PaRCha - JNU - AISA - 2008 ID-5044
.
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23-31 arch : Shahada SaptCih -As sert e Legacy Of Sukhdev,Rajguru Bhagat S ng .
23.3.08 Against Sell-Out Of India's Sovereigni To US lmperialis,.,! Against Communal Threat To People's Unrty! Against SEZs and State Terror' For Peoples' Ri ght To Land Livelihood and Dignity! .
"We don't wish to suffer by inviting a black evU to replace the white evil. Indian workers must come forward-overthrowing imperialists as well as their fndian agents who wish to perpetuate the same economic system rooted In exploitation.. "-Bhagat Singh, Draft Revolu 1onary Programme 1931 .
March 23, 1931 marked the hanging of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, and his comrades Sukhdev and Rajguru, by .
the colonial Brit1sh. What 1s Bhagat Singh's message for us today, after 77 years he was martyred? What must today's .
patriots and communists learn from him? He was not one to equate independence with a dream future full of rivers of milk .
and lakes of honey. Nor was he one to romanticise the past and promise a restoration of 'Ram rajya'. On the contrary he .
was the one who had warned the country that mere replacement of the British rulers by our own 'brown sahibs' would .
hardly make any difference. He was the one who old us that in order to challenge imperialism we must demolish the .
domestic basis of foreign rule -feudal forces and capitalist collaborators, the desi props of colonial raj and imperialist .
domination. He was the one to warn against the disastrous potential of communal politics and call for complete elimination .
of the sordid historical reality of social oppression and untouchability. .
Bhagat Singh's Legacy .
All sections of India's ruling class compete to claim Bhagat Singh as their own. The pro-US UPA Government of .
Manmohan Singh pays a lavish and ritualised homage to Bhagat Singh, while the RSS-BJP has always tried to claim .
Bhagat Singh as a Hindutva hero. Why this urgent need to co-opt Bhagat Singh, to appropriate and distort Bhagat Singh's .
legacy? The fact is that Bhagat Singh is still the most enduring symbol of youth's burning aspiration for freedom and social .
change. Those who are selling out India's freedom to imperialists, who need to define 'patriotism' as war-.
mongering and communalism rather than as anti-Imperialism, are desperate to tame and domesticate Bhagat .
Singh's legacy in order to smother that fire of radicalism within youth. .
From British Raj to Bush Raj As we look around us today, we see hundreds of Jallianwala Baghs being repeated by a repressive state machinery all over the country -in Jagatsingpur (POSCO), Kalingnagar. Singur, Nandigram, Gurgaon, Khammam and elsewhere. We are witnessing the largest land grab in the history of indepenoent India, as governments of all hues act as agents of corporate houses and promote "Special Economic Zones" in the name of."development". The deep communal wounds left by the British on our polity continue to bleed periodically. We are seeing thousands of people being booked under draco-nian laws like Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA) and Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), and Prevention of Terrorist Act (POTA). We see hunger and starvation reaching the same levels that they did under the British. We see farmers' traditional right over seeds usurped by the Monsantos as they are driven to suicide by debt and despera-tion. As the "brown sahlbs" In the form of the ruling parties and their corporate masters carry on the legacy of the white sahlbs, Bhagat Singh's insight stands visible in front of our eyes, and his revolutionary legacy ac-quires new meaning and relevance. .
Of Anti-Imperialist Nationalism, Not Communalism .
As the RSS-BJP pay obeisance to their ideologue 'Guru' Golwalkar, they also attempt to co-opt Bhagat Singh for their communal fascist plank. Can Golwalkar ever be reconciled with Bhagat Singh? When Bhagat Singh and his comrades were sacrificing their lives to resist British imperialism, Golwalkar was declaring that martyrs were 'selfish', and that the 'anti-Britishism' of the freedom fighters was 'reactionary', which had 'disastrous' effects for the country. The India of Bhagat Singh's dream was an India free from the 'exploitation of man by man'. Bhagat Singh was himself an atheist; disturbed by the frenzy fanned up by communal elements, he called for a complete separation of religion from politics, and declared that only a secular society could be the basis for a modern and free India. The India of Golwalkar's dream, on the other hand, was one in which the Muslims and Christians were "foreign races" who "must lose their separate existence to merge In the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far tess any preferential treatment not even citizen's rights. " (Golwalkar, We or Our Nationhood Defined, 1938, .
p. 47-48) .
