaharienne, Lamine Senghor pour le Sénégal, aux côtés du Comité de Défense de la Race Nègre et du délégué des Syndicats d’ouvriers noirs d’Afrique du Sud. Le Maghreb,par les trois délégués de l’Etoile Nord Africaine : les Algériens Hadj Ali Abdelkader et Messali Hadj, et le Tunisien Chadly Khairallah. Pour l’Amérique du Sud, les Péruviens Victor Raul Haya de la Torre et Eudocio Ravines, de l’Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA). Les délégations les plus en vues, celles de Chine et d’Indochine regroupaient pour la Chine, la veuve de Sun Yat Sen, les représentants de l’Armée Rouge revenant des champs de bataille de Manchourie, ceux du Kuomintang et ceux du gouvernement cantonais ; pour l'Indochine, le Parti Constitutionnaliste Indochinois et son rival le Parti Révolutionnaire d’Indochine, après la scission intervenue au sein de l’Association Mutuelle Indochinoise, ainsi que le Parti Annamite de l’indépendance.


[1]Communalisme : Voir Immanuel Wallerstein, L'Inde existe-t-elle ?, dans Impenser la science sociale : Pour sortir du XIXe siècle, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1995, p 151-156, sur les notions d' Hindustan et de Dravidia, et Valérie Fernando, Le communalisme politico-religieux en Inde, dans Dialogues, Propositions, Histoires pour une citoyenneté mondiale , DPH, 06-2008 : « Dès sa naissance, le 15 août 1947, l’Inde a dû gérer politiquement la diversité des groupes religieux présents sur son territoire, invariablement instrumentalisés par les partis politiques (l’appel au sentiment identitaire religieux y étant l’un des plus efficaces en terme de mobilisation politique). Issue du déchirement sanglant de l’Empire britannique et toujours en butte avec le conflit militaire interminable au Cachemire (région frontalière du Pakistan, majoritairement musulmane mais que les aléas de l’Histoire ont rattaché à l’Inde), l’Union indienne a officiellement fait le choix du sécularisme, contrairement à son frère du Pakistan, « pays des purs » créé au nom de l’Islam proclamé religion d’Etat. En vertu du sécularisme, l’Etat indien ne représente aucune religion particulière mais doit protéger et reconnaître à égalité toutes les religions. Cela ne signifie pas la neutralité puisque, à titre d’exemple, l’Etat peut financer des écoles religieuses et appliquer un droit privé (mariage et succession) différent en fonction de l’appartenance religieuse. Pourtant l’histoire de l’Inde indépendante est marquée par de nombreuses tensions impliquant les diverses communautés religieuses. Deux formes de violence « religieuse » ressurgissent à intervalles réguliers : les émeutes inter-communautaires, principalement entre hindous et musulmans, et les attentats, attribués généralement aux extrémistes de diverses obédiences.Le plus souvent, les émeutes ne sont pas spontanées mais orchestrées par des individus ou organisations extrémistes, instrumentalisant la religion à des fins électorales. Le point de départ est souvent une provocation : musulmans menant ostensiblement une vache, sacrée pour les hindous, à l’abattage, hindous perturbant la prière du vendredi. Au niveau local les émeutes peuvent aussi être la manifestation de conflits économiques, les musulmans étant très impliqués dans le petit commerce.Les événements les plus marquants des dernières années ont été les émeutes de 1992 ayant entraîné la mort de deux milles personnes. Elles ont fait suite à la destruction totale, par les organisations extrémistes hindous (RSS, Sangh Pariwar, Shiv Sena et Vishva Hindu Parishad) et avec le soutien du Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Parti du Peuple Indien), d’une ancienne mosquée dans la ville d’Ayodhya, supposément construite sur les ruines d’un temple s’élevant autrefois sur le lieu de naissance de Rama (héros de l’épopée mythologique du Ramayana). Puis en 2002, l’Etat du Gujarat, alors gouverné par l'actuel Premier ministre indien Narendra Modi, fut le théâtre de nouveaux massacres de musulmans par les extrêmistes hindous, faisant également plus de 2000 morts, et commis avec le soutien avéré des autorités du BJP, impunies jusqu’à présent. Ces événements sanglants, bien que perpétrés par les orthodoxes hindous, ont aussi montré à quel point la position du Gouvernement central, quelque soit le parti au pouvoir, est ambiguë et encourage par sa passivité de tels actes. » Voir aussi, G. Aloysius, Nationalism Without a Nation in India, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1997, l'article The limits of nationalism, dans Sumit Sarkar, Writing Social History, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1997 et Ranabir Samadar, Philosophies et actions en période de terreur, Groupe de recherche de Calcutta, revue NAQD, 2007/1 (N° 24)
[2] Voir Christophe Jaffrelot, Inde, la Révolution introuvable ?Des révolutionnaires en quête de légitimité au pays de Gandhi (1895-1935), et Républicains puis socialistes : la sécularisation des révolutionnaires encore violents malgré Gandhi (1915-1935), p 121 à 165, dans Passions révolutionnaires, Amérique latine, Moyen-Orient, Inde,Hamit Borzaslan, Gilles Bataillon, Christophe Jaffrelot, Cas de figure, Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales, 2011.Voir également Shiv Verma, Bhagat Singh : on the path of liberation,Chennai, Bharathi Puthakalaya. 2007 ; S. Irfan Habib, To make the deaf ear, Three Essays Collective, Gurgaon, 2007 et surtout Jose George, Manoj Kumar and Avinash Khandare (Eds.), Rethinking Radicalism in Indian Society : Bhagat Singh and Beyond, Rawat publications, Kolkatta, 2009, ainsi que l'article de Niraja Rao, Bhagat Singh and the Revolutionary Movement, pour les écrits de Bhagat Singh sur l'anarchisme et le marxisme, dans le journal Kirti en 1928. Voir aussi, Neeti Nair,Bhagat Singh as 'Satyagrahi': The Limits to Non­violence in Late Colonial India, Modern Asian Studies, Cambridge University Press, 2009, et Romain Bertrand, « Politiques du moment colonial :historicités indigènes et rapports vernaculaires au politique en ‘situation coloniale’ », Questions de recherche, Paris, Sciences Po/CERI, n°26, octobre 2008.
[3] B/Vande Mataram : L' expression "বন্দে মাতরম"B/Vande Mataram signifie « Bénie la mère patrie ! » ou « Victoire de la Mère »; l'original est un poème en six stances écrit en 1882 par Bankim Chattopadhyay, puis le poète Rabindranath Tagore le chanta comme un hymne, en 1896 dans un rassemblement du Parti du Congrès, avant qu'il ne devienne un emblème pour la lutte d'indépendance, comme hymne officieux et comme slogan anti-colonial, avant de devenir le nom d'un journal, puis après l'indépendance, une « chanson nationale », sans pour autant devenir l'hymne Indien ( Jana, Gana, Mana). Une des images les plus parlantes de l'iconographie de l'identité nationale indienne, l'équivalent de la Marianne française , est celle de Bharat Mata ou Mother India, symbole de l'union entre la nationalité et la divinité, souvent dépeinte sous les traits d'une femme mince, d'un calme ascétique drapée dans un sari ocre lui couvrant le visage. Elle ne fait pas partie du panthéon religieux des dieux et déesses hindous ; elle est une figure strictement nationaliste. Voir Maheshwari Malvika, Comment représenter la nation indienne ? . Le nationalisme ordinaire à travers l'art calendaire, Raisons politiques 1/2010 (n° 37) , p. 53-64
[4]Bharat Mata Society : Mouvement révolutionnaire anti-britannique des Sikhs du Pendjab créé en 1907. Les Sikhs, auxquels appartiennent Bhagat Singh et sa famille, sont une des minorités ethniques et religieuses indiennes, mais sont majoritaires au Pendjab, dont la capitale fédérale était Lahore. Les fondements scripturaux de leur religion obligent à suivre une stricte orthopraxie fondée sur l’affichage de signes extérieurs d’appartenance au sikhisme, les « 5 K » ; Il s’agit, outre le port du turban, du kesh(poils faciaux et cheveux non taillés), du kanga(petit peigne porté sous le turban), du kara(bracelet), du kirpan(dague) et du kacha(caleçons courts). Voir Denis Matringe, Les Sikhs : histoire et tradition des « Lions du Panjab », Éditions Albin Michel, 2008 ; W. Owen Cole et Piara Singh Sambhi, A Popular dictionnary of Sikhism, Editions Curzon, 1997, et Khushwant Singh, The Illustrated History of the Sikhs, Oxford University Press, 2006,
[5] Voir Ganda Singh, ed., History of the Freedom Movement in the Panjab, vol. IV (Deportation of Lala Lajpat Rai and Sardar Ajit Singh) Patiala, 1978. Ajit Singh,l'oncle de Bhagat, parcourut le monde entier durant son exil, et noua de nombreux contacts révolutionnaires, notamment en Turquie, où il rencontra Mustapha Kemal, en Suisse, où il connut Trotsky, mais aussi en France, au Brésil et aux Etats-Unis. Il paraît nécessaire de souligner également la tenue en février 1927, du premier congrès de la Ligue contre l'Impérialisme et l’oppression coloniale,à Bruxelles, regroupant des révolutionnaires anti-colonialistes du monde entier. Le Congrès anti-impérialiste de Bruxelles ou Union des peuples des Trois continents, se tint du 10 au 15 février 1927, initié par les communistes européens mais se voulant celui des peuples colonisés. De nombreuses organisations et personnalités européennes y participèrent. Le Congrès anti-impérialiste de Bruxelles marquait l’émergence du « troisième » monde sur la scène internationale et la solidarité effective des peuples des Trois continents contre l’impérialisme occidental. « Pour la première fois dans l’histoire, écrivait le Tunisien Chadly Khairallah, plus de 150 délégués, représentant un milliard d’opprimés courbés sous le joug de l’impérialisme, se sont rencontrés avec les représentants de toutes les organisations d’avant-garde, d’Europe et d’Amérique, et avec tout ce qui reste encore d’hommes de pensée libérale pour les instruire de l’oppression qu’ils subissent, sous divers formes et suivant les pays, par l’odieux régime colonial des pays oppresseurs. Ils ont clamé à la face du monde entier leur douleur, ils ont expliqué leur martyre et affirmé leur volonté de lutte énergique, jusqu’à leur libération totale. Ils ont reçu l’assurance de leurs frères exploités d’Europe que, dans cette lutte, ils peuvent compter sur leur aide morale et matérielle sans aucune réserve.» Voir à ce sujet Vijay Prashad,Les nations obscures. Une histoire populaire du Tiers Monde, Montréal, Écosociété, 2009, et Benedict Anderson, Les Bannières de la Révolte, et L'imaginaire national. Réflexions sur l'origine et l'essor du nationalisme, Paris, La Découverte, 2009 et 2006.
[6] Jallianwala Bagh à Amritsar en 1919 :massacre par balles de manifestants non-violents et de pèlerins par les troupes britanniques du colonel Dyer, faisant 379 morts et 1 100 blessés au cours des cérémonies annuelles de Baisakhi, célébrations à la fois culturelles et religieuses pour les Pendjabis. Dyer sera relevé de ses fonctions. Voir Nicholas Lloyd, The Amritsar Massacre : The Untold Story of One Fateful Day, London, I. B. Tauris, 2011,
[7] Parti historique Sikh du Pendjab, centriste, actuellement appelé (Shiromani) Akali Dal. L' (S)AD a été fondé en 1920 dans le cadre d’un mouvement d’agitation destiné à redonner aux Sikhs le contrôle de leurs temples (les gurudwaras), passés entre les mains de prêtres hindous. Devenu le principal parti Sikh, c'est-à-dire s’affichant comme tel, à la différence du Congrès, pourtant dirigé par des Sikhs au Pendjab, l’Akali Dal s’est imposé comme le plus sérieux rival provincial du Congrès à la fin des années 1960. Il est depuis dominé par la caste des Jats. Voir notamment Harjinder Singh Dilgeer. Sikh History. Sikh University Press, Belgium, 2010-11. 10 volumes et Laurent Gayer, Les politiques internationales de l’identité. Significations internationales des mobilisations identitaires des Sikhs (Inde) et des Mohajirs (Pakistan), thèse de doctorat (science politique), Sciences Po Paris, 2004.
[8] Parti du Congrès : Fondé en 1885, le Congrès lutte pour l'indépendance du pays avec des figures comme Gandhi ou Nehru. Après l'indépendance, il domine la vie politique indienne jusque dans les années 1970 et reste dirigé, pour la majeure partie de son histoire, par la famille Nehru-Gandhi. Il  est situé au centre gauche du paysage politique indien. Voir M.M. Ahluwalia, Freedom Struggle in India, 1858-1909, Delhi, 2006 et surtout Sumit Sarkar, Modern India, 1885-1947, Macmillan, New Delhi, 1983, et Towards Freedom,1946, ICHR, Oxforf U.P., 2005, ainsi que Bipin Chandra  et al, India’s Struggle for Independence 1857-1947, Viking, New Delhi, 1988.
[9] Emeutes à Chauri Chaura, village d' Uttar Pradesh, le 5 février 1922: Violents affrontements pendant des manifestations anti-coloniales qui firent de nombreuses victimes, dont 3 civils et 22 policiers dans  l'incendie d'un poste de police. Le parti du Congrès suspendit sa participation au mouvement national de manifestations après cet événement. Voir Shahid Amin, Event, Metaphor, Memory : Chauri Chaura, 1922–1992. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995.
[10] HRA-Hindustan Republican Association, HSRA-Hindustan Republican Socialist Association, NBS- Naujawan Bharat Sabha-Youth Society of India,  partis anti-coloniaux, révolutionnaires et étudiants. Le HRA naquit d'une scission au niveau national au sein du Congrès. Après les émeutes de Chauri Chaura en 1922, et une réunion houleuse du parti à Gaya la même année, où les non-violents rejoignirent Gandhi, les révolutionnaires firent sécession derrière Ram Prasad Bismil, Sachindra Nath Sanyal, Jadugopal Mukherjee et Jogesh Chandra Chaterjee, et créèrent le HRA en 1924, avec des réseaux à travers l'Inde. Ils publièrent des projets de constitution ( les Yellow Papers en 1924), et un manifeste, The Revolutionnary, en 1925, contre l'exploitation et pour le fédéralisme socialiste et le suffrage universel.A partir de 1925, Bhagat Singh, Chandrasekhar Azad, Sukhdev Thapar, Bhagawati Charan Vohra, Ashfaqullah Kahn, Battukeshwar Dutt, l'écrivain Yashpal et d'autres compagnons rejoignirent le parti et multiplièrent les actions. Certains furent pendus en 1927 suite à l'attaque du train postal à Kakori, et après les émeutes contre la Commission Simon en 1928, groupe chargé de réviser la Constitution, et dont les membres étaient uniquement britanniques, le HRA s'allia à d'autres groupes révolutionnaires au Bengale et au Bihar notamment, pour faire émerger le HSRA, dont la finalité fut plus encore marxiste. Leur manifeste de 1928, écrit par Bhagawati Charan Vohra, s'intitule Philosophie de la bombe (Philosophy of the Bomb). Ils participèrent à toutes les actions d'envergure contre les britanniques (meurtre du vice-intendant Saunders en 1928, attaque du Parlement en 1929, attentat contre le vice-roi des Indes en 1929,...), mais le parti fut démantelé en 1931 entre les arrestations et les pendaisons, seules des factions régionales subsistant jusqu'en 1936.
La NBS, ou Youth Society of India, créée par Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev et Rajguru en 1926 , en parallèle au HRA, organisait des banquets mêlant toutes les castes et toutes les religions, mêlant ainsi aussi nourriture halal et jhatka ( voir Irfan Habib, op cit, p.43). Elle existe encore aujourd'hui ( voir leur site www.naubhas.in) et s'attache  toujours au combat contre les castes, les fondamentalismes religieux, le communalisme et surtout contre la récupération de ses idées par les milices extrémistes nationalistes du Sangh Pariwar, des RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) et du BJP (Baratha Janata Party, Parti du Peuple Indien),parti religieux au pouvoir aujourd'hui.Voir Christophe Jaffrelot, Inde, la Révolution introuvable ?Des révolutionnaires en quête de légitimité au pays de Gandhi (1895-1935), p 121 à 165, dans Passions révolutionnaires,Amérique latine, Moyen-Orient, Inde,Hamit Borzaslan, Gilles Bataillon, Christophe Jaffrelot, Cas de figure, Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales, 2011, p 121-143, ainsi que DilipParameshwar Gaonkar,  Cultures of democracy, Duke University Press, 2007, et Ram Chandra, NaujawanBharat Sabha and Hindustan Socialist Republican Association/Army (H.S.R.A.), Narration of the revolutionary activities in India, 1924-1947, 1986.
[11] Pratap, Matwala, Mislap, People : journaux et magazines critiques. Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, l'éditeur de Pratap, fut notamment le traducteur en hindi de Quatre-Vingt-Treize, de Victor Hugo. Feroze Chand, l'éditeur de People et Bande Mataram fit travailler de nombreux révolutionnaires dans ses journaux et fut souvent inquiété par la police. Voir le recueil collectif Anisur Rahman, Supriya Agarwal, Bhumika Sharma (Eds.), Discoursing minority, In-Text and Co-Text Author, Rawat Publications, Delhi, 2014, mais aussi Christopher Pinney, Photos of the Gods : The Printed Image and Political Struggle in India, Londres, Reaktion Books, 2004, et sur les résonances aujourd'hui l'excellent ouvrage de Farah Naqvi, Waves in the Hinterland: The Journey of a Newspaper, Zubaan Mela, Delhi, 2008.
[12] Ouvrage classique de la littérature anti-coloniale indienne. En contrepoint voir l'essor de la littérature impérialiste dans Antoinette Burton et Isabel Hofmeyr, Ten Books That Shaped the British Empire: Creating an Imperial Commons, Duke University Press, 2014, et le long processus d'hindouisation littéraire dans Akshaya Mukul, Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India, Harper Collins India, 2015.
[13]Le mouvement Sikh des Babbars Akali ( les Lions de l'Akali/Pendjab) émergea de 1920 à 1923 au Pendjab comme organisation clandestine radicale et anti-coloniale ; elle lutta contre le gouvernement britannique, mais aussi les prêtres inféodés et les agents infiltrés. Démantelée de 1924 à 1926, elle inspira notamment la création du NBS et du parti Kirti. Voir M.S. Leigh, The Punjab and the War, Government Printing Press,Lahore, 1922, p. 44 ; Gurcharan Singh, Babbar Akali Movement, A Historical Survey, Aman Publication, Zira, 1993, pp. 41-42, et  Nijjar Bakhsish Singh,  History of the Babbar Akali, ABS Publications, Jalandhar, 1987.
[14] Le parti Ghadar (Parti révolutionnaire) fut fondé en Californie en 1913 par des étudiants indiens en exil, puis se constitua notamment autour de Kartar Singh Sarabha, Lala Har Dayal, Sohan Bahkna, Abdul Hafiz Barakatullah, ou Rashbehari Bose. De retour en Inde en 1914, ils firent tout pour renverser l'Empire colonial britannique. Ils publièrent le célèbre journal Ghadar (Révolution) en plusieurs langues indiennes, montèrent des camps d'entraînement militaire et développèrent des ateliers de confection d'explosifs à travers le pays, oeuvrant à de nombreuses émeutes et actions révolutionnaires . Ils profitèrent de l'entrée en guerre britannique dans la Première Guerre Mondiale pour leur adresser une Décision de Déclaration de Guerre, le 5 août 1914, puis tentèrent de renverser le gouvernement colonial à partir de février 1915. Après les arrestations massives et le procès de 1915, le mouvement recula puis se joignit aux Babbars Akali du Pendjab et à d'autres organisations à travers l'Inde. Aux Etats-Unis, le parti perdura jusqu'en 1948, malgré la scission entre factions communiste et anti-communiste. On retient surtout du parti ses origines et ses composantes extrêmement diverses, de castes comme culturellement et confessionnellement. Voir Maia Ramnath, Haj to utopia, How the Ghadar movementCharted Global Radicalism and Attempted to Overthrow the British Empire, University of California Press, 2010 et Lala Har Dayal, Marx, a Modern Rishi, Modern Review, reproduit dans Paran Joshi, Marx comes to India, Delhi, Manohar, 1975.
Le parti Kirti (Travailleur), fut créé en 1926 au Pendjab par Santokh Singh, du Ghadar Party, et fut à la fois une branche du Parti des Travailleurs et Paysans (Workers and Peasants Party, WPP, créé en 1925 au sein du Congrès) et du Parti Communiste Indien ( Communist Party of India, CPI, également fondé en décembre 1925). Les communistes désertèrent le WWP, qu'ils accusaient d'être une création stalinienne au moment de la Troisième Internationale Communiste en juillet 1928. Le WWP fut décimé par les arrestations et les exécutions des syndicalistes paysans à partir de 1929, après la conférence révolutionnaire inter-partis de Meerut et les émeutes contestant les élections municipales de Bombay. Le CPI (Marxiste) existe toujours ( ainsi que ses scissions des CPI/Léninistes, Marxistes-Léninistes, Maoïstes, Marxistes-Periaristes, Révolutionnaires,…). Au Pendjab,le parti Kirti, publia un journal, Kirti (Le Travailleur), et un hebdomadaire Lal Nishan (Le Drapeau Rouge) qui eurent alors énormément d'impact. Outre ses engagements communistes, l'un de ses principaux combats fut notamment de remettre en cause le système des propriétaires terriens ( Zamindars) en agriculture, pour une redistribution collectiviste des terres. Nombre de ses membres entrèrent ensuite au HSRA. Voir John Callaghan, Blowing Up India: The Comintern and India 1928-35, in  Matthew Worley, In Search of Revolution: International Communist Parties in the Third Period. London, I.B. Tauris, 2004 ; Andrzej Walicki. The Controversy over Capitalism: Studies in the Social Philosophy of Russian Populists, Oxford University Press, 1969 ; ainsi que Subodh Roy (ed.). Communism in India - Unpublished Documents 1925-1934. Calcutta, National Book Agency, et O.P. Ralhan (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National -Regional - Local. Vol. 23. Revolutionary Movements (1930-1946). Delhi, Anmol Publications, 2002. p. 689-691,Local. Vol. 14. Communist Party of India. Voir également  M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist Parties and United Front - Experiences in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad, Prajasakti Book House, 2003.
[15] Kartar Singh Sarabha, créateur du parti Ghadar (Parti révolutionnaire), né au Pendjab, quitta l'Inde pour Berkeley et la Californie à quinze ans. Il fut pendu en septembre 1915 avec 24 compagnons après la tentative de mutinerie et de révolution à Lahore. Il fut le plus célèbre condamné d'un procès devant un tribunal d'exception, en vertu du Defence of India Act, qui marqua l'imaginaire politique des Indiens dans leur ensemble, mais plus encore des Pendjabis. Voir S.N. Aggarwal, The Heroes of Cellular Jail, Abhishek Publications, Punjabi University, Patiala, 1985, et Chaman Lal, Gadar Party Naik:Kartar Singh Sarabha, NBT, New Delhi, 2007.
[16]Conspiration de Kanpur : au même moment que Bhagat Singh et les révolutionnaires au Pendjab et au Bengale, en mars 1929, les britanniques arrêtèrent de nombreux militants syndicalistes et politiques du Parti Communiste indien et du Workers and Peasants Party à travers toute l' Inde, et notamment à Bombay; leur procès inspira en 1932 à la troupe de théâtre de rue de Manchester, les Red Megaphones, une pièce intitulée Meerut. Voir à ce propos, Devendra Singh. Meerut Conspiracy Case and the Communist Movement in India, 1929-35, Research India, 1990.
[17] Bombe à Lahore pendant la fête de Dusherra : Bhagat Singh fut accusé de cet attentat anti-colonial en 1926, et détenu pendant cinq semaines avant de sortir contre caution. Voir Chaman Lal, The documents of Bhagat Singh and his associates, Rajkamal Prakashan, Delhi, 1987
[18]Commission Simon : groupe parlementaire britannique envoyé en 1928 par la couronne pour entreprendre une réforme constitutionnelle de l'Inde colonisée, sans un seul indien y participant. L'alternative pour l'Empire étant alors déjà de faire de l'Inde ou un « Dominion » ou une République . Suivront les trois Round Table Conferencesqui se sont déroulées de 1930 à 1932, série de conférences inter-partis organisées par le Gouvernement britannique en vue de réformes constitutionnelles . Voir Claude Markovits, A History of Modern India 1480–1950, Anthem Press, South Asian Studies ,‎ 2004, et David Ludden, India and South Asia: a short history,‎Oneworld Press, 2002.
[19]Lathis : longues matraques encore utilisées de nos jours lors des répressions et charges policières.
[20] Attaque à la bombe et vol du train postal à Kakori : attaque, notamment par Chandra Sekhar Azad, d'un train postal transportant de l'argent d' Etat en août 1925. Un passager mourut dans l'attaque, et Kakori symbolisa les débats qui émergèrent alors au sein du HRA et dans tout le pays sur les nécessités des violences contre l'Etat, et de ses limites, pour les civils.Voir Rana Bhagwan Singh, Chandra Shekar Azad, an Immortal Revolutionnary for India, New Delhi, Diamond Books, 2004.
[21] Jatin Nath Das, compagnon de Bhagat Singh et éminent révolutionnaire indien mort d'une grève de la faim ; une foule immense l'accompagna en septembre 1929 pour son enterrement et le rapatriement de son corps de Lahore à Calcutta. Voir Bagha Jatin: The Revolutionary Legacy, Indus Source Books, Mumbai. 1989.
[22] Il s’agit de l’attentat d’Auguste Vaillant à la chambre des députés le 9 décembre 1893, en plein scandale de Panama. L’anarchiste y lança une bombe en pleine séance, cette dernière composée de clous et non de balles visait à blesser et non tuer. Il fut néanmoins guillotiné le 5 février 1894. Il déclara avant l’énoncé de son verdict : «Las de mener cette vie de souffrance et de lâcheté, j’ai porté cette bombe chez ceux qui sont les premiers responsables des souffrances sociales. L’explosion de ma bombe n’est pas seulement le cri de Vaillant le révolté, mais bien le cri d’une classe qui revendique ses droits et qui bientôt joindra les actes à la parole ! »,Voir Dictionnaire international des militants anarchistes, CIRA, Marseille.
[23] J. Nehru, A. Jinnah : figures principales et récurrentes du nationalisme bourgeois et autoritaire, hindou comme musulman. En 1947, Nehru devint premier Ministre de l' Inde, Jinnah du Pakistan.
[24]Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Hindu Mahasabha, Sangh Pariwar, Shiv Shena : partis et milices ultra-nationalistes. Fondation du parti nationaliste hindou RSS en septembre 1925 après les violentes émeutes interconfessionnelles d'Aligarh, sous le nom d'« Association des volontaires nationalistes », en réaction à la mobilisation provoquée par le mouvement du Califat. Issu du Hindu Mahasabha, son objectif est de rassembler les Hindous pour qu’ils puissent faire face aux Musulmans. Le parti se dote d’une organisation paramilitaire et les cadres, formés comme prédicateurs, consacrent leur vie à la cause. Avec le Sangh Pariwar, la Shiv Sena et le Vishva Hindu Parishad,  ils constituent encore le bras armé du BJP, parti actuellement au puvoir.VoirDr. Shamsul-Islam, Know the RSS: Based on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Documents,,Pharos Media & Publishing, 2015 et surtout l'excellent ouvrage de Kancha Ilaiah, Why I'm not a Hindu ? A Sudra Critique of Hindutva Philosophy, Culture and Political Economy, Bhatkal & Sen, 2007 et toujours de Kancha Ilaiah, Buffalo Nationalism - A Critique of Spiritual Fascism, Samya Publishers, 2004.
[25]Bibliographie de référence : Shiv Verma (ed), Selected Writings of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, National Book Center, New Delhi, 1986,
[26] Voir ici notamment Frantz Fanon, Les damnés de la Terre, Paris, 1961, Maspero : « Car, au premier temps de la révolte, il faut tuer : abattre un Européen c'est faire d'une pierre deux coups, supprimer en même temps un oppresseur et un opprimé : restent un homme mort et un homme libre ; le survivant, pour la première fois, sent un sol national sous la plante de ses pieds. » ; « Le colonialisme n’est pas une machine à penser, ni un corps doué de raison. Il est la violence à l’état de nature et ne peut s’incliner que devant une plus grande violence. » ; « Le colonialisme et l’impérialisme ne sont pas quitte avec nous quand ils ont retiré de nos territoires leurs drapeaux et leurs forces de police. Pendant des siècles les capitalistes se sont comportés dans le monde comme de véritables criminels de guerre. Les déportations, les massacres, le travail forcé, l’esclavagisme ont été les principaux moyens utilisés par le capitalisme pour augmenter ses richesses et établir sa puissance. Il y a peu de temps, le nazisme a transformé la totalité de l’Europe en véritable colonie. Les gouvernements des différentes nations européennes ont exigé des réparations et demandé la restitution en argent et en nature des richesses qui leur avaient été volées [...]La réparation morale de l’indépendance nationale ne nous aveugle pas, ne nous nourrit pas. La richesse des pays impérialistes est aussi notre richesse.[...] L’Europe est littéralement la création du tiers monde. »
[27] Sur le journal People et le rôle notamment de l'éditeur Feroze Chand dans la construction iconographique de soutien aux révolutionnaires, voir Kama MacLean, The Portrait's Journey: The Image, Social Communication and Martyr-Making in Colonial India, et the History of  Legend : Accounting for Popular Histories of Revolutionnary Nationalism in India,in Modern Asian Studies, 2012.
[28] Sur la Théorie révolutionnaire de l’État, voir l'article «The Problem of the Capitalist State», de Nicos Poulantzas dans la New Left Review, en 1969, critique de l'ouvrage The State in Capitalist Society, de Ralph Miliband. Bhagat Singh fut influencé tant par les textes révolutionnaires communistes qu 'anarchistes, et écrivit en 1928 sur l'anarchisme dans le journal Kirti, où il analysa les théories de Bakounine (1814-1876) notamment les théories de la liberté solidaire et universelle par l'anarchisme collectiviste, énoncées dans l'Appel aux Slaves, où résonne la priorité donnée à la révolution sociale sur la révolution politique. En 1869 il publie De la Coopération, en 1871, La Commune de Paris et la notion d’État et en1873, L' Etat et l'Anarchie. Pour Bakounine « l'essence de toute religion est l'asservissement de l'humanité au profit de la divinité, la négation de l'humaine liberté qui aboutit nécessairement à un esclavage non seulement théorique mais aussi pratique car l'Histoire est sans limites, sans commencement et sans fin". L' Etat lui, est destructeur. Dans la société naturelle l' Etat créé par la religion, c'est l'esclavage ; et dans la théorie du contrat social, l' Etat satisfait "l'égoïsme collectif d'une association particulière et restreinte", en ennemi de l'Universel: la multiplicité des Etats détruit ainsi la solidarité universelle. Mais l' Etat détruit, également, la solidarité interne, car à la racine de l'esclavage salarié. L' Etat destructeur doit être détruit. La praxis révolutionnaire, fondée sur la dialectique de Hegel, permettra sa destruction et la transformation du monde, collectiviste dans sa finalité et retrouvant la solidarité universelle détruite par l'Etat. Le socialisme ne peut être étatique car le socialisme étatique c'est toujours l'esclavage de l' Etat: "Nous repoussons énergiquement tout ce qui ressemblera, de prés ou de loin, au Communisme et au Socialisme d' Etat".
[29]Voir notamment, Bhagat Singh, Jail Notebook and Other Writings, Edited and introduced by Chaman Lal, Leftword Books, 2007, voir aussi, sur les motifs de leur engagement, le manifeste limpide écrit en 1928 par les compagnons révolutionnaires de Bhagat Singh, Bhagawati Charan Vohra et Chandra Shekhar Azad, The Philosophy of the Bomb, republié en réponse à l'article de Gandhi, The Cult of the Bomb, qui « condamnait fermement les violences et remerciait Dieu » après un attentat manqué du HSRA contre le train du vice-roi des Indes, Irvin.  
[30]Voir en résonances la préface de Raihan Abir et l'excellent livre d'Avijit Roy et Raihan Abir, Philosophy of Disbelief (Obisshasher Dorshon), Mukto-Mona, Dacca, 2011, ainsi que l'article d'Avijit Roy "The Virus of Faith", Free Inquiry Magazine, May 2015.


