|
Remembering
Bhagat Singh, but how?
At a time when
the politician has beaten to pulp and dumped every single ideal ever
propagated by men like Shaheed Bhagat Singh, the only thing left was
to arrogate to themselves even the memory of the martyr. There was
no other course. It is damn hard to dump Bhagat Singh, much easier
to hijack him.
Bhagat Singh is
used to being hijacked. Soon after India gained
political independence, making the Sikhs in particular and the
Punjabis in general to pay the price, Arya Samajis tried to hijack
Bhagat Singh. The fact that at one stage Bhagat Singh did advocate
the use of Devnagri script for Punjabi was drummed up by the Arya
Samajis to propagate how the great martyr was devoted to its line of
thinking.
Then came the
next group of hijackers, this time armed with red flags. 'Why am I
an atheist?' was enough for the greenhorn communists to put Bhagat
Singh's bust on the bandwagon of comrades and see in him a leader
who could possibly have similar ideas about Indian nation as
currently perhaps Sitaram Yechury has! Comrades are real experts at
reductive politics, always posing the problematic of what is real
vis-à-vis what they would accept as real.
Soon, the Indian
politician had woken up to the immense possibilities of Bhagat
Singh. In one of India's most
brilliant novels about contemporary politics, Rag Darbari, Sri Lal
Shukal describes how a man looks at a poor woman and "makes a quick
estimates of all her possibilities". Clearly, not a single one of
those ideas could be noble. Similarly, when India's politicians
looked at the potential of arrogating Bhagat Singh to the
nationalist discourse, nobility was not the predominant thought.
Rank corrupt
politicians have joined other corrupt politicians -- not all of them
indulge in amassing WMDs, wealth gained through money demands
pertinently illegal; there is corruption of ideas too -- to hail
Bhagat Singh as one of them. In Punjab,
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal leads the movement from the
front. Protagonists of probity in public life and high ideals in
personal life, say for example Sukhbir Singh Badal, will join tall
leaders who lead nations because of the mass support they enjoy
rather than depending on anyone living on any Janpath number, say
for example Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in telling you how you
all must follow the great ideals enunciated by the martyr. Clearly,
one would not be faulted in believing that all these people must
have themselves followed the great ideals, and that Sardar Parkash
Singh Badal must have brought up a young Sukhbir Singh Badal as per
those great ideals.
Cycle rallies,
mashals (flame torch) processions, theatre, poetry recitations,
turban tying contests, children painting competitions, huge ads in
the papers, demands for naming a district after the Shaheed, plans
to name a chowk in Pakistan as Shaheedi Chowk, establishing chairs
in the name of the martyr and what not. What can one possibly have
against such noble events? After all, how will our children know
about the great martyrs of the past?
Except that
there is one problem. We are not telling our children to search
within themselves to find out who they are. Shaheed Bhagat Singh had
a certain view about the society around him, and it was in keeping
with the current situation around him and globally at that time. If
the Sikh youth have indeed a desire to walk the path shown by the
great martyrs, then that path only leads to a search for our
identity. Bhagat Singh showed us the way. Look at the past and
understand it so that you can make sense of the present and build a
better future. The Sikhs can't learn a better lesson, since they are
a quom which at one time was able to resist the might of the moghul
empire for couple of hundred years, and even then carve a sovereign
nation for themselves. Whither did we lose the 'Patshahi'? One of
the heartening signs lately seen amongst Sikh community,
particularly the Sikh men of letters, is the discussion triggered by
renowned scholar Sardar Ajmer Singh's latest book 'Kis Bidh Ruli
Patshahi'. Any participation in such a discourse, any attempt at
looking inwards, any effort at understanding how the establishment
has found its own agents amongst us and using them to subjugate us,
will be a true homage to the martyrs who hung on the gallows, their
smile never deserting them. Homage consists in collecting the shards
and putting the dream together again. Do that, and you won't regret
if you did not run alongside the torch. For men like Badal, the
heroes must suit the time. Sant Jarnail Singh at one moment, Sant
Longowal at another, Bhagat Singh one day. He only has to announce a
public holiday to underline his devotion. You may have to even kiss
the gallows to underline your belief.
26
September, 2007
|
Read Also
