PaRCha - JNU - All Organisations - 2012 ID-54433
.
23.3.12.
On 23 March: Martyrdom Day ofBhagat Singh-Sukhdev-Rajguru (1931) .
and Revolutionary Poet Paash (1988) .
Today, 23 Mach 2012, after long 15 years of the murderofComrade Chandu, three people convicted ofhis .
murder have finally been sentenced to life imprisonment by a CBI Court, after a protracted struggle for .
justice. However. no punishment has been pronounced on the main mastermind behind his murder. former RJD MP Shahabuddin nor have the political conspiracy behind this broad daylight murder has been nailed. Today, as this verdict in the Chandrashekher murder case is announced, we remember the courage of the countless .
women and men ofourcountry who overcame theirfears, who sacrificed themselves to the cause oftrue .
I·.
independence, and who renewing the dreams of equality that still live on. As Shahadat Saptah begins, wecommemorate the heroic lives of those like BhagatSingh and his comrades who have become symbol of revolution. We remember the brief, incandescent lives of those like the revolutionary poet Paash martyred on 23 March, 1988 and Chandrashekhar Prasad, former JNUSU president-martyred in Siwan on 31 .
March, 1997-who lived among the struggling people and were committed to this struggle unto the last. .
Bhagat Singh's Letter to the Second LCC Convicts .
(On March 22, the Second Lahore Conspiracy Case convicts, who were locked up in Ward N umber 14 (near .
condemned cells), sent a slip to BhagatSingh asking ifhe would like to live. This letter was in reply to that slip.] .
March 22, 1931 .
The desire to live is natural. It is in me also. I do not want to conceal it. But it is conditional. I don 1want to live as .
a prisoner orunder restrictions. My name has become a symbol ofIndian revolution. The ideal and the sacrifices of .
the revolutionary party have elevated me to a height beyond which I will never be able to rise ifI live ... .
les, one thingpricks me even today. My heart nurturedsome ambitionsfor doingsomethingfor humanity andfor my .
country. I have not been able to fulfill even one-thousandth part ofthose ambitions. IfI live I mightperhaps get a .
.
chance to fulfill them. Ifever it came to my mind that I should not die, it came from this end only. .
I am proud ofmyselfthese days andI am anxiously waitingfor the final test. I wish the day may come nearer soon .
.
In the life and death of Bhagat Singh, in particular, we find an inspiration for our times and a guide to the struggles ahead. ln~the world that surrounds us and the issues that confront us, his words and acts acquire particular depth and meaning. .
Today, as the people of Koodankulam and Jaitapur launch a spirited resistance to nuclear power plants, as they face mass arrests as well as bullets and batons from "democratically" elected governments, as people in Jagatsinghpur barricade their villages against the state government and POSCO, these struggles are a clear proof that the revolutionary legacy of .
Bhagat Singh, Paash, Chandu and others who lived and died for a better society is alive and kicking. .
A new meaning to patriotism Bhagat Singh's political awakening began at the time of the horrific Jallianwala Bagh massacre where innocent people were surrounded and shot down in cold blood. Overtime, as his involvement, with revolutionary politics grew, he grew also .
in courage and confidence. Through the struggles he participated in and led, Bhagat Singh gave a new meaning to patriotism. The old cry of Vande Mataram was replaced by the slogan ofrevolution -lnquilab Zindabad-which he was among the first to proclaim.At the centre of his definition of patriotism were the people ofthe country. Love for the country became defined as love for its .
people. He keenly followed the struggles of peasants and workers and insisted thatwithout establishing the dominance of .
workers and peasants, the national movement would not bring true independence for India. Thecapitalists, the traders, the .
princes and big landlords (who were such firm friends of Gandhi); he viewed with the deepest suspicion, arguing that they could onry be treated as unreliable friends, if not sworn enemies, of Indian independence. .
The nature ofthe ruling classes .
While appreciating the mass mobilization that came with .the Gandhian struggle, Bhagat Singh also identified the class .
character ofthe Congress and warned that Gandhi's politics consciously discouraged against any attempt to politicize the 'brown sahibs' that would merely replace the.
working class. He spoke, in fact, of the dangers of setting up a rule by the .
imperialist rule with another mask, and where the domination of the overwhelming majority of Indians, the workers and peasants, would continue uninterrupted. He stated also that in order to challenge imperialism we must demolish the domestic basis offoreign rule-feudal forces and capitalist collaborators, the props and supporters of imperialist domination..
I Where the Congress was afraid to voice the demand for complete independence, where Gandhi openly and repeatedly .
condemned the revolutionaries, Bhagat Singh and his comrades 'Nere unafraid and raised the battle cry: lnqui/ab Zindabad! .
Critique of Gandhian Leadership "I have said that the present movement. .. is bound to end in some sort of compromise or complete failure. I said that, because in my opinion, this time the real revolutionary forces have not been invited into the arena. This .
is a struggle dependent upon the middle class shopkeepers and a few capitalists. Both these, and particularly the .
latter, ,can never dare to risk its property or possessions in any struggle. The real revolutionary armies are in the .
.
villages and in factories, the peasantry and the labourers. But our bourgeois leaders do not and cannot dare to tackle.
P.T..-. .
.
