Top 10 Greatest Indian Leaders

The one who tops the India Today list is not the most obvious, the Mahatma, but the Martyr. In our poll, the action hero who struggled to give a revolutionary rejoinder to the British Empire pushes the savant of passive resistance to the third position.

And next to Bhagat Singh is another rebel and adventurer who too didn’t take the Gandhian road to national liberation: Subhas Chandra Bose.

The top 10 subvert many assumptions about greatness and how it is perceived by a generation that is not entirely conditioned by the one-dimensional wisdom of the classroom.

The pioneer, the poet and the scientist coexist with leaders who were not conformists; and surprisingly, Nehru—nation-builder, moderniser, secularist, socialist—is at the ninth position, between Homi Bhabha and Jayaprakash Narayan.

With Sardar Patel at the fourth and Indira Gandhi at the sixth positions, the list is a celebration of nationalists with iron in their soul—or in their fist.

Is it that, as India, which at any rate is hardly Gandhian or Nehruvian in its political expression, strives for global power status, someone out there, someone disillusioned with the conformism of a smug state, is missing the romance of the revolutionary leap—and the martyr’s war cry, Inquilab Zindabad?

Is it that the mystique of the deviant, the transcontinental adventurism of the rebellious, is more alluring than the intimate humanism of the fakir? Is it that a steely nationalist like Patel and a strong, overpowering helmswoman like Mrs G are missing in an India of wishy-washy pretenders to the throne?

Is it that India is nostalgic about the moral power of a JP at a time when the so-called socialists, products of his ‘total revolution’, are an embarrassment to his memory? The hierarchy of greatness on the list reveals the mind of India. It brings out the way in which a nation comes to terms with its past and how it argues with the present.

Its iconography essays a people’s aspiration, their nostalgia, their disillusion, their hope, their joy—and the gaping absences in the bestselling story of India Rising.

Greatness, in the end, is a creation of the beholder. It is not the suspension of judgement that ensures the durability of the greatest. As in the following pages, the march of the 60 greatest is led by the questioning mind of an India inspired.

Exploring the Legends of Bhagat Singh

Among the large number freedom-fighters who laid down their lives in the struggle, the popularity of Shaheed Bhagat Singh appeared to be of an exceptional order; almost incomparable. His name and his picture with the hat became popular in practically all parts of India after his execution. Nehru referred to his popularity as “sudden and amazing”. Writing about Bhagat Singh four years after his death, the Director of Intelligence Bureau, Sir Horace Williamson noted that, “His photograph was on sale in every city and township and for a time rivaled in popularity even that of Mr. Gandhi himself”. (Quoted in Noorani 2005:256)

That kind of sentiment was also expressed by the official Congress historian Pattabi Sitaramayya. In fact towards the last days of his life, Bhagat Singh himself came to have a sense of the enormous esteem he had gained. In his last written reponse (22nd March 1931) to a note from convicts of the Second Lahore Conspiracy Case, he is reported to have told them: “my name has become a symbol of Indian revolution. The ideals and the sacrifices of the revolutionary party had raised me to a height beyond which I will never be able to rise if I live”. (Text in Gupta 2007: 98) Was there an intimation of immortality ?

Bhagat singh was highly respected and loved among his comrades for his knowledge and qualities of a good human being. His popular image in the minds of most Indians, then as at present, however, was of handsome young men who defied and challenged the mighty British Empire, avenged the national insult of the assault of Lala Lajpat Rai and smilingly sacrificed his life alongside two other comrades. The reverence for martyr and martyrdom – shaheed and Shaheedi – balidaan – in fighting the ‘satanic forces’ had enjoyed a mystical glory in different religio-cultural traditions (particulary in the Sikh tradition). It was indeed a part of their conviction that, as conveyed in the opening words of the Manifesto of HSRA, “The food on which the tender plant of liberty thrives is the blood of the martyr.” They seemed to have been convinced that more than any other action it is their death which would serve the cause of arousing the masses for revolution. Why is giving of blood – martyrdom – Sir froshi ki tamanna – so significant in the imagination and the folklore of nationalism is an issue for a separate enquiry. How could anyone argue with one daring the enemy by staking one’s life?

Bhagat Singh, however, was not the first martyr of the national struggle for freedom, nor was he the last one. Actually their number was quite large; the courage and sacrifice of Vasudev Balwant Phadke, Chapekar Brothers, Kartar Singh Sarabha, ‘Bagha’ Jatin or Surya Sen was no less honourable. In fact in the given context of the religious mentality of the people and the prevalent ethos of revolutionary organizations, that was suffused with religious symbolism and mysticism, Bhagat Singh’s atheism and rejection of religious obscurantism (so convincingly articulated in his “Why I am an Atheist”), could have been a good enough reason for common man to turn away from his politics. What was then secret of that exceptional glory or iconography? This paper is an attempt to explore the conditions or factors that may help to explain the making of that legend.

Our exploration leads us to focus on three factors. One related to the historical conditions of a massive political upsurge among the industrial workers, the peasants and the youth in general in north India towards the end of 1920s. The radicalism inspired by the Russian revolution affected not only those who were dissatisfied with the course of Gandhian struggle but also a new generation of Congress men like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose. Second factor, it appears to me, was Bhagat Singh’s emphasis on connecting with the people, specially the youth, for political awakening and a critical engagement with the mainstream national movement. That included his skilful use of the courtroom as a platform for political education and propaganda. The third factor related to the long hunger-strike in jail for the rights of political prisoners, which facilitated an emotional bonding of a variety of leaders as also common people with him and his comrades.

1. In one of his letters to Sukhdev, Bhagat Singh made a reference to the challenge of the political conditions.

“Do you think had we not entered the (political) field, no revolutionary work would have taken place? If you think so you are making a big mistake. It is true that we have succeeded to a great extent in changing the (political) atmosphere, however, we are only the product of the necessity of the time”. (emphasis added)

The reference was evidently to the new stirrings in the midst of the despondency which followed Gandhi’s withdrawal of the Non-cooperation movement after the happenings at Chauri Chaura. The new kind of Gandhian movement launched in 1921 had aroused a level of public political upsurge and participation from one part of the country to another as never seen or visualized before. C R Das, was able to persuade a large section of the political terrorists and other radical young men to put their trust in Gandhi’s “Swaraj within One Year”. They were able to make a significant contribution to the massive upsurge. The withdrawal of that movement left many political leaders and young radicals feeling betrayed. Rise of communal divisions and hatred that led to communal riots appeared to add to the sense of despair and hopelessness. Even 6 years later Gandhi told Subhas Bose that he was unable to see any light. However, the massive country-wide public protest against the Simon Commission was one manifestation of the latent anger and resistance. The sense of outrage welled up when the panic-stricken police resorted to beating up the agitators including highly respected leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Govind Ballabh Pant in UP and Lajpat Rai at Lahore. The lathi blows on Lajpat Rai at Lahore were believed to have caused his death a few days later. There was a renewed and effective boycott of British goods. Radicalism was in the air.



Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev

A number of students and youth organizations sprang up at various places. The most prominent of these was the Naujawan Bharat Sabha first established at Lahore in 1926 which, in the words of Subhas Bose, was “a thorough going nationalist movement, in order to fight communalism and religious fanaticism in Punjab”. (Bose 1934: 225). The students and the other youth were the most enthusiastic in organising protest against the Simon Commission. Some of them seemed to have been inspired by the message of the Russian Revolution and of a new kind of social order.

The Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) of the nationalist revolutionaries of north India was converted in September 1928 into Hindustan Socialist Republican Association and Army (HSRA). The Kirti movement in Punjab and then the organization of All India Peasants and Workers movement became another anti-imperialist political platform. Riasti Praja Mandal was organized in July 1928 to carry on the struggle in the native states of Punjab.