On 31 March, 1997, twice JNUSU President Chandrashekhar was shot dead by mafia RJD MP Shahabuddin at JP Chowk. Chandu, who , after his glorious tenures in JNU,had returned to his hometown Siwan as a CPI(ML) wholetimer, was campaigning for a Bihar Bandh against the massacre of Dalits during Holi by the Ranveer Sena. His killing sparked off a massive student movement where students faced lathis on Delhi's streets for a whole month. .
Remembering Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar cannot be reduced to hollow ritual; it must be an occasion to redefine the contours of our politics, in a way that brings to the fore those "revolutionary armies in the fields and ~he factories-peasants and workers" that Bhagat Singh spoke about. It is an occasion to commit ourselves to strengthemng all those struggles for social transformation and anti-imperialist resistance. To carry forward the undying spirit of Bhagat Singh to Chandrashekhar, AISA observes 23 31 March as Shahadat Saptah with public meeting, drama and film screen\ng documenting the challenges of our times. .
.
Human Chain .
t .
Join JNUSU's Join JNUSU's .
The Legand of Bhagat Singh IAgainst Administration's Indulgence To T_he Se~ial Violence Mongers of .
Saluting the legacy of the revolutionary martyrs. ABVP And To Ensure Thetr Puntshment .
·March 23 {Tonight), 9.00 pm, KC OAT 24 March (Monday), SL lawns. 10.30 am ;;;;;;;;;;iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii* .
sd/-Sucheta De, Gen.Secy., AISA, JNU sdi-Syed Md. Raghib, Jt. Secy, AISA. JNU .
.
.
PaRCha - JNU - AISA - 2008 ID-5044
.
~---· -~------------------------------------------.
23-31 arch : Shahada SaptCih -As sert e Legacy Of Sukhdev,Rajguru Bhagat S ng .
23.3.08 Against Sell-Out Of India's Sovereigni To US lmperialis,.,! Against Communal Threat To People's Unrty! Against SEZs and State Terror' For Peoples' Ri ght To Land Livelihood and Dignity! .
"We don't wish to suffer by inviting a black evU to replace the white evil. Indian workers must come forward-overthrowing imperialists as well as their fndian agents who wish to perpetuate the same economic system rooted In exploitation.. "-Bhagat Singh, Draft Revolu 1onary Programme 1931 .
March 23, 1931 marked the hanging of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, and his comrades Sukhdev and Rajguru, by .
the colonial Brit1sh. What 1s Bhagat Singh's message for us today, after 77 years he was martyred? What must today's .
patriots and communists learn from him? He was not one to equate independence with a dream future full of rivers of milk .
and lakes of honey. Nor was he one to romanticise the past and promise a restoration of 'Ram rajya'. On the contrary he .
was the one who had warned the country that mere replacement of the British rulers by our own 'brown sahibs' would .
hardly make any difference. He was the one who old us that in order to challenge imperialism we must demolish the .
domestic basis of foreign rule -feudal forces and capitalist collaborators, the desi props of colonial raj and imperialist .
domination. He was the one to warn against the disastrous potential of communal politics and call for complete elimination .
of the sordid historical reality of social oppression and untouchability. .
Bhagat Singh's Legacy .
All sections of India's ruling class compete to claim Bhagat Singh as their own. The pro-US UPA Government of .
Manmohan Singh pays a lavish and ritualised homage to Bhagat Singh, while the RSS-BJP has always tried to claim .
