By Jaspal Singh,
Today (March 23, 2015) is the 84th anniversary of the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. These names have been part of my mental make-up as long as I can remember. I can remember their pictures in my grandfather’s house along with the pictures of Guru Gobind Singh and Guru Nanak. Chandarshekhar Azad and Kartar Singh Sarabha were the other two portraits in the house.
Bhagat Singh’s photo had a couplet that he wrote in his last letter to his brother Kultar: Usey Fiqr Har Dam Naya Tarz E Jafa Kya Hai, Hamein Yeh Shauq Dekhein Sitam Ki Intahaa Ky Hai (The oppressor is devising new means of oppression every moment, we have a great yearning to see the end of oppression).
Many regular visitors who came to visit my grandfather from my mother’s side, would talk about them as if they were still living. Many of them had worked with them. My grandfather’s village was a big centre of Ghadar Party. Lala Lajpat Rai was our neighbor. My grandfather would talk about Lala and others fondly.
Amongst those who came to see my grandfather, one Maan Singh Killiwala ‘Nihang’ stands out. He was part of the Babbar Akalis and later on joined the Ghadar party. Ghadar party had decided to eliminate the British informers, known as ‘siahposh’. They were the eyes and ears of the British. In one night, these informers were killed all over Punjab. Maan Singh had the distinction of eliminating nine informers. He was underground for more than 30 years. He would talk about leaders of Congress with great contempt as parasites and bootlickers of the British.
He would sometime recite some verses from a book of verses that my grandfather had written which was banned by the British as seditious. One of the verses he would recite was critical of Gandhi saying that Gandhi’s path is a path of defeat, betrayal and treachery. My grandfather’s words proved prophetic. Formal Independence of 1947 maintains all the colonial institutions intact including the constitution. Maan Singh’s eyes would light up when he talked about Kartar Singh Sarabha and Bhagat Singh. He had worked with Bhagat Singh, Chandershekhar Azad, Ras Bihari Bose and many other revolutionaries while he was underground.
As I was thinking about this day, all those images came to my mind. Exactly five years ago, on this day I was at the ancestral house of Bhagat Singh, in Khatkar Kalan. My wife’s family is related to his family. As I came near the village there were tons of policemen on the road, as many VIPs now come here on this day to shed crocodile tears and pay homage to get votes, while they carry on the deeds of the British.
Only women folk were at home. I asked them where were all the men? They said, they were out, and informed me that every political party has a separate stage, they divide people even on this day. They cannot have one platform to commemorate this day. They are all rogues. Look at the Akalis, it was under Badal that they killed Baba Bujha Singh and Baba Hari Singh Mrigand. But he comes here on this day. We talked about the hypocrisy of all the political parties for some time and then after drinking few glasses of Lassi, I took my leave. The whole village was full of VIPs, one could find them dime a dozen. Every one of them wanted his photo taken in Bhagat Singh’s village; (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi being the latest, he also went there this year for this photo op. I wonder what Maan Singh Kiliwala would say to these leaders?
I also remember going to Hussainiwala on the banks of Satluj, where Rajguru, Sukhdev and Bhagat Singh were cremated, when I was very young, around 6 or 7 years old. The British had cut into pieces the bodies of these three and wanted to burn them by pouring kerosene. But the people around snatched them and cremated them in Hussainiwala. It had given me goosebumps. Thinking about it still gives me goosebumps. These martyrs are eternally eternal. I can hear the children shouting ‘Jab tak Suraj Chaand Rahega, Bhagat Singh Ka Naam Rahega.
(Jaspal Singh is a philosopher based in Cambridge, Massachusetts)