The year 1928 also witnessed an extraordinary labour militancy and a series of big strikes. There was a big strike by workers of South Indian Railway. The Strike by the scavengers of Calcutta Municipal Corporation signified a new dimension of upsurge. The famous April to October 1928 long strike of the Bombay textile workers was described as “massive, total and peaceful”. In a secret letter to the Secretary of State for India the Governor of Bombay on 16 August 1928, admitted:

“It is really amazing how the men are holding out . . . . I have been considerably disturbed by the fact that . . . not a single man returned to work”. (Sarkar: 271)

The Calcutta Congress session in December 1928 witnessed the challenge of radical “left-wingers” who moved an amendment to the official resolution that called for nothing less than complete Independence as the objective of the Congress. Though the amendment was defeated, it was a pointer to the change in the mood of congress men. Bhagat Singh and a few of his comrades were there at that time. Calcutta at that time was also the venue for a number of other political conferences. Next year followed the first general strike in jute mills under Bengal Jute Worker’s Union, largely controlled by the communists. The All India Trade Union Congress was affiliated with the “League Against Imperialism”. In December 1927 when Jawaharlal Nehru returned from his visit to Europe, he had begun to call himself a socialist.

The arrest of 31 labour leaders on March 20, 1929, led to the famous Meerut Conspiracy Case. It was in reaction to these developments that the government resorted to extra-ordinary measures to bring the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Bill – the occasion which was considered appropriate by Bhagat Singh and his comrades to throw the two harmless bombs in the Central Assembly on 8th April 1929. That incident, which as Lord Irwin admitted, was meant not to hurt men, but to attack the institution, captured the newspaper headlines in India and abroad. He and BK Dutt were arrested soon after the incident. Within a week the leading members of HSRA and others suspected of collaborating with them were arrested and put behind the bars.

The Defence Committee for the Meerut Case prisoners included towering advocates such as Moti Lal Nehru, M C Chagla, Dewan Chaman Lal. Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to meet the Meerut prisoners in jail tended to give an impression of the coming together of the national forces. The declaration of complete independence at the Lahore session 1929 with the young “left-winger” Jawaharlal Nehru as its president and then the launching of the historic salt satyagraha in 1930, all these developments created an air of expectation.

As an early day political guru of Bhagat Singh, Jaichandra Vidyalankar observed: “The people came to know him for the first time when he threw a bomb in the Central Assembly”. The admiration for their thought and courage and raised the public curiosity to know more about the man, his party and his ideas and whetted the appetite for news and information on their sufferings, and struggles inside the jails.

The second factor was his exceptional focus on connecting with the people of India particularly the youth, and giving voice to their inner feelings. This included

1. Explaining their objectives and methods though conferences, posters, pamphlets and the press.
2. using the court and the trial as a platform to expose the politics and farce of British legal and justice systems and for political education, and
3. critical engagement with the Congress-led national struggle.

“We are sick of the stigma of violence attached to us. We are neither killers, nor terrorists.” That was how Sukhdev articulated the feelings he shared with Bhagat Singh. They were stung by the remarks from Dewan Chaman Lal or comments by the editor of The Tribune. “We want the country and the world to know about our faith in revolution”. For putting these ideas and sentiments across in an effective manner the party relied largely on the knowledge and skill of Bhagat Singh. That was, according to his comrades, the reason why the earlier decision of the HSRA was revised so as to depute Bhagat Singh with BK Dutt to throw the bombs in the Assembly and use the most suitable occasion to explain and publicise what they stood for.

His comrade Shiv Verma recalled that Bhagat Singh was the first among the revolutionaries of India to emphasise on the basic necessity of letting the people know what the revolutionaries wanted to do and why, to emphasise that the strength of their movement depended on the willing and passionate support of the people. As for the character of organization it was necessary to have what Verma described as sangthan ka janvaadikaran i.e. building its public and popular base. According to him Bhagat Singh pleaded as follows.

“The people of the country appreciate our courage and our actions but they are not able to directly connect with us . So far we have not even told them in clear words regarding the meaning of the freedom that we talk about – what would be the form and content of that freedom. What would be the shape of the government to be constituted after the exit of the British and who would constitute that government. To give our movement a popular support base we will have to take our objectives and programme to the people. Because without gaining such a support our old type of sporadic individual actions of killing one or the other British official or government approvers will not do. ( Shiva Verma,, Sansmritian pp19-20)

Organising students’ and youth conferences and lectures, writing and circulation of pamphlets, publishing articles, responding to important social and political issues, criticizing wrong notions and actions of leaders, clarifying confusing and complex issues and their own position became their regular pursuits. A “Tract society” was established for circulating small tracts. “He was a pamphleteer in the great tradition”, wrote A G Noorani.(2005;5) And his qualities of the mind and character left a deep impression on all his comrades. The meetings of the Naujawan Sabha were addressed by leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, Saifuddin Kitclewand Sohan Singh Josh. The members of Punjab Naujawan Sabha included popular leaders such as Kitchlew, Kedar Nath Sehgal and Dhanwantri. The British Intelligence service recorded that “its members were a combination of certain extreme members of the Congress, Akali irreconcilables, Kirti group of Sikh communists and the student revolutionaries”. (H. pol. 1928 File no. 1/28 )

(b) Court as a political platform. Within a week of the Assembly Bomb incident most of his comrades had been arrested. Now they continued to do what was possible from inside the jail and in the court. Written statements in the court, significantly that of 6 June, read out by Asif Ali in the Court, and letters to government officials became a major source for reports by the Press. What appeared in the newspapers was carefully perused and responded to. They did not wish to miss any opportunity to expose the hypocrisy of judicial system and of the judges in the eyes of the public. If the British government tried to make, “the conscious use of the court of law as a political weapon . . . in order to crush the rebels against the system”, Bhagat Singh and his comrades decided to use that weapon to expose the farce of justice where the court acted more like an office of the police.

(c) Engagement with the Congress. No less important to them was a continuous and critical engagement with Gandhi and the Congress. The long and active association of his father and his uncle Sardar Ajit Singh with the Congress seemed to have created in him an affinity with it. He, indeed stated clearly that

“All our activities were directed towards one aim i.e. identifying ourselves with the great movement, as its military wing. If anybody has misunderstood me let him amend his ideas”. (emphasis added)

Whether it was the occasion to express their revulsion at Lajpat Rai’s drift towards Hindu Mahasabha’s communal politics or of making a choice between the ideas of Jawaharlal Nehru on the one hand and those of Subhash Bose on the other, or of dicussing the futility of the Swarajist party’s constitutionalism, he and his comrades remained engaged. Yet they never wavered in their respect for those leaders.

The most important issue was, of course, Gandhi’s creed of non-violence and his opposition to the activities and methods of the revolutionaries. Bhagat Singh was clear that Gandhian struggle had awakened the masses and that his role in removing apathy and fear from the minds of the common people and peasants and workers was no small deal. “The Revolutionary must give to the angel of non-violence his due.” (Letter “To the Young Workers”: 52). “Mahatma Gandhi is great and we mean no disrespect to him if we express our emphatic disapproval of the methods advocated by him for our country’s emancipation” , said the Manifesto of HSRA.

After the Congress passed Gandhi’s resolution condemning the attack on Viceroy’s train, Gandhi followed it up by an article “Cult of the Bomb”. Bhagwati Charan and Bhagat Singh circulated a rejoinder entiled “The philosophy of the Bomb” in which the issue was seriously discussed. But more important for our purpose here is their perception of where they stood in relation to the Congress.

“There might be those who have no regard for the Congress and hope nothing from it. If Gandhi thinks that the revolutionaries belong to that category, he wrongs them grievously. They fully realize the part played by the Congress in awakening among the ignorant masses a keen desire for freedom. They expect great things of it in future.” (emphasis added)

They however, had serious problem with the manner in which the Congress directed the popular movements such as Ahmedabad workers’ strike of 1920, or the compromising spirit of the final resolution of issues involved in Bardoli satyagraha of 1921-22. The snag, in their judgement, as that the Congress was “controlled mostly by men with stakes in the country, who prize their stakes with bourgeois tenacity, and it is bound to stagnate. It must be saved from its friends” ( letter "To the young Wokers" 2nd February 1931 p. 51, emphasis added) Accordingly, the message sent jointly by him and B K Dutt to Punjab Student’s Conference at Lahore in December 1929 was : “Today, we cannot ask the youth to take to pistols and bombs”. Since the Congress was going to soon raise the flag for Complete Independence and call upon the youth to join in the fierce struggle, “The youth will have to bear a great burden in this difficult time in the history of the nation”.

