By Jaspal Singh
May 24th, 2018 was the 122nd birth anniversary of Kartar Singh Sarabha. He was born in Sarabha village in Ludhiana district of Punjab. When he was 9 years old his father passed away. He was brought up by his grandparents. After finishing elementary education in Punjab , he was sent to Odisha, where his uncle worked. He finished his high school there and came to the US at a very young age in 1912 and became active with Ghadar Party after its founding in 1913.
He became editor of Punjabi edition of its organ Ghadar and has been called “the rider of storms”. When the party decided that its members and supporters should go back to India, taking advantage of the First World War, people and soldiers should be organized to throw the British out of India. Sarabha was one of its leaders in India. He travelled all across to organize soldiers to revolt against the British. He became very close to Bhagat Singh’s family and was a big source of inspiration to Bhagat Singh.
There were two views about the war in India at that time. Tata,Birla, maharajas and big landlords were supporting the “war effort of the British” as they had been given big contracts by the British and they had amassed a great deal of wealth by collaborating with the British for almost 100 years. Leaders of Congress and Muslim league,who came from these collaborators were going around the country to recruit soldiers for the British.
Ghadar Party and other revolutionaries were of the view that the British are caught in a war, this is a good time to hit them and throw them out of the country. So they were calling on soldiers to revolt and fight the British. They had fixed a date for uprising. The British got the wind of it, and they arrested and hanged hundreds of Ghadarites and revolutionaries. Sarabha was only 19 when he was hanged with his friend who was also a member of Nalanda Club at University of California Berkeley, Jaiwanda Singh, was also not 20 yet. Sarabha used to recite a Punjabi couplet:
Seva Desh Di Jindardiye Bahut Aukhi, Gallan Karniyan Bahut Sokhaliyan Ne
Jinhan Desh Seva Wich Payr Paya, Unhan Lakh Musibtan Jhalaniyan Ne
(To serve our country is very difficult, talk is easy. Those who have taken this path, have to bear many difficulties)
Sarabha at a very young age had analysed that those who are petitioning the British and recruiting soldiers for them, they only want a greater share in the loot of the country. If they come into power somehow, they will carry on the same colonial rule, plunder, pillage and rape of India.Sarabha’s words have proven to be prophetic. Last seventy years have proven it to the letter of Sarabha’s prophecy.
Although young in age, Sarabha was respected by older leaders such as Baba Jawala Singh, Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna and others. They had given him a nick name Baba Gernal , as he was a very good shooter and he had learnt to fly airplane. His insight, instinct and spirit were thoroughly revolutionary. The British claimed that he was the most dangerous rebel during his trial.
As I was thinking about Sarabha and Jaiwanda, I saw news flash that many journalists in India are being threatened by hooligans who claim to be protectors of cow and Hindu religion and who are being protected by the ministers and leaders of the ruling party. Many journalists have also been killed. Some of these hooligans are being followed by the Prime Minister on Twitter.
Questions kept coming to my mind that , Is this the country they had given their lives for? A recent report pointed out that India is 138 on the ranking of press freedom out of 180 countries. A climate of fear, insecurity and anxiety is being created by hooligans with full protection of the state. Disinformation, deception and fraud has been the official ideology of the ruling elite and their political parties. According to a sting done by a news portal, 25 out of 27 big media houses owners and management were ready to spread communal propaganda in exchange for cash, spread fake news and polarize polity before the elections. They are also threatening this portal with all their force and connections with the ruling party and government.
Just like Sarabha’s time, the ruling elite is living in a parallel universe. At that time people wanted to throw the British out, but the ruling elite was recruiting soldiers for them, similarly people have hard time keeping their body and soul together, but the ruling elite and their henchmen are claiming that “Development” has become a mass movement and India is marching towards prosperity.
An example of this prosperity is that according to government figures more than 500,000 schools in the country do not have electricity, clean drinking water has become a luxury in large part of the country. Yet on the 4th anniversary of BJP government, Prime Minister and others are repeating lies and deception repeatedly. Chief minister of UP has come up with a gem, that India has entered ” Exellence”. Sarabha had pointed out at his time that those who are saying that if we help the British in the war and recruit soldiers, then we will get independence, are lying and deceiving the people. Same is true today. They are lying to the people now a days as well.