Bhagat Singh as a Hindutva hero. Why this urgent need to co-opt Bhagat Singh, to appropriate and distort Bhagat Singh's .
legacy? The fact is that Bhagat Singh is still the most enduring symbol of youth's burning aspiration for freedom and social .
change. Those who are selling out India's freedom to imperialists, who need to define 'patriotism' as war-.
mongering and communalism rather than as anti-Imperialism, are desperate to tame and domesticate Bhagat .
Singh's legacy in order to smother that fire of radicalism within youth. .
From British Raj to Bush Raj As we look around us today, we see hundreds of Jallianwala Baghs being repeated by a repressive state machinery all over the country -in Jagatsingpur (POSCO), Kalingnagar. Singur, Nandigram, Gurgaon, Khammam and elsewhere. We are witnessing the largest land grab in the history of indepenoent India, as governments of all hues act as agents of corporate houses and promote "Special Economic Zones" in the name of."development". The deep communal wounds left by the British on our polity continue to bleed periodically. We are seeing thousands of people being booked under draco-nian laws like Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA) and Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), and Prevention of Terrorist Act (POTA). We see hunger and starvation reaching the same levels that they did under the British. We see farmers' traditional right over seeds usurped by the Monsantos as they are driven to suicide by debt and despera-tion. As the "brown sahlbs" In the form of the ruling parties and their corporate masters carry on the legacy of the white sahlbs, Bhagat Singh's insight stands visible in front of our eyes, and his revolutionary legacy ac-quires new meaning and relevance. .
Of Anti-Imperialist Nationalism, Not Communalism .
As the RSS-BJP pay obeisance to their ideologue 'Guru' Golwalkar, they also attempt to co-opt Bhagat Singh for their communal fascist plank. Can Golwalkar ever be reconciled with Bhagat Singh? When Bhagat Singh and his comrades were sacrificing their lives to resist British imperialism, Golwalkar was declaring that martyrs were 'selfish', and that the 'anti-Britishism' of the freedom fighters was 'reactionary', which had 'disastrous' effects for the country. The India of Bhagat Singh's dream was an India free from the 'exploitation of man by man'. Bhagat Singh was himself an atheist; disturbed by the frenzy fanned up by communal elements, he called for a complete separation of religion from politics, and declared that only a secular society could be the basis for a modern and free India. The India of Golwalkar's dream, on the other hand, was one in which the Muslims and Christians were "foreign races" who "must lose their separate existence to merge In the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far tess any preferential treatment not even citizen's rights. " (Golwalkar, We or Our Nationhood Defined, 1938, .
p. 47-48) .
On 31 March, 1997, twice JNUSU President Chandrashekhar was shot dead by mafia RJD MP Shahabuddin at JP Chowk. Chandu, who , after his glorious tenures in JNU,had returned to his hometown Siwan as a CPI(ML) wholetimer, was campaigning for a Bihar Bandh against the massacre of Dalits during Holi by the Ranveer Sena. His killing sparked off a massive student movement where students faced lathis on Delhi's streets for a whole month. .
Remembering Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar cannot be reduced to hollow ritual; it must be an occasion to redefine the contours of our politics, in a way that brings to the fore those "revolutionary armies in the fields and ~he factories-peasants and workers" that Bhagat Singh spoke about. It is an occasion to commit ourselves to strengthemng all those struggles for social transformation and anti-imperialist resistance. To carry forward the undying spirit of Bhagat Singh to Chandrashekhar, AISA observes 23 31 March as Shahadat Saptah with public meeting, drama and film screen\ng documenting the challenges of our times. .
.
Human Chain .
t .
Join JNUSU's Join JNUSU's .
The Legand of Bhagat Singh IAgainst Administration's Indulgence To T_he Se~ial Violence Mongers of .
Saluting the legacy of the revolutionary martyrs. ABVP And To Ensure Thetr Puntshment .
·March 23 {Tonight), 9.00 pm, KC OAT 24 March (Monday), SL lawns. 10.30 am ;;;;;;;;;;iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii* .
sd/-Sucheta De, Gen.Secy., AISA, JNU sdi-Syed Md. Raghib, Jt. Secy, AISA. JNU .
.
.