Bhagat Singh and his comrades were not inclined to turn their backs on Congress movement. They considered themselves as the radical lobby associated with the Congress struggle determined to “save” that movement from the vested economic and communal interests. On the other hand, the fact that Gandhi’s resolution condemning the violent action targeting the Viceroy was carried only by a margin of 81 votes in a house of 1713 pointed to the emerging appreciation for their programme within the congress. More so, as Sarla Devi Chaudhrani, whose close emotional bond with Gandhi has been a subject of interest following Rajmohan Gandhi’s recent book Mohandas, disclosed that many voted in favour of the resolution ‘out of personal loyalty to Gandhi’. The Congress seemed to recognize Bhagat Singh and his party as hardly less deserving of support and honour than Gandhi. In his letter to lord Irwin, Gandhi underlined the fact that the party of violence was, in their opposition to state violence, gaining ground among the masses.

The third factor that turned the public attention towards him and forged an emotional bond with Bhagat Singh was the hunger-strike he and Dutt started in the jail for the rights of political prisoners. That has been rightly described as a ‘Gandhian method”. One of the most revolting manifestations of the British rule and of India’s bondage was related to treatment of political prisoners in the jails. That the European prisoners be given additional privileges was unacceptable. That had to be fought inside the jails with a method available and suitable. Kuldip Nayar thought that Bhagat Singh “wanted to prove to Gandhi that the revolutionaries knew how to go through the rigours of fasting and the torture of approaching death” (2004: 80)

We learn from BK Dutt that Bhagat Singh conveyed to him during the train journey from Delhi to the Jail that the two of them would begin a hunger-strike for claiming the rights of political prisoners as soon as they reached the jails. Accordingly, they started the hunger-strike on 15th June 1929. They had reportedly enjoyed better facilities in Delhi jail. What was it which led to his determination to start the hunger strike straightaway? On reaching Mianwali Jail Bhagat Singh told his co-prisoners that the hunger-strike by Kakori case prisoners had not led to any improvement in their conditions despite the reforms promised by the British authorities; that the Babbar Akalis were being treated as criminals. However, to the best of my knowledge no lead is available in the literature about why he considered the starting of the hunger strike for that purpose as topmost item on his agenda. But we are surely able to see its impact.

His letter to I G of Prisons on 17th June stated that he lost 6 pounds already. On 10th of July when proceedings of Saunders’ murder case opened, those present were shocked to see a pale and weak Bhagat Singh being brought to the court lying on a on a stretcher. “our eyes became wet” recollected Shiv Verma. (Verma, op.cit. 47). On 13 July all their other comrades in jails went on hunger-strike. Soon there were reports of prisoners in more than half a dozen jails –- Meerut, Agra, Bareilley, Mianwali, Rawalpindi etc. and joined by prisoners of Kakori case, Dakshineshwar Bomb Case, the Communist leaders of Meerut Conspiracy Case, the Babbar Akalis and many others. Many of these were subjected to torture and additional punishments for joining that strike. Newspapers reported about brutal methods to feed them forcibly, leading in some cases to serious complications. The Tribune reports such as “Bhagat Singh bore marks of violence on his body”, or that “The court in fact had all the appearance of a police office”. These were followed by more and more in a large number of newspapers in north India:

“The condition of Das was still serious and he had developed pneumonia, temperature being 103 degrees”,

Jatin’s condition distinctly worse. Temprature – 95 degrees F, pulse 52-pm. Very weak and exhausted. Extremities are cold. Complained of loss of sensation in the legs. Condition grave.

“Shiv verma and Jatin are considered unfit for artificial feeding. Placed on dangerously ill list”,

“I wish to die” says Jatin,as Gopi Chand Bhargava talked to him in Jail . “Why”?
“For the sake of my country, to uplift the status of political convicts”.

“The condition of Shiv Verma has suddenly taken a critical turn yesterday as a consequence of forced feeding. He is reported to have vomited blood”.

“Bijoy, Ajoy and Kishori Lal . . . also vomited blood.

“500 convicts and under trial prisoners in the Borstal Jail did not have the evening meal yesterday.

“Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthy told the press after his interview with Das that “Das was lying in a precarious condition”.

The proceedings of the court had to be successively adjourned from 26 July to 24 September 1929 and again in February 1930, owing to some of the accused being unfit to attend the court.

Let alone the other newspapers, even the Civil and Military Gazette wrote a leading article on the hunger-strike reporting particulary on the condition of Jatin Das. (Das 1979: passim)

As the details of the forced feeding, the stories of resistance and the consequent further worsening of their physical conditions were reported by newspapers, the public attention was getting more and more focused on their suffering and their courage. Apprehensions, sympathy, anger was in the air.

Jatin Das’s brother Kiron Das wrote that from 14th July, processions, public meetings and house to house visits by leaders of the Congress and Naujawan Bharat Sabha, including a large number of ladies, were organized to sypmathise with the hunger-strikers. A sum of Rs. 10000 was collected for the defence of the hunger strikers. (Das 1979: 22) Resolutions were passed at the provincial and local meetings of the Congress and student organizations.



Doctors like Mohd. Ansari and B C Roy intervened to warn the Government and jail doctors, from a medical point of view, of the dangers of forced feeding. Moti Lal Nehru referred to the lessons of forced feeding of the Irish nationalists in British jails when the practice had to be abandoned after Thomas Agase died of heart failure caused by forced feeding by doctors. Apprehensions were expressed about similar kind of anger and strong feelings after the death of Bhagat Singh and Dutt, as it happened in Ireland following the Terrence MacSwiney.

The under trial prisoners gave warnings in the court. Ajoy Ghose addressed the Court. “Das is on deathbed, if anything happens the court will be responsible for this. The treatment that we are receiving is simply callous and inhuman”. (Das:26)

The Viceroy was anxious. In his telegram of 12 August 1929 to the Secretary of State for India

“Reports from the Punjab Government say that public sympathy with the strikers is increasing, and was manifest even in quarters where it was not expected that it would arise. This sympathy is not confined to the Punjab, and there are definite signs that the Lahore situation is arousing great public interest all over India. . . .The death of any one of the accused would consequently be followed by a profound disturbance of public opinion . . . “ (cited Das:33)

The Communist Party of Great Britain wrote about the so-called trial, “unparalleled in the history of political persecution, characterized by the most inhuman and brutal treatment”.

A large of highly respected national political leaders and legal luminaries of the time, such as Motilal Nehru, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and M R Jayakar joined in questioning the government in the Central Assembly, about their designs, expressing the public’s anguish and pleading for a civilized response to the legitimate demands of the political prisoners. In one of his historic speeches, Mr. Jinnah said:

‘”Sir, You know perfectly well that these men are determined to die. It is not a joke. I ask the Hon’ble Law Member to realize that it is not everybody who can go on starving himself to death. Try it for a little while and you will see. . . . The man who goes on hunger–strike has a soul. . . It is the system, this damnable system of Government, which is resented by the people. “(Text in Noorani : Appendix III)

“Soul Force”. That was the word used in their seriously written rejoinder to Gandhi, The Philosophy of the Bomb. It meant vindication of truth, not by hurting the opponent, but through infliction of suffering on oneself.

Besides meetings and demonstrations, there was an intense Press agitation. Subhas Bose recollected a few years later that ‘There was intense agitation throughout the country over the hunger-strike and there was a public demand that the govt. should remedy their just grievances “(1934: 226). Bose was one of many who were arrested In connection with a demonstration of this kind in Calcutta in September 1929 and sent up for trial for sedition ( 226-27)

On 13 September, Jatindranath Das died. Hartals followed all over India. As his dead body was being taken to Calcutta, the train was stopped at the major railway stations where a large number of leaders and other people, particularly Congress men, were waiting to offer their tributes. Subhas Bose was in-charge of all arrangements for the last rites. Moti Lal Nehru tabled a motion for the adjournment of the Central Assembly to censure the government on their condemnable attitude towards the hunger-strikers,

“It is said, Sir, that Nero fiddled while Rome was burning. Our benign Government has gone one better than Nero. It is fiddling on the deathbeds of these youngmen, misguided they may be, but patriots they are, all the same”

The Government of India issued the New Jail Rules on February 19, 1930. Henceforth no special privileges were to be given to prisoners on grounds of race. Many demands were conceded, though it was still far short of the desired reforms.

