Abstract
S. Irfan Habib’s Inquilab: Bhagat Singh on Religion and Revolution is a historic piece of work, which not only provides the readers with a detailed version of Bhagat Singh’s revolutionary legacy but also gives an account of his socioeconomic and political views, which are rare to be found in the existing literature. The author presents a different perspective about Bhagat Singh other than a martyr, highlighting in-depth analysis of sources and background of his ideas. The prevailing works discuss and investigate Bhagat Singh as a martyr, however, as Che Guvera once said, ‘The true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.’ 1 Hence, it was important to explore the great idealist Bhagat Singh from a perspective other than revolution, i.e., the ideology and the philosophy that guided his understanding and observations.
The author has made a commendable attempt of exploring the detailed account of books read by Bhagat Singh, also he gives specifics of the libraries accessed by him and the contents of the libraries as well. The book gives an elaborative collection of writings of Singh, which helps in understanding the trajectory of his ideas, for example how he switched from anarchism to socialism, his views on religion, secularism and equality. The author has compiled series of scattered ideas and writings and sectioned the work into five parts. The methodology and arrangement dealing the sections is simple and self-explanatory. The discussion of ideas is chronologically arranged, for example, the first section of the work is based on the social and political ideas of Bhagat Singh from 1924 to 1928. This part mainly deliberates on the ideas of universalism, i.e., ‘Vasudeva Kutumbakam’, universal brotherhood, religion and freedom struggle, communal riots along with their solution, social causes like untouchability and youth particularly student politics. Irfan Habib has not only conferred his ideas but has given background to the causes that made him the Bhagat Singh, loved throughout India as well as Pakistan. For example, in one of his article, ‘Dharma and Our Freedom Struggle’—Bhagat Singh opined that ‘without freedom one should not get absolute independence from social life’. In order to support his statement, he cited an incident. ‘The Punjab Political Council was held in Amritsar from April 11 to 13, 1928. There the youth council was also present. There were three important issues discussed in this conference. It was in the forefront of religion with full contentment and controversy. At this time a resolution was placed in front. It was mentioned that those who used to do religious penance and use their religion for their selfish ends should not be included in public work’. In the regional committee meeting, ‘Maulana Zafar Ali pronounced Khuda-Khuda for five to six times. Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru was there, and he suggested the maulanas, do not say that on the public platform. He also told the maulanas, “If you are a pastor, then I am a preacher of secularism”. Later, in the meeting of “Navjwan Bharat Sabha” there was talk about this issue. Amar Singh Jhambal said that “the subject of religion is considered to be untouchable”. 2 Bhagat Singh said, ‘If we pledge not to say anything against such religion then we should keep sitting at home quietly; otherwise it would mean opposing religion. People even say that these evils should be discarded and set right. Sure enough Swami Dayanand eradicated untouchability but even he could not go beyond the four varnas. The practice of untouchability continues unabated. If Sikhs said while they were standing inside the Gurdwara that only true Sikhs should rule, and on coming out talked a loud in favour of Panchayati Raj, then what would it amount to? Religion that says the people who do not have faith in Islam should be killed with a sword, and what will happen here if we proclaim that all religious beliefs are equal….The question is then, why should we not do away with all this once and for all?’ 3 Similarly while writing about role of students in politics, Bhagat Singh was completely against the idea to keep students aloof from politics, he categorically mentioned that ‘They should study, but at the same time they should acquire the knowledge of politics too, and when the need arises they should jump into the fray and sacrifice their lives for nation. They should sacrifice their lives for a cause, otherwise it does not seem possible to keep the nation alive’. 4
These incidents and ideas show that Bhagat Singh was way ahead of his times in his thinking and his expressions were grounded with day to day experience of the society and he was much more than a revolutionary, he was reformist, social activist and an innovatory idealist. Earlier Bhagat Singh was reduced to a mere revolutionary with aggressive and extremist tools to fight against the British rule; however, this book provides a wider perspective and ideas about the freedom fighter that showcases his image more than just a raw left-winged nationalist. It reflects his image of broad-minded and progressive thinker, the image of nation-builder and the image of a secular and social reformer who wanted to build India as a nation-state rather than just a country. Also the book carrying the valuable ideas of Bhagat Singh is very relevant in today’s time when Indian politics needs to be indoctrinated with progressive and secular ideologies and to do away with parochialism, narrow minded petty issues of casteism and religion-based politics, etc.