[31]La montée du militantisme en Inde au début du XXe siècle fit craindre aux autorités coloniales la propagation de leurs «idées dangereuses» si les nationalistes étaient internés sur le continent. Les grèves de la faim des détenus politiques dans les prisons continentales et dans la prison de Port Blair aux Iles Andaman, furent une extension du mouvement de résistance contre le colonialisme. Au prix de nombreuses vies, les grèves de la faim maintinrent haut l’esprit de la lutte, dénonçant les traitements infligés aux prisonniers politiques comme la déshumanisation de les nourrir de force. Voir les ouvrages de U.K. Singh,, Political Prisoners in India, Oxford, Oxford U.P., 1998,  ainsi que Shiv Verma, Sansmritiyan(The memoirs), Lucknow, Martyrs Memorial and Freedom Struggle Research Center 1991, et S.Sen, Disciplining Punishment: Colonialism and Convict Society in India, Oxford, O.U.P., 2000. Voir aussi les articles de Pramod Kumar Srivastava dans Authority and resistance in the penal colonies, et notamment Resistance and repression in India: the hunger strike at the Andaman cellular Jail in 1933, Crime, Histoire & Sociétés / Crime, History & Societies, Vol. 7, n°2 | 2003, p 81-102, Droz, ainsi que Durba, Gosh, Britain's global war on terrorism : containing political violence and insurgency inthe interwar years, et How Empire Mattered: Imperial Structures and Globalization in the Era of British Imperialism, Berkeley. U.P., 2003 et 2007.
[32]Sur les combats contre les castes, le communalisme et le patriarcat, voir, entre autres, les combats de l'activiste Soni Sori et le mouvementCast out Caste!, et Dorothy Figueira, Aryans, Jews, Brahmins: Theorizing Authority through Myth of Identity. Navayana, Delhi, 2014, ainsi que Gail Omvedt, Understanding Caste: From Buddha to Ambedkar and Beyond, Orient BlackSwan, Delhi, 2012 ; Rāmacandra Kshīrasāgara, Dalit Movement in India and its Leaders, 1857–1956, M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd.,‎1994, et Aloysius Irudayam, Jayshree Mangubhai, Dalit Women Speak Out: Caste, Class and Gender Violence in India, Zubaan Mela, Delhi, 2007. Consulter aussi les sites http://www.roundtableindia.co.in/http://www.socialsciencecollective.org/http://www.siawi.org/ (Secularism is a Women's Issue).
[33] Le Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar (1891-1956), homme politique indien, fut le rédacteur de la constitution de l’Inde indépendante et le leader des Intouchables, qu’il a conduits sur le chemin de l’émancipation en prônant la conversion au bouddhisme. Lire le roman graphique Bhimayana. Histoire de vie de Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, MeMo, Nantes, 2012. Voir également Bhimrao Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste: The Annotated Critical Edition, Navayana, Delhi, 2015, et What Congress and Gandhi have done to the untouchables, Thacker,‎ 1946 , ainsi qu' Ambedkar Age Collective, Hatred in the belly: Politics behind the appropriation of Dr Ambedkar's writings, The Shared Mirror Publishing House, 2015 ; et les poèmes de Meena Kandasamy, Ms. Militancy, Navayana, Delhi, 2010. Lire aussi l'intéressant dossier Mobilisations en Inde, La modernité à l’épreuve de l’universalité, Mouvements des idées et des luttes, 2014/1 (n° 77).
[34] Sur les gauches indiennes, les combats des dalits et le courant des Subalternes, voir notamment Vivek Chibber, Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital, Verso, London,2013,Navayana, Delhi, 2014 ( à paraître aux Editions de l'Asymétrie); Vinayak Chaturvedi, Mapping Subaltern studies and the Postcolonial, Rawat Publications, Delhi, 2015 ; l'article « Decline of the Subaltern in Subaltern Studies », in Sumit Sarkar, Writing Social History, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1997, Chap. 3, ainsi que Praful Bidwai, The Phoenix Moment : Challenges Confronting the Indian Left, Harper Collins India, 2015. Lire l'excellent texte de Paresh Chattopadhyay, The Marxian Concept of Capital and the Soviet Experience, Praeger Series in Political Economy, 2004,paraît aussi indispensable
Les « naxalites » sont des révolutionnaires indiens, de tendance maoïste, qui tirent leur nom du village de Naxalbari, au Bengale occidental, où une révolte paysanne éclata en 1967, donnant le coup d’envoi d’un mouvement insurrectionnel qui s’étendit rapidement à une grande partie de l’Inde et qui y demeure très active. Voir Jeremy Weinstein, Inside Rebellion, The Politics of Insurgency Violence,Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007, et le débat autour de Charles E Cobb, This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement, Basic Books, 2014 ; voir aussi l'article d'Arundhati Roy, Walking with the Comrades, in Outlook India, 29 Mars 2010, et Bidyut Chakrabarty and Rajat Kumar Kujur, Maoism in India: Reincarnation of Ultra-Left Wing Extremism in the Twenty-First Century, Routledge, Oxon, 2010,
[35]Sur les enjeux économiques de la décolonisation, du néocolonialisme , voir Bouda Etemad, La possession du monde.Poids et mesures de la colonisation(XVIIIe-XXe siècles), Paris, Éd. Complexe, 2000. B. Etemad, à l'aide de l'histoire militaire, estime froidement que, pour accéder au contrôle de 534 millions de «colonisés», « seulement » 300000 colons seraient morts pendant les guerres coloniales de 1750 à 1912, dont beaucoup en Inde et en Algérie. Voir Navtej, Singh, Starvation and Colonialism, National Book Organisation, New Delhi, 1996, et Tirthankar Roy, Traditional Industry in the Economy of Colonial India, Cambridge, 1999. Lire aussi le chapitre « Du charbon et des plantations », dans Kenneth Pomeranz, La force de l’empire. Révolution industrielle et écologie, ou pourquoi l’Angleterre a fait mieux que la Chine, Alfortville, éditions è®e, 2009, p. 7-32, et Romain Bertrand, L’Histoire à parts égales, Paris, Seuil, 2011.                                                                                                     Sur les implications épistémologiques et théoriques actuelles, voir Jairus Banaji, Theory As History: Essays on Modes of Production and Exploitation, Historical Materialism, mais surtout Kalyan Sanyal, Rethinking Capitalist Development: Primitive Accumulation, Governmentality and Post-Colonial Capitalism, Routledge, Delhi, 2013 et Avinash Kumar, Criminalisation of politics ; Caste, Land and the State,Rawat Publications, Delhi, 2015.
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On débat pour savoir si mon manque de foi en un Dieu omniprésent et omniscient découle de mon orgueil et d’une outrecuidante vanité. Il ne m’est jamais venu à l’esprit que je pourrais être un jour impliqué dans une polémique de ce genre. à la suite de quelques discussions avec mes amis, (si mon évocation de l’amitié n’est pas ici déplacée) je me suis aperçu qu’après m’avoir connu, souvent depuis peu, certains d’entre eux se sont hâtés de conclure que mon athéisme provenait de ma sottise et qu’il constituait l’expression de ma vanité. Même dans ce cas, cela posait un grave problème. Je ne me vante pas d’être au-dessus de ces folies humaines. Je suis, après tout, un être humain et rien de plus. Et personne ne peut prétendre être plus que cela. Une de mes faiblesses réside dans mon exigence de fierté. Je suis connu pour passer pour un tyran parmi mes amis. Parfois, je suis aussi qualifié de fanfaron. Certains 33 se sont toujours plaints de mon autoritarisme et de ma propension à forcer les autres à se soumettre à mon opinion. Ce qui, dans une certaine mesure, est vrai. Je ne nie pas cette accusation. On peut parler d’orgueil à ce sujet. En ce qui concerne les valeurs, rétrogrades, méprisables, obsolètes de notre société, je suis un sceptique extrême. Et cette question ne concerne pas ma seule personne. C’est une chose d’être fier de ses idées, de ses pensées. Mais ce ne peut être appelé une fierté désincarnée. La fierté, ou vous pouvez utiliser le mot, la vanité, relèvent toutes deux d’une évaluation exagérée de la personnalité de