The murder was forgotten. Bhagat Singh and his comrades were brave patriots who were undergoing intense physical and mental suffering in fighting the evil empire. Bhagat Singh understood the immense significance of their hunger-strike. “Our suffering has brought positive results. A revolution is going on through out our country. Our objective has been achieved”, he wrote in his letter to Sukhdev.



The Right Moment

When the date of the execution of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru drew nearer the public tempo of apprehension and expectation started rising. As the negotiations between Gandhi and Lord Irwin progressed, so did the efforts for Gandhi’s intervention for saving their lives. By the time he came to be hanged with his two comrades, the Congress had owned him emotionally as a beloved national hero. Perhaps a majority of them felt somewhat guilty that Gandhi could not save them. He died at the pinnacle of his glory. No other revolutionary had done as much to forge his emotional bonds with the masses. No other was executed in the full glare of such attention and a wrench in the heart of the nation.

His execution was followed by What Noorani termed as “The Moral Abyss”. “In the aftermath there was depression all around”. Questions continued to be raised whether Gandhi could have saved him. Some would raise a question later whether Bhagat Singh ever give a serious thought to what would be the fate of their struggle after his death. The Indian communists were, by then, not only opposed to revolutionaries indulging in individual terrorism, but were also “isolated from the mainstream freedom struggle” (Chakravartty 2007:12). But Bhagat Singh achieved exceptional glory. He was perhaps right in his belief: that that was the right time for him to die and that, as he told his other comrades the evening before, that was “a height beyond which I will never be able to rise if I live”.

The Last Petition

To:
The Punjab Governor

Sir,

With due respect we beg to bring to your kind notice the following:

That we were sentenced to death on 7th October 1930 by a British Court, L.C.C Tribunal, constituted under the Sp. Lahore Conspiracy Case Ordinance, promulgated by the H.E. The Viceroy, the Head of the British Government of India, and that the main charge against us was that of having waged war against H.M. King George, the King of England.

The above-mentioned finding of the Court pre-supposed two things:

Firstly, that there exists a state of war between the British Nation and the Indian Nation and, secondly, that we had actually participated in that war and were therefore war prisoners.

The second pre-supposition seems to be a little bit flattering, but nevertheless it is too tempting to resist the desire of acquiescing in it.

As regards the first, we are constrained to go into some detail. Apparently there seems to be no such war as the phrase indicates. Nevertheless, please allow us to accept the validity of the pre-supposition taking it at its face value. But in order to be correctly understood we must explain it further. Let us declare that the state of war does exist and shall exist so long as the Indian toiling masses and the natural resources are being exploited by a handful of parasites. They may be purely British Capitalist or mixed British and Indian or even purely Indian. They may be carrying on their insidious exploitation through mixed or even on purely Indian bureaucratic apparatus. All these things make no difference. No matter, if your Government tries and succeeds in winning over the leaders of the upper strata of the Indian Society through petty concessions and compromises and thereby cause a temporary demoralization in the main body of the forces. No matter, if once again the vanguard of the Indian movement, the Revolutionary Party, finds itself deserted in the thick of the war. No matter if the leaders to whom personally we are much indebted for the sympathy and feelings they expressed for us, but nevertheless we cannot overlook the fact that they did become so callous as to ignore and not to make a mention in the peace negotiation of even the homeless, friendless and penniless of female workers who are alleged to be belonging to the vanguard and whom the leaders consider to be enemies of their utopian non-violent cult which has already become a thing of the past; the heroines who had ungrudgingly sacrificed or offered for sacrifice their husbands, brothers, and all that were nearest and dearest to them, including themselves, whom your government has declared to be outlaws. No matter, it your agents stoop so low as to fabricate baseless calumnies against their spotless characters to damage their and their party's reputation. The war shall continue.

It may assume different shapes at different times. It may become now open, now hidden, now purely agitational, now fierce life and death struggle. The choice of the course, whether bloody or comparatively peaceful, which it should adopt rests with you. Choose whichever you like. But that war shall be incessantly waged without taking into consideration the petty (illegible) and the meaningless ethical ideologies. It shall be waged ever with new vigour, greater audacity and unflinching determination till the Socialist Republic is established and the present social order is completely replaced by a new social order, based on social prosperity and thus every sort of exploitation is put an end to and the humanity is ushered into the era of genuine and permanent peace. In the very near future the final battle shall be fought and final settlement arrived at.

The days of capitalist and imperialist exploitation are numbered. The war neither began with us nor is it going to end with our lives. It is the inevitable consequence of the historic events and the existing environments. Our humble sacrifices shall be only a link in the chain that has very accurately been beautified by the unparalleled sacrifice of Mr. Das and most tragic but noblest sacrifice of Comrade Bhagawati Charan and the glorious death of our dear warrior Azad.

As to the question of our fates, please allow us to say that when you have decided to put us to death, you will certainly do it. You have got the power in your hands and the power is the greatest justification in this world. We know that the maxim "Might is right" serves as your guiding motto. The whole of our trial was just a proof of that. We wanted to point out that according to the verdict of your court we had waged war and were therefore war prisoners. And we claim to be treated as such, i.e., we claim to be shot dead instead of to be hanged. It rests with you to prove that you really meant what your court has said.

We request and hope that you will very kindly order the military department to send its detachment to perform our execution.

Yours,
BHAGAT SINGH

Why did you die, Bhagat ?

Why, Bhagat Singh, did you die?
At a time when people were shy
To come out of their homes to fight
Against the British’s indomitable might

You had dreamt of freedom
For the future generations
Thus you sacrificed your life
For this mission of yours

Yes, comrade, your dream’s fulfilled
Your death paid off, India was freed
British are no more ruling over us
How can we thank you, our words are at loss

You got yourself hanged; for the sake of the motherland
With a dream in your eyes; and a smile on your lips
Alas! Today’s country is not India of your dreams;
Your great sacrifice has gone in vain, it seems.


2nd
Why, Bhagat Sing, didn’t you marry?
Why did you flee away from home feeling sorry
For your family which was arranging your marriage
You boldly defied them and took revolutionary’s pledge

You were only seventeen then
Why didn’t you enjoy life like other men
Look upon us, from school days, flirting with girls
All of my friends think your death was a farce
The girls of my age say you were sexy and young
Boys of the group says you could have composed film songs

For whom did you die, when you had no children
If you think, for this you are revered, you are sadly mistaken
For, the people of your land don’t recall your sacrifice
At the mention of your name, they just say the fighter was nice

After all you died, so that we could enjoy
Then won’t you forgive us for this little joy
Your mission’s completed, your people are happy now
Like every mortal, you are dead, what have we got to do with you now?


3rd
Lenin was your god, Michael Jackson is ours
So what if Lalaji could be your guide, Tendulkar is ours
If Aruna Asaf was the women’s voice then, its Madhuri’s turn now
You were dying for the country then, none’s gonna shed a blood for India now.

I shudder to think that you were born in India
A country that gave birth to people like Indira
Shysters like Narasimha Rao have ruled over us
Chandraswami, Thackerey and Imams are our fortune tellers

Why Bhagat ?

Why Bhagat Singh, did you die for such a wretched nation?
Why did you go to the gallows for the sake of this MTV generation?
If ‘Chand’ and ‘Pratap’ were your journals, ‘Playboy’ is ours
We’re busy with our own lives, no time to think of India for hours

You were a Communist and defied even Gandhiji for that
Our communists support the mainstream and united front for power and what?
There is competition among all the opportunists
There is no sense of idealism left in politics

Here Safdar Hashmi is killed, Sahir Ludhianvi dies unwept
Here Communists compromise with coalitions, still claim to be in the Left
Be grateful that your name has not been forgotten as yet!
Can you forgive these idiots who have not realized the value of your sacrifice as yet?


