SHAHEED

SHAHEED

I received a SMS this morning , it stated that we should today at least remember for 2 minutes the sacrifice of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev as they were hanged to death on this date in 1931. It made me think that at least some idealism is alive today as mostly we pass much trash to each other on SMS. Then I started thinking of Bhagat Singh and his friends who at such a young age made the supreme sacrifice which motivates us and our children to this day. Some of my friends question the approach of Bhagat Singh; they say that essentially he too was similar to the terrorists; I however consider such assessment short sighted because he made the sacrifice for an enslaved nation who have the right to revolt. Unlike terrorists of our times he and his associates did not kill indiscriminately. Their enemy was well defined; the violent means adopted could be the subject of debate but I leave that discussion for another day. What I propose to amplify is that though Bhagat Singh has written a pamphlet ‘ why I am an atheist’ he was not one from his early days . He was drawn to ‘Arya Samaj’ teachings and even repeated ‘Gayatri Mantra’ as a youth. It was whilst in jail when he knew that the path he had adopted will lead to certain death that he resolved to dismantle all the support systems. He believed that in order to accept the ultimate he will have to be strong enough on his own; for he had seen some of his mates weakening at the time of reckoning ;in fact one of them devoted much of his time in seeking divine blessings/intervention for lenient treatment. All this confrmed to Bhagat that that he will have to burn all his bridges in order to achieve his Aim with head held high( mera rang de basanti chola). Therefore I consider such martyrs rare and indeed he was one. He was also not a young adventurer, he was a thinking ‘Revolutionary’ and had read Lenin’s ‘ State and Revolution’ in confinement. He had ideas for future but his martyrdom was larger than any ideology as it inspires us to this day.