chacun. Mon athéisme résulte d’un orgueil inutile, ou ai-je cessé de croire en Dieu après une longue et profonde réflexion ? Je tiens à partager avec vous mon cheminement. Essayons d’abord de distinguer l’orgueil de la vanité, deux choses bien différentes.
Je n’ai jamais été en mesure de comprendre comment une fierté sans fondement, vide, pourrait empêcher une personne de croire en Dieu. Je ne peux refuser de reconnaître la grandeur d’une personne
34 véritablement admirable que si j’ai obtenu la gloire sans faire de sérieux efforts, ou que je manque des facultés mentales supérieures nécessaires pour m’élever. C’est aisé à comprendre, mais comment est-il alors possible qu’un croyant puisse se transformer en un non-croyant à cause de sa vanité ? Seules deux choses sont possibles : soit un homme estime être lui-même en possession de qualités divines, ou il va plus loin et se déclare être un dieu. Dans ces deux états, il ne peut être un athée dans l’entière acception du mot. Dans le premier cas, il ne conclut pas au rejet pur et simple de l’existence de Dieu ; dans l’autre, il affirme l’existence d’une sorte de pouvoir surnaturel responsable du fonctionnement de l’univers. Il ne nous contredit pas s’il prétend être luimême un dieu ou considère Dieu comme une réalité au- dessus de son être propre. Le point réel, cependant, est que dans les deux cas il reste un théiste, un croyant. Il n’est pas un athée. Je veux insister sur ce point. Je ne me reconnais en aucune de ces deux croyances. Je rejette totalement l’existence d’un Dieu omniprésent, tout-puissant et omniscient. Pourquoi donc ? Je vais en discuter plus tard dans l’essai. Ici, je tiens à souligner que je ne suis pas athée parce qu’arrogant ou orgueilleux, et que je ne suis pas non plus un demi-dieu, ni un prophète; non, je ne suis pas moi-même Dieu. Afin de répondre à cette question, je dois rétablir la vérité. Mes amis disent qu’après les attentats de Delhi et la conspiration de Lahore, ma renommée m’a fait tourner la tête. Cette allégation est incorrecte. Je n’ai pas arrêté de croire en Dieu après ces incidents. J’étais athée, même quand j’étais inconnu. Or un étudiant ne peut chérir de représentation exagérée de lui-même, qui le conduirait à l’athéisme. Si j’étais apprécié de certains des enseignants du collège, d’autres ne m’ont pas aimé. Je n’étais pas un garçon travailleur ou studieux. Je ne me suis jamais senti supérieur. Je suis très prudent dans mon comportement et quelque peu pessimiste quant 35 à ma future carrière. Je ne suis pas complètement athée depuis mes origines. Je fus élevé sous les soins et la protection de mon père. Il était un ardent arya samaji. Un arya samajipeut tout devenir, mais jamais un athée. Après mes études primaires, on m’a envoyé au collège de Lahore. Je vécus en pension pendant un an. Outre les prières tôt le matin et à l’heure du crépuscule, je m’asseyais pendant des heures pour chanter des mantras religieux. à ce moment, j’étais un farouche religieux. Ensuite, je vécus avec mon père. Il était tolérant dans ses opinions religieuses. Grâce à ses enseignements, je consacrais ma vie pour
la cause de la libération de mon pays. Mais il ne fut pas athée. Son Dieu était une entité qui imprègne tout. Il me conseillait de lui offrir mes prières tous les jours. Je fus élevé de cette façon. Pendant les Non Cooperation Days, je fus admis au Collège national. Durant mon séjour dans ce collège, je commençais à analyser toutes les polémiques religieuses et à devenir sceptique quant à l’existence de Dieu. Malgré cela, je peux dire que ma croyance en Dieu restait ferme et
36 forte. Je me laissais pousser la barbe et le kais (longue chevelure comme voulue par la coutume religieuse sikhe). Tout en ne pouvant totalement me convaincre de l’efficacité de la religion sikhe et d’aucune religion par ailleurs. Mais je gardais une foi inébranlable en Dieu.
Puis j’entrais au Parti révolutionnaire. Le premier chef que j’y rencontrais n’avait pas le courage de se déclarer ouvertement athée. Il se montrait incapable de parvenir à une conclusion ferme sur ce point. Chaque fois que je lui ai parlé de l’existence de Dieu, il m’a donné cette réponse : « V ous pouvez croire en Lui quand vous en avez envie. » Le deuxième chef que j’eus au parti était par contre très croyant. Je dois mentionner son nom. C’était notre respecté camarade Sachindara Nath Sanyal. Il fut condamné à la prison à vie dans le cadre de l’affaire de la conspiration de Karachi. Dès la première page de son seul livre, Bandi Jivan (Une vie incarnée), il chante des louanges à la gloire de Dieu. Regardez la dernière page de la deuxième partie de ce livre et vous trouverez des louanges déversées sur Dieu à la façon d’un mystique. C’est un reflet clair de ses pensées.
Selon l’accusation, le Dépliant révolutionnaire qui a été distribué dans toute l’Inde émanait du travail intellectuel de Sachindara Nath Sanyal. Très souvent, il arrive dans le cadre d’activités révolutionnaires qu’un lea der exprime ses propres idées autoritairement, et qu’en dépit de différences et de désaccords, les autres travailleurs doivent toujours y acquiescer.
Dans ce dépliant, un paragraphe entier a été consacré à la louange de Dieu, de ses faits et gestes, que nous, êtres humains, ne pouvons comprendre. Ceci est pur mysticisme. Ce que je veux souligner est que l’idée de nier l’existence de Dieu n’était pas venue au Parti révolutionnaire. Les célèbres martyrs kakori, tous les quatre, ont passé leur dernière journée en prières.
Ram Parshad Bismal était un fervent arya samaji. En 37 dépit de ses vastes connaissances du socialisme et du communisme, Rajan Lahiri ne put réprimer son désir de réciter des stances des Upanishads et de la Bahavad Gita. Il n’y avait qu’une seule personne parmi eux qui ne se livrait pas à de telles activités. Il disait : « La religion est le résultat de la faiblesse humaine ou de la contrition de la connaissance humaine. » Il est également en prison à vie. Mais il n’a jamais osé nier l’existence de Dieu.
Jusque-là je n’étais qu’un révolutionnaire romantique, un suiveur de nos dirigeants. Puis vint le temps d’assumer l’entière responsabilité du combat. Depuis quelque temps, une forte opposition a mis l’existence même du parti en danger. Beaucoup de dirigeants, ainsi que de nombreux camarades enthousiastes ont commencé à tourner le parti en ridicule. Ils se moquaient de nous. J’avais l’appréhension qu’un jour moi aussi je considérerai mon activité en son sein comme une besogne inutile et sans espoir. Ce fut un tournant dans ma carrière révolutionnaire. Un désir incessant d’étudier remplit alors mon cœur. « étu-
38 die de plus en plus », me dis-je alors pour pouvoir être en mesure de faire face aux arguments de mes adversaires. « étudie pour soutenir ton point de vue avec des arguments convaincants. » Et je commençai à étudier très sérieusement. J’opérais un changement radical par rapport à mes croyances et mes convictions antérieures. Le romantisme militant avait marqué nos prédécesseurs ; maintenant des réflexions sérieuses avaient évincé cette façon de voir. Plus de mysticisme ! Plus de croyances aveugles ! Nous avions opté pour le réalisme. à certains moments de nécessité terrible, nous pouvons recourir à des méthodes extrêmes, mais la violence produit des résultats opposés dans les mouvements de masse. J’ai beaucoup parlé de nos méthodes. La chose la plus importante était une conception claire de notre idéologie pour laquelle nous menions une longue lutte. Comme il n’y avait aucune activité électorale en cours, j’eus l’occasion d’étudier les différentes idées défendues par divers écrivains. J’ai étudié Bakounine, le théoricien anarchiste. J’ai lu quelques livres de Marx, le père
du communisme. J’ai lu aussi Lénine et Trotski et de nombreux autres écrivains qui avaient pris part avec succès à des révolutions dans leurs pays. Tous étaient des athées. Les idées contenues dans Bakounine Dieu et l’État ne me semblaient pas toutes concluantes, mais cela restait un livre décisif. Je lus ensuite un livre, Sens commun, de Nirlamba Swami. Son point de vue était une sorte d’athéisme mystique. auquel j’attachais de plus en plus d’intérêt. à la fin de 1926, j’étais convaincu du manque de fondations solides de la conception d’un Dieu tout-puissant, ou d’un Être suprême qui aurait créé, guidé et contrôlé l’univers. J’entamais des discussions avec mes amis. Je me déclarais maintenant ouvertement athée. Nous allons voir dans les pages qui suivent ce que cela signifie.
En mai 1927, je fus arrêté à Lahore. Cette arresta tion fut une grande surprise. Je ne me pensais pas recherché par la police. Je passais à travers un jardin et tout 39 d’un coup les policiers m’ont entouré. à mon prop re étonnement, je restais très calme à ce moment-là et maître de mes nerfs. On m’emmena en garde à vue. Le lendemain, je fus emmené au bloc de la police des chemins de fer où je passais un mois entier. Après des interrogatoires de plusieurs jours  avec les policiers, j’ai compris qu’ils se doutaient de mon appartenance au parti kakori. J’ai senti qu’ils avaient de nombreux renseignements sur mes autres activités dans le mouvement révolutionnaire. Ils décelèrent que j’étais à Lucknow au cours du premier procès du parti kakori, afin de pouvoir concevoir l’évasion de
mes camarades accusés. Ils affirmèrent également à tort, qu’après l’élaboration d’un plan d’attaque, nous nous étions procurés des bombes et que l’une de ces bombes avait été jetée pour essai dans une foule à l’occasion de Dussehra en 1926.
Ils proposèrent de me relâcher à condition que je donne des renseignements sur les activités du Parti révo lutionnaire. En collaborant, je serais libéré et même récompensé, tout en évitant d’être déferré
40 comme un repenti devant la cour. Je ne pus m’empêcher de rire à leurs propositions. Ce n’était qu’une vaste fumisterie. Les gens qui ont des idées comme les nôtres ne jettent pas des bombes sur les innocents de leur propre camp. Un jour, M. Newman, le surintendant en chef, vint me voir. Après une longue et sympathique conversation, il m’annonça ce qu’il considérait comme une bien triste nouvelle, à savoir que si je ne leur donnais pas tous les témoignages et renseignements exigés, ils seraient obligés de m’inculper pour complot en raison de mon implication dans l’affaire du parti kakori et pour les meurtres brutaux du rassemblement de Dussehra. Il insista et me répéta que ces preuves suffisaient pour me faire condamner puis pendre.
J’étais complètement innocent, mais je considérais la police suffisamment puissante pour n’en faire qu’à sa guise. Le même jour, des officiers de police me recommandèrent d’offrir mes prières à Dieu deux fois par jour. J’étais un athée. Je pensais au départ garder cet athéisme en moi et n’en faire part que durant les jours de paix et de bonheur, or, dans ces moments difficiles, je me devais de rester ferme dans mes convictions. Après un long débat intérieur, je conclus que je ne pouvais faire semblant de croire et d’offrir mes prières à Dieu. Et je ne l’ai pas fait. C’était une épreuve et il me fallait en sortir dignement. Voilà mes pensées. à aucun instant je n’ai cherché à sauver ma vie. J’étais un véritable athée alors, et je suis toujours athée maintenant. Ce ne fut pas tâche facile que d’affronter cette épreuve. Les croyances rendent les épreuves plus faciles à surmonter, voire les rendent agréables. L’homme peut trouver un appui solide en Dieu et une consolation en célébrant Son nom. Si vous ne croyez pas en Lui, alors il n’y a pas d’autre choix que de dépendre uniquement de soi. Et il n’est pas aisé de rester invariant au milieu des tempêtes et des vents forts. Dans les moments difficiles, la vanité, si elle reste, s’évapore, et l’homme ne peut trouver le 41 courage de défier des croyances tenues en commune estime par le peuple. S’il se révolte vraiment contre ces croyances, nous devons conclure que ce n’est pas pure vanité mais grâce à une sorte de force extraordinaire. C’est exactement la situation aujourd’hui. Tout d’abord, nous savons tous ce que sera le jugement. Il doit être prononcé dans une semaine ou deux. Je vais sacrifier ma vie pour une cause. Quelle plus belle consolation ! Un hindou croyant peut espérer renaître en roi ; un musulman ou un chrétien pourraient rêver des luxes dont ils espèrent profiter au paradis comme récompense pour leurs souffrances
et leurs sacrifices. Mais moi, que dois-je entretenir comme espoir ? Je sais ce que sera la fin, quand la corde sera serrée autour de mon cou et les chevrons passés sous mes pieds. Pour utiliser la terminologie religieuse plus spécifique, ce sera le moment de l’annihilation finale. Mon âme retournera au Rien. Si je remets réellement en question la notion de « récompense », je conclus qu’une courte vie de lutte, sans fin magnifique, suffit à « notre » récompense. C’est tout.
42 Sans aucun motif égoïste d’obtenir une récompense ici ou dans l’au-delà, j’ai consacré ma vie de façon désintéressée à la cause de la liberté. Je ne pouvais agir autrement. Le jour est venu d’inaugurer une nouvelle ère de liberté où un grand nombre d’hommes et de femmes, auront le courage de servir l’humanité et de la libérer des souffrances et de la détresse, comprenant qu’ils n’ont pas d’autre alternative que de consacrer leur vie à cette juste cause. Ils vont mener une guerre contre leurs oppresseurs, les tyrans et les exploiteurs, non pour devenir des rois, ni pour obtenir une récompense ici ou une hypothétique prochaine renaissance, après la mort au paradis ; et pour enfin abattre le joug de l’esclavage, établir la paix et la liberté ils emprunteront cette voie périlleuse, mais sublime. La fierté qu’ils retireront de la noblesse de leur cause peut-elle être appelée vanité ? Qui est assez téméraire pour l’appeler de la sorte ? Seuls les êtres stupides ou méchants. Laissez de pareils hommes seuls car ils ne peuvent comprendre la profondeur, les émotions, les puissants sentiments qui secouent nos cœurs. Leurs cœurs sont rances, simples morceaux de chair, dépourvus de sentiments. Leurs convictions sont indécises, leurs émotions faibles. Leurs intérêts égoïstes les ont rendus incapables de percevoir la vérité. L’épithète « vanité » est toujours employé contre de solides convictions.
Vous allez à l’encontre des sentiments populaires ; vous critiquez un héros, un grand homme qui est généralement considéré comme au-dessus de toute critique. Que se produit-il alors ? Personne ne répon dra à vos arguments de manière rationnelle ; au cont raire vous serez considéré comme vaniteux. Ce qui révèle la fadeur et la tiédeur ambiantes. La critique impitoyable et la pensée indépendante repré sentent les deux traits nécessaires de la pensée révolutionnaire. Comme Mahatmaji est grand, il plane au-dessus des critiques ; tout ce qu’il dit dans le domaine de la politique, la religion, l’éthique s’avère 43 toujours juste. Vous pouvez être d’accord ou pas, il vous est obligatoire de le considérer comme une vérité. Cela ne participe pas d’une pensée constructive. De la sorte, nous ne faisons pas un bond en avant, mais de nombreux pas en arrière.
Nos ancêtres ont fait évoluer la foi en une sorte d’Être suprême, et par conséquent, celui qui ose contester la validité de cette foi ou nie l’existence de Dieu, sera appelé kafir(infidèle), ou renégat. Même si ces arguments s’avèrent impossibles à réfuter, si son esprit reste si tenace qu’il ne peut être effrayé par la colère du Tout-Puissant, alors il sera toujours dépeint comme vaniteux. Ainsi pourquoi devrionsnous perdre notre temps à ces discussions ? Cette question étant débattue devant le peuple pour la première fois l’on comprend l’importance et l’utilité de si longs débats.
Pour répondre à la première question, je pense l’avoir exprimé clairement, je ne suis pas devenu athée par vanité. Seuls mes lecteurs peuvent décider si mes arguments ont du poids, pas moi. Si j’étais
44 encore un croyant, je sais que dans les circonstances actuelles, ma vie aurait été plus facile ; le fardeau plus léger. Le fait de ne pas croire en Dieu a rendu d’autant plus rudes toutes les circonstances que j’affronte, et cette situation peut se détériorer davantage. Être un peu mystique peut donner un tour poétique aux événements. Mais je n’ai pas besoin d’opiacés pour en finir. Je suis un homme réaliste. Je tiens à maîtriser cette inclinaison intérieure avec l’aide de la Raison. Je n’y parviens pas toujours. Mais il est du devoir de l’homme d’essayer, de faire tout son possible. Le succès dépend du hasard et des circonstances.
Nous arrivons maintenant à la deuxième question: si ce n’est pas de la vanité, il doit y avoir une raison solide au rejet de la croyance séculaire en Dieu. Oui, j’en viens à cette question. Je suis convaincu que tout homme qui a un certain pouvoir de raisonnement essaie toujours de comprendre la vie et les gens autour de lui au prisme de cette faculté. Là où les preuves concrètes font défaut, se glisse toujours le mysticisme philosophique. Comme je l’ai indiqué, un de mes amis révolutionnaires répète souvent que « la philosophie est le résultat de la faiblesse humaine ». Nos ancêtres avaient le loisir de résoudre les mystères du monde, son passé, son présent et son avenir, ses tenants et ses aboutissants, mais après avoir échoué à fournir des preuves directes, chacun a essayé de résoudre le problème à sa manière. Par conséquent, nous trouvons de grandes différences dans les principes fondamentaux des différentes confessions religieuses. Parfois, ils prennent même des formes très antagonistes et contradictoires. Nous trouvons des différences entre les philosophies orientales et occidentales. Il existe des différences entre les diverses écoles de pensées dans chaque hémisphère. Dans les religions asiatiques, la religion musulmane est totalement incompatible avec la foi hindoue. En Inde elle-même, le bouddhisme et le jaïnisme sont parfois tout à fait distincts du 45 brahmanisme. Puis, dans le brahmanisme lui-même, nous trouvons deux sectes opposées : Arya Samaj et Snatan Dheram. Charwak est encore un autre penseur indépendant des siècles passés. Il a également contesté l’autorité de Dieu. Toutes ces religions diffèrent sur de nombreuses questions fondamentales, mais chacune prétend être la seule vraie religion. Ceci constitue la racine du mal. Au lieu de développer les idées et les expériences des anciens penseurs, et donc nous armer idéologiquement pour la lutte future, nous nous accrochons à la religion orthodoxe, léthargiques, inactifs, fanatiques que nous sommes, et contribuons ainsi à réduire l’expression de l’éveil humain à une mare stagnante.
Il est nécessaire pour chaque personne qui défend le progrès de critiquer chaque principe des vieilles croyances. Point par point, l’on doit contester l’efficacité de la vieille foi ; l’analyser et en comprendre tous les détails. Si après un raisonnement rigoureux, quelqu’un est amené à croire en l’une ou l’autre philosophie, sa foi sera appréciée. Son raisonnement peut
46 être erroné et même fallacieux. Mais il y aura des chances qu’il se corrige car la raison s’érige en principe directeur de sa vie. Mais la croyance, je devrais dire la croyance aveugle, reste désastreuse. Elle prive un homme de son pouvoir de compréhension et fait de lui un réactionnaire.
Toute personne qui prétend être un réaliste doit contester la vérité de ces vieilles croyances. Si la foi ne peut pas résister à l’assaut de la raison, elle s’effondre. Notre tâche devrait être de préparer le terrain pour la nouvelle philosophie. C’est le versant négatif. Ensuite vient le travail positif pour lequel certains matériaux de l’ancien temps peuvent être réemployés afin de construire les piliers d’une philosophie nouvelle. En ce qui me concerne, je reconnais que je manque de connaissances suffisantes dans ce domaine. J’ai eu un grand désir d’étudier la philosophie orientale, mais je trouverais plus tard l’occasion ou le temps suffisant pour y parvenir. Bien que je rejette les croyances des temps anciens, je ne cherche pas à opposer une croyance à une autre, plutôt à contester l’efficience des vieilles croyances à l’appui d’arguments solides. Nous croyons dans la nature et pensons que le progrès humain découle de la domination de l’homme sur la nature. Il n’y a aucune puissance consciente derrière la nature. Ceci est notre philosophie. étant athée, j’adresse ces quelques questions aux théistes :
1.           Si, comme vous le croyez, il existe un Dieu tout-puissant, omniprésent et omniscient qui a créé la terre et l’univers ? Dites-moi s’il vous plaît, tout d’abord, pourquoi Dieu a créé ce monde ? Ce monde constellé de malheur, de chagrin et d’innombrables misères, où personne ne vit dans la paix.
2.           Priez, ne dites pas que c’est Sa loi. S’Il contraint par la loi, Il n’est pas tout-puissant. Ne dites pas que c’est Son bon plaisir. Néron a brûlé Rome. Il n’a pourtant tué qu’un nombre très limité de personnes. Il ne commit que quelques tragédies, mais le tout 47 pour son plaisir morbide. Et quelle est sa place dans l’histoire ? Par quels noms nous nous souvenons de lui ? Toutes les épithètes désobligeantes lui sont attribuées. Les pages sont noircies de diatribes et d’invectives condamnant Néron : le tyran, le sans-cœur, le cruel.
Gengis Khan a tué des milliers de personnes en y cherchant du plaisir, et nous détestons son nom. Maintenant, comment donner raison à votre Tout-Puissant et éternel, qui, chaque jour, à chaque instant établit comme passe-temps de tuer des gens ? Comment pouvez-vous supporter ces massacres, qui surpassent ceux de Gengis Khan dans la cruauté et dans la misère infligée aux populations ? Je me demande pourquoi le Tout-Puissant a créé ce monde qui n’est rien d’autre qu’un enfer, un lieu d’intranquillité constante et amère. Pourquoi a-t-Il créé l’homme alors qu’Il avait aussi le pouvoir de ne pas le faire ? Avez-vous une réponse à ces questions ? Vous me direz qu’il semble nécessaire de réconforter la victime et de punir le malfaiteur dans l’au-delà. Bien,
48 bien, jusqu’où pourriez-vous suivre un homme qui d’abord vous inflige des blessures sur tout le corps, puis y applique une pommade douce et apaisante ? Comment les partisans et les organisateurs de combats de gladiateurs ont ils pu prospérer en jetant d’abord des hommes aux lions affamés, pour plus tard les prendre en charge et bien les soigner s’ils échappaient à cette mort horrible. Voilà pourquoi je pose la question : la création de l’homme était-elle vouée à dériver vers ce genre de plaisir ?
Ouvrez vos yeux et voyez les millions de personnes qui meurent de faim dans des bidonvilles et des huttes plus sales que les donjons sombres de prisons ; observez les ouvriers si patients, pour ne pas dire apathiques quand les riches vampires leur sucent le sang ; ayez à l’esprit le gaspillage de l’énergie humaine qui ferait frémir n’importe quel homme doté d’un tant soit peu de bon sens. Observez encore les nations riches, qui se permettent de jeter leur surplus de production dans la mer au lieu de les répartir entre les nécessiteux et les démunis. Combien existe t-il de palais dont on a construit les fondations avec des os humains ? Une fois tout cela établi, reste à déclarer : « Tout va bien dans le royaume de Dieu. » Mais pourquoi donc ? Ceci est ma question. Tu demeures silencieux. D’accord. Je passe alors à mon prochain point.
Vous, les hindous, diriez : « Quiconque souffre dans cette vie doit avoir été un pécheur dans sa vie précédente.  » Ce qui revient à dire que ceux qui sont maintenant les oppresseurs étaient dans leurs vies précédentes des gens pieux. Pour cette seule raison, ils détiennent le pouvoir. Permettez-moi d’exprimer clairement le fait que vos ancêtres étaient des gens rusés. Ils étaient toujours à la recherche de petites combines pour se jouer des autres et les arracher à la puissance de la Raison. Laissez-nous analyser la validité de cet argument !
Ceux qui pratiquent la philosophie de la jurispru- 49 dence, connaissent trois des quatre techniques punitives infligées à un malfaiteur que sont la vengeance, la réforme, et la dissuasion. La théorie de la rétribution est maintenant condamnée par tous les penseurs. La théorie de la dissuasion est pointée pour ses défauts. La théorie réformatrice est ainsi maintenant largement acceptée et considérée comme nécessaire pour le progrès humain. Elle vise à influer sur le coupable et à le convertir en un citoyen épris de paix. Mais que représente fondamentalement la punition de Dieu, y compris quand elle s’applique à une personne qui a vraiment fait du mal ? Pour les besoins
de notre raisonnement, acceptons qu’une personne ayant commis un crime dans sa vie précédente soit punie par Dieu qui la change en vache, en chat, ou en arbre. On peut énumérer pas moins de quatre-vingtquatre variations de la répression divine. Dites-moi si ces âneries, perpétrées au nom du châtiment, eurent l’effet escompté sur la nature humaine ? Avez-vous rencontré beaucoup de gens qui, pour avoir commis un péché, ont été des ânes dans leurs vies précé-
50 dentes ? Absolument personne ! La théorie dite des « puranas » (transmigrations et réincarnations) n’est rien qu’un conte de fées. Je refuse de m’égarer à attaquer cette théorie lamentable.
Comprenez-vous que le vrai péché dans ce monde est d’être pauvre ? Oui, la pauvreté est le plus grand des péchés ; c’est aussi une punition ! Maudit soit le théoricien, le juriste ou le législateur qui propose des mesures telles qu’il pousse en fait l’homme vers le bourbier de péchés plus odieux. Cela ne vous chagrine pas que votre Dieu omniscient ne puisse apprendre la vérité qu’après les souffrances et les difficultés inouïes de millions de personnes ? Quel est le sort, selon votre théorie, d’une personne qui, n’ayant commis aucune faute, est né dans une famille de basse caste ? Il est pauvre et ne peut donc aller à l’école. Son destin se réduit à se voir bannir et ostracisé par ceux nés dans une haute caste. Son ignorance, sa pauvreté, et le mépris qu’il reçoit des autres, aiguisent son ressentiment envers la société. En supposant qu’il commette un péché, qui doit en supporter les conséquences ? Dieu, lui, ou bien encore les gens instruits de cette société ? Quelle est votre opinion à propos de ces peines infligées aux personnes qui ont été délibérément tenues dans l’ignorance par des brahmanes égoïstes et orgueilleux ? Si par hasard ces pauvres créatures entendent quelques mots de vos livres sacrés, les Vedas, ces brahmanes s’empressent de leur verser du plomb fondu dans les oreilles. S’ils commettent une faute, qui devrait en être tenu responsable ? Qui doit en supporter le poids ? Mes chers amis, ces théories ont été inventées par les classes privilégiées. Elles essaient de justifier le pouvoir qu’elles ont usurpé et les richesses qu’elles ont dérobées à l’aide de ces théories. C’est l’écrivain Upton Sinclair qui note (dans Bénéfices de la religion) « que l’on peut rendre un homme convaincu de l’immortalité de l’âme, et lui voler tout ce qu’il possède ; il vous y aidera volontiers. » L’alliance mor- 51 bide entre les prédicateurs religieux et les détenteurs du pouvoir a favorisé la domination par le biais des prisons, des potences, du knout et surtout de telles théories de l’humanité.
Je me demande pourquoi votre Dieu tout-puissant ne retient pas un homme quand il est sur le point de commettre un péché ou un délit. C’est un jeu d’enfant pour Dieu. Pourquoi n’a-t-Il pas tué les seigneurs de la guerre ? Pourquoi n’a-t-Il pas éradiqué la fureur de la guerre de leurs esprits ? Ainsi Il aurait pu épargner à l’humanité bien des horreurs et des calamités. Pourquoi n’introduit-Il pas de sentiments humanistes dans l’esprit des Britanniques afin qu’ils puissent volontairement quitter l’Inde ? Pourquoi ne convertit-Il pas les classes capitalistes à un humanisme altruiste qui les inciterait à abandonner leur emprise sur les moyens de production, libérant ainsi toute l’humanité laborieuse du carcan de l’argent. Vous souhaitez débattre de l’efficience de la théorie socialiste, mais je laisse votre Dieu tout-puissant vous en convaincre. Les gens ordinaires comprennent
52 souvent le bien-fondé de la théorie socialiste dans la mesure où elle se préoccupe d’abord du bien-être général, mais s’y opposent, sous prétexte qu’elle ne peut être mise en œuvre. Que le Tout-Puissant intervienne alors et ordonne le monde de façon appropriée. Plus de logique ! Je vous dis que la domination britannique ne nous est pas imposée parce que Dieu l’a voulu, mais car nous manquons de volonté et de courage pour nous y opposer. Ils ne nous tiennent pas sous leur joug avec le consentement de Dieu, mais par la force des canons et des fusils, des bombes et des balles, de la police et de la milice, et surtout, à cause de notre apathie, ils commettent le péché le plus déplorable, à savoir l’exploitation d’une nation par une autre. Où est Dieu ? Que fait-Il ? éprouvet-Il un plaisir malsain à tout cela ? Tel Néron ! Tel Gengis Khan ! Finissons-en avec Lui !
Maintenant, laissez-moi aborder un autre temps de la construction de la logique !  Vous me demandez comment j’explique l’origine de ce monde et l’origine de l’homme. Charles Darwin a essayé d’apporter quelques lumières à ce sujet. étudiez son livre. Prêtez également attention à l’ouvrage de Sohan Swami Sens commun. Vous obtiendrez une réponse satisfaisante. La biologie et l’histoire naturelle constituent le cœur de ce livre. La création du monde découle d’un processus naturel. Le mélange accidentel de substances différentes sous forme de nébuleuses a donné naissance à cette terre. Quand ? On étudie encore pour le déterminer. Le même processus a provoqué l’évolution des animaux, et à plus long terme, celle de l’homme. Lisez l’Origine des espèces de Darwin. Tous les progrès récents résultent d’un conflit constant de l’homme avec la nature, et de ses efforts pour utiliser la nature à son propre bénéfice. Voilà une brève esquisse du phénomène.
Votre prochaine question voudra sûrement éclairer les raisons qui rendent par exemple un enfant aveugle ou boiteux, même s’il n’était pas un pécheur 53
dans sa vie précédente. Les scientifiques l’expliquent comme un simple phénomène biologique. Selon eux, les actes conscients ou inconscients des parents causent réellement le handicap de l’enfant avant sa naissance.
Vous allez encore m’adresser une question, bien qu’elle soit toujours puérile. Si Dieu n’existe pas vrai ment, pourquoi les gens en viennent-ils à croire en Lui ? Je veux répondre de manière brève et concise. La croyance en Dieu se développe comme on en vient à croire aux fantômes et aux mauvais esprits : la seule différence étant que Dieu se révèle presque comme un phénomène universel et que la philosophie théologique étend partout son emprise. Cependant, je désapprouve ici la philosophie radicale. Elle attribue cette existence divine à l’ingéniosité des exploiteurs, qui voulant garder les gens sous leur domination, échafaudèrent l’existence d’un Être suprême qui leur donnait autorité pour conserver ainsi leur position privilégiée. Je m’accorde par contre sur le point essentiel que toutes les religions,
54 croyances, philosophies théologiques, s’accommodent fort aisément de la tyrannie et de l’exploitation des institutions, des hommes et des classes. La rébellion contre le roi constitua toujours un crime dans toutes les religions.
En ce qui concerne l’origine de Dieu, je pense que l’homme a créé Dieu selon son imagination quand il a réalisé ses faiblesses, ses limites et ses lacunes. Ce qui permet de trouver le courage pour affronter toutes les circonstances difficiles et pour répondre à tous les dangers qui pourraient survenir dans la vie, mais aussi à contenir les élans qui nous poussent vers la prospérité et la richesse. Dieu, avec ses lois fantaisistes et sa bonté paternaliste, a été peint avec les couleurs variées de l’imagination. Il a été utilisé comme un facteur dissuasif, lorsque sa fureur et ses lois ont été maintes fois démultipliées afin d’empêcher l’homme de devenir un danger pour la société. Il a incarné le cri de l’âme en détresse, car il a semblé se présenter comme père et mère, frère et sœur, frère et ami, quand un homme était laissé seul et sans défense en des temps sombres. Décrit comme tout-puissant, il ne pouvait cependant rien faire. L’idée de Dieu ne s’avère utile qu’à un homme en détresse. La société doit lutter contre cette croyance en Dieu comme elle a lutté contre le culte des idoles et d’autres conceptions étroites de la religion. Ainsi l’homme tentera de se tenir sur ses pieds. Devenu réaliste, il devra jeter sa foi de côté et faire face à tous les adversaires avec courage et vaillance. Voilà exactement mon état d’esprit. Mes amis, ce n’est pas la vanité mais mon mode de pensée qui a fait de moi un athée. Je ne pense pas améliorer mon sort ou le détériorer davantage, en renforçant ma croyance en Dieu et en lui offrant des prières tous les jours (ce que je considère comme l’acte humain le plus vil). J’ai tant appris des lectures d’auteurs athées qui luttaient courageusement, que je cherche à rester digne en toutes circonstances, même sur la potence.
Vérifions ma résolution. Un de mes amis m’a demandé de prier avec lui. Informé de mon athéisme, il me dit : « Quand tes derniers jours viendront, tu commenceras à croire. » Je lui répondis : « Non, cher camarade, cela ne se produira jamais. Car cela constitue l’acte ultime de dégradation et de démoralisation. Je ne pourrais jamais prier pour ces motifs égoïstes et mesquins. » Lecteur et amis, est-ce de la vanité ? Si c’est le cas, je l’assume et la défends.

Bhagat Singh, 1930.
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Face to Face with Castro-Fidel on Religion and Che Memoirs-Tribute to Fidel-3 books introduction

December 3, 2016, 5:55 pm
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66. ‘Face to Face with Fidel Castro-A Conversation with Tomas Borge’, translated by Mary Todd, People’s Publishing House, New Delhi, 1994, pages 183, Price Rupees 90/ ( App. 2 US $ )
   Originally published in Cuba in Spanish in 1992 and translated in English, published by Ocean Press in 1993; the book has conversations with Fidel Castro in fifteen chapters on different subjects, by former minister and only surviving founder member of Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSNL) of Nicaragua, which smashed Somoza regime and liberated Nicaragua in 1979, Tomas Borge, who remained minister in Government after revolution till 1990. In his brief introduction writer has described that how during the interview, they will talk whole night, up to dawn, the same habit with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. The book has index and few pictures of revolutionaries at the end.
 First chapter of the book focuses upon History and Posterity. Writer describes Fidel as-wearing an olive green uniform-in good humour, hyperactive...
      Castro opines that history has never been impartial; this is his opinion from his massive study of history of the world. He also tells the author that out of 25 months long revolutionary struggle to win a war against Batista in Cuba, he had gone to see his mother just once on 24th December 1958, otherwise all the time he remained with his comrades and fellow army men. From 15 men’s regrouping Castro and Che Guevara could defeat 80 thousand strong army of Batista in just over two years time! Castro opines that absolutely objective history may be written ‘someday’. Castro admires Napoleon and Bolivar for their military skills.
The second chapter focuses upon ‘The New World Order and the assassination of the Soviet Union’. Castro believes that Soviet Union got dismantled because of internal reasons and not due to just US interests and CIA activities, though he suggests that developments in Poland were very much designed in US. He does not blame Gorbachev for the fall and he even finds Gorbachev to be thinking of ‘improving Socialism’ through Perestroika. Castro thinks that Gorbachev was going too fast to solve problems, which caused the fall. Castro thinks it was collective of people who were responsible for the fall and not just an individual. In 3rd chapter they discuss ‘Stalin’ and Castro underlines Stalin’s faults and mistakes mercilessly, but he praises his qualities as well, particularly his leadership during World War II and also in industrialising Soviet Union. But he found fault with Stalin’s distrust of people, his harsh measures, his agreement with Hitler earlier and not mobilising soviet people before the imminent German attack, his little war with Finland etc. In chapter four Castro describes ‘De-ideologization and Neo Liberalism’ as the ideology of neo imperialism. Here he eulogises Che Guevara for his prophetic vision and appreciates his caution not to use Eastern European or Soviet methods of building socialism. Che Guevara has criticised consumerism in Eastern Europe socialist countries, which he did not wish for Cuban society.
  ‘The 500thAnniversary’ refers to Columbus’s so called discovery of India on 12thOctober 1492, a day now marked by colonisation process by Spain of Latin America. Castro tries to explain it in historic contexts and even appreciates Spain’s colonisation rather than other European countries. The Spanish language bound latin American countries in a thread. In a conversation on ‘Democracy’ Castro asserts Cuba to be most democratic country of the world and certainly more democratic than USA as it has provided facilities of dignified living to all-from children to old age people-medical, health, freedom from  prostitution, crime etc. In @Cuba and the United States’ conversation if focused upon John F Kennedy’s assassination, which is being kept as state secret for one hundred years. In chapter ‘Latin America’ they discuss internal problems of Latin American countries of the region. In chapter on ‘Survival and Development’ they discuss how Cuba is building social welfare sector-child care centres, schools etc. In chapter on ‘Advances in Medicine’ is the proud part of Cuba, about which even its enemies acknowledge its achievements. In chapter ‘Human Rights in Cuba’ they discuss the rights granted to Cuban citizens vis a vis capitalist countries human rights confining to vote cast in elections. In an interesting discussion on ‘Loyalty to Principles’, Castro hates most’ treason and disloyalty’ and likes most ‘Loyalty and firmness of principles’. ‘Of Books and Reading’ is fascinating account of Castro’s reading habits, a voracious reader had read almost all the classics of world literature, biographies and history books. His favourites fiction writers include Cervantes the most and Marquez after. His favourite poets are Pablo Neruda and Nicolas Gullien. His readings include all of Dostoevsky, 10 volumes of Roman Rolland’s ‘Jean Christophe’, Shakespeare, ‘Les Miserable’s’, all books of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Greek early philosophers-Herodotus, Plutarch, Titus, Xenophon etc. ‘Don Quixote’ is all time favourite, read many times. He likes revolutionary songs, but does not sing even in bathroom! He likes Chilean singer Victor Jara, killed by Pinchote fascists. Castro reads 5-6 books at a time and not just one. In 14th chapter Castro tells Tomas-‘Struggling for Utopia means, in part, building it’, which they are doing in Cuba. He emphasises that one must never stop dreaming. Yesterday’s dreams become today’s realities! Castro tells that’ My mind is adapted to being 30, but I am not 30, but 65’. He speaks against the ‘cult of personality’ and banned any official portrait of any one. Fidel Castro has no official portrait in any Cuban office, and he never wanted to be promoted beyond ‘Commander’, which he remained, even when titles of General etc. were created. He tells that he never got ‘promoted’ and he never felt the sense of power! But Castro admits that power can corrupt. Last chapter is ‘kernel of Corn’, a local phrase by which Tomas Borge thanks Fidel Castro for the interview/conversations!
  Interesting and useful book!