4th
Why Bhagat Singh, did you die?
I am baffled, tell me thy
Weren’t you a big fool then
Being unable to anticipate the kind of men
(that were to rule over your soil)

(and if you come alive to pay a visit)
“Why Bhagat Singh did you die”
Modern Indians will ask with a pouting “Hi!”
“Why didn’t you flirt with buxom belles then
Oh, come-on, lets go to ‘Basic Instinct’ then”
They will say thus, your feelings shall be hurt
Your hopes will be shattered, you shall cry a lot
So, never should you come back here
This country does not deserve you; comrade do ye hear!

Why Bhagat Singh, did you die?
Tell me comrade, why did you die….

Happy B'day Bhagat

Remembering shaheed Bhagat Singh on his 99th birth anniversary ...

Revolution does not necessarily involve sanguinary strife, nor is there any place in it for individual vendetta. It is not the cult of the bomb and the pistol. By Revolution we mean that the present order of things, which is based on manifest injustice, must change. Producers or labourers, in spite of being the most necessary element of society, are robbed by their exploiters of their labour and deprived of their elementary rights. The peasant who grows corn for all, starves with his family; the weaver who supplies the world market with textile fabrics, has not enough to cover his own and his children's bodies; masons, smiths and carpenters who raise magnificent palaces, live like pariahs in the slums. The capitalists and exploiters, the parasites of society, squander millions on their whims. These terrible inequalities and forced disparity of chances are bound to lead to chaos. This state of affairs cannot last long, and it is obvious, that the present order of society in merry-making is on the brink of a volcano.

The whole edifice of this civilisation, if not saved in time, shall crumble. A radical change, therefore, is necessary and it is the duty of those who realise it to reorganise society on the socialistic basis. Unless this thing is done and the exploitation of man by man and of nations by nations is brought to an end, suffering and carnage with which humanity is threatened today, cannot be prevented. All talk of ending war and ushering in an era of universal peace is undisguised hypocrisy.
By Revolution, we mean the ultimate establishment of an order of society which may not be threatened by such break-down, and in which the sovereignty of the proletariat should be recognised and a world federation should redeem humanity from the bondage of capitalism and misery of imperial wars.

- From the statement of Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt in Assembly Bomb Case, read out by Asaf Ali in the sessions court, Delhi on June 6, 1929.

when Bhagat Singh went to the gallows in a cheerful, singing mood, he was hardly 23 years and a half. Yet, he came to symbolise the best of aspirations of a nation that was struggling for independence and for a worthy life for all its members. In fact, no other national revolutionary ("terrorist" in British imperialist parlance) of the earlier generations identified himself so closely with the Indian masses on the move, as did Bhagat Singh, and in the process he himself became the symbol of revolution, insofar as the Indians are concerned. Just to take one example, while our national liberation movement produced numerous slogans, ranging from "Do or Die" to "Delhi Chalo," none of these proved as enduring as the slogan of "Inqilab Zindabad" (Long Live Revolution) that was upheld by Bhagat Singh and his comrades-in-arms. Even today, almost every political meeting through the length and breadth of the country starts and concludes with this slogan.

EARLIER IMPRESSIONS
BHAGAT Singh was born in village Khatkar Kalan, tehsil Banga, district Jalandhar, on September 27, 1907, though his father, Sardar Kishan Singh, had shifted to Lyallpur (now Faisalabad in Pakistan) some time before his birth. A canal was recently dug out through this area and numerous peasants came forward to colonise it. Only two years before Bhagat Singh's birth, these newly irrigated areas had seen a powerful peasant agitation against the hike in land revenue and other charges, effected by the British government. This agitation (which produced the immortal song "Pagadi Sambhal Jatta") was led by Lala Lajpat Rai and Sardar Ajit Singh who was Bhagat Singh's own uncle. These leaders were soon externed by the British to Burma. But while Lala Lajpat Rai, after his release from prison, made a political tour of the USA and some other countries and then returned to India, nothing much is known about what happened to Sardar Ajit Singh, except that his voice was last heard from Radio Rome in 1941. A young Bhagat Singh always looked to his uncle's example for inspiration.
A large part of Bhagat Singh's student life was spent in Lahore, the capital city of Punjab province, which was then developing into a hotbed of radical movements. It was in this city that the British launched the first Lahore Conspiracy Case in 1915, sentencing more than two dozen youth to death and hundreds of others to life imprisonment and other heavy jail sentences. Though the government was able to crush the Ghadar Party revolutionaries through such brutal repression, their saga left an indelible impression on the minds of later generations on Indians. Those who went to the gallows in this case included Kartar Singh Sarabha, a youth of merely 16 years, whose image got itched in Bhagat Singh's psyche. So much so that when Bhagat Singh, Bhagawati Charan Vohra, Sukhdev and others formed the Naujawan Bharat Sabha (Young India Society) in 1926, as an open forum for revolutionaries, its inaugural session in Bradley Hall of Lahore started with the unveiling of Sarabha's portrait. That too in open defiance of the British authority that always fulminated over any mention of Sarabha's name.
The brutal massacre of innocent civilians in the Jallianwala Bagh in the adjacent city of Amritsar, on April 13, 1919, and following it the repression under the Martial Law foisted all over Punjab, also agitated the youth of Bhagat Singh's generation.

AFTERMATH OF NON-COOPERATION
IT was in this evolving situation that Gandhi electrified the whole atmosphere with his promise of "Swaraj in one year." Ever since the Nagpur session of Indian National Congress passed the non-cooperation resolution in August 1920, the people began preparations in earnest for a showdown with imperialism. This turned, eventually, into an occasion when the common, downtrodden masses of this country registered their entry into the independence struggle, and on a much bigger and wider scale than in 1857. While Gandhi never clearly defined what he meant by Swaraj, the masses were equally clearly anticipating their emancipation from the British Raj and its Indian stooges, and were itching to make any sacrifice called for by this struggle. Gandhi's act of making a common cause with the Khilafat Committee gave a boost to communal unity in the country, with the hope that the British won't be able to play upon sectarian divisions in order to perpetuate themselves in power. This explains why the masses of the country over-fulfilled Gandhi's call for a Tilak Swaraj Fund of Rs one crore and for one lakh volunteers.
Enthusiasm was, obviously, not lacking.
It was in such a situation that the national revolutionaries also put a hold on their activities and plunged into the non-cooperation movement in order to ensure its success to the extent possible. It does go to the credit of our revolutionaries that they never made a fetish of violence. Their aim was to secure the country's independence, and to them the question of means did not matter. That was why they decided to give the new experiment a fair trial, and veterans of revolutionary activities like Sachindra Nath Sanyal wholeheartedly took part in non-cooperation.
It was therefore nothing less than a bombshell for our revolutionaries when Gandhi decided to call off the movement in February 1922, that too when it was on a peak, on the flimsy ground of violence in Chauri Chaura. The whole nation was dumbfounded and Gandhi had to face criticism from within the Congress as well.
The withdrawal cost the nation dearly. Some historians do believe that the act forced the unspent energy of the masses into fratricidal channels; a spurt in the number of communal riots in the post-withdrawal phase is cited as evidence. In any case, the communal unity forged during the Khilafat-non-cooperation days did become a casualty and it was the period when the RSS was born.
As for revolutionaries who were seriously disillusioned after the withdrawal of the movement, they began to regroup all over north India. Sachin Sanyal too collected a group of dedicated youth and formed the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) some time in December 1923. Apart from them, there was a large number of other youth who joined the revolutionary movement shortly afterward. Bhagat Singh and his friends in Lahore as well as Shiv Verma and others in UP belonged to this very category. These were the youth who had boycotted their educational institutions at Gandhi's call and saw no point in going back even after the movement was withdrawn. Most of them joined the parallel institutions thrown up by the non-cooperation movement, like the National College in Lahore, or existing non-governmental institutions like the DAV College in Kanpur.

