HOMAGE TO BHAGAT SINGH,RAJ GURU AND SUKH DEV

On the Day of Martyrdom : 23rd March.
The judge who sentenced Bhagat Singh and B.K.Dutt,in the ‘Assembly Bomb’ case , wrote in the judgment :

“These persons used to enter the court with the cries of ‘Long Live Revolution’, ‘Long live Proletariat ‘ etc. which shows clearly what sort of political idea they cherish. In order to put a check in propagating these ideas I transport them for life’.

It is to the credit of Bhagat Singh and his colleagues, that they popularized the slogan ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ (‘Long Live Revolution’) alongwith communist revolutionaries, in place of religious slogans like ‘Bandemataram’, ‘Sat Sri Akal’ and ‘Allah Ho Akbar’ which were being used earlier by respective communities in the freedom struggle against the British. The Communist International had set up a military training camp in 1920 at Tashkent as part of the programme to spread and support ‘revolution’ in India. Large number of ‘Muhajirs’ who had left India to go to Turkey in support of the ‘Khilafat ‘ were stranded at Tashkent and many of them were recruited in the military camp. Émigré Communist Party of India was founded at Tashkent on 17th October,1920 and one of the muhajir, Mohd. Shafiq Siddiqui became its General Secretary. It was in this military camp of the Communist International that the trainees were taught to use the slogan of ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ instead of ‘Khilafat Zindabad’ etc. It took a long time for this slogan to get acceptability in the freedom struggle. Bhagat Singh alongwith his colleague B.K. Dutt threw bomb in the Assembly shouting the slogans of ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ and ‘Down with British Imperialism’.
The slogan ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ in fact became the slogan of those who wanted change in the exploitative system in all spheres of life i.e. social, economic and political, while slogans like ‘Vandemataram’ and ’Bharat Matat ki Jai’ generally signified the desire of those who wished change in the political system but wanted the exploitative social and economic system to continue.
The best homage to Bhagat Singh and his colleagues would be if we resolve on this day to build a society where there is complete emancipation from the oppressive and exploitative social, economic and political fields, the dream for which the martyrs fought and laid their lives.
( N.D.Pancholi, On Behalf Of The Indian Renaissance Institute).
23rd March, 2015

Hastakshep