67. Fidel and the Religion-Conversations with Frei Betto, People’s Publishing House, Delhi, 1st ed. 1987, pages 276, price Rupees 100/
       These are Fidel Castro’s conversations with Brazilian Dominican Friar, practising Catholic who believes in socialism. Cuban culture minister Armando Hart has introduced this conversation. In ‘Paths to a Meeting’, Frei Betto has narrated the background of these conversations, which he planned in 1979 as a book to be called-‘Faith in Socialism’. Success of Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua with faithful Christians participating in it, where Frei was invited as advisor, encouraged him to work on this book. Lot many priests like Father Miguel D Escoto, foreign minister were part of the revolutionary government, whose ideal was Cuba. He first met Fidel castro at the house of Nicaraguan Vice President Sergio Ramirez in July 1980. Fidel encouraged him to freely discuss Bible and Christian ideas with him, without getting ‘irritate’ as Frei apprehended and told him that ‘ at no time the Cuban revolution has been inspired by anti religious feelings’. Castro has addressed Chilean clergy in 1971 during Allende period and in Jamaica also he addressed Protestant audience in 1977. In Nicaragua there was unity between Christians and Marxists during revolutionary struggle.  Frei visited Cuba 12 times from 1981 to 1985 and had 23 hours recorded interview from 23rd May to 26th May in four days, an average of almost six hours a day of conversation. He wrote this note immediately after the conclusion of the interview on 29th May 1985.
     Book has two parts. Ist part titled as ‘Chronicle of a Vist’ includes Castro talking to many people during the visit of Algerian President Chadli Bendjedid and with some other guests, like with a group of Brazilians, meeting Brazilian journalist Joelmir Beting. Fidel has the courtesy of even personally driving down Beting and Bretto to their hotel one night at the conclusion of their meeting. The first part has seven chapters and is spread into 45 pages. It comes out from this part that Fidel is good cook and later in comparison with Che Guevara, in second part of the book, his comments-‘I am a better cook (than Che). I am not going to say that I am a better revolutionary, but I am definitely a better cook than Che was.’ (Page 268) Fidel informs that they have one lakh independent farmers in Cuba, holding private land, but other farmers joining cooperatives have much better life conditions. Castro also emphaises upon manual labour and students going for it one month per year. University of Havana was founded in 1728; Marta Harnecker is Chilean Marxist living in Cuba.
   Part II is the major part of the book, spread in 4 chapters and 220 pages. Every chapter is account of one night’s interview, most of the interviews were conducted in evening or rather late evening and some continued past midnight. On the first day, 23rd May 1985, at the beginning of interview frei informs that perhaps for the first time head of a socialist state has granted an exclusive interview on the topic of religion. Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) of Nicaragua did issued a document on religion in 1980. In the first part of interview Castro speaks about his family, his childhood, his religious training in school etc. Castro tells that his mother Lina and father Angel were faithful religious people, but more so his mother. He was born in a farm called Biran, but there was no church. Castro’s father was a Spaniard from Galicia and had settled in Cuba, working there. Castro’s parents were from poor background, though later his father bought enough land. Castro refers to Cuba’s first war of independence against Spain in 1895, which ended with the defeat of Spanish colonial regime in 1898, Castro describes Cuba to be ‘the Vietnam of 19thcentury’. Castro’s father died on 21st October 1956, before the triumph of Cuban revolution, his mother died after the revolution on 6thAugust 1963. Castro describes that how Christmas was celebrated in his house in his childhood. Castro was born on 13th August 1926 and his armed struggle started at the age of 26years on 26th July 1952 with attack on Moncada, the struggle got thename as ‘26th July movement’. His father bought 800 hundred hectares of land, of which 400 hundred hectares were surrendered after the revolution as per new law of land owning limit. There was no church in castro’s village, he was baptized in Santiago de Cuba at the age of 5 or six years. He was named as Fidel-the fathful one, on his godfather’s name. Castro’s aunts and grandmother had strong belief. Castro was third child of her mother’s second marriage, out of seven in total. Children from first marriage were also known to them. Castro has four sisters and two more brothers. He was put in school in Santiago de Cuba, staying at the house of godfather. Castro listened to the Three wise Men stories from family—Caspar, Melchoir and Balthazar-mythical stories. He was not happy in home, later was shifted to boarding school La Salle for four years, which gave Castro satisfaction. He had his religious training in school and enjoyed his Xmas vacation of two weeks at his home. He was a good athlete at school and good in studies as well. Castro makes interesting observation about martyrdom here-‘Conviction is what makes martyrs. I don’t think that anybody becomes a martyr simply because he expects a reward or fears punishment. I don’t think anybody behaves heroically for such a reason.’ Castro had his high schooling in Colegio de belen school in Havana, he graduated from high school in 1945 at 19 years. He first heard about communism in school as a ‘terrible thing’. He excelled in sports, academics. His school certificate recorded—
“Fidel Castro Ruz (1942-45)-He distinguished himself in all subjects related to Letters. A top student and member of congregation, he was an outstanding athelete, always courageously and proudly defending the School’s colours. He won the admiration and affection of all. We are sure that, after his law studies, he will make a brilliant name for himself. Fidel has what it takes and will make something of his life.”
  After joining the University Fidel acquired Marxist ideology, he was a firm follower of Jose Marti. Batista made military coup in Cuba on 10th March 1952 and on 26th July 1952, Castro made armed insurrection, which failed. 1st part of interview concluded at 3.00 a.m, starting from 9.00 p.m, six hour before.
      Second part of the interview started on 24th May 1985 at 4.45 p.m. Frei refers to Christian participants in 26th July movement such as Frank Paise and Jose Antonio Echeverria. Castro told that how much they respected their faith and gives example how he chastised his comrades at the death of Echevveria, when from his will, his invocation to God was left out. In this chapter the attack on Moncada is detailed, about 120 men attacked Moncada, in the clash, 1000 soldiers countered the attack, only 2 or 3 comrades were killed in initial clash. But batista army brutally murdered 70 rebels after arresting them. Castro could also have been killed, but a black lieutenant did not allow his men to shoot them, in fact, he even praised Castro men by saying-you are brave boys brave-, later the lieutenant was blamed for not killing and discharged from army. Later after the revolution he was made Captain and in charge of President’s security, his name was Padro Sarria, but he died of cancer in 1972.
  Castro spent 22 months in prison in Isle of Pines, now named as Isle of youth, 19 months he was kept in solitary confinement. Father Sardinas from church joined Sierra Maestra guerrilla struggle in 1956. After revolution, one judge Urrutia was made provisional President of Cuba, but he clashed with revolutionaries. Castro was named as Prime Minister, he resigned and in public debate Urrutia had to face embarrassment and he resigned, later a prestigious comrade was named President and then many radical laws were passed. Castro tells-‘Values and morals are man’s spiritual values’. Castro refers how priests and church was tried to be used by CIA against the revolution and three priests participated in invasion of Cuba in Bay of Pigs in 1961. They could have been executed, but were treated leniently. Communist party of Cuba came into existence in 1965 from Integrated Revolutionary Organisations.
   82 men waged war in 1956-57, ist major battle in January 1957 by 22 comrades, won the first battle. When they won the war on 1st January 1959 Castro had just 3000 men, who defeated Batista’s 80 thousand army. People socialist Party (PSP) was more homogenous. Socialism was proclaimed at the time of Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. Castro described relations with church as ‘A period of coexistence and mutual respect between the party and the churches.’(Page 171).
   The conversation concluded at 10.p.m, more than six hours after it started.
  Third conversation started on 25th May at 8.p.m Castro exposes ‘gentleman’ Pinochet, allegedly a ‘devout’ man, who is responsible for thousands of deaths, murdered, tortured or missing people in Chile. Castro tells the proud role of one lakh teachers and thousands of doctors working in other countries as missionaries. Castro also praises nuns who are taking care of old people’s homes in Cuba with much austerity, like model communists. They talk about Father Ernesto Cardenal, a Sandinista poet and writer, much respected personality of Nicaragua. Castro emphasis the need of improving works of revolution and defines it as a work of art. They discuss the positive role of Liberation Theology in Latin American countries like Guatemala, Peru Brazil, El Salvador and others, in promoting revolutionary ideas, which was described subversive by US rulers. Church described as oldest institution, 2000 years old, Buddhism and Hinduism may be older, but they are not institutions.
   Discussion concluded at 11 p.m, first time in just three hours.
  4thand last part of interview took place on Sunday, 26th May 1985 at 7.00 p.m. Castro gifted the copy of his school certificate as memento to Frei. They discuss the proposed visit of Pope, which castro is ready to welcome. Frei asks question on religion as ‘Opiate of the people’. Castro explains the phenomenon in detail and opines that it is possible for Christians to be Marxists, but they have to be honest in ending the exploitation of man by man and struggle for equal distributiuon of social wealth. Here Castro also refers to first social revolution of modern period-French Revolution with three word slogan-Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, but exposes the myth of the slogan in practice in capitalist system. Castro opines that the achievement of the spirit of this slogan is possible only in Socialist society. Castro also exposes the myth of ancient Greek and Roman democracy, by detailing the unknown facts about the number of slaves, more than the greek/Roman own population and only high classes participating in debates, reference to Nero also come, while Rome was burning and he was playing the lyre! Slavery abolished in Cuba and Brazil in 1886. Then they talk about ‘hatred’ and Castro explained that Either Marx or Lenin, Marti or he never hated persons, they hated only the system, it reminds Bhagat Singh’s famous court statement mentioning this very concept. Castro underlines the fact that he hates fascism, and Nazism. They also note the fact that during Imperialism’s most cruel system, in world war first 20 million people and in second world war more than 50 million people lost their lives and underlines the fact that Imperialist system is to be blamed for this, which needs to be smashed as system. Frei also questions about love and ‘export’ of revolution. Castro explains that revolution can never be exported, only ideas travel world over, not the physical forces can go and make revolution. Revolution is made by internal forces and mechanism only. They talk about Che Guevara as well, the kind of fond relationship Che and Castro had with each other. Castro brings out the exceptional qualities of Che, his leadership quality and intellectual characteristics, courage; he was so daring that had to be held back by Castro. Che had grat moral integrity, man of profound ideas, untiring worker, rigorous and methodical in fulfilment of his duties. ‘He was one of the greatest figures of his generation in Latin America and nobody could tell how much he would have accomplished if he ‘d survive’. 9Same comment may be true for Bhagat Singh in context of India. Che went to Congo, Zaire, Tanzania and then to Bolivia. They talk about other revolutionary hero Camilo, who died young at 27 in 1959.
  The book concludes with the fact- 82 men expedition arrived in Cuba on 2ndDecember 1956, after first hard setbacks, 14-15-16 men regrouped-Fidel and Raul castro, Che and Camilo among them and made historic revolution in Cuba on 1stJanuary 1959, the most wonderful event, even more interesting than October 1917 and 1949 Russian and Chinese revolutions!.
   Though focussed on the issue of religion the book actually narrates the story of Castro’s life as well as the story of Cuban revolution. A very good book to follow.

68. Che: A Memoir –by Fidel Castro, edited by David Deutschmann, Preface by Jesus Montane, National Book Agency, Calcautte, first Indian ed. 1994 , original ocean Press Melbourne, price Rs. 100/ Pages 168
   This is the book, which I have read for second time, but it was worth reading again. These days I am trying to make regular reading on Cuba, Venezuela and the Caribbean in general. In the beginning life sketches of both Che Guevara and Fidel Castro are given, then Che’s life’s Chronology is given. Later preface by Jesus Montane Oropesa is given and then David Deutschmann’s introduction is given. Then in seven chapters Castro’s writings or lectures relating to Che Guevara are put up together and after Post script, Glossary of persons and events is given.
                            Castro’s speeches start with sharing with Che Guevara’s farewell letter written to him by Che before proceeding to start revolution in Africa and Latin America. As Che was not seen in Havana, all kinds of rumours and scandals were spread by bourgeoisie media and Castro made the letter public only when Che Guevara reached Bolivia in 1966 to make revolution and get his life sacrificed in 1967. Second speech was made by Castro on Cuban television on 15th October 1967 to announce the death of Com. Che and third chapter includes his speech in front of one million people in Revolutionary Plaza Havana in memorial meeting for Che. Chapter four includes Castro’s introduction to Bolivian Dairies of Che, which were published in 1968, after these were recovered from Bolivia after Che’s killing at the hands of US mercenaries Bolivian army. Chapter five includes Castro’s speech in Chile, where the first statue of Che Guevara was inaugurated by Castro, it was his inaugural speech. Chapter six is Castro’s interview with Italian journalist Gianni Mina on the occasion of 20thanniversary of Che’s martyrdom in 1987 and seventh and last chapter includes Castro’s speech on that occasion at Electronic factory named after Ernesto Che Guevara at city of Pinar del Rio.
   If i have to take notes of this book, I may have to copy almost half of the book, suffice to say that very important book to understand both Che and Fidel. I can say that I understand both better with the reading of this book. It confirms my earlier conviction that Che and Bhagat Singh have lot much in common, which have been aptly described by Castro in context of Che, but which description is largely applicable to the personality of Bhagat singh.
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Seven Books by Che Guevara and one on Tania-the Revolutionary