KAKORI & AFTERWARD
THIS regrouping soon led, in August 1925, to a train hold-up at Kakori, a small station near Lucknow, where the HRA revolutionaries looted government money as a direct challenge to the British authority. Most of them were, however, rounded up soon. But what then followed in the name of Kakori Conspiracy Case was nothing less than a travesty of justice. This mockery of justice was so obvious that even Nehru, who had given up his practice, had to don the lawyer's robe again. But the British were adamant at meting out as severe punishment to the accused as possible. During the train hold-up, one European was accidentally killed in the shootout as he had refused to heed the revolutionaries' warning that passengers must remain inside their coaches and no harm would come to them. But the British revenge took four lives for one. Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqullah, Rajendra Lahiri and Roshan Singh were hanged in November 1927, and several others were given jail sentences from three years to life terms. The youngest of these revolutionaries, Chandrashekhar Azad, was declared an absconder and the police failed to grab him till his end. He became the nucleus of another regrouping of revolutionaries.
The secret meeting that took place in the Ferozeshah Kotla grounds in Delhi on September 8 and 9, 1928, was a milestone in the history of national revolutionary movement in India because of its momentous decisions. First, the movement now accepted socialism as its goal and, as its reflection, the HRA was now rechristened as Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA). Secondly, contrary to the earlier generation of revolutionaries, the HSRA was to have a collective leadership. The meeting elected a Central Committee with UP, CP, Punjab, Rajasthan and Bihar represented by one member each, while Bhagat Singh and V K Sinha were given the charge of ideological work. Though Chandrashekhar Azad could not attend the meeting, he had beforehand given his approval to all such changes. He was elected commander-in-chief.
The meeting also realised the futility of individual violence and decided to abstain, as far as possible, from killing British officials or approvers. In its stead, the decision now was to take only such "actions" as may help in taking the message of revolution to the masses. The result was the idea of having two wings of the HSRA --- a political wing and a military wing --- of which the latter would be strictly subordinated to the former. It is another thing that repression and the compulsions of an underground life, a life always on the run, soon obliterated this distinction.
One will do well to remember here that the main aspiration for these changes came from Bhagat Singh.
The HSRA also tried to contact the Bengal revolutionaries and Shiv Verma was sent to Calcutta to talk to them, but to no avail. Steeped in individualistic leadership, the dadas of Bengal groups refused to accept the idea of collective functioning. Each of them wanted his personal control over the new organisation.

SIGNIFICANT "ACTIONS"
IT was not too long before the HSRA plunged into action. In 1928 the London government constituted a commission under Sir John Simon to review the Montague Chelmsford reforms of 1919 and suggest constitutional changes for India. But, as it was a wholly British commission, the whole of India including the Congress and the Muslim League decided to boycott it. As a result, the cries of "Simon, go back" greeted the commission where it went.
When the Simon commission reached Lahore on October 30, 1928, the protest demonstration was led by Lala Lajpat Rai, and the whole HSRA contingent took part in its preparations as well as the actual demonstration. But the police resorted to brutal lathicharge here. Lalaji got seriously injured, got confined to bed and died on November 17. The whole nation cried in agony. Despite their differences with Lalaji, however, revolutionaries took it as an affront to the nation, and avenged Lalaji's death on December 17 by assassinating J P Saunders, the police officer responsible for the lathicharge. In Nehru's words, Bhagat Singh thus retrieved the nation's prestige and the whole nation heaved a sigh of relief.
As the next significant "action" by the HSRA, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw bombs in the Central Assembly on April 8, 1929, in protest against the Trade Disputes Bill and Public Safety Bill. The British wanted to have these laws at all cost but wanted to make the world believe that these draconian laws were passed by the Indian people's own elected representatives. The Viceroy had already threatened that he would issue these bills as ordinances if the Central Assembly failed to enact them. The HSRA was of the opinion that a government wanting to take recourse to draconian measures, must not be allowed to enact a fa‡ade of democracy. This is what the leaflets thrown in the assembly after the bombs made absolutely clear. Moreover, Bhagat Singh and Dutt's statement in the sessions court on June 6, 1929 made it plain that the bombs thrown in the assembly were not meant to hurt anyone but "to make the deaf here." This historic statement made it clear that the HSRA was visualising a dictatorship of the proletariat and wanted to rouse the masses to attain this goal.
A significant point about this statement was that the HSRA wanted to register protest against "the wholesale arrest of leaders of the labour movement." This was obviously a reference to the arrest of trade union and communist leaders from various parts of the country in the run-up to the infamous Meerut Conspiracy Case.
As a part of the tactic decided by the HSRA, Bhagat Singh and Dutt did not run away after throwing the bombs. Instead, they waited for the police to arrest them, so as to use the forum of courts for revolutionary propaganda. The reason was simple. While papers were facing strict censorship in those days, they could report court proceedings in detail, and the HSRA tried to use this channel to reach its message to the masses. It is another thing that the government later realised this tactic and the special tribunal constituted for the second Lahore Conspiracy Case closed this avenue as well.
The days of the second Lahore Conspiracy Case witnessed momentous hunger strikes in jail by Bhagat Singh and his comrades --- as a continuation of anti-imperialist struggle in the changed circumstances. Led by Bhagat Singh, these hunger strikes centred on the need of jail reforms, and one must note that political prisoners today owe a debt to those revolutionaries for many facilities they get.
It was in one of these momentous hunger strikes that Jatin Das courted martyrdom on September 13, 1929 after 63 days of hunger strike. In subsequent hunger strikes, Mahavir Singh (HSRA) and two others from Bengal courted martyrdom in the Andaman Cellular Jail and Manindra Banerjee (HRA) in Bareilly Jail.

SYMBOL OF REVOLUTION
THE second Lahore Conspiracy Case ended with death sentences for Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, and heavy jail sentences for others. But though these death sentences were to be carried out on March 24 morning, the government was afraid of the mass reaction and hanged the three revolutionaries on March 23 evening, though there was no convention of hanging anyone in the evening. On the day, however, a large crowd had already gathered in front of the Central Jail in Lahore and the panic-stricken authorities therefore slyly took the three dead bodies out from the back gate and tried to cremate them at Hussainiwala on the bank of the Sutlej river. When the crowd finally reached there, the authorities ran away, leaving the half-burnt bodies behind.
But Bhagat Singh dead proved far more dangerous for the British than Bhagat Singh alive. The first spin-off of his execution was that Gandhi's prestige suffered a setback, though temporarily. When the whole nation was demanding that commutation of Bhagat Singh's death sentence should be made a condition for the Gandhi-Irwin talks, the Mahatma simply refused to accept this demand because of his innate hatred for the revolutionaries. The result was that when Gandhi was on his way to Karachi for the Congress session (March 29-31), he was greeted with black flags at all the major railway stations from Lahore to Karachi --- by the same masses who did not tire of calling him Mahatmaji.
The execution also evoked a series of violent protests in several parts of the country, and between 1931 and 1939 obscure youth shot at British officials at more than a dozen places in the name of avenging Bhagat Singh's execution. In one such incident at Betia (Bihar), Vaikuntha Shukla and Chandrama Singh --- in no way related to Bhagat Singh ðð--- shot dead Phanindra Nath Ghosh who was the main approver in the second Lahore Conspiracy Case and did the maximum damage because he was a member of the HSRA Central Committee and was in the know of all its plans. Yet another act of such revenge took place at London in 1939.
The meaning is obvious. Bhagat Singh had by now become a symbol of revolution.
But what is still more significant is that, despite the lacunae in his ideas here and there, Bhagat Singh did not visualise revolution as a cult of bombs and pistols. His statement in the sessions court, his letter from the jail (written on February 2, 1931, published posthumously under the title "To Young Political Workers" and generally taken as his last testament) and other documents make one thing amply clear: He visualised a revolutionary transformation of society that would usher into a dictatorship of the proletariat and end forever the exploitation of man by man and on nation by nation. Mere political independence, he said, would be meaningless without the emancipation of the toiling masses from the age-old shackles of hunger, poverty, disease and illiteracy. As he said, what difference would it make to a worker or peasant if Lord Reading was replaced by Sir Purshotamdas Thakordas or if Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru replaced Lord Irwin!
It was thus that Bhagat Singh gave voice to the aspirations of our countrymen for a better order of things where nobody would be living a subhuman existence. His anti-imperialism was thus intricately connected with his ideal of a socialist society where there would remain no distinctions of caste and creed. Bhagat Singh thus symbolised all that was best in our struggle for national liberation, and that is why he is still a mighty source of inspiration for the present generations --- as he was for the earlier ones.

