Bhagat Singh’s warning on Dalit identity rings true

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 28

While Bhagat Singh’s (yellow or red) coloured, turbaned portraits ride on the backs of hundreds of vehicles of the state and myriad yellow-turbaned youths dotted the streets of Khatkar Kalan on his birth anniversary today, scholars rue that the brushing away of his pro-Dalit, socialist, atheist ideology in popular social and political discourse might be a political conspiracy.

Ninety years ago (in 1928), a sixteen-year-old Bhagat Singh had alerted the Dalits of a dangerous scenario – asking them not to be used for religious gains by any religious faction, beware of the bureaucracy and fight for their own independent identity.

While a sizeable share of Dalits in power within the Indian politics have not been able to do much to alleviate the crisis of the Dalit identity, as can be seen in predicaments that the majority of the poor Dalit population and their sympathisers (read: urban naxals) suffer in the country. In Punjab, where a host of Dalits (farmers, labourers, workers) remain embattled with the government; the exhortations of Punjab’s most popular freedom-movement ideologue on this dilemma remain buried within the narrow political discourse on him.

Further reading into influences which shaped the opinions of the young Bhagat Singh, scholars at the Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall also give major credit to Katherine Mayo’s book ‘Mother India’, a scathing criticism of India’s treatment to Dalits, which caused an outrage in the country in 1927. Fiercely criticised by many Indians (Gandhi termed it as a drain inspectors’ report), Bhagat Singh had backed the book.

Eminent historian and an authority on Bhagat Singh, Prof Chaman Lal says: “A clichéd identity of Bhagat Singh has been propagated and thrust onto the people’s minds. While his yellow-turbaned, Sikh identity has permeated people’s minds, his identiy as an atheist and thinker hasn’t found way in public discourse, which is dangerous. Unfortunately, the distortion is not just restricted to Dalits but also from the government. There is a miniscule faction of enlightened Dalits who talk about it but the majority isn’t actually interested in his opinions. In ideology and atheism, Periyar and Bhagat Singh are quite close in perception. They have both asserted atheism. This aspect is completely missing from the popular discourse.”

Prof Chaman Lal got Periyar’s editorial on Bhagat Singh translated to English and with his efforts, Dr BR Ambedkar’s editorial on Bhagat Singh, published in a Marathi newspaper in 1931, was also translated (by eminent Dalit scholar Dr Anand Teltumde) to English in 21014.

Historian and a member of the Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Committee, Chiranji Lal Kangniwal says: “While many in India were outraged by Katherin Mayo’s book, Bhagat Singh busted the hypocrisy of his own countrymen in the selectivity with which they treated the Dalits – vital as a vote bank but expendable when it came to giving them their rights. Katherine Mayo and Babu Mangu Ram were key influences for Bhagat Singh in the shaping of his opinions on the Dalits. Bhagat’s fervour is also reflected in his personal interaction with Dalits – case in point being Goga, the Dalit who cleaned his jail cell and whom he referred as his “Bebe” (mother) in jail. He exhorted Dalits and called them to empower themselves to be treated as equals.”

As a youth icon

The Shaheed Bhagat Singh Naujawan Sabha, the Punjab and Haryana-based youth outfit, propagates the ideals of the freedom fighter in fighting against drugs, unemployment and saffronisation of education. It currently has over 25,000 youths as members in Punjab alone. Shamsher Singh Batala, general secretary of the sabha said: “There is no doubt that there is a systematic erasure of cultural wisdom and understanding in the state which affects the youth. Very few of the young actually know about the actual ideals of Bhagat Singh and what he stood for.”

Batala said an initiative had been started by the sabha (it also held a bike rally at Khatkar Kalan today) wherein members of the organisation have been visiting schools with a copy of ‘Achoot Da Sawaal’ and giving schoolchildren lessons in it and what Bhagat Singh actually thought.   The sabha had also raised the issue of the official recognition and preservation of his hideout, which used to be a hideout of the ‘Krantikari Party’. 

“We mince no words in proclaiming: “Arise ! So-called untouchables, the real sustainers of life , awake and reflect over your past, you were the backbone of the Guru Gobind Singh’s army. Shivaji was able to achieve all that with your participation which made him ever shining in history. Your sacrifices are worthy of being embedded in golden letters. The way in which you sustain us and add to your comforts ought to make us feel grateful to you. It is we who fail to appreciate you,” excerpts from ‘Achoot Da Sawaal’.

Bhagat Singh in ‘Achoot Da Sawaal’, an article published in Kirti Magazine (1928) says: “The Land Alienation Act (banning transfer of land to non-agricultural communities, defined as per caste) does not permit you to buy land even if you manage the necessary amount of cost. The way you are being oppressed had prompted Miss Mayo of the USA to label you “less than Man”. As a matter of fact, without your own efforts, you shall not be able to move ahead. “Those who would be free must themselves strike the first blow”. It must be kept in mind that every one belonging to the privileged class, strives to enjoy his own rights, but would try his utmost to keep oppressing those below him, and keeping the underprivileged under the heel. Thus, might is held to be right. Waste no time and unite to stand on your own feet and challenge the existing order of society. Let it then be seen as to who dares to deny your due. Do not be at mercy of others and have no illusions about them.”