December 13, 2016, 5:30 am
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              Seven Books by Che Guevara and one on Tania
1.The Bolivian Diaries-Authorised edition, Ernesto Che Guevara, Introduction by Fidel Castro, Preface by Camilo Guevara, 1st ed. 2006, Ocean Press, Melbourne-New York, Pages 303, Indian price, Rs. 450/
             This is one of most important book of world revolutionary movements. This is Che Guevara’ diary notes in his Bolivia mission. Beginning 7th November 1966, the diary has regular entries for exact eleven months, till 7th October 1967, one day before his capture by Bolivian army, propped up by US rulers. On 8thOctober 1967, Che Guevara was captured and no courtesy was shown to the world’s most respected revolutionary figure, a former minister in Cuban Government, known to all the world’s most powerful men—UNO, Mao Ze Dong, Khrushchev. Except for Cuba and Fidel Castro and world’s revolutionary people, having no influence over the events at that moment, no bourgeoisie politicians of the world, expressed any sorrow or condemnation at the brutal cruel treatment to a wounded Che and brutal murder of him next day at the behest of US imperialists and that US lackey in Bolivia dictator Barrientos. Che Guevara was at his marvellous best even during his one day custody, bearing all the pains heroically and challenging his killers to shoot him, as the killers had no courage to do that. Though diary is not important in terms of any theoretical foundations, but it is most important to know in a matter of fact manner, that how selflessly and heroically Che Guevara led this most difficult mission of makin revolution in Bolivia; despite his serious asthmatic problem, leaving Cuba at a time, when he was providing marvellous leadership in building socialism as Castro’s most trusted comrade; with most of the circumstances in Bolivia being hostile and conditions not favourable to advance the revolution. But Che was Che, he could not agree to Fidel’s assessment to wait for more favourable circumstances and ground preparation, before he could join the forces there. And equally great was Castro, who kept his word with Che, to allow him to leave the Cuban Government and let him organise Cuban like revolution in the rest of Latin American countries, a dream nurtured by Simon Bolivar to create a revolutionary United States of South America. Che wished to begin in his motherland Argentina first, but conditions were not yet ripe there to lead such movement. Bolivia was also not ripe yet, but taking inspiration from Cuban victory, the struggle started by just 82 men on Granma and left with only 15-16 people, yet within two years defeating the 80 thousand army of dictator Batista in Cuba and leading first successful socialist revolution in Cuba on 1st January 1959. Fidel Castro not only relieved his comrade and close friend Che to lead the revolution, he provided men and arms from his early Cuban revolutionary expedition, including many senior Communist party cadres, who sacrificed their lives in Bolivian mission like Che himself.
      The Bolivian diary has been edited very meticulously. Apart from Diary entries of Che, it includes rare photographs of that period, editor’s brief note, Maps of the area, including guerrilla zones; glossary of people and terms/events, Preface and Introduction and five communiqués issued by National Liberation Army (ELN) of Bolivia, fighting under the leadership of Che. The actual diary entries are covered in about 220 pages. Life sketch of Che is also given in beginning. 
  Camilo Guevara, eldest son of Che Guevara has written brief but moving preface to the diary. Camilo rightly observes that 7th October 1967 last entry of Che in diary are-‘there is not the slightest tone of discouragement, pessimism, or defeatism; on the contrary, these words seems to be a beginning, a prologue... (page1) Camilo describes 8th October, Che’s wounded body in captivity as-‘Yet his body is still upright and armed with conviction, preparing for another battle’ (page 2). Camilo is sure that the enemies could have never capture Che, despite his wounded leg, broken rifle and no other weapon, but for he could not leave his other sick and wounded companeros. Camilo describes the scene on 9thOctober as well, when Che was murdered as the ‘order to murder him came from Washington’. Che never mistreated his captives, most of the times the prisoners of Bolivian army were released after warning them, no one was ever tortured or killed as he never believed in committing cruelties even on enemies. Camilo beautifully concludes that –‘Without a trial, without a thought, the new man Che Guevara represented is killed. But what is born is a yearning for the new human being, who is neither an illusion nor a fantasy.  Xxx A dream, dormant for many centuries takes shape: an ethical, virtuous selfless human being. This time stripped of all myth and mysticism; this person must be fundamentally human. (Page 8)
  Fidel Castro wrote –A necessary Introduction to the dairy in 1968, when the diary was first time published in original Spanish in Havana, of which two lakh copies were circulated free to Cubans; and is part of diary in this edition, which has been included in his memoir on Che as well. In this introduction Fidel narrates the story iof acquiring diary of Che from interior minister of Bolivia, who lost his job for this and establishing its authenticity. Introduction underlines the intense human character of Che and his immense bravery, it also exposes the brutalities of Bolivian regime, which was lackey of US imperialism and was playing a puppet’s role. Castro also exposes the treachery of Mario Monje, secretary of Bolivian Communist party at that time, who ditched Che. Even the other group led by Oscar Zamora became venomous critic of Che Guevara. Moises Guevara, miners leader joined the movement and sacrificed his life. Other comrades of Monje like Inti and Coco Perado also joined and proved their bravery, but Monje went to the extent of sabotaging the movement. Che knew many peasant sin Bolivia but was suspicious and cautious of their character. Despite so many difficulties Che and his comrades performed marvellous feats and Bolivian army could succeed only on 26th September 1967 against Che’s detachment and Che’s group could never overcome that damage. Despite heavy risk Che kept on helping the Doctor Moro, who was in very poor physical health.Castro opines that never in history has so small a number of men set out such a gigantic task. Castro has also highlighted the bravery of Che in fighting his last battle on 8thOctober, trying to save his poor  health two comrades and fighting even he was wounded. In La Paz, dictator Barrientos and defence chief Ovando decided to murder Che, that was done in most cruel and brutal manner. It was Che, who said firmly to his killer—‘Shoot! Don’t be afraid’, still the drunk killer could shoot him in side, Che’s agony for last few hours of his life  was very bitter and Fidel puts it aptly-No person was better prepared than Che to be put to such a test’. Castro reveals that diary of Che was obtained without any financial payment and was published simultaneously in France, Italy, Germany, US; and in Chile, Mexico in Spanish.Fidel concludes by famous slogan of Che- Hasta la victoria siempre!-Ever onwards to Victory.
  25 pages spread Glossary gives details of almost all people involved in this epic struggle on both sides. In Appendices the first Appendix refers to Instructions to Urban cadres, which is mentioned as Document III, it is dated 22nd January 1967. This document was written by Che and was Loyola Guzman, when she visited Che on 26thJanuary. According to this document’s reference National Liberation Army (ELN) was established in March 1967.Che has given detailed instructions in this document regarding all organisational aspects for the army like supplies, finances, transport, and contact with sympathisers etc. Appendix II, refers to Document XVII of ELN and is issued as Communiqué no.1 to the Bolivian people, it is dated 27th March 1967. The general title of the regular communiqués is given as ‘Revolutionary truth against Reactionary Lies’, under this very title there is Communiqué no. 2, issued on 14th April 1967, and given the document no. as XXI. Communiques no. 3, 4 and five issued as Documents no. XXII, XXIV and XXV are also included in Appendices, issued on May 1967 and two in June 1967. In the communiqués it is made clear that ELN is the only responsible party for the armed struggle. In one of these communiqués, Che Guevara makes an impassioned plea to join ELN, as ‘we are restructuring the worker-peasant alliance that was broken by an anti plebeian demagoguery.’ Che is confident at this moment that ‘we are converting defeat into triumph.’
   The Bolivian dairy of Che begins on 7th November with the inspiring first sentence-‘Today begins a new phase... The diary gives brief description of the day and makes an interesting entry on 12th November-‘My hair is growing, although very sparsely, and the grey hair are turning blond, and beginning to disappear; my beard is returning. In a few months i will be myself again.’(Page 38). How much revolutionaries like Che and Fidel love their beard that they feel lost without it!Che entered Bolivia with fake passport and with clean shaven shape, which could not be recognised even by Fidel castro and Che’s comrades in Havana, when Castro gave him a farewell lunch! Manila is fictitious word for Cuba and Che refers to the existence of 12 insurgents on 27thNovember. Che made it a point to write review of the each month’s diary at the end of every month and November’s anaylysis records Che’s opinion –Everything has gone well; my arrival was without incident and half of the troops have arrived , also without incident...
     In diary for December, on 7thDecember Che notes that ‘I will give the summaries at the end of each month’. In 12th December’s entry, Che made certain appointments in the group, giving charges to various people. 19th December’s diary tells us about almost whole night discussion in the group without sleeping a bit. 24thDecember was celebrated as Christmas Eve. On 31st December, all important meeting with Monje takes place. There was discussion on each point and some understanding was reached, which was not followed by Monje later. In the analysis of the month, Che notes with satisfaction that Cuban team has been successfully completed, but Bolivians are few in numbers. Che is satisfied at the morale of the group.
  In January diary, Che plans Tania’s trip to Argentina, On 6th January, Che notes-‘importance of study is indispensable for the future...On 26th January Che noted—Loyola made a very good impression on me, she is very young and softly spoken but one can tell she is very determined. In the analysis of the month, Che notes with anguish—‘As I expected, Monje’s position was at first evasive and then treacherous; Che notes with concern that party (Communist party) has taken up arms against us...Che concludes ironically-‘Of everythins that was envisioned, the slowest has been the incorporation of Bolivian Combatants.’ (Page 78)
   In February diary, 13thFebruary entry is father’s birthday date. 18th February diary notes wife Josefina’s birthday, 24th February is Che’s youngest son Ernesto’s birthday. February was not a very conducive month for the group. Group is divided into two. They had been walking miles and miles. Che has also noted the death of Comrade Benjamin.
 In March diary Che notes on 14thMarch, ‘we heard parts of Fidel’s speech in which he makes blunt criticism of Venezuelan communists and harshly attacks the position of Soviet Union on Latin American puppets. (Page 102).’ Inthe same month on 16th, Che mentions about eating horse. On 17th, Che notes another loss for revolutionaries, lot many crucial weapons on backpacks were lost in crossing river. On March 23&24, they make gains, they capture many weapons from enemy and kill and arrest many. There is mention of French leftist Regis Debary visiting ELN. In March 25th meeting of the group, liberation army is given the name as National Liberation Army of the Boloivia, ELN in short. Che made a detailed analysis of March month activities and notes that ‘The phase of consolidation and purging of the guerrilla force-fully completed’.(Page 118) Che also notes that there is slow development in incorporation of some Cuban elements, als0 as initial phase of struggle precise and spectacular blow, but gross indecision. Che notes that enemy is totally ineffective so far and is trying to moblise peasants to isolate us. Che organises guerrilla force into vanguard, Rear guard and Centre group, keeping himself in centre.
   In April, Che notes of ‘total disaster’ on 4th, ‘great tension’ on 6th, on April 10thRubio’s death is noted, April 11th records radio news of ‘new and bloody encounter’ with mention of nine dead from army and four guerrillas. On 12th April Che notes with some pride that first blood spilled was ‘Cuban’. April 22nd is noted for ‘making mistakes’, 25thas ‘Bad day’ with the best guerrilla Rolando dyeing in ambush. Summary of the month confirms death of Rubio and Rolando as a ‘severe blow’. April analysis opines the certainty of North America’s heavy intervention, already sent helicopters and Green Berets; but Che notes the morale of combatants as good.
   May Day is celebrated by clearing vegetation in guerrilla camps, 8th May ambush by guerrillas got them three army men dead and ten prisoners. The dead include Second lieutenant Henry Larado, whose wife had asked to bring ‘a guerrilla fighter’s scalp’ to adorn in their living room. On 16th May, Che suffers intense abdominal pain with vomiting and diarrhea. They walk some 15 kilometers on 17thmay. 20th May is noted for Che’s son Camilo Guevara’s birth day. The day also mentions Debray’s status as journalist being rejected by dictator Barrientos, Debary is facing trial now. Summary of the month is worrisome- Che notes total loss of contact with Manila (Cuba), La Paz and Joaquin (Other guerrilla group) of ELN, reducing the strength of group to 25; complete failure to recruit peasants, though they now admire ELN, Che notes that it is slow and patient task. Che is happy at clamour on Debary’s case, which has given momentum to ‘our movement than 10 victories in battle’; Che is also happy that ‘ morale of the guerrilla movement is growing stronger.’(Page 164)
   In June diary 14this mentioned as birthday of Che’s youngest daughter Celia Guevara, but which is his own birthday as well, which he notes simply as-‘I turned 39 (today) and am inevitably approaching the age when I need to consider my future as guerrilla, but for now I am still “in one piece”. (Page 171). June 17th is noted for 15 kilometers walk in five and half hours. June 21st is birthday of Che’s mother Celia de la Serna, referred as ‘The old lady’. Che notes on 23rd June that ‘asthma is becoming a serious problem for me and there is very little medicine left’, 24th is noted for worsening of asthma, 25th-asthma continues to grow worse and now it will not let me sleep well. 26th June brings the sad death of Tuma, who was bodyguard to Che and Che felt about him ‘as if he were my own son’. Tuma is painfully buried on 27th June. On 29th, Che notes that they are now 24 men and counts Chino to be among ‘examplary men’. On 30thJune, Che notes that ‘Debary apparently talked more than was necessary’. Bolivian army commander in chief Ovando made official announcement about Che being in Bolivia is also noted. In analysis of the month, Che notes the total lack of contact, continued lack of peasant recruitment, lack of  contact with Bolivian communist party, Debary’s case and Che’s recognition as ‘the leader of the movement’. Che again notes about the morale of guerrilla force being strong and their commitment of the struggle increasing, emphasising that ‘all the Cubans are exemplary in combat. Che notes the urgent task of recruiting at least 50 to 100 men in the movement.
   The very first day of July diary mentions Bolivian dictator Barrientos’s press conference calling guerrillas as ‘rats and snakes’ and wiping out Che Guevara and punishing Debary. On July 3rd Che notes in irony that ‘my asthma continues to wage war’, again on 7th, my asthma is getting worse. On July 14thChe notes with concern that Bolivian ‘government is disintegrating rapidly. Such a pity that we do not have 100 more men right now.’ (Page 191). From 15thto 17th, Che is relieved as asthma is much better, but on 27th, he mentions-My asthma hit me hard and those measly few sedatives are just about gone. July 30th comes with the death of Ricardo. On 31st, mention is made of loss of a book by Trotsky, Debrays’s book with Che notes on it and finally ‘We are 22 men with two wounded, and me with full blown asthma.’ Analaysis of the month focuses upon continuous negative points, three encounters causing army 7 dead, taking of Samaipata, lost two men. Important features- Total loss of contact continuoing, lack of peasant recruitment continuing, guerrilla force is becoming legendry, morale and combat experience of guerrilla force increasing with each battle. The most urgent tasks noted as-‘To re-establish contact, to recruit combatants, and to obtain medicines.’ (Page 204)
  Month of August starts with asthma worries, on 2nd, Che notes-my asthma is hitting me very hard and I have used up my last anti asthmatic injection, all I have left are tablets for about ten days.’ August 3 is as bad, but on 4th it improves a bit. On 6th August Che speaks on Bolivia’s Independence Day and on 7th he notes-‘Today marks exactly nine months since I arrived and we established the guerrilla force. Of the initial six, two are dead, one has disappeared, two are wounded and I am suffering from asthma with no idea how to overcome it.’(Page 207). On August 8th, Che makes a speech to his comrades and mentions the difficult situation of them, Che admits that ‘I am a complete wreck and the incident with the little mare shows that I am beginning to loose control....but Che speaks further-‘This is one of those moments when great decisions have to be made, this type of struggle gives us the opportunity to become revolutionaries, the highest form of human species, and it also allows us to emerge fully as men.....(page 208). On 9th, Che is down with fever and painful heel with abscess. On 10th, mention is made of Fidel’s speech attacking the traditional communist parties, Che still not well. On August 12, another guerrilla lost-Antonio Fernandez. Che foot recovers by 13th, but asthma is mentioned on 14th as ‘condemned to suffer from asthma indefinitely, the news of cave being found out and seizure of all photos and documents makes it bad day with worst blow. August 28th mentioned as ‘distressing day’, so are 29thand 30th. Summary of the month mentios blow of loss of all he documents, medicines, loss of two men, one desertion(first one) Other features of the month remain same, but morale factor changes to ‘decline’, though Che hopes it to be ‘temporary’. Che underlines about guerrillas being at ‘low point in our morale and in our revolutionary legend’, but concludes with recognition of ‘inti and Coco becoming ‘more and more outstanding as revolutionary and military cadres’.(Page 222)
  Month of September begins with much worse news, 2nd September mentions the radio broadcast of ‘annihilation of 10 guerrillas led by Cuban Joaquin in Camiri area’, this includes the killing of Tania as well. Che does not feel like believing it as local radio did anot announce, but Castro in Cuba could believe it. On 3rd Che thinks it to be a ‘trick’. Again on 7th September, Che is not inclined to believe the news of radio Cruz that body of guerrilla Tania recovered from Rio Granade bank, even as 8th entry mentions the attendance by Barrientos at the internment of remains of Tania the guerrilla, given as ‘Christian burial’. Mentioning 10th as bad day, Che makes interesting and funny entry-‘I forgot to mark an event: Today I took a bath after more than six months. This constitutes a record that several others are already approaching.’(Page 232)11th entry mentions of Barrientos claim of Che being ‘already dead’.13th entry mentions a shot fired on Debary’s father’s head, his documents for defence being confiscated. 15thand 17th entries mention about Lyola’s arrest and protest over it. It seems Che reconciles with Joaquin’s group’s annihilation around 22nd, when he mentions Barrientos-Ovando press conference announcing their ‘wiping out’. 26th entry begins with word ‘Defeat’, 28th begins with the words’Day of anguish’, perhaps Coco is annihilated, 29th is ‘another tense day’, so is 30th. This month’s summary is sad- loss of Miguel, Coco and Julio in ambush, ruined everything and left us in ‘perilous position’, losing Leon as well, losing Camba is a net gain. Che now accepts –‘we must consider Jouquins group wiped out, still hoping the report to be ‘exaggerated’ and ‘small group wandering around’. Che mentions the bitter fact that army is now more effective and peasants are becoming ‘informers’. Che underlines most important task as ‘to escape and seek more favourable areas; then focus on contacts, despite the fact that our urban network in La Paz is in shambles, where we also have been hit hard. Che still mentions the morale of rest of the troops as ‘fairly high’.
  October 2nd mentions the birthday of another guerrilla Antonio Pantoja Tomao.3rd entry is ironic, capture of two ‘guerrillas-Antonio (Leo) and Orlando (Camba), both betray and give information. Debary is praised for his courageous stand in the trial.5th entry shows Che taking care of Benigno and El Medico given an injection. The last entry of diary on 7th October begins as-‘The 11 month anniversary of our establishment as guerrilla force passed in bucolic mood with no complications. Che mentions that ‘the 17 of us set out under a slither of a moon, the march was exhausting, no nearby houses...Last lines—The army issued an odd report about the presence of 250 men in Serrano to block the escape of the 37(guerrillas) that are said to be surrounded. Our refuge is supposeddely between the Acero and Oro rivers. The report seems to be diversionary. Altitude=2000 meters.
These were the last words penned by Che Guevara before his capture next day 8th October and subsequent brutal murder on 9thOctober.
   The Bolivian Diary of Che Guevara records the eleven month glorious struggle to liberate Bolivia from the crutches of dictator Barrientos and its brutal army working directly under US imperialists as its lackey. I took look at The Motorcycle diaries and The Bolivian diary of Che Guevara together, though two diaries entirely different in content and style, one can understand Che Guevara’s marvellous and heroic character, which made him the best icon of international revolutionary in each part of the world. Wherever the resistance movements have erupted in any part of the world after 1967 murder of Che Guevara, everywhere Che’s photographs/posters/souvenirs have been the most visible part of demonstrations/processions etc. Che has become an icon, most ideal for the youth. One can see it from the conduct of Che’s life. Even from The Bolivian diary, it is amply clear that how selfless and caring Che’s personality has been towards his comrades. How despite his horrible asthmatic conditions suffered all the hardships of guerrilla life, walking 15-20 kilometers a day, performing all the duties of a guerrilla, like giving guard duty etc. and never complained, always remained full of optimism, even when things were going completely beyond control. Though Che has realistically analysed the weaknesses of the movement through his diary. Che was an idealist, despite being a Marxist, conditions were not ripe for him to go to Bolivia, this was the opinion of Fidel Castro also, but Che was restless to go. Che Guevara and Bhagat Singh like personalities create role models for youth or struggling people by their complete selfless conduct. Che was probably hoping to create another Cuba by his 25 men or so, as in Cuba just 15 or 16 of them mobilised whole of Cuba and defeated 80 thousand army of Batista. But Che underestimated US role after Cuban revolution. It would not allow another Cuba in Latin America at any cost and that is what it did in Bolivia by killing Che and many more senior Cuban revolutionaries in Bolivia in 1967. Yet the saga of Che Guevara’s bravery and struggle became a legend for long term inspiration for liberation of human kind from all kinds of oppression. Che could be impulsive in Bolivia, but by his sacrifice, he created a much more powerful Che for US imperialism, to which it can never kill with bullets as it has become idea personified and you can kill persons, people, but not an idea, that is what Che is today, to live forever and as a burning shot in the eyes of imperialism! Same is the icon of Bhagat Singh is South Asia, with similar characteristics of the character.
2. ‘The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey’, Ernesto, “Che” Guevara, Preface by Aleida Guevara, Introduction by Cintio Vitier, Ocean Press, Melbourne, New York, London, first ed. 2004, 14thprinting 2007 from Colombia, pages 175, Price Rs. 350/
    Eduardo Galeano finds this book to be ‘journey of journeys, solitude found solidarity; ‘I’ turned into ‘we’.
 Aleida Guevara, daughter of Che, in her preface tells us that she read these notes before publication and was glad to be the daughter of this writer. She notes beauty and intensity of feelings in the writing. Aleida shares her felling that ‘the more I read, the more in love I was with the boy my father had been’. She underlines ‘the sense of humour’, ‘tenderness’. Aleida feels these notes to be written with ‘so much love, eloquence and sincerity’, which make her feel ‘closer to my father’. Aleida wrote her preface in July 2003, concluding with the words-‘I shall leave you now with the man I knew, the man I love intensely for the strength and tenderness he demonstrated in the way he lived. Enjoy your reading! Ever onwards!’
  Book includes Aleida’s preface to first edition of 1993, biographical sketch and brief chronology of Che’s life. Map and itinerary of the diaries is given, with introduction by Cintio Vitier. The journey starts in December 1951 with Alberto Granade and they stay in Argentina till 11th February 1952. They move to Chile in February 1952 and stay till 22nd March, after which they enter Peru on 24thMarch, staying till June 21, perhaps the longest in any country during the trip. They stay in Columbia from 23rd June to 13th July and then in Venezuela for brief period of two weeks in July. Che returns to Argentina in August via Miami in US.
      In his introduction Cintio Vitier considers Che to be most popular Latin American hero throughout the world after Bolivar. Che and his friend take on abroad on noisy motorcycle-La Pedrosa-II. Cintio refers to Jose Marti’s campaign diary in comparison.He describes ‘These youthful adventures-veined with cheerfulness, humour and frequently self directed irony. Che published an article in December 1953 in Panama on Machu Pichu in Peru, which they visited in this trip.
  Diaries are spread into132 pages, and Che’s speech to medical students in 1960 is included after the diary. Delivered on 20th August 1960, Che tells medical students that as a medical student he also-‘wanted to succeed like everybody else, Che dreamed of being famous researcher, working tirelessly to put something at the disposal of humanity. Che refers to his travels and refrs to Guatemala in 1954, where he was when CIA sponsored coup took place against popularly elected President Arbez. Che realised at that time that to become a revolutionary doctor or a revolutionary, there must be a revolution first. Che talks about integration of doctors to revolutionary movement. Che defines individualism –‘Individualism as such, as the isolated action of a person alone in a social environment must disappear in Cuba. Individualism tomorrow should be proper utilization of the whole individual to the absolute benefit of the community.’-(Page 171). Che urges young doctors to earn people’s gratitude. He quotes Jose Marti in conclusion ‘The best form of saying is doing’ and let us then march toward the future of Cuba.’ It is an inspiring address to students.
         The diaries start with the chapter ‘So we understand each other’, the first para declares the aim of the journey-‘This is not a story of heroic feats, or merely the narrative of a cynic; at least I do not mean it to be. It is a glimpse of two lives running parallel for a time, with similar hopes and convergent dreams.’ (Page 31). It is nine months odyssey on La pedrosa, they begin from their place Cordoba, the home of Che in Argentina. Titles are given to small chapters. Che quotes a poem by Venezuelan left wing poet Miguel Otero Silva, the last lines of which are-she stayed, unable to cry/Wait! I will come walking with you..... (Page 36). Friends, families express surprise at their planned trip just one year before their completion of medical course...So the journey starts with Che getting shiver in early days, getting hospitality. Motorcycle start troubling from the very beginning, and they have to use ‘wire’ as its repair tool .They take hospitality at different people. They work at hotels as ‘boys’ and clean the things and sometimes get Albertos’ friend’s hospitality. In January Che writes to his mother, showing the kind of love he has for his mother.
From some doctors travelling around Che and Alberto got introduction letter for Chile, where they entered and Che remarked-‘Chilean hospitality, as I never tire of saying, is one reason travelling in our neighbouring country is so enjoyable,  WE MADE MOST OF IT.’(Page 57)Motorcycle’s funny behaviour continues, now breaking its gearbox. Then they taste Chilean wine at party, which is great and Che drinks too quickly. In a village dance, a man asks him to dance with his wife, who is ‘hot’ and ‘clearly in mood’, but her husband’s attention made them run...At this stage La Pedrosa leaves ‘its ghost’ as Che describes it, so next stage of their journey is ‘bums without wheels’. Che and Alberto are lured by Chilean women, as they have a ‘certain spontaneity and freshness that captivates immediately.’ They get rid of their motorcycle ‘in a truck bearing the heavy weight of us freeloaders.’(Page 67). They visit Easter Island, where the weather is perfect, women are perfect....’Here thesy see the social injustice scenes as well. In Chile, they make friendship with a communist couple as well, who are numb with cold.Che notes that Chile produces 20% copper of the whole world. After having lot of fun, they say ‘goodbye to that hospitable Chilean land. Che makes review of Chile as country and refers to popular front leader Salvador Allende, who is supported by Communists. Che notes with concern Yankee US involvement in Chile.
  After Chile, they enter Peru and see the lake of the sun.They see Cuzco, surrounded by mountains and also Machu Pichu mountains.They click photographs of these places, included in this book. Che gets hospitalized also, due to his asthma, they reach Ayacocho, where Bolivar won decisive battle, little town has 33 churches. To have food, Che plays trick everywhere by refusing to have drink, the reason, he would tell that they have only with food, so the host serves them food. Che refers Lima to be pretty city, they like here Museum of Archaeology. From Peru on 4thJune 1952, Che writes to his father, they visit leper colony in the san Pablo. Che notes on 14th June 1952, that he has turned 24 that day. Che reads some Garcia Lorca and on 6th July 1952, Che sends another letter to his mama, wishing her happy birthday and tells her-‘A huge hug from your son, who misses you from head to toe.’(Page 157). Their last stop is Caracas in Venezuela, where they enter on 14th July, Che has worst asthma attack also. At the conclusion of journey, Che writes ‘A note on the Margin’, in which he notes-‘The future belongs to the people and gradually, or in one stroke, they will take power, here and in every country... Che ends the diary with positive note hoping for the triumph of the proletariat.
   Style of diary is extremely enjoyable and Che has great literary talent like Marx. Diaries are glimpses of delightful young men’s adventures and written in more enjoyable style!
3. Marxs and Engels, Che Guevara, Left Word, New Delhi, 1sted. May 2009, with license from Ocean Press, pages 80, price Rs. 150/
 In 1956, Che wrote about Marx as St. Marx to his mother.Che called this work as ‘biographical syntheses. Che as per his temperament looks for human qualities in Marx and Engels, apart from defining them as foremost thinkers of socialism.
 This small book is like introducing Marx and Engels to young adults, like Shiv Verma’s series on Marxism. But Che Guevara absorbed most difficult concepts of Marx and Engels, through their real hard works like-das Capital, The book includes at the end, Che’s reading list on Marx and Engels, including lot of their correspondence. Che admires Franz mehring’s biography of Marx-‘Karl Marx’, but wishes for more advanced biography as well. This small monograph narrates all the important events in both thinker friends lives, even the personal tragedies and Engels dedication to Marx, who lived later to complete Marx’s left incomplete works like Theories of Surplus value, and even two volumes of Capital, of which only first volume was published during Marx’s time. Che refers to Marx’s love for his family, who underwent lot of traumas, deprivation due to poverty, death of his daughter and wife both named Jenny, death of 8 year old son Edgar, which affected both Marx and Jenny.
  It is good exposure to Marx-Engels and Marxism.
4.Global Justice;Liberation and socialism,Che Guevara, edited by Maria del Carmen Arier Garcia, Leftword Delhi with Ocean, first Indian ed. 2004, pages 72, price Rs.100/
  This small book includes Che Guevara’s three major writings-At the Afro-Asian Conference in Algeria (1965), Socialism and Man in Cuba, Create two Three many Vietnams.
   The book is first publication of Che Guevara Studies centre Havana, which is located in the house, where Che lived from 1962 till his final departure in 1966 from Cuba. Brief bio-sketch is given of Che and Introduction has been written by Maria del Carmen Ariet Garcia from the Che centre. Some good photographs are included in the book. Maria tells us in her introduction that ‘Che was able to merge philosophy, politics and economics in his all encompassing, coherent revolutionary vision.’(Page 1) Maria refers to Portugese Noble winner writer Jose Saramago, who tells how Che’s clandestine posters came in Salazar’s Portugal. Maria underlines Che’s concept of internationalism and his humanism, which was integral to his thought. Che believed that there are no borders in this struggle (for revolution) to the death.-‘a victory by any country over imperialism is our victory, just as any country’s defeat is our defeat for all of us.’
1.     At The Afro-Asian Conference in Algeria-Che addresses the conference on 24th February 1965, as ‘Dear Brothers and Sister’. Before ‘Third World Theory’ term was used in China, it was Che, who made use of this term at this conference in 1965, by saying-‘ Immense problems confront our two worlds-that of the socialist countries and that called the Third World-problems directly concerning human beings and their welfare, and related to the struggle against the main force that bears the responsibility for our backwardness’.(Page 24)Che describes Algerian liberation leader Ahmed Ben Bella as our dear companero(Comrade)
2.     Socialism and Man in Cuba-This article is written in letter form to Carlos Quijano, Uruguayan weekly, Matcha, and was published on 12thMarch 1965. Che refers to the date 26th July 1953, when Fidel Castro attacked Moncada barracks as the beginning of revolution in Cuba, culminating in its victory in January 1959. Castro assumed Prime Minister Position in February 1959. President Urrutia, who was blocking the social change programme of revolutionaries, was forced to resign under mass pressure in the same year. Che refers to stage of Guerilla struggle in Cuba during attack at Sierra maestra during 1957-58. In this seminal essay, Che describes the relation of individual to society and how an individual can become a complete personality only by participating in social process. Che tells the need to turn whole society into gigantic school to create new man. Che underlines the need for self education and institulization of the revolution. Che defines the terms like ‘work’, individualism, new impulse for artistic experimentation. Che has clear role defined for the individual and emphasises upon love of living humanity. Some of his precise observations are- -'It is not a matter of how many kilograms of meat one has to eat, or how many times a year someone can go to beach, or how many petty things from abroad you might be able to buy with present day wages. It is a matter of making the individual feel more complete, with much more inner wealth and much more responsibility...At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality....We socialist are freer because we are more fulfilled: we are more fulfilled because we are freer...Our freedom and its daily sustenance are paid for in blood and sacrifice..Our sacrifice is conscious one: an instalment paid on the freedom that we are building....'
3.     Create two Three Many Vietnams-Message to the Tricontinental. In January 1966, this conference of solidarity with the people of Asia, Africa and Latin America was held in Cuba. Che was in Tanzania at that time, but he sent this message for the conference. The message according to Manual Pineiro was written in Cuba at a training camp for guerrilla training in Pinar del Rio, from where Che proceeded to Bolivia. This message was published in 16th April 1967 issue of magazine ‘Tricontinental’. It is noted in notes that in April 1965, tens of thousands of US troops invaded Dominican Republic to crush popular uprising.
4.       Che refers to Korean War of 1950’s and Vietnam War of late 1960’s. Che admits that ‘The world panorama is one of great complexity. He refers to Latin America being ‘a more or less homogenous whole and in almost its entire territory US monopoly capital holds absolute primacy.’)Page 51) Che analyses the situation in Asia, Africa and Latin America and advises that ‘This is the road to of Vietnam. It is the road people must follow. This is the road that Latin America will follow.’ Che emphasise upon the need to avoid needless sacrifice. Underlining it to be a long war against imperialism, Che concludes the message with a clarion call-‘Our every action is a battle cry against imperialism and a call for the unity of the peoples against the great enemy of the human race: the United states of North America.
  Wherever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear, if another hand reaches out to take up our arms, and others come forward to join in our funeral dirge with the rattling of machine guns and with new cries of battle and victory.’(Page62)
   In this little book of three essays, Che Guevara is at his inspirational best with socialist humanism and morality at the core of his writings.

5. Guerrilla Warfare(Authorised version), Ernesto Che Guevara, Foreword-Harry “Pombo” Villegas, LeftWord/Ocean, New Delhi, first Indian ed. 2009, pages157, Price Rs. 250/
This is one of the classic books by Che Guevara, which is read attentively by both revolutionaries and anti revolutionaries. This treatise is written in three main chapters with one chapter including three appndices and then 21 sub chapters in earlier three chapters. Forward is written by Che’s comrade in Bolivia and one of he three survivors of Cuban guerrillas. The book has biographical note on Che and editorial note. Che’s comrade in arms Harry “Pombo” Villegas in his forward justifies the slogan for Cuban Pioneers as ‘Be like Che’. Pombo mentions the names of major leaders of Cuban liberation, the vanguard, led by Fidel Castro, as-Raul Castro, Juan Almeida, Camilo Cienfuengos and Che Guevara. Pombo refers Che’s Reminiscences of Cuban and Congo revolutionary wars as other classics. Pombo also mentions that for Che- ‘the people are to the guerrilla fighter what water is to fish, that is their means of existence’, it is like Chinese leader Mao’s saying. Pombo concludes his brief forward by referring to Cuban national hero Jose Marti, comparing with Che. Che himself has written a detailed ‘Dedication to Camilo’, who should have read this manuscript and corrected it, but whose fate prevented him from carrying out the task’. Camilo was killed in aeroplane accident in October 1959. Che refers to Camilo as ‘the companero of a hundred battles, the intimate confident of Fidel in difficult moments of the war, the stoic fighter, who always made sacrifice into an instrument for stealing his own character and forging the morale of his troops.’ Che quotes Danton’s maxim favourably for revolutionaries-‘Audacity, audacity and more audacity’. Che tells that Camilo practised loyalty like religion. As per Che’The slightest shadow of weariness or discouragement never entered in Camilo’s head and he concludes his tribute by saying that ‘In his continual and immortal renewal, Camilo is the reflection of the people.’(Page 9)
Chapter 1: General Principles of Guerrilla warfare
i.                    The essence of guerrilla warfare-Che underlines three fundamental lessons-a. Popular forces can win a war against the army, b) it is not always necessary to wait for the revolutionary conditions exist, the insurrection can develop subjective conditions based on existing objective conditions.In underdeveloped America(Jose Marti’s term for Americas) the countryside is the fundamental arena for armed struggle. Che acknowledges the fact that in some form of popular vote elected government system, guerrilla movement will face great difficulties. Guerrilla fighter counts upon the full support of the local people. Che quotes Mao and Ho Chi Minh’s experiences favourably.
ii.Guerrilla strategy-Essential task to keep himself from being wiped out. Blows should be continuous.
iii.Guerrilla Tactics-Tactics are the practical methods of achieving great strategic objectives. Treatment of the people in the zone, greatest clemency towards enemy, prisoners shall be set free.
iv. Warfare on favourable Terrain-practical to establish base and expand with new combatants.
v. Warfare on Unfavourable Terrain-Strikes in the night, guerrilla could walk 30-50 kilometres during night. Only 10-15 member band/squad.
vi. Urban Warfare- Discipline and discretion of highest degree. Urban struggle’s importance extraordinary.
2. Chapter II: The Guerrilla band
i.) The Guerrilla Fighter: Social Reformer-Agrarian reform main task, ideological issues, set personal example.
ii.) The Guerrilla Fighter as Combatant-inhabitant of the zone, night combatant, should risk their life when necessary, ready to die, rapid adaptability, physical qualities, close lipped, best age 25-35, could be 16-40, exceptions like 65 years guerrilla in Cuban war. Must carry house on backpack,, eat when they can, may have to skip meals for 2-3 days, without affecting work, vary essential and accessory equipment, ammunition like apple of the eye, book must, periods of boredom for guerrilla.
iii.)Organisation of a Guerrilla band-commander for 100-150 guerrillas, 30-40 guerrilla group with captain and 8-12 fighter squad with lieutenant. Food, clothing, medicines, total silence during march,, test of guerrilla during encirclement, and approaching people.
iv.) Combat- Combat most important drama of guerrilla life
v.)Beginning, development and end of a Guerrilla war
3. Chapter III: Organisation of the Guerrilla Front
i.) Supply—good supply of primary importance, salt, mule,
ii.) Civil organisation-The civil organisation of the insurrectional movement is very important on both the external and the internal fronts. Justice, revolutionary laws, administration,-vital, popular organisations of workers, professionals, peasants,
111.) The Role of Women-of extraordinary importance, teach basic of reading, revolutionary theory, medical matters-nursing and doctors.
iv.)Health-medicines, clinics
v.) Sabotage-invaluable weapon, sabotage nothing to do with terrorism, we sincerely believe that terrorism is negative, it can turn people against a particular revolutionary movement. Sabotage against communications key factor.
vi.) War Industry-shoes and leather goods, toolkit, armory, iron and tin, cigarette and cigar factories.
vii.) Propaganda-Truth is the best policy, through whatever media, dissemination of revolutionary ideas, radio, and main newspaper on national hero name.
viii.) Intelligence-Chinese proverb-know yourself and your adversary and you will be able to fight a hundred battles without a disaster, like biblical palm for guerrilla warfare. Nothing helps than correct intelligence.
ix.)Training and Indoctrination-Shooting basic training, teacher’s training school necessary, reading at all times.
x.) The organisational Structure of the army of a Revolutionary Movement-military chief-commander-in chief-Fidel, disciplinary punishment must, punishment like privation of sweets and cigarettes, total deprivation of food etc.
4. Chapter IV: Appendices
i.)Underground organisation of the first Guerrilla band-Guerrilla warfare develops in accordance with a series of laws. Underground work start with small nucleus, absolute secrecy, prohibition of relations with women-‘The revolutionary in a clandestine situation preparing for war should be a complete ascetic, this is also a test of one of the qualities that will be later be the basis of their authority: discipline’(Page 135), weapons same as of regular army, In Cuba, at one time just 12 men formed the nucleus of the future army, economy and utilization of ammunition down to the last bullet almost a religious tenet.
ii.) Holding Power-former regime must be systematically destroyed, transition with caution.
Iii.) Epilogue: Analyses of the situation in Cuba, present and future-agrarian reforms, rent law alarm bell for parasite, eliminate the interests of United Fruit Company of John Foster Dulles and the empire of Rockefeller’s company. Monopolies affected, trying to kill Castro-Che, international solidarity, in attack, navy, air force will be organised, and two great masses of workers and peasants are united against aggression.
  The revolutionary laws should be discussed, explained, studied in every meeting.(Page 156), The participation of the people in politics, must be constant. Camilo ’the army is the people in uniform’ (page 157)
   Che Guevara has explained Guerrilla warfare in such a lucid and explicit manner that even an ordinary person can understand it clearly. A significant book for left movement.