Long live Bhagat Singh
Inqalab Zindabad

Lets change the lives

The inspiring rags-to-riches tale of Sarathbabu

When 27-year old Sarathbabu graduated from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, he created quite a stir by refusing a job that offered him a huge salary. He preferred to start his own enterprise -- Foodking Catering Service -- in Ahmedabad.
He was inspired by his mother who once sold idlis on the pavements of Chennai, to educate him and his siblings. It was a dream come true, when Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy lit the traditional lamp and inaugurated Sarathbabu's enterprise.
Sarathbabu was in Chennai, his hometown, a few days ago, to explore the possibility of starting a Foodking unit in the city and also to distribute the Ullas Trust Scholarships instituted by the IT firm Polaris to 2,000 poor students in corporation schools.

Childhood in a slum
I was born and brought up in a slum in Madipakkam in Chennai. I have two elder sisters and two younger brothers and my mother was the sole breadwinner of the family. It was really tough for her to bring up five kids on her meagre salary.
As she had studied till the tenth standard, she got a job under the mid-day meal scheme of the Tamil Nadu government in a school at a salary of Rs 30 a month. She made just one rupee a day for six people.
So, she sold idlis in the mornings. She would then work for the mid-day meal at the school during daytime. In the evenings, she taught at the adult education programme of the Indian government.
She, thus, did three different jobs to bring us up and educate us. Although she didn't say explicitly that we should study well, we knew she was struggling hard to send us to school. I was determined that her hard work should not go in vain.
I was a topper throughout my school days. In the mornings, we went out to sell idlis because people in slums did not come out of their homes to buy idlis. For kids living in a slum, idlis for breakfast is something very special.
My mother was not aware of institutions like the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, or the Indian Institutes of Technology. She only wanted to educate us so that we got a good job. I didn't know what I wanted to do at that time because in my friend-circle, nobody talked about higher education or preparing for the IIT-JEE.
When you constantly worry about the next square meal, you do not dream of becoming a doctor or an engineer. The only thing that was on my mind was to get a good job because my mother was struggling a lot.
I got very good marks in the 10th standard exam. It was the most critical moment of my life. Till the 10th, there was no special fee but for the 11th and the 12th, the fees were Rs 2,000-3,000.
I did book-binding work during the summer vacation and accumulated money for my school fees. When I got plenty of work, I employed 20 other children and all of us did the work together. That was my first real job as an entrepreneur. Once I saw the opportunity, I continued with the work.

Life at BITS, Pilani

A classmate of mine told me about BITS, Pilani. He was confident that I would get admission, as I was the topper. He also told me that on completion (of studies at Pilani), I will definitely get a job.
When I got the admission, I had mixed feelings. On one hand I was excited that for the first time I was going out of Chennai, but there was also a sense of uncertainty.
The fees alone were around Rs 28,000, and I had to get around Rs 42,000. It was huge, huge money for us. And there was no one to help us. Just my mother and sisters. One of my sisters -- they were all married by then -- pawned her jewellery and that's how I paid for the first semester.
My mother then found out about an Indian government scholarship scheme. She sent me the application forms, I applied for the scholarship, and I was successful. So, after the first semester, it was the scholarship that helped me through.
It also helped me to pay my debt (to the sister who had pawned her jewellery). I then borrowed money from my other sister and repaid her when the next scholarship came.
The scholarship, however, covered only the tuition fees. What about the hostel fees and food? Even small things like a washing soap or a toothbrush or a tube of toothpaste was a burden. So, I borrowed more at high rates of interest. The debt grew to a substantial amount by the time I reached the fourth year.

First year at BITS, Pilani

To put it mildly, I was absolutely shocked. Till then, I had moved only with students from poor families. At Pilani, all the students were from the upper class or upper middle class families. Their lifestyle was totally different from mine. The topics they discussed were alien to me. They would talk about the good times they had in school.
On the other hand, my school years were a big struggle. There was this communication problem also as I was not conversant in English then.
I just kept quiet and observed them. I concentrated only on my studies because back home so many people had sacrificed for me. And, it took a really long time -- till the end of the first year -- to make friends.

The second year

I became a little more confident and started opening up. I had worked really hard for the engineering exhibition during the first year. I did a lot of labour-intensive work like welding and cutting, though my subject was chemical engineering. My seniors appreciated me.
In my second year also, I worked really hard for the engineering exhibition. This time, my juniors appreciated me, and they became my close friends, so close that they would be at my beck and call.
In the third year, when there was an election for the post of the co-ordinator for the exhibition, my juniors wanted me to contest. Thanks to their efforts I was unanimously elected. That was my first experience of being in the limelight. It was also quite an experience to handle around 100 students.
Seeing my work, slowly my batch mates also came to the fold. All of them said I lead the team very well.
They also told me that I could be a good manager and asked me to do MBA. That was the first time I heard about something called MBA. I asked them about the best institution in India. They said, the Indian Institutes of Management. Then, I decided if I was going to study MBA, it should be at one of the IIMs, and nowhere else.

Inspiration to be an entrepreneur

It was while preparing for the Common Admission Test that I read in the papers that 30 per cent of India's population does not get two meals a day. I know how it feels to be hungry. What should be done to help them, I wondered.
I also read about Infosys and Narayana Murthy, Reliance and Ambani. Reliance employed 20,000-25,000 people at that time, and Infosys, around 15,000. When a single entrepreneur like Ambani employed 25,000 people, he was supporting the family, of four or five, of each employee. So he was taking care of 100,000 people indirectly. I felt I, too, should become an entrepreneur.
But, my mother was waiting for her engineer son to get a job, pay all the debts, build a pucca house and take care of her. And here I was dreaming about starting my own enterprise. I decided to go for a campus interview, and got a job with Polaris. I also sat for CAT but I failed to clear it in my first attempt.
I worked for 30 months at Polaris. By then, I could pay off all the debts but I hadn't built a proper house for my mother. But I decided to pursue my dream. When I took CAT for the third time, I cleared it and got calls from all the six IIMs. I got admission at IIM, Ahmedabad.

Life at IIM, Ahmedabad

My college helped me get a scholarship for the two years that I was at IIM. Unlike in BITS, I was more confident and life at IIM was fantastic. I took up a lot of responsibilities in the college. I was in the mess committee in the first year and in the second year; I was elected the mess secretary.

Becoming an entrepreneur

By the end of the second year, there were many lucrative job offers coming our way, but in my mind I was determined to start something on my own. But back home, I didn't have a house. It was a difficult decision to say 'no' to offers that gave you Rs 800,000 a year. But I was clear in my mind even while I knew the hard realities back home.
Yes, my mother had been an entrepreneur, and subconsciously, she must have inspired me. My inspirations were also (Dhirubhai) Ambani and Narayana Murthy. I knew I was not aiming at something unachievable. I got the courage from them to start my own enterprise.
Nobody at my institute discouraged me. In fact, at least 30-40 students at the IIM wanted to be entrepreneurs. And we used to discuss about ideas all the time. My last option was to take up a job.