PaRCha - JNU - All Organisations - 2012 ID-54433
.
23.3.12.
On 23 March: Martyrdom Day ofBhagat Singh-Sukhdev-Rajguru (1931) .
and Revolutionary Poet Paash (1988) .
Today, 23 Mach 2012, after long 15 years of the murderofComrade Chandu, three people convicted ofhis .
murder have finally been sentenced to life imprisonment by a CBI Court, after a protracted struggle for .
justice. However. no punishment has been pronounced on the main mastermind behind his murder. former RJD MP Shahabuddin nor have the political conspiracy behind this broad daylight murder has been nailed. Today, as this verdict in the Chandrashekher murder case is announced, we remember the courage of the countless .
women and men ofourcountry who overcame theirfears, who sacrificed themselves to the cause oftrue .
I·.
independence, and who renewing the dreams of equality that still live on. As Shahadat Saptah begins, wecommemorate the heroic lives of those like BhagatSingh and his comrades who have become symbol of revolution. We remember the brief, incandescent lives of those like the revolutionary poet Paash martyred on 23 March, 1988 and Chandrashekhar Prasad, former JNUSU president-martyred in Siwan on 31 .
March, 1997-who lived among the struggling people and were committed to this struggle unto the last. .
Bhagat Singh's Letter to the Second LCC Convicts .
(On March 22, the Second Lahore Conspiracy Case convicts, who were locked up in Ward N umber 14 (near .
condemned cells), sent a slip to BhagatSingh asking ifhe would like to live. This letter was in reply to that slip.] .
March 22, 1931 .
The desire to live is natural. It is in me also. I do not want to conceal it. But it is conditional. I don 1want to live as .
a prisoner orunder restrictions. My name has become a symbol ofIndian revolution. The ideal and the sacrifices of .
the revolutionary party have elevated me to a height beyond which I will never be able to rise ifI live ... .
les, one thingpricks me even today. My heart nurturedsome ambitionsfor doingsomethingfor humanity andfor my .
country. I have not been able to fulfill even one-thousandth part ofthose ambitions. IfI live I mightperhaps get a .
.
chance to fulfill them. Ifever it came to my mind that I should not die, it came from this end only. .
I am proud ofmyselfthese days andI am anxiously waitingfor the final test. I wish the day may come nearer soon .
.
In the life and death of Bhagat Singh, in particular, we find an inspiration for our times and a guide to the struggles ahead. ln~the world that surrounds us and the issues that confront us, his words and acts acquire particular depth and meaning. .
Today, as the people of Koodankulam and Jaitapur launch a spirited resistance to nuclear power plants, as they face mass arrests as well as bullets and batons from "democratically" elected governments, as people in Jagatsinghpur barricade their villages against the state government and POSCO, these struggles are a clear proof that the revolutionary legacy of .
Bhagat Singh, Paash, Chandu and others who lived and died for a better society is alive and kicking. .
A new meaning to patriotism Bhagat Singh's political awakening began at the time of the horrific Jallianwala Bagh massacre where innocent people were surrounded and shot down in cold blood. Overtime, as his involvement, with revolutionary politics grew, he grew also .
in courage and confidence. Through the struggles he participated in and led, Bhagat Singh gave a new meaning to patriotism. The old cry of Vande Mataram was replaced by the slogan ofrevolution -lnquilab Zindabad-which he was among the first to proclaim.At the centre of his definition of patriotism were the people ofthe country. Love for the country became defined as love for its .
people. He keenly followed the struggles of peasants and workers and insisted thatwithout establishing the dominance of .
workers and peasants, the national movement would not bring true independence for India. Thecapitalists, the traders, the .
princes and big landlords (who were such firm friends of Gandhi); he viewed with the deepest suspicion, arguing that they could onry be treated as unreliable friends, if not sworn enemies, of Indian independence. .
The nature ofthe ruling classes .
While appreciating the mass mobilization that came with .the Gandhian struggle, Bhagat Singh also identified the class .
character ofthe Congress and warned that Gandhi's politics consciously discouraged against any attempt to politicize the 'brown sahibs' that would merely replace the.
working class. He spoke, in fact, of the dangers of setting up a rule by the .
imperialist rule with another mask, and where the domination of the overwhelming majority of Indians, the workers and peasants, would continue uninterrupted. He stated also that in order to challenge imperialism we must demolish the domestic basis offoreign rule-feudal forces and capitalist collaborators, the props and supporters of imperialist domination..
I Where the Congress was afraid to voice the demand for complete independence, where Gandhi openly and repeatedly .
condemned the revolutionaries, Bhagat Singh and his comrades 'Nere unafraid and raised the battle cry: lnqui/ab Zindabad! .
Critique of Gandhian Leadership "I have said that the present movement. .. is bound to end in some sort of compromise or complete failure. I said that, because in my opinion, this time the real revolutionary forces have not been invited into the arena. This .
is a struggle dependent upon the middle class shopkeepers and a few capitalists. Both these, and particularly the .
latter, ,can never dare to risk its property or possessions in any struggle. The real revolutionary armies are in the .
.
villages and in factories, the peasantry and the labourers. But our bourgeois leaders do not and cannot dare to tackle.
P.T..-. .
.