 6.‘Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War’, authorised edition, Che Guevara, Preface by Aleida Guevara, 1st Indian ed. 2009, LeftWord with Ocean press, New Delhi, pages 307, Price Rupees 450/
         This very important book by Che Guevara, has Editorial Note, Biographical Note, Map, Chronology and Preface before Che’s memoirs of the war begin. Actual description of war is given in 33 chapters and three chapters in appendices are at the end of the book. A glossary of important terms, places/individuals has been included at the end of the book.
     The memoirs are based on the original diaries of Che from Siarra Maestra and Santa Clara, the original diaries were scheduled to be published in 2009. Aleida Guevara in her preface has noted that these recollections were published for the first time in 1963, which are based upon his diaries of this period.Aleida specifically mentions ‘The Murdered Puppy’, which she says remained deeply etched in my memory. She concludes her short preface with these words-‘Today, the most useful weapons are knowledge and understanding-let us continue to fight, together for a better world. - Hasta la Victoria siempre! Ever onward to victory!
 Che Guevara wrote the Prologue of the book in 1961. The first chapter begins with the title-‘A Revolution Begins-1955-56’. Che refers to main events in Cuban history in the very first paragraph military coup on 10th March 1952 by Fulgencio Batista, going back to 1933 intervention by US Ambassador, Che refers to 1901, then to Adams Smith in 19th century. Che notes that this situation existed in almost all Latin American countries. Che refers to his meeting with Fidel Castro in Mexico and in very first meeting Che enrolled himself for a liberation war fighter for Cuba. Che has returned from Guatemala in 1954. In 1955, when they were planning to travel on Granma, a yacht to Cuba, many of them got arrested and spent some time in jail finally they left on yacht on 25thNovember 1956, making Castro’s word real-‘In 1956 we will be free or we will be martyrs.’ (Page 13). Within hours of sailing, except for 5-7, rest of 82 crew men were sea sick, vomiti, psychic ng. On 30th November, Frank Pais started uprising in Santiago de Cuba. On 2nd December at 2 a.m, they landed at Belic on Las colardes beach. In Che’s words-We were an army of shadows, ghosts, walking as if to beat of some dark, psychic mechanism. The crossing had been seven days of constant hunger and sea sickness, followed by three more days, terrible days- on land. They reached Algria de Pio(Joy of the pious) on 5th December.
    
 2. Algria De Pio
   Castro army lost all equipment, lft with some wet ammunition. Army attacked Che got wounded in neck and chest. Che was sure that he is just killed and was trying to die with dignity. He later notes that 5th December 1956, was our baptism, which was going to become ‘the Rebel army’.
           3. Adrift-December 1956
  After few days of facing attacks from army, Castro comrades could meet again by 15 persons.
5.     The Battle of La Plata-January 1957
 Che counts the weaponry left with guerrillas-23 in all. Che recounts initial treacheries like that of Eutimio. Chicho Osario was notorious overseer in the area, who was executed. This was first victorious battle of guerrillas, in which two were dead, five wounded and three prisoners taken, not a scratch on guerrilla side, many weapons seized.
6.     The Battle of Arroyo Del Infiefrno-January 1957
Five enemy troops killed and lot of weapons/ammunition taken
7.     Air Attack-Jan.-Feb.1957
More people had joined our ranks; Eutimio brought planes to attack us
8. Surprise Attack at Altos De Espinosawe On 12th February 1957, had the ‘Revolutionary Unified Army’ of 18 men.
9. Death of a Traitor-Feb. 1957, Eutimio was caught and executed, a peasant tempted
10. Bitter days-Feb. March 1957
 Revolutionary group now of 17 original men and three companeros from Granma joined. On 22nd Feb. 1957, Che had first asthma attack, no medicine, bad condition, 10 most bitter days of struggle.
 11. Reinforcements-March 1957
  New companeros joined and troops in new level of excellence with new men.
12. Tempering the Troops-March-Ap. 1957
Months of restructuring and apprenticeship of new troops. Horse eating.
13. A Famous Interview-April 1957
 Fidel had no radio those days, borrowed from a peasant, Journalist Bob Taylor came. Peasants were being offered 300 pesos to kill Castro.
14. On the March-May 1957
Che lost the way, confused, compass of no help
15. The Weapons Arrive-May 1957
Granma companeros sentenced, Magistrate Urrutia disagreed, and he earned Presidentship of Cuba after revolution for this gesture. A Yankee journalist and GBI agent came. Bob Taylor film shown in US, marvellous sight of weapons,
15.                The Battle of El Uvero-May 1957
One of the bloodiest battles, 14 dead soldiers. Preoccupation with truth always central in rebel army.
17. Caring for the Wounded-May-June 1957
Blind and unrewarded sacrifices also made the revolution
18. Return to Journey-June 1957
Asthma aggravated
19. A Betrayal in the making-July 1957
200 troops, better morale, genuinely liberated territory in Siarra Maestra, manifest issued. 12th July 1957, Sierra Manifesto published in the newspapers, Che made commander by Castro of second column, second only to Fidel. ‘Bit of vanity hiding within everyone of us and I felt like the proudest man in the world that day’ (Page 125)
20. The Attack on Bueycito-August 1957
Beloved companero-Maceo killed, deserter killed. Frank Pies murdered in the streets of Santiago, one of the purest and glorious lives of Cuban revolution ended.
21. The Battle of El Hombrito-August 1957
This battle more or less marked the moment of withdrawal of Batista’s troops from Sierra Maestra.
22. Pino Del Agua- September 1957 painful incident companero Roberto Rodriguez, punished to be disarmed for insubordination, committed suicide
23. An Unpleasant Episode-October 1957
Lalo Sardinas, a brave fighter, supporter of discipline, accidentally unintentionally shot a companero, in reaction, guerrillas demanded his execution. Long discussion, I defended, Castro pleaded his best; still his life could be saved only by 6 votes, 76 voting for saving and 70 for execution. The group which lost left the movement itself. Some bandits/criminals neutralised, who were using revolutionary movement name to sleaze people
24. The Struggle against Banditry-October 1957
Chino Chang, tried and condemned to death, US journalist watched it.  The Echevarria case poignant, admitting errors, he wished to die in battle, not be execution, wrote to his mother, justifying the sentence to him, and could have been hero of the revolution like his two brothers, but committed crime at wrong time. Another colourful charcter executed was-‘El Maestro’, lived immorl life, tried to rape peasant girl. By October end re-established in EL Hombirto.
25. About 40+ photographs in centre-
The Murdered Puppy-November 1957
This is the piece felt intensely by Aleida Guevara, when in guerrilla life, one may have to kill the pet, and you love, for the needs of guerrilla life, as puppy won’t stop barking. Felix and Che both felt guilty after getting it strangled.
26. The Battle of Mar Verde-November 1957
This battle on 29th November 1957, took the life of guerrilla Ciro Redendo, promoted posthumously.
27. Altos De Conrado-December 1957
Che wounded, loss of guerrillas, murderer army leader Sanchez Masquera destroyed much.
28. One Year of Armed Struugele-December 1957
   As per his regular habit, Che here reviews and analyses one year of guerrilla war launched by revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro. Landed on 2nd December, badly beaten on 5thDecember, guerrillas till May 28 1957 with El Uvero victory, have slowly established links with city.Che remembers the deaths of comrades in this period, mentioning names of Nico Lopez, Juan Manuel Marquez, Nano and Julio Diaz, Ciro Redendo, Captain Soto. On 13th March 1957, presidential palace was attacked, the life of University Students union President Manazanita Echeverria was lost. At the end of first year, a general uprising throughout the country was on the horizon. Acts of sabotage, terrorist acts led to loss of innocent lives also. Small radio transmitter by end of year. People joined more in 1958, including Vilma Espin, now women federation President. Felipe Pazos tried to appropriate 26th July movement name by agreeing to Miami pact, Castro wrote famous letter of 14th December 1957 to the leaders of- The Cuban revolutionary party, The Orthodox party, The Authentic organisation, Federation of University students, The Revolutionary Directorate and The National Workers Front, denouncing Miami pact. In this letter Castro makes it clear to make Dr. Manuel Urrutia to be made President. Fidel again asserts that ‘We shall conquer or die, alone’ (Page 220)
29, Pino Del Agua II_Jan. Feb. 1958
Fidel personally led 16th February 1958 attack, some guerrillas lost lives, and enemy had 11 dead, 5 wounded prisoners, including lieutenant Laferte, who joined guerrillas. Final tally of the battle till 19thFebruary enemy suffered 18 to 25 deaths lot of weapons/ammunition seized. On 19thFebruary nearly hundred guerrillas, including Ch wrote to Fidel Castro, not to endanger his life by participating in battles directly.
30. Interlude-April 1958
 April-June1958 was period of both ebb and flow in insurrectional wave. Che refers to asthma, killing of magnificent guerrilla Marino.
31. A Decisive Meeting- May 1958
 National Committee meeting on 3rdmay 1958 at Sierra Maestra, Che invited specially to participate to discuss 9thApril failure. Sierra Maestra front strengthened, Castro given central authority.
32. Letters to Fidel Castro (About the Invasion)-
These are Che’s letters to Fidel, during this period, first is written on 3rd September from Oriente Plains, second from Camaguey plains on 8th September at 1.50 a.m, 3rd from same place on 13thSeptember at 9.50 p.m, giving details of battles.
33. The Final Offensive and the Battle of Santa Clara-May-December 1958
9th April 1958 general strike proved to be resounding defeat. Yet Batista’s 10000 men were ineffective against guerrillas 200 rifles. In two and half month’s hard battles, enemy lost 1000 men and a tank and 600 weapons. Hardest days, tiring marches, reference of Trinidad in Cuba, Camilo Cienfuegos controlled north. Che entered Santa Clara in December, functioned from University. There were treacheries in the last phase also by other groups supporting revolution but for personal benefits. Che enters victoriously in Santa Clara.
 In Appendices three touching memoirs of Che are given
34. El Patojo
Julio Roberto Caceres Valle, Guatemalan, Castro accept him in Granma, though he offered, he came to Cuba after revolution triumphed, worked in various branches of public administration, but his quest was to fight for Guatemala’s liberation. Che met him in 1954, while working in Guatemala. El Patojo was a journalist, he took photos during unemployment, he was part of Guatemala’s labour party (Communist party). He has no military or guerrilla training, yet he felt it his duty to go and fight in Guatemala. Che gave him some lessons and advices, but as he left and came the news of his death. He died in battle, but region was poorly chosen, men were not prepared yet. His verse were found later in Cuba, for the woman whom he loved- Take this, it is only my heart/ Hold it in your heart/and when the dawn arrives, /Open your hand/ and let the sun warm it...
 Che says emotionally that Patojo’s heart remains with them, in the hands of his beloved and ion the loving hands of an entire people...
35. Lidia and Clodomira
Che met 45 years old Lidia in Sierra Maestra, his son was part of guerrilla group, she has limitless audacity, daring, fearless. She was principal means of communication. Che refers to his fondness for puppies and Lidia’s promise to bring one for him.Clodomira had become her comrade in danger. She already got a puppy for me, but the trip could never took place, as she and clodomira captured due to an inferior companero’s fault. She fought. Their bodies disappeared, may be their remains wil be found one day. Che pays glowing tribute to women fighters of rebel army!
36. A Sin of the Revolution
  In this last memoir of the book, Che is at his moral best, when he attacks the selfish interest spoiling the serenity of the revolution and call for purity in revolutionary life. Reference to second national front of Escambray, its commander Carreras drunk half bottle already, half of his daily quota. Its another unit following Camilo entered Havana ‘heroically’ and its leader’s bill from hotel Capri came for fifteen thousand US dollars for food and drinks for small beneficiaries. 100 captains and some commanders looked for comfortable state jobs for graft. As per Che, this kind of idea of unity was ‘a sin of revolution’. (Page 287). This sin made us pay succinct salaries to people like Felipe Pazos, Tete Casuso, Barquin, who avoided conflict and remained ‘freeloaders;, parasitical, ready to betray. Che feels happy that they all left to Miami. Che says emphatically-Revolutionary conduct is mirror of revolutionary faith. ‘When someone who calls themselves a revolutionary does not behave as such, they are no more than charlatans. (Page 289)
  This is a great book by Che Guevara, while leading the struggle in such hard conditions, with having asthma, yet taking motes of the events and then turning those notes into narration of a great historic event of Cuban revolution in 1959, almost unbelievable with just 82 men starting on a mission with such commitment, left with just 15-20 men, yet fighting 10 thousand men and total of 80 thousand Batista army, perhaps no other example in history of such amazing feat by revolutionaries. Che’s own spirit is simply marvellous, which later took the tragic form in Bolivia, but for Che personally, that was a moment of glory, though facing just alone in most hostile conditions. I simply bow my head before this one of the greatest revolutionary of all times. Viva Che!
7. Che Guevara Reader: Writings on politics and revolution, Edited by David Deutschmann, LeftWord with Ocean, New Delhi, Ist Indian ed. 2004, reprint 2004, pages 437,, Price Rs. 450/
 In this selection, some major writings of Che Guevara from different books or articles have been put together. Book includes, apart from Introduction by the editor, sketch of Che, Choronolgy of his life, Glossary of events and persons, Index and a listing of Che Guevara’s all writings and speeches as Bibliography and notes as well. It is very well annotated edition of Che’s major writings, which shows him to be a very mature thinker, even on economic matters. Che Guevara’s theoretical writings have been so important that Fidel Castro realised after the fall of Soviet Union in 1989, that to save Cuban society from falling into the trap of western consumer culture, the revival of Che Guevara’s purity of revolutionary thought and practice is essential, that is how Che Guevara’s major writings, apart from His Bolivian Diary published earlier were published in Cuba and abroad in other languages. In this book, Che’s writings have been included in four parts. Part 1 are selections from Reminiscences of Cuban Revolutionary War as The Cuban revolutionary war. Part 2 titled as ‘The Cuba Years-1959-65 includes 12 of Che’s speeches and writings. Part 3 as ‘International Solidarity’ includes 8 of his speeches and writings and part 4 includes 21 of his most touching letters with personal touch. In a way this one volume offers glimpse of Che Guevara’s personality in almost totality, as person and thinker.
  Editor David in his introduction has mentioned that the book was published for first time in 1997 to mark the 30thanniversary of Che’s martyrdom. Editor also wishes to dispel the somewhat narrow image of Che as ‘heroic’ or ‘adventurer’, which has been promoted by media more, his contribution to Marxist theory remained unknown partly as English editions were not available of Che’s writings.
Part I of the book is covered under Reminiscences, Part II The Cuban years include the following essays:
1.     Social ideals of the Rebel Army-29th January 1959-dream of Jose Marti.All the Cuban people must become guerrilla army
2.     Political Sovereignty and Economic Independenc-30th March 1960
First in television series-‘people’s University’-2nd world war took 40 million lives, perhaps more. Tradition of Cuban struggles before January 1959 victory—July 26th 1953, 12th August 1933, 24thFebruary 1895 or 10th October 1868. Latin American struggles further-Upper Peru-25th May 1819, Buenos Aires 25th May 1810. 10th March 1952-Batista seizing power... Marti saying-‘A radical is nothing less than that-one who goes to the roots’...This revolution is determined to eliminate injustice at the roots, as Fidel has said paraphrasing Jose Marti’ (Page 103).
   ‘Revolutions can’t be exported, Cuba does not export revolutions. Revolutions take place when there are a series of insurmountable contradictions within a country.’(109)
3.     Speech to medical students and health workers-20th August 1960) covered in another book
4.     Notes for the study of the ideology of the Cuban Revolution-October 1960)
One can point to certain mistakes of Marx as thinker and an investigator of the social doctrines and of the capitalist system in which he lived. We Latin Americans, for example. Cannot agree with his interpretation of Bolivar, or with his and Engels’s analysis of the Mexicans, which accepted certain theories of race or  nationality that are unacceptable today.......We recognize the essential truths of Marxism as part of humanity’s body of cultural and scientific knowledge. We accept it with the naturalness of something that requires no further arguments.’ (Page 122)
  ‘The laws of Marxism are present in the events of the Cuban revolution, independently of whether its leaders profess or fully know these laws from a theoretical point of view.’ (Page 123)
   28th May 1957, milestone for victory in El Uvero.-a territory gained now.
5.     Cuba: Historical exception or vanguard in the anti- colonial struggle?-April 1961
‘What is exceptional about Fidel Castro’s personality...Fidel is person of such tremendous personality that he would gain leadership in whatever movement he participated....his personal gifts of audacity,, strength, courage, extraordinary determination always to discern the will of the people-... his ability to assimilate knowledge and experience in order to understand a situation in its entirety without losing sight of the details, his unbounded faith in the future and breadth of vision...’(page 131)
January 1959, first social revolution in the Caribbean and the most profound of the Latin American revolutions dawned-132 page
Lumumba savagely assassinated, in the greatness of his martyrdom showed the mistakes that cannot be committed. Once the anti imperialist struggle begins, we must constantly strike hard, where it hurts the most, never retreating....stronger action of the masses.-Page 142
6.     A new culture of Work-21st August 1962-Speech to Trade unions
New factories to be built, national trade unions-the revolutionary nuclei (of the party), the entire government and the workers.-Page 148
Sacrifice is part of building a new society.  -Same-
Enthusiasm, discipline, self sacrifice and necessary technical knowledge...P.150
We have reached socialism and we continue forward! Venceremos-We will win-P.152
7.     The cadre: Backbone of the Revolution-September 1962
8.     To be a young Communist-20th October 1962
The Union of Young Communists (UJC) evolved from Association of Young Rebels
   Must be the vanguard of all movements
‘we are a flaming torch, that just as we are all individually a model for the people for Cuba, we are also model for the peoples of Latin America and the oppressed peoples of the world, fighting for freedom-P.166
9.     A party of the working class-1963
‘A Marxist must be the best, the fullest, the most complete of human beings-but above all, a human being.’ Page 176
10.     Against Bureaucratism-February 1963
Bureaucratism is like a ball and and chain weighing down the type of official...healthy self criticism, we must never forget that the revolution’s economic management is responsible for the majority of bureaucratic ills...Page 180
‘War on bueaucratism. Streamline the state apparatus. Production without restraints, and responsibility for Production.’ Page 183
11.    On the budgetary finance system-February 1964-published in journal of Economics
‘The socialist state uses the law of value, exercising-through the financial and credit system-control over production and distribution of the social product’ Page 200
12.    Socialism and man in Cuba-1965 letter to Carlos Quijano, editor Marcha weekly from Uruguay.

Part 3- International Solidarity
 Includes 8 speeches and writings
1.     Speech to the First Latin American Youth Congress-28th July 1960-
Jacob Arnez, deposed democratically elected President or Guatemala in 1954 by CIA, given special welcome.Puerto Rico patriot Albizu Campos extended special greetings. Batista’s man killed Cuban patriot in Venezuela’
2.     The OAS conference at Punta del Este-August 8 1961.
Che greeted by thousands of Uruguayan youth on arrival at airport. Che exposed US in presence of its delegation with proposal of ‘Alliance for Progress’
‘The Cuban revolution is invincible, because it has a people and because it has a leader like one leading Cuba.’(Page 274)
3.     The Cuban Revolution’s influence in Latin America-May 18, 1962-speech to security at Cuba, not published till Che’s death.
Revolutions have this characteristics, they expand ideologically, they do not remain limited to a single country, and they expand to other areas...Page 276
Ultra leftists-or sometimes, provocateurs-try to implant the Cuban experience without thinking particularly about whether or not, this would be right place to do so...Page 278
Peru has iron-copper-other metals, Chile has copper, Argentina has uranium, Venezuela has oil, Mexico has sulphur, and Congo has uranium, copper, diamonds.
Our great virtue is that we have never engaged in torture or other similarly terrible behaviour...Page 290
 Opportunism is the enemy of the revolution and flourishes where people do not have control.-291
4.     Tactics and Strategy of the Latin American Revolution- Oct.-Nov.-1962-published after Che’s death-in 1968
The blood of the people is our most sacred treasure, but it must be used in order to save more blood in future-page 298
5.     The philosophy of plunder must cease-25th March 1964-Speech on UN conference on Trade in Geneva-
Unfavourable trade balance
6.     At the United Nations-1st December 1964-speech at 19thGeneral assembly of UNO.
Exposed US imperialism, greeted liberation struggles, spoke in support of China, condemned NATO, demanded Guantenamo territory of Cuba to be returned illegal occupation by US.
7.     At the Afro-Asian conference in Algeria-24th February, 1965-speech delivered at Economic seminar of Afro-Asian solidarity.
8.     Create two, three, many Vietnams-Message to Tricontinental-April  1967, published on 16th April,when Che was in Bolivia

      Part 4- Letters
This section contains 23 of many letters of Cuban revolutionary war.
 One letters to Editor Revolucian Carlos Franqui-snubbed him for unnecessary eulogisation.
In another letter was born in Argentina, I fought in Cuba and I began to be a revolutionary in Guatemala.-page370
The first thing a revolutionary who writes history, has to do is to stick to the truth like a finger inside a glove.-374
Advice to a father, let his son, go through that.
Letter to Maria Rosario Guevara I don’t think you and I are very related, but if you are capable of trembling with indignation each time that injustice is committed in the world, we are comrades, and that is more important-a revolutionary greetings Page376
31st August 1964 letter to President University Extension, University of Havana-while declining the offer to deliver lecture for the audience, Che snubbed him for offering remuneration for the lecture.
In a 1965 letter to children-Hildita, Aleidita, Camilo, Celia and Ernesto
Che advises them to grow good revolutionary and study hard.
1965 letter to parents big hug to mother from ‘obstinate and prodigal son’
15th February 1966 letter to eldest daughter Hildita-advises to be best in school, obey mother, good conduct, seriousness and love for the revolution...
1965 letter to Fidel Castro at leaving for Bolivia, read by Castro much later. Ends with ’I embrace you with all my revolutionary fervour.
 Last leeter to children fro Bolivia in 1966...
If imperialism still exists, we will set out to fight it. If it is finished, you, Camilo and I will take ‘vacation on the moon’.
Margin...To Hildita, another elephant sized kiss and tell her I will writ soon, but now I do’nt have time....

 In bibliography—1. In Articles and books-35, including two books, 5 prefaces, 33 episodes of Revolutionary war, 25 articles with Pseudoname- ‘sharpshooter’
In part 2-Speeches and Interviews, there are two interviews in 1958, then 51 in 1959, 35 in 1960, 39 in 1961, 32 in 1962, in 1963 there are 33, in 1964 there are 43, in 1965-12 total 245 plus tv shows. There are 71 letters are listed here.
  The book is very important and includes various facets of Che’s personalities. Many letters are very touching. Che loved children that are sure.

1.Tania-Undercover for Che Guevara in Bolivia, Ulises Estrada, 1sted. 2005, Ocean Press, Melbourne... pages 331, price Rupees 295/
Ulises Estrada, editor of Tricontinental, joined Cuban revolution from the very beginning as part of 26th July movement in 1953. He was part of Cuban liberation war 1957-59 and later worked with Che Guevara in many assignments including in Congo. He was close friend of Tania, fiancée in today’s terminology and they were supposed to marry after the success of Tania’s mission in Bolivia, which unfortunately resulted in her, Che Guevara and many more guerrillas’ assassination at the hands of Bolivian army. After their assassination, USA and western media vilified Che and Tania to demoralise revolutionary forces and to hid their own crimes behind smokescreen of this vilification. However Tania’s mother fought for the reputation of her daughter and got the vilifires convicted.
 Tania’s real name was Haydee Tamara Bunke, she was born in Argentina from German communist couple, who have to go to Argentina to save themselves from Hitler’s fascism. Tamara was born on 19th November, 1937 and was martyred on 31st August 1967 in the jungles of Bolivia by Bolivian army, before completing even 30 years of her life.
     In 1970, Estrada with another writer has published-Tania-The Unforgettable Guerrilla. That time many things could not be made public, now in this expanded and exhaustive biography with lot of secret documents made public for the first time in Appendices, Tania’s heroism, bravery and sacrificing spirit comes to fore. Her letters, her personal account of life, all make this book more enriching.
The book is rightly dedicated to Nadia Bunke, mother of Tamara-Tania, who knew Tamara had wanted to marry Estrada, ‘who treated me as her own son for more than 35 years’, in author’s words, who has written a detailed and touching dedication with the regret that Nadia Bunke would not be able to see the book, as he passed away before the publication of the book. Exhauvtine contents of the book include-Acknowldgements Preface by author, Prologue by editor-Luis Suarez and Tania’s biography in 14 chapters and 137 pages. There are 17 documents as Appendixes in Appendices, Notes, List of Acroynms and List of Aliases in further abut 2oo pages. One feature of Ocean publications missing in this book is Choronology, which is generally part of all books on Che and Castro, in case of Tania, that was even more necessary. But in totality, with nearly 30 rare photographs, makes the book a significant contribution to biographical literature.
   In Preface, Ulises Estrada narrates his intense personal relationship with Tamara, bunking the western sensalization of Tania-Che romantic liaison. Ulises aexplains that except for few companerosand Tania family, no body knew about this relationship till 1969, two years after the assassination of Tania. Only when the author collaborated in first book on Tania, author published Tania’s letter about their relationship to her mother. After that Tania’s mother identified the “negrito” (Afro-Cuban), whom Tania dreamt of marrying and producing many “mulatito” (kids).
   As per the author Che and Tania were discredited for political objectives or profit motives by many writers like French Pierre Kalfon, Mexican intellectual Jorge Castaneda. Later in last chapter of the book, author detailed how West German publisher in 1997 published the libel by Uruguyan writer Jose A. Friedl Zapata under title- ‘Tania the woman-Che Guevara Loved’. Nadia at 81 years of age dragged the publisher to the court and won the case by getting 14 defamations removed from the book in 1998 and also getting him fined. There were many more in the west, who through their cheap sensational writings had vilified the revolutionary spirit of the two great revolutionaries of the world. But it is not new phenomenon. Karl Marx was described as ‘Red bandit’ and all communist leaders have been vilified, US has vilified and continue till now to vilify Fidel Castro.
       In Prologue Luis Suatez has mentioned Tania was denigrated by some intellectuals in pay roll of ruling classes in US, Europe and Latin America by describing her as ‘femme fatale’, who had ‘useless sacrifice’ for “her secret and sordid extramarital affair with Che.” She was also described as ‘Triple Agent for Cuba, East Germany and KGB of ex Soviet Union. These villifiers described Che Guevara also as ‘seeking death’, because of his differences with Cuban leadership. All these lies have been bunked with documents bow being published from Cuba, putting an egg on the faces of these so called ‘intellectuals’ and ‘writers’ holding rabid anti communist views. On the contrary great writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez have upheld Cuban revolution and its heroic leaders, including Fidel and Che Guevara.
Chapter 1-Historical context
   In this introductory chapter Ulises has explaned Che’s plans to expand liberation guerrilla struggles to other parts of the world as true internationalist. First they tried in Congo, where popular freedom fighter and Prime Minister Patric Lumumba was brutally assassinated by CIA in 1964. There were dictators in Haiti, Nicaragua like places. Ulises has travelled with Che secretly to Congo through Tanzania; stayed clandsinely in Prague.Che spoke of his best relations with Fidel and Raul during those days. These days in these preparations writer got linked to Tamara, who had come to Havana.
Chapter 2- Operation Fantasma
  Tamara was mentioned by Pineoro for the operation recommended by Che.
Chapter 3.The Tania Case-
Tamara born in Argentina, came to East Germany with her parents when 14 years old and joined youth organisation, visited Soviet Union as youth delegation, heard about Cuban struggle, well informed about war in Sierra Maestra and demonstrated solidarity. In 1959, she acted as interpretor for Che Guevara, when he visted East Germany. She became enthused to come to Cuba and finally arrived in 1961, at 24 years. Worked as interpretor/translator, associated with ‘Assocation of Young Rebels’ turned into ‘Union of Young Communists’ (UJC), on 4th April 1962... Tamara highly educated, knew many languages-German, French, Spanish, and English, well versed in music and literature, and studied philosophy at Humboldt University. She was working with Sandanista, planned to fight in Nicaragua. Che interviewed for mission in Bolivia and she end up by saying-I will not betray this trust while I am alive and breathing’-Page 29
Chapter 4-Operational Training in Cuba-
Tamara worked with Ulises during training period and they came close, though violating revolutionary code of not being personally close. Tania sung Argentine folk songs, played Guitar
Chapter 5-Preparing for Latin America-
Che told her about her mission in Bolivia and to take up legal residency there.
Chapter 6-Tania and Ulises-
Author honestly tells that ‘we both knew that our relationship was forbidden in clandestine work, but we also knew that we could no longer retrain ourselves. We were convinced of the purity of our feeling and that these would not affect our professional relationship’-Page 56. Ulyses shared with his senior comrade Diosdado, Tamara shared with her parents by writing to her mother on 11th April 1964 from Prague. Writer knew about this letter only when he joined Marta Rojas and Mirta Rodriguez Caldron in writing the book-Tania: the Unforgettable Guerrilla, published in 1970, where this letter was published. Ulises divorced his wife and remarried years after Tania were killed. Ulises Writes longingly: ‘i have to confess that she still remains alive within me. Not just as Tania, but also as Haydee Tamara Bunke Bider, the exceptional woman, compenera, and friend I once loved with all my heart.’-Page 59
Chapter 7-Failed Cover
Tania was sent ot Prague for further training, but this time Diosdado was assigned the task to train her, writer was heart broken, he also felt it as punishment for breaking the rules. Diosdado sent positive reports about Tania’s progress.
Chapter 8- The Birth of Laura Gutierrez Bauer
 Tania was first planned as Italian cover Vittoria Pancini, which was dropped due to language deficiency and other practical problems.This time it was planned as Argentine woman, she was well versed with country and language. There have been funny instances of Tania-Diosdado stay in Prague. Tania always made Diosdado read her letters to her parents, even to Ulises, despite his reluctance to do so.
Chapter 9 Tania’s first year in Bolivia
Riding aa mule, Tania entered Bolivian border from Peru on 17thNovember 1964. Got into touch with all high and mighty in that society, through showing her interest in Folk lore and met painters, writers, journalists, once even had dinner with dictator Barrientos, with a ‘friend’. Her network included intellectuals, professionals, politicians of right wing; she always projected her as anti communist. For legal residency, she even married an enginnering student Mario Martinez Alvarez, who helped her in exit procedures, she had new passport now, travelled to Brazil as translator. Comrade Mercy sent a positive report about her.
Chapter 10-An encounter with Ariel-Tania came to Mexico from Brazil in 1966 to meet Cuban officer. Che was clandestinely working from Cuban embassy in Tanzania. Tania did not know that Che was behind her selection for the mission and he had been involved in Operation Fantasma, which determnined the following years of Tania’s life, her sacrifice, and her transformation into Tania the Guerrilla.
Chapter 11- Reunion with Che-
Che checked about Tania’s well being and about her marriage, whether it was with her free will. In 1966, as planned earlier, Tania got divorce from her husband, but helped him in his training in Bulgaria by arranging scholasrship for him. Che arrived in La paz on a passport of business person with Uruguyan passport as Adolfo Mena Gonzalez. Che probable met Tania on 4thNovember. Tania arranged for Che travel documents to travel the whole of Bolivia. The letter present to Sr. Adolfo mena mentions ‘special envoy of OAS to research on economic and social situation in Bolivarian countryside’, recommending all possible cooperation for research from all national and private institutions. Page 107
 On November 20-19thDecember she brought ranch to jungles, not supposed to do then she accompanied Mario Munje, Bolivian cp leader on 31st December 1966 crucial meeting, disagreed, tense. Bolivian Communist party inside Moscow line and Peking line, Monje Moscow line. Che predicted ‘difficult time’ ahead and announced to work for ‘the unity of all those who want a revolution’. Tania later visited Argentina to arrange Che’s liasions with revolutionary support. AS PER WRITER TANIA FOLLOWED DIRECT INSTRUCTIONS OF Che from 2nd January 1967 to 19th March 1967. Tania brought Regis Debray and Ciro Roberto Bustos, both now ‘regret’ to committement to revolution. Che criticised Tania for being there, as two Bolivians deserted and difficult situation developed.
Chapter 12-Tania the Guerrilla-
23rd March 1967, first encounter with army-25thMarch Bolivian ELN, liberation front announced in meeting of 43 Bolivian, Cuban and Peruvian combatants. On 27th March, situation worsened. On 31stMarch Tania given M-1 rifle and became combatant. She had fever of 102 and Che attached her to Cuban Joaquin’s command on 17th April, where she remained till 31st ambush by army, in which ten of the combatants were killed by army. Tania fought, falling with bullets in river, body found after aweek on 7th September. Bolivian peasant Honorato Rojas betrayed and led army to ambush gurrellis. 35 members of army killed 7 of 10 member Joaquin’s column combatants. Che‘s impression of Rojas on 10thFebruary was ‘a potentially dangerous man’.
   On 8th October Che ambushed, killed brutally on 9th October. With that out of 49 Cuban, Peruvian, Bolivian, majority of guerrillas killed.
Chapter 13-Return to Cuba
Officially death of Tania declared on 7th September, people wanted her body to be treated with respect, but army officer cruel. For pubilicity stunt Bolivian dictator Barrientos photographed with Tania corpse on 10th September, saying he ordered burial of Laura G baeur, Argentine woman with Tania alias ‘with military honour’. But Christian burial was given to Tania due to pressure of women of area Vallegrande. But no one knew the remains later till 1997, when President Lozada has to order investigation.On 28thJune 1997, Che’s remains discovered and buried with honour in Santa Clara on October 8, 1997 on 30th death anniversary of Che. Tania’s remains found on 19th September 1998, brought to Cuba in December 1998.
Chapter 14-‘My Little Ita’
 On 29th December 1998, Tania’s remains interned in Santa Clara alongwith Che and other guerrillas in presence of her mother Nadia Bunke. Nadia died in 2003, her deepest feeling expressed in her ‘little ita’, an autobiographical note- They came to Argentina in 1935.Erich got job as teacher, had two children-Tamara and boy Olaf, pet name Tamarita, she too little say ita, she signed as Ita, happy optimist, energetic, tireless, vibrant, romantic, liked Argentine folk songs and folk music, attached to Latin America. Ulises assures Nadia and Erich that ‘Tania is and will always be alive among us’-Page 144.
       Appendices
1.     Personal Records prepared for the Tania case –Secret
Tamara Bunke wrote this autobiographical note in preparation for her new identity as Tania.-
Born in Buenos Aires, parents Communist, anti fascists, helped Jew refuegees, returned to Germany in1952, settled in Stalinstad, arrived in Cuba on 12th May 1961
Appendix 2-Tania’a Operational Plan for the Cienufegos Practical exercise
Secret-Havana-12th February 1964
Appendix 3-Tania’s report on the Cienfuegos Exercises-
Only Copy-Secret
To Ulises-Tania’s report on work from 21st Feb. To 1stMarch 1964
Appendix 4- Tania’s Message from Prague after her first trip to Western Europe
To: MOE from Bolivar
Secret message 3
Appendix 5-Tania’s message from Prague before her second trip to West Germany
Secret To: MOE meant for Ulises Estrada
Appendix 6-The Laura Guetierrez bauer Cover Story
 July 25, 1964
Top Secret
To M1 Copy 1- From MOE page 1
Appendix 7- Message to Mercy from HQ regarding Future contact with Tania in Bolivia
Mercy Message 5, November 1965, start
Appendix 8- Mercy’s report on contact with Tania in Bolivia and Brazil-To MOE From Mercy Report on the various contacts made between 7 January and the last days of March 1966
Appendix 9-Tania’s oral report on her first year of work in Bolivia given to Ariel on 16th April 1966 in Mexico
Appendix 10 Document Denying Tania’s link to Stasi-GDR agency-1997
Appendix 11- Document denyingTania’s link to KGB
Russian Fedration –Dec. 5, 1997
Appendix 12-Document denying Tania’s link to Soviet intelligence -1997
Appendix 13- My Battle for Truth-An interview with Nadia Gunke
 Interview by Chritoph Wiesner, published on 7-8 March 1998, in Junge Welt
 There are many groups and institutions that are named after Tamara Bunke or Tania in Cuba, also in Bolivia, lot of children are named Tania or Ernesto
Appendix 14-Nadia Bunke’s letter to Fidel Castro on Tania’s remains be buried in Cuba-25th December 1995
Appendix 15-Fidel Castro’s Reply to Nadia Bunke-1st April 1996
Apendix 16-Fidel Castro’s speech at the burial of the remains of Che Guevara and his Companeros-Santa Clara-17th October 1997
 I see Che as a moral giant who grows with each passing day, whose image, strength, and influence have multiplied throughout the earth.
Che was a true Communist and is today an example and a paradigm of the revolutionary and the communist, -Page 285
Che is taking up and winning more battles than ever.
 This land is your land, these people are your people, and this revolution is your revolution. We continue to fly socialist banner with honor and pride-page 287
Appendix 17- Ramiro Valdes’s speech at the Burial of the remains of Tania and others internationalist combatants-30th December 1998
   Tania, she filled a glorious page in the history of Che’s actions in Bolivia, giving her life in hostile environment, side by side with other Bolivian, Peruvian and Cuban Companeros
Welcomt Tania, immortal example of a woman and a communist-page 293-Socialism or death, homeland or death, we shall overcome
  Notes
Patrice Lumumba founded Congo on 30th June 1960, assassinated on 17thJanuary 1961 Mobutu Seiku became dictator and was overthrown in 1997 by Laurent Kabila, with whom Che had differences
Ciro Bustos drew sketches for army and US services, confirming Che’s presence in Bolivia.
Lists
     A well written book and an apt tribute to Tania!

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Bhagat Singh Execution controversy

February 14, 2017, 7:00 am
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Those nonsensical Sanghis who are stupidly or mischievously trying to make 14th February 1931 as Bhagat Singh execution or sentence date-they should first check facts!
May be ABP channel at 8.30 pm focus on few of these facts!
Dateline-Lahore Conspiracy Case and Bhagat Singh execution orders-
1.Saunders assassination in Lahore-17th December 1928
2. Bhagat Singh arrest-8th April 1929 at Delhi Central assembly after bomb thrown
3.June 1929-Convicted in Delhi Bomb case-life sentence, sent to Punjab jails.
4.10th July 1929-brought on stretcher to Rai Sahib Kishan Das court for Lahore conspiracy case-being on hunger strike since 15th June
5. Hunger strike in Lahore jail till 4th October 1929.Two more hunger strikes of fifteen days each
6.Tribunal to hear Lahore conspiracy case through Lord Irwin ordinance 1st May 1930
7. Boycott of Tribunal by Bhagat Singh and comrades.
8.Tribunal Judgement-7th October 1930-to be hanged on 27th October.
9. Appeal to Privy Council-Bhagat Singh defense committee
10. Motilal Nehru before his death on 6th February makes it sure appeal in Privy Council taken seriously
11. 11th February 1931-Privy council 5 member board headed by Vicsconsin Dundedin hears the arguments of Bhagat Singh lawyer D.N Pritt and dismisses the appeal same day. Dinshaw Mulla Indian member of privy council board makes no protest or dissent
12. Gopi Chand Bhargav-Punjab Congress leader and later CM of Punjab, Lal Duni Chand, Amolak Ram Kapoor, Prannath Mehta. Asif Ali, Jeevan Lal Kapoor-later Supreme Court judge-Lawyers fighting Bhagat Singh case.
13. Last attempt-two petitions in Punjab High Court Lahore on 21st March after execution orders for 24th March issued.
14. Both petitions heard and dismissed by Lord Broadway and Justice Bhide on 23rd March at 3 pm.
15. 23rd March- Execution of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev at Lahore jail between 7 pm and 7.33 pm-12 hours before due date-24th March at morning
Source-The Trial of Bhagat Singh, Oxford University Press, New Delhi
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Distorting History: When The Right Wing Hung Bhagat Singh on Valentine's Day, Instead of March 23 -The Citizen-22nd March 2017

March 29, 2017, 3:29 am
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http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/NewsDetail/index/2/10224/Distorting-History-When-The-Right-Wing-Hung-Bhagat-Singh-on-Valentines-Day-Instead-of-March-23
http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/NewsDetail/index/2/10224/Distorting-History-When-The-Right-Wing-Hung-Bhagat-Singh-on-Valentines-Day-Instead-of-March-23
Distorting History: When The Right Wing Hung Bhagat Singh on Valentine's Day

CHAMAN LAL
Wednesday, March 22,2017
NEW DELHI: Bhagat Singh is such a charming personality that many aspects of his life and ideas have taken the shape of fiction, whereas the facts of the same are entirely at variance with that fictional creativity.

Since the social media-- especially Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter-- has become very popular, all sorts of imaginative things are being said about not only Bhagat Singh, but of Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Ambedkar and others as well.

Most of the imaginative stories are coming from right-wing religious fundamentalists. Nehru is attacked in a most vicious manner, with some even suggesting that he was born of Muslim ancestors.

Since Bhagat Singh cannot be attacked in such a vicious form, he is subjected to being a ‘victim’ of the mechanism of various hues of the Congress party etc. In recent times he was made to hang on February 14, this was later revised to ‘sentenced’ on February 14 and thereby use the date to attack those Indians who celebrate the “western decadent” Valentine’ Day, and denigrate them for not showing ‘respect’ to the supreme martyr!

After many years of showing ‘concern’ for the supreme martyr by beating up young couples in parks for celebrating ‘Valentine’ Day, this year these ‘big nationalists’ got some drubbing on the mainstream media for spreading such rubbish through the social media!

But there are other fictions and distortions made in the post martyrdom life of Bhagat Singh. Worst of all is distorting his real pictorial presentation to imagined painting based presentations. Till 1947 or even till 1970’s, the most popular and real photograph of Bhagat Singh---wearing the famous hat--- was clicked on April 3,1929 at a Kashmere gate studio of old Delhi, before he and BK Dutt went to throw bombs in Central assembly on April 8.

This photograph was first published in the April 12,1929 issue of ‘Bande Matram’(Urdu) from Lahore and in Hindustan Times of Delhi on April 18, 1929.

However, after the 1970’s the sense of ethnicity took over, despite the fact that in the same period, his writings were also rediscovered and published reflecting his clear ‘Marxist Socialist’ orientation! Some artists took one of his older paintings showing him in a yellow turban with a bearded face to give it a massive publicity. Some of his original photographs also emerged in this period, from 11 to 20 years of age with a white turban or without one.

Famous artist Sobha Singh made a painting based on his 1927 Lahore police detention photograph, which emerged during the 1960’s. But more popular creations in paintings were of an “arrogantly moustached Youngman with pistol and yellow turban’, who could scare the ‘Gora Angrez’!

This overbearing image which continues to distort the real Bhagat Singh even today, was countered at a creative level by some progressive painters in the 1980-90’s till today. They paint Bhagat Singh from his real photograph, wearing a white kurta pyjama with a white turban and a book in hand.

The irony is that common masses don’t want to love Bhagat Singh as he really was---the thinker revolutionary. They prefer the romanticised yellow turbaned, pistol flaunting, Bhagat Singh, striking fear in the Gora Angrez. So much so, that Bhagwant Mann, after becoming a MP, tried to copy Bhagat Singh by wearing a saffron or yellow turban in the supposed ‘Bhagat Singh’ style! The fact of the matter is that neither Bhagat Singh ever wore a yellow or saffron turban, or wore even any turban for that matter in the style that Mann tries to project.

Only two of his dresses are available in his four real family held photographs-white turbaned with white khadi kurta pyjama, one at the age of 11 years at home and the second when he was 17 years of age and studying at the National college Lahore. This was from a group photograph of the drama team.

A third photograph is of when he was in police custody in Lahore in May 1927, with open head hair sitting on a cot with a police officer interrogating him. The fourth and last photograph of Bhagat Singh is of April 3,1929 taken at the Kashmere gate studio, wearing a half shirt, with khaki shorts and a felt hat. The photographer testified in a Delhi sessions court that he had taken this photograph.

In most parts of the country and abroad, except Punjab, this continues to be the most popular photograph of Bhagat Singh on display in offices or homes. Yet in Punjab at Khatkar Kalan-Bange, Bhagat Singh’s ancestral village site, the Hat wearing statue was inaugurated by Punjab Government ministers. However, it was taken away to some other place to be replaced by a statue donning a turban, during the late 1970’s as per Punjabi poet Amarjit Chandan, who has the photograph of the original statue!

So much so that at Raipur in Chhatisgarh, some miscreants even cut the head of the hat wearing statue of Bhagat Singh a couple of years ago! Most recently in September 2016, a statue of Bhagat Singh was placed near a Gurdwara in Pune with the same ugly pistol flaunting, yellow turbaned moustached Bhagat Singh!
In other deliberate distortions, writer and journalist Khuswant Singh was targeted with the claim that his father Sir Sobha Singh was the cause of Bhagat Singh’s hanging.Sobha Singh was present in the Delhi Central Assembly on April 8, 1929 in the visitors’ gallery and he did identify Bhagat Singh and Dutt in court at Delhi, but without making any statement. And in the Delhi bomb case Bhagat Singh and Dutt were ‘transported for life’! Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged in the Lahore Conspiracy case in the Saunders murder case, and interestingly, the judgement is now again under judicial review before the Lahore High Court after being challenged by Lahore lawyers!

Another major distortion or fiction is about Bhagat Singh’s faith. While he himself clearly professed being ‘an atheist’ and ‘Socialist Revolutionary’ influenced by Marxism, yet Bhai Randhir Singh, a respected Ghadarite revolutionary claimed that Bhagat Singh ‘accepted his fault’ for shaving his hair. And that he re-converted to Sikhism under his influence in jail where he grew a ‘six inchbeard’ at the time of hanging!

Bhagat Singh was too farsighted about this and he was so conscious about this perceived distortion of his ideas that immediately after meeting Bhai Randhir Singh, who was released from Lahore jail after this meeting, Bhagat Singh penned ‘Why I am an Atheist’ on October 5-6, 1930 to rebut all the arguments which might have come across in the meeting between the two. Yet some right-wing admirers of Bhagat Singh claimed ‘Why I am an Atheist’ to be an interpolation of leftists. But the brief editorial note with the essay, ascribes it as received from Bhagat Singh’s father Kishan Singh. And rebuts the claim by making it clear that the first publication of the essay was on September 27, 1931 issue of the Lala Lajpat Rai established weekly ‘The People’ from Lahore and its Tamil translation.

There have been other genuine debates among various political personalities of that period, such as Lala Lajpat Rai blaming these youth for trying to ‘Make Lenin’ of him; or Bhagat Singh and his comrades supporting progressive Congress leader Dewan Chaman Lal against the conservative group of the Congress; and he calling them names after they threw bombs in the Assembly and the youth attacking him as ‘pseudo-socialist’;Sukhdev accusing him of falling in a ‘love trap’ and Bhagat Singh explaining the worth of ‘real love’ in an exchange of letters; Sukhdev supporting the idea of ‘suicide’ in torture chambers and Bhagat Singh snubbing him for not facing life’s difficulties squarely...etc. etc.
Bhagat Singh at 11

Bande Matram-12-4-1929

Hat photo Bhagat Singh-Kashmere Gate Delhi-April 1929 

Bhagat Singh in National college Lahore
(Chaman Lal is a retired Professor from JNU and a Fellow of Punjab University Chandigarh.)
(Cover Photo: Bhagat Singh first arrest)
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Sangh Parivar’s duplicity on Shaheed Bhagat Singh-National Herald-22nd March 2017

March 29, 2017, 3:40 am
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Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
Statues of martyrs Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev near Amritsar

http://www.nationalheraldindia.com/news/2017/03/22/sangh-parivar-duplicity-on-shaheed-bhagat-singh

On one hand BJP-RSS have been trying to appropriate Bhagat Singh and on the other the BJP government in Haryana has been trying to name Chandigarh’s international airport after RSS leader Mangal Sein




Shaheed Bhagat Singh had truly become a national icon by 1931. A fascinating character who was hanged at the young age of just 23 on March 23 that year, he had captured the national imagination after he and other revolutionaries killed ASP John Saunders.

There was no part of India and no newspaper in any language that did not carry reports on his trial. Between 1929 and 1931 he hogged the headlines and all national leaders from Mahatma Gandhi to Dr Ambedkar and Jawaharlal Nehru often issued statements on the case and commented on the course of the trial.

But not a single RSS leader is known to have uttered a single word against his hanging. Both Golwalkar and Savarkar were conspicuous by their complete silence. Both were self-styled revolutionaries but they did not oppose the hanging of Bhagat Singh. So much so that researchers have stumbled on statements issued by Periyar to condemn the death sentence but not a single statement was found by any person related to the RSS.

It is nothing short of an irony that the same RSS is today trying to appropriate Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s legacy.

Bhagat Singh remained in prison for two years and wrote extensive letters to both newspapers and to his Comrades. When he and his comrades hurled the bomb in the Assembly, the headline in The Times of India was ‘Reds Storm The Assembly’. And of course the slogan made popular by him was ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ (Long live the revolution).

There is, therefore, no doubt that he was a communist in his thoughts and his socialistic thoughts are reflected in his writing, which were carried by all prominent newspapers of the time including Modern Review, Tribune, Anandabazar Patrika, Hindustan Times and others. Even the pamphlets he hurled in the Assembly were in red.

It is remarkable that newspapers from different corners of India, The Leader published from Allahabad, Pratap published from Kanpur, Free Press Journal published from Bombay (now Mumbai), The Hindu from Madras (now Chennai) besides the newspapers published from Lahore, Delhi and Calcutta (now Kolkata) were all one in acknowledging his powerful messages. The extensive coverage he received made him the most popular leader of his time.
“There is urgent need to rediscover Bhagat Singh’s idea of the nation and nationalism. He wrote against communal riots. He also wrote against atrocities on Dalits. His nationalism was not narrow but the result of well-thought out arguments. His broader nationalism is what can take on the narrow, parochial discourse on nationalism made popular by the Sangh Parivar.”
Dr Chaman Lal
Mahatma Gandhi grudgingly had to admit that Bhagat Singh was very courageous! Nehru said Bhagat Singh’s views were very progressive. But despite the grudging acknowledgment of his deed, his ideas and thoughts were never given much importance or prominence by Congress leaders. Even after Independence his writings were largely ignored.

It is worth recalling that Bhagat Singh’s seminal work, “Why I am an Atheist”, was first translated by Periyar into Tamil in 1934, long before it was published in Hindi.

During the Naxalbari movement in the seventies, the Left laid claim to the legacy of Bhagat Singh but neither the media nor the academia paid much attention to it.

It was during this time that eminent historian Bipan Chandra wrote an introduction and re-published Bhagat Singh’s essay ‘Why I am an atheist’ as a book. That generated fresh interest in Bhagat Singh. The revolutionary’s niece Virender Sandhu also came out with a book while my own book in Hindi titled “Bhagat Singh aur Unke Sathiyon ke Dastawez’” was published in 1986 by Rajkamal.

While scores of editions of this book have come out, there was little in English besides the one brought out by Bipan Chandra.

This was also the time when the BJP and the RSS began attempts to appropriate Bhagat Singh. During the agitation for a separate Khalistan, these elements claimed that Bhagat Singh had raised slogans of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. While Bhagat Singh may well have raised the slogan, what is incontrovertible is the last slogan he had raised before he was hanged. It was ‘Inquilab Zindabad and Down with Imperialism”.

RSS mouthpiece Panchajanya brought out a special issue on Bhagat Singh in 2007. The 100-page special issue strove to prove that Bhagat Singh was not a communist and that he did not write the book, “Why I am an Atheist’.

Communist parties woke up rather late to Bhagat Singh’s revolutionary credentials. Some half-hearted measures were taken by Left Front Governments to publish Bhagat Singh’s letters and the ‘Dastawez’ was also eventually translated into Marathi.

The RSS and the BJP have been forced to concede that Bhagat Singh was indeed a communist and an atheist. But now their emphasis is on depicting him as a ‘nationalist’ though there is a sea of difference between their narrow nationalism and Bhagat Singh’s nationalism.

Bhagat Singh was not in favour of Independence that would replace the English masters with Brown Sahibs. He imagined a nation in which the workers, farmers and the common man are liberated and empowered. He spoke of an international brotherhood and federation.

BJP’s double standards are evident. It was agreed, for example, that the Chandigarh International Airport would be named after Shaheed Bhagat Singh. But ever since a BJP Government took over in Haryana, its attempt has been to name the airport after a late RSS leader Mangal Sein!

There is urgent need to rediscover Bhagat Singh’s idea of the nation and nationalism. He wrote against communal riots. He also wrote against atrocities on Dalits. His nationalism was not narrow but the result of well-thought out arguments. His broader nationalism is what can take on the narrow, parochial discourse on nationalism made popular by the Sangh Parivar.
Dr Chaman Lal* retired from Jawaharlal Nehru University and is an eminent academic, author and translator. He is an authority on Bhagat Singh
*As told to Vishwa Deepak
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Changing Narratives on Bhagat Singh Chaman Lal*

August 14, 2017, 1:38 am
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                          There are few heroes in the world, who remain in public imagination for very long time, though their narratives keep changing. In few cases these heroes become icons and symbols as well, of certain nationality or culture. Shakespeare (England), Tolstoy (Russia) or Tagore (India) become icons of universal literary or cultural values. Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam), Nelson Mandela (South Africa) or Mahatma Gandhi (South Asia) became symbols of anti-colonial liberation struggles worldwide. Bolivar or Jose Marti become icons of Latin American nationalism. Che Guevara, Fidel Castro or Chavez become icons of modern revolution in Latin America. Bhagat Singh and Che Guevara both have become icons of world youth too, though both earned their name in history in two extremely different corners of the world. One in South America and other in South Asia.
      Bhagat Singh died young at the age of 23+ years, but he earned fame during his life time as well. In the last two years of his life from April 1929 to 23rd March 1931, he was extremely popular among undivided Indian people, which included today’s Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Born on 28th September 1907 at Chak no 105, Lyallpur Bange, now in Pakistan known as Faisalabad district, he made his mark in public life at quite young age of 17 years, when he formed Naujwan Bharat Sabha in Lahore along with his friends and comrades. Prior to that also, he had started participating in political life of the country. His family, including his father Kishan Singh and two uncles-Ajit Singh and Swaran Singh were part of Congress party and movement for freedom struggle. All three were going to jail ample times, Swaran Singh died young at the age 23 years after he contacted TB in jail, Ajit Singh was close associate of Lala Lajpat Rai and was sent to Mandalay jail in Burma in 1907 for organising peasants, who were victims of indebtedness as they are today. Later Ajit Singh remained exiled in Latin America for 38 long years till March 1947, when Jawaharlal Nehru as interim Prime Minister facilitated his return to India. Bhagat Singh, as his other comrades like Chandershekhar Azad got disillusioned from Congress party as Mahatma Gandhi withdrew his massive Satyagraha-non-cooperation movement in 1922, due to burning of a police station in Chauri Chaura in Gorakhpur district of UP. Bhagat Singh was not even fifteen years then and Azad was just fifteen plus, who participated in that movement and suffered thirty lashes on his back by shouting on every lash-‘Mahatma Gandhi ki Jai’! So these young people thought Congress party is not capable of fighting British colonialism, they need to organise revolutionary movement to overthrow British colonial regime. In 1922, Bhagat Singh joined National College Lahore, where he did his F.A. in 1923 and was further enrolled for B.A. in 1923. There were his other college friends-Bhagwati Charan Vohra, Sukhdev, Yashpal, Jaidev, Ram Chandra etc. They had nationalists and revolutionary teachers like Principal Chhabil Das, Jaichander Vidyalankar etc. who had contacts with revolutionaries in other parts of the country. National college Lahore had Dwarkadas library, which was getting latest books from world over, including books on Soviet Socialist revolution led by Lenin in 1917. Bhagat Singh was as much a voracious reader of these books, as some of his teachers were, even at such young age of 16-17 years. He had creative skills as well, as he acted and directed many nationalistic plays during his college days, one of which was watched even by Sarojini Naidu then. Organising Naujwan Bharat Sabha on the pattern of ‘Young Italy’ of Mazzini and Gary Baldy was his first socio-political activity. As per Comrade Ram Chandra, he was elected President, Bhagat Singh as General Secretary and Bhagwati Charan Vohra as Propaganda secretary of the Sabha. Bhagat Singh went to Kanpur with contacts from his History teacher Jaichander Vidyalankar and met revolutionary group there, which included Shiv Verma, Jaidev Kapoor, Bejoy Kumar Sinha etc. With the efforts of Sachindernath Sanyal many revolutionary groups of the country like Jugantar and Anushilan merged to form new all India party named as ‘Hindustan Republican Association/Army’ (HRA). In Kanpur Bhagat Singh worked as journalist in Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi edited Hindi paper-‘Pratap’, where he wrote in the pen name of ‘Balwant Singh’. Bhagat Singh later remained associated with papers like ‘Maharathi’ and ‘Arjun’-both Hindi journalsfrom Delhi and ‘Kirti’-Punjabi and Urdu from Amritsar and Meerut, in all these papers he wrote under different pseudo names.
    So the first and most objective narrative of Bhagat Singh’s life emerged from his early life-an energetic young mind with quest for knowledge and liberation with creative mind. (Photographs attached) Interestingly the latest narrative of Bhagat Singh is acknowledged again as a most well-read Thinker Revolutionary with Socialist vision for post liberation India!
                    This foremost and objective image of Bhagat Singh had been and still being distorted wittingly or unwittingly, but lately mostly wittingly by a planned conspiracy to overshadow his ideological orientation which is so obvious and clear from his writings, which are being published in collections in various languages. By now his complete writings (120+--letters, statements, Jail Notebook and essays in four languages-Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu and English)) have been published in Hindi, Marathi and Urdu languages and large number of writings have been published in Punjabi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Bengali, while few of his writings have been published in Sindhi, Odia, Assamese, Manipuri and Gujarati as well. So it has become difficult to appropriate him in superimposed images of political vested interests, like RSS and some Sikh extremists tried to do.
    After becoming part of Hindustan Republican Association/Army (HRA), along with Chandershekhar Azad, Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaquallah and others at all India level, Bhagat Singh and his comrades in Lahore continued with mass activities from Naujwan Bharat Sabha and Punjab Students Union. He was an avid student of history and was learning its lessons fast. HRA conducted Kakori Rail dacoity in August 1925 and lost its major leaders like Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaquallah, Roshan Singh and Rajender Lahiri by the end of 1927, when all four were executed.

   

From National College Lahore Drama club group photo
National College Lahore group photo.BS fourth from left standing with white turban
          Bhagat Singh convinced remaining comrades of HRA to leave the path of dacoities and have a new vision of Indian liberation inspired by Socialist revolution in Soviet Union led by Lenin. So HRA comrades held meeting in Ferozeshah Kotla grounds of Delhi on 8&9th September 1928 and converted it in Hindustan Socialist Republican Association/Army (HSRA), while keeping its armed wing alive under the commandership of Chandershekhar Azad, it focus shifted to political propaganda for liberating India from the yoke of colonialism and capitalist exploitation and building Socialist India free of exploitation through mass uprisings of peasants and workers. However before they could actively take to their changed political path, Simon Commission came to India in October 1928 and Bhagat Singh and his comrades convinced Lala Lajpat Rai, the tallest political leader of Punjab to lead mass procession against Simon Commission in Lahore, despite their criticism of late communal orientation of Lala Lajpat Rai. Procession was brutally lathi charged on 30th October 1928 by Lahore police led by SSP Lahore James Scott and DSP J P Saunders, resulting in the death of Lala Lajpat Rai on 17th November 1928. At the resounding call of avenging Lala Lajpat Rai’s death by Basanti Devi, widow of late Chittranjan Dass, the most radical congress leader of Bengal, Bhagat Singh and Comrades, departing from their new perspectives, assassinated J P Saunders, exactly a month after on 17th December 1928. Bhagat Singh was part of this action and now time was short for these revolutionaries to act. And the second biggest action of these young thinker revolutionaries-Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt was to throw a harmless bomb in Central Assembly Delhi on 8th April 1929 to protest against two anti-people bills pushed throgh by ordinances by British colonial government. These bills were Trade Disputes Bill-an anti-working class law and Public Safety Bill-an act to supress civil liberties. This action was more in line with their new perspective as the action was ‘not to kill or harm’, but ‘To Make the Deaf hear’, a phrase taken from French revolutionary Valliant, who had thrown bomb in French Parliament in similar circumstances in December 1893 and was executed in 1894. Bhagat Singh was inspired by Valliant’s similar action earlier and both had lot of similarities in post action life as well. Both kept on studying till the last moment in prison, Bhagat Singh was reading a book on life of Lenin till last, so was Valliant reading some other book, both had refused to wear black mask on faces at the time of going to gallows and made a show of exemplary bravery by going to gallows singing. Both asserted their atheism on gallows as well, refusing to partake any religious rites before kissing the rope.
   It was only after Delhi Assembly bomb action, police found out Bhagat Singh’s involvement in Saunders assassination and after the conclusion of Delhi trial in June 1929, Lahore conspiracy trial began in July 1929. First resulted in ‘Transportation for Life’ on 12th June 1929 and second in death sentence on 7th October 1930. It was the period of both trials that Bhagat Singh image was raised to skies by his and his comrades exemplary brave conduct in courts by challenging the authority of colonial courts by shouting slogans and singing patriotic songs, getting beaten up publically and observing 150 days hunger strike in jail, highlighted by national and international media on front pages and by the time Bhagat Singh was executed along with Rajguru and Sukhdev on 23rd March 1931, he no longer remained a name, he turned into an immortal icon of bravery and intelligence. Mahatma Gandhi the foremost symbol of India’s freedom struggle got damned for ‘not saving Bhagat Singh’s life’! And it was Mahatma Gandhi and Congress party, while criticising their actions, underlined the exemplary bravery of these patriots, creating an immortal but incomplete image of supreme martyr-Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, which continued and continues most popular narrative in Indian society. It goes to the credit of Periyar in Tamilnadu, who projected correct image of Bhagat Singh in his editorial in Kudai Arsu issue of 29th March 1931 and got Bhagat Singh’s essay ‘Why I am an Atheist’ translated and published in Tamil by 1934. Further It was Prof. Bipan Chandra, who in 1978 or so, completed this bravery image by adding to his socialist visionary thinker revolutionary by reproducing his immortal ideological essay-‘Why I am an Atheist’ with his introduction and underlining his personality to be of ‘A Marxist in the making’! By the publication of Bhagat Singh’s major writings, including his Jail Notebook in 1994, his ‘Marxist in the Making’ image got further enhanced to ‘Marxist Socialist Revolutionary of India’ image! This image is being contested by some right winger politicians, trying to confine his image to just ‘nationalist revolutionary’, which is complete distortion and insult to Bhagat Singh’s much larger world image, now popular even in Pakistan and many other countries like Che Guevera!
         Changing narrative on Bhagat Singh can be seen from his changing photo images as well. Till almost 1980, the predominant actual photo image of Bhagat Singh was of his last photograph taken in Delhi studio in early April 1929, just before assembly bomb action. However with the rise of identity politics, in Punjab and at many other places, his ‘hat wearing image’ was replaced by a painting based photograph of ‘turban wearing image’, which was and is not his real photo image, it is imaginary picture by a painter. It affected politico-social life so much that in Bhagat Singh’s ancestral place in Banga, his hat wearing statue, inaugurated once by thn Chief Minister Giani Zail Singh in 1974 or so, was taken off and was replaced by ‘turban wearing statue’! In Raipur-Chhattisgarh recently, Bhagat Singh’s hat wearing statue was even smashed by some Sikh religious bodies, without realising as no one among religious fundamentalists reads Bhagat Singh’s writings, that he was an atheist!
        Bhagat Singh narratives have become highly politicised lately, his writings and ideas based images and narratives are being tried to be superimposed on his real, objective and ideas based images and narratives, as RSS does with all history, but how long? Bhagat Singh is like a burning fire, even in his iconic existence, he does not allow rightist fascists to even touch him and exposes their duplicity and hypocrisy in no time, as it happened in matter of naming Chandigarh airport on his name. Both Punjab and Haryana Governments in 2009 had unanimously urged Central Government to name Chandigarh airport as Shaheed Bhagat Singh international airport, however while name chanting RSS tried to name it on little known RSS leader Mangal Sen first and then adopted a conspiratorial silence on the issue. While Yogi Aditynath is bent upon getting Gorakhpur airport named on Yogi Gorakhnath and Agra airport on Deendyal Upadhyaya’s names and Moghul Sarai railway station as Deen Dyal station, cat is out of bag on Bhagat Singh, none in RSS wants his name to be perpetuated by naming Chandigarh airport on his name or naming any University on his name, though keeping name chanting on!
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क्रांतिकारियों में कैसे इतने लोकप्रिय हुए भगत सिंह?

October 11, 2017, 3:28 am
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http://hindi.firstpost.com/special/bhagat-singh-110th-birthday-information-in-hindi-bhagat-singh-quotes-bhagat-singh-general-sanders-bhagat-singh-original-photo-tk-56493.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLR0bBCA4hI&t=343s&list=PLzia1qLN9v2BgfH7kUISzrgDRdLOLgKs-&index=10

भगत सिंह की हिंदुस्तान भर में इतनी लोकप्रियता के अनेक कारणों के साथ एक बड़ा कारण उस समय के प्रिंट मीडिया में जबरदस्त प्रचार का भारी योगदान है

Chaman Lal Updated On: Sep 28, 2017 11:39 AM IST

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जन्मदिन विशेष: क्रांतिकारियों में कैसे इतने लोकप्रिय हुए भगत सिंह?
भगत सिंह की हिंदुस्तान भर में इतनी लोकप्रियता के अनेक कारणों के साथ एक बड़ा कारण हिंदी/हिंदुस्तानी भाषीय क्षेत्र में उनके और उनके क्रांतिकारी दल की गतिविधियों का उस समय के प्रिंट मीडिया में जबरदस्त प्रचार का भारी योगदान है.
17 दिसंबर 1928 को लाहौर में सांडर्स की हत्या और 8 अप्रैल 1929 को दिल्ली की केंद्रीय असेंबली में भगत सिंह और बटुकेश्वर दत्त के बम फेंके जाने से पहले भारत की जनता को भगत सिंह के बारे में जानकारी बहुत अधिक नहीं थी. लेकिन इन घटनाओं के बाद न सिर्फ हिंदुस्तान, बल्कि दुनिया भर में भगत सिंह का नाम गूंजने लगा.
1929 से 1934 तक के पांच वर्षों में हिंदुस्तान की अनेक जबानों, खास कर हिंदी, उर्दू, पंजाबी और अंग्रेजी के अखबारों/पत्रिकाओं, किताबों में भगत सिंह और उनके क्रांतिकारी आंदोलनों संबंधी इतनी सामग्री छपी कि उनमें से काफी प्रकाशनों पर ब्रिटिश सरकार ने पाबंदी लगाई, अनेक लेखकों/संपादकों को बरसों की जेल की हवा खिलाई.
न जाने कितनी पत्रिकाओं में छपी भगत सिंह की कहानी
विडंबना यह कि 1947 के बाद इस सारी सामग्री को विस्मृति के कुएं में धकेल दिया गया. हिंदी में ’प्रताप’ (कानपुर) ’चांद’, ’अभ्युदय’ और ’भविष्य’ (इलाहाबाद), ’महारथी’ और ’अर्जुन’ (दिल्ली), उर्दू में ’रियासत’, ’किरती’(अमृतसर), ’मिलाप’, 'बंदेमातरम’(लाहौर), पंजाबी में ’अकाली ते परदेसी’ (अमृतसर) ’अकाली’, अंग्रेजी में ’ट्रिब्यून’ व ’दी पीपल’ (लाहौर), ’लीडर’ (इलाहाबाद), ’हिंदुस्तान टाइम्स’ (दिल्ली) आदि में इतनी अधिक सामग्री छापी गई कि उनका संपादन कर छापा जाए तो कई किताबें बन जाएंगी. लेकिन विडंबना यह है कि आज इस सामग्री को अगर ढूंढना हो तो नेहरू मेमोरियल म्यूजियम और लाइब्रेरी, नई दिल्ली को छोड़कर शायद ही कोई और ऐसा संस्थान हो जहां इस सामग्री के थोड़े से हिस्से का भी व्यवस्थित रूप मिलता हो!
आधुनिक भारत के इतिहास पर केंद्रित इस पुस्तकालय ने निश्चय ही भारत के स्वतंत्रता संग्राम से जुड़ी काफी सामग्री का अच्छा संकलन और संयोजन किया है, हालांकि पूरी तरह या बहुत अधिक सामग्री यहां भी उपलब्ध नहीं है. इस पुस्तकालय में सैकड़ों हिंदुस्तानी अखबारों, मैगजीनों की माइक्रो फिल्में बनाकर उन्हें सुरक्षित रूप दिया गया है. बहुत से स्वतंत्रता सेनानियों से साक्षात्कार लेकर उन्हें सुरक्षित रूप दिया है, भगत सिंह के अनेक साथियों के साक्षात्कार इस पुस्तकालय के ’मौखिक इतिहास कक्ष’ में सुरक्षित हैं. कई क्रांतिकारियों के साक्षात्कार चार-चार सौ पृष्ठों तक फैले हैं.
क्रांतिकारी पक्ष को दबाया गया है
जाहिर है कि इस सामग्री का उपयोग भारत के स्वाधीनता संग्राम का वास्तविक इतिहास लिखने में किया जा सकता है, कुछ हद तक किया भी गया है, लेकिन भारतीय इतिहास लेखन के अपने अंतर्विरोध भी उभरकर सामने आए हैं. एक ओर सांप्रदायिक संकीर्ण धार्मिक नजरिए से ऐतिहासिक तथ्यों को विकृत कर प्रस्तुत किया गया है तो दूसरी ओर गांधी-नेहरू परंपरा को स्वाधीनता संग्राम का वर्चस्वकारी पहलू दिखाने के सायास उद्देश्य से हिंदुस्तानी इतिहास के क्रांतिकारी पक्ष को उपेक्षित किया गया है.
Bhagat_Singh's_execution_Lahore_Tribune_Front_page
इलाहाबाद से पद्म कांत मालवीय द्वारा सम्पादित ’अभ्युदय’ ने भगत सिंह के मुकदमे और फांसी के हालात पर भरपूर सामग्री छापी और 8 मई 1931 को प्रकाशित उनका ’भगत सिंह विशेषांक’ ब्रिटिश सरकार द्वारा जब्त कर लिया गया. इस अंक में एक और अंक के प्रकाशन की भी घोषणा थी, लेकिन इस अंक पर जब्ती की कार्रवाई के बाद संभवतः विशेषांक का दूसरा हिस्सा कभी छप ही नहीं पाया. ’अभ्युदय’ का भगत सिंह अंक जब जब्त किया गया था  या उससे पहले भी संपादक कृष्णकांत मालवीय के नाम के साथ कोष्ठकों में (जेल में) छपता था.
पद्म कांत मालवीय की तरह कृष्णकांत मालवीय का भी विशेष परिचय नहीं मिलता. राष्ट्रीय अभिलेखागार ने ’अभ्युदय’ के 8 मई  1931 अंक के साथ ही अन्य अंकों में प्रकाशित भगत सिंह की सामग्री को एक संकलन में प्रकाशित कर सराहनीय कार्य किया, लेकिन इस अंक की जानकारी आम पाठकों को नहीं है.
चांद सम्पादक रामरख सिंह सहगल द्वारा सम्पादित ’भविष्य’ में भगत सिंह को फांसी के बाद के हालात का जीवंत चित्रण हुआ है, साथ ही नए लाहौर षड्यंत्र केस जो भगत सिंह की फांसी के बाद चला और जिसमें प्रसिद्ध हिंदी लेखक यशपाल भी अभियुक्त थे, का विवरण मिलता है. दिल्ली षड्यंत्र केस भी भगत सिंह के साथियों, जिनमें यशपाल, उनकी पत्नी प्रकाशवती व सच्चिदानंद हीरानंद ’अज्ञेय’ भी शामिल थे, की मनोरंजन कार्रवाई का चित्रण भी मिलता है. ’अज्ञेय’ ने पांच वर्षों की यंत्रणादाई जेल झेली, इसे हिंदी के बहुत कम पाठक जानते हैं और यह और भी कम कि चंद्रशेखर आज़ाद से वे निकट से परिचित थे और उनके प्रशंसक भी.
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हिंदुस्तानी पत्रकारिता का जज्बा
’भविष्य’ व ’अभ्युदय’ के साथ उस समय की हिंदुस्तानी पत्रकारिता से अगर आज के भारत को पत्रकारिता से तुलना की जाए तो पता चलता है कि कैसे स्वाधीनता आंदोलन के दिनों में पत्रकारिता में कुर्बानी का जज़्बा या और पत्रकारिता एक मिशन थी, आज की तरह शुद्ध मुनाफा कमाने का व्यापार नहीं.
उस दौर में सैकड़ों संपादकों को जेल हुई और जब संपादक/पत्रकार गिरफ्तार  होकर जेल जाते थे तो उनके साथी उन्हें फूलमालाएं पहनाकर विदा करते थे. जिन दिनों ’भविष्य’ में भगत सिंह पर सामग्री छप रही थी तो एक ही अंक को बार-बार छापना पड़ता था और प्रसार संख्या हमेशा कई हजार होती थी. ’भविष्य’ के कुछ अंकों की संख्या 14 हजार से ऊपर तक गई, ऐसे ही ’चांद ‘का फांसी अंक भी कई हजार ग्राहकों ने खरीदा.
साहित्य और इतिहास-दोनों में दस्तावेजों और उनकी प्रमाणिकता का महत्व अत्यधिक है, विशेषतः ऐसे व्यक्तित्वों संबंधी जो लोकप्रिय हो जाएं, लेकिन जिनकी छवि पर संकीर्ण हितों से रंग चढ़ाने की कोशिश की जाए. भगत सिंह के तो चित्रों के साथ भी छेड़छाड़ की गई है. भगत सिंह के चार वास्तविक चित्र दस बरस, 16 बरस, 20 बरस और 21 बरस की उम्र के उपलब्ध हैं. अंतिम चित्र दिल्ली के कश्मीरी गेट के फोटोग्राफर द्वारा 3 या 4 अप्रैल 1929 को बटुकेश्वर दत्त के साथ और अलग-अलग खींचा चित्र है, जो अपने हैट के कारण दुनिया भर में प्रसिद्ध है.
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भगत सिंह की तस्वीरें
उससे पहले लाहौर पुलिस स्टेशन में मई-जून 1927 में बिना पगड़ी के खुले केशों वाला चित्र है, उससे पहले लाहौर के नेशनल कॉलेज का 1923 का चित्र है, जिसमें भगत सिंह ने सफेद कुर्ता पायजामा और पगड़ी पहनी है और उससे पहले कुर्सी पर बैठे 10-11 साल के बच्चे भगत सिंह का चित्र है.
न तो केंद्र, न राज्य सरकारें, न संगठन अपने विज्ञापनों, पोस्टरों के भगत सिंह के इन चार वास्तविक चित्रों का प्रयोग करते हैं, वे अपनी मनचाही पेंटिंग, वास्तविक चित्र के एवज में करते हैं, जिनमें कई पेंटिंग तो बहुत भद्दी और भगत सिंह का विकृत रूप प्रस्तुत करती है. खासकर पीली पगड़ी और हाथ में पिस्तौल वाली पेंटिंग. इस तरह की विकृत पेंटिंग का विरोध होना चाहिए और केवल भगत सिंह के वास्तविक चित्रों में से किसी एक या उससे अधिक चित्रों का उपयोग सरकारों और संगठनों को करना चाहिए. ऐसा न करके वे शहीद का सम्मान करने की बजाय अपमान करते हैं.
(चमन लाल जवाहर लाल नेहरू विश्वविद्यालय से सेवामुक्त प्रोफेसर हैं और भगत सिंह के दस्तावेजों के सम्पादन के साथ वे उन पर बहुत सी अन्य पुस्तकों के लेखक भी हैं)http://hindi.firstpost.com/special/bhagat-singh-110th-birthday-information-in-hindi-bhagat-singh-quotes-bhagat-singh-general-sanders-bhagat-singh-original-photo-tk-56493.html
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