Foodking Catering Services Pvt Ltd

My mother is my first inspiration to start a food business. Remember I started my life selling idlis in my slum. Then of course, my experience as the mess secretary at IIM-A was the second inspiration. I must have handled at least a thousand complaints and a thousand suggestions at that time. Every time I solved a problem, they thanked me.
I also felt there is a good opportunity in the food business. If you notice, a lot of people who work in the food business come from the weaker sections of the society.
My friends helped me with registering the company with a capital of Rs 100,000. Because of the IIM brand and also because of the media attention, I could take a loan from the bank without any problem.
I set up an office and employed three persons. The first order was from a software company in Ahmedabad. They wanted us to supply tea, coffee and snacks. We transported the items in an auto.
When I got the order from IIM, Ahmedabad, I took a loan of Rs 11 lakhs (Rs 1.1 million) and started a kitchen. So, my initial capital was Rs 11.75 lakhs (Rs 1.17 million).
Three months have passed, and now we have forty employees and four clients -- IIM Ahmedabad, Darpana Academy, Gujarat Energy Research Management Institute and System Plus.
In the first month of our operation, we earned around Rs 35,000. Now, the turnover is around Rs 250,000. The Chennai operations will start in another three months' time.

Ambition

I want to employ as many people as I can, and improve their quality of life. In the first year, I want to employ around 200-500 people. In the next five years, I hope to increase it by 15,000. I am sure it is possible.
I want to cover all the major cities in India, and later, I want to go around the world too.
I have seen people from all walks of life -- from the slums to the elite in the country. That is why luxuries like a car or a bungalow do not matter to me. Even money doesn't matter to me. I feel bad if I have to have food in a five star hotel. I feel guilty.
Personally, I have no ambition but I want to give a house and a car to my mother.

Appreciation

I did not expect this kind of exposure by the media for my venture or appreciation from people like my director at the IIM or Narayana Murthy. I was just doing what I wanted to do. But the exposure really helped me get orders, finance, everything.
The best compliments I received were from Narayana Murthy and my director at IIM, Ahmedabad. When I told him (IIM-A director) about my decision to start a company, he hugged me and wished me luck. They have seen life, they have seen thousands and thousands of students and if they say it is a good decision, I am sure it is a good decision.

Reservation

Reservation should be a mix of all criteria. If you take a caste that comes under reservation, 80 per cent of the people will be poor and 20 per cent rich, the creamy layer. For the general category, it will be the other way around.
I feel equal weightage should be given for the economic background. A study has to be done on what is the purpose of reservation and what it has done to the needy. It should be more effective and efficient. In my case, I would not have demanded for reservation. I accepted it because the society felt I belonged to the deprived class and needed a helping hand.
Today, the opportunities are grabbed by a few. They should be ashamed of their ability if they avail reservation even after becoming an IAS officer or something like that. They are putting a burden on the society and denying a chance to the really needy.
I feel reservation is enough for one generation. For example, if the child's father is educated, he will be able to guide the child properly.
Take my case, I didn't have any system that would make me aware of the IITs and the IIMs. But I will be able to guide my children properly because I am well educated. I got the benefits of reservation but I will never avail of it for my children. I cannot even think of demanding reservation for the next generation.

Tribute : Gandhi on Bhagat Singh

Mahatma Gandhi on the Martyrdom of Bhagat Singh


Freedom fighter Sardar Bhagat Singh was hanged by the British on accusations of anti-government activities on March 23, 1931. Here, Gandhi pays tribute to the patriotism of the young martyr while disagreeing with his revolutionary methods. Excerpted from Gandhi's article in Young India.

Bhagat Singh and his two associates have been hanged. The Congress made many attempts to save their lives and the Government entertained many hopes of it, but all has been in a vain.
Bhagat Singh did not wish to live. He refused to apologize, or even file an appeal. Bhagat Singh was not a devotee of non-violence, but he did not subscribe to the religion of violence. He took to violence due to helplessness and to defend his homeland. In his last letter, Bhagat Singh wrote --" I have been arrested while waging a war. For me there can be no gallows. Put me into the mouth of a cannon and blow me off." These heroes had conquered the fear of death. Let us bow to them a thousand times for their heroism.

But we should not imitate their act. In our land of millions of destitute and crippled people, if we take to the practice of seeking justice through murder, there will be a terrifying situation. Our poor people will become victims of our atrocities. By making a dharma of violence, we shall be reaping the fruit of our own actions.

Hence, though we praise the courage of these brave men, we should never countenance their activities. Our dharma is to swallow our anger, abide by the discipline of non-violence and carry out our duty.

March 29, 1931

WHAT IF BHAGAT SINGH HAD LIVED?

Surely there are umpteen very important contemporary issues on which follow-ups can be presented before you dear readers. But today let us walk together to follow into the life of a hero, who had sacrificed his life literally and willingly for our sake.
An enigma, obsessed with passion for his country's freedom, he had achieved rare clarity of thought, sharpened his intelligence and conquered the fear of death in his teens. And that death was inflicted upon him at the age of 23, for he was fighting for you and me, to enable us to live with dignity in a free homeland.
This unparalleled hero was Bhagat Singh whose death anniversary falls on March 23. He was born on September 26, 1907, in the family of freedom fighters. His uncle, Ajit Singh, and father, Kishan Singh, were known as radicals and had successfully mobilised masses to oppose the British at every step under an organisation called "Bharat Mata Society".
Today 70 years later we ought to pause and review how Bhagat Singh was different from Mahatma Gandhi? Though both had fought for the freedom of India yet both vehemently adopted routes totally different in nature.
While Bhagat Singh was merely 20 years old in 1928, Mahatma Gandhi was already a mature person of 59 years. Yet both were into the movement in full swing with matching intensity, dedication, conviction and above all passion. What was it between the two that presents a very uneasy historical record ? Before we delve into that aspect let us have a brief life sketch of Bhagat Singh as his life actually was.
Bhagat Singh studied at D.A.V. High School and later at National College, Lahore. He acted in plays and became fluent in Urdu, Hindi, Gurmukhi, English and even Sanskrit.
By the age of 16, Bhagat Singh had of his own choice dedicated his life to achieve freedom for his country. How firm and full of conviction he was about this goal can be gauged from the fact that a year later, in 1924, when his family pressurised him to get married, he categorically refused.
Immediately after this Bhagat Singh left for Kanpur and worked for Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi in his weekly called Pratap.
In the same year he became a member of the Hindustan Republican Association.
Merely 17 and his life got molded into a revolutionary from here onwards. By 1925 he had founded "Naujawan Bharat Sabha" in Lahore. Soon he worked for Sohan Singh Josh in his monthly called Kirti.
Bhagat Singh's first direct encounter with the British came in 1927, when he was arrested on charges of having links with the accused in the Kakori case for an article written under the pseudonym "Vidrohi" which meant "rebel". However, he was let off on grounds of good behaviour but on a heavy security bond of Rs 60,000.
Bhagat Singh came under the influence of Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Bakumin besides thoroughly studying the history of the revolutionary movement in India, which included the Bahhar Akali Movement too.
Amongst his contemporary living legends the person who succeeded in occupying the seat of "mentor, friend and brother" in Bhagat Singh's own words was Kartar Singh Sarabha, who fought racial discrimination in San Francisco, USA.
Bhagat wrote many articles in a very short span of his life. These writings speak volumes about his astonishingly clear and focused thinking despite his rather young age.
All the brilliantly written articles reveal his own depth, seriousness of purpose, truthful accounts and of course a targeted mission.
There were a series of barbarous authoritarian, dictatorial and atrocious actions of the British Government besides daily display of injustice and discrimination towards Indians that outraged the impressionable but extraordinary intelligent mind of young Bhagat Singh.
Saunders' cruel assault on the forehead of Lala Lajpat Rai with a baton during the anti-Simon Commission demonstration which took his life, the Nankana Sahib massacre (six Sikhs were executed by the British), Kartar Singh Sarabha's execution when Bhagat Singh was just a child, Jatin Das's death in jail during a hunger strike and endless atrocities on freedom fighters led Bhagat Singh to give a befitting reply to the British.
Soon followed the murder of Saunders in Lahore in December, 1928, and bombs were thrown in the Legislative Assembly on April 8, 1929. It is important to note the self-confession that the bombs were carefully thrown behind the chairs so as no innocent was physically hurt.
"Revolution to me is not the cult of bomb and pistol but a total change of society culminating in the overthrow of both foreign and Indian capitalism and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat." Bhagat Singh himself expressed these profound views during his own trial.
It may also be mentioned here that it was Bhagat Singh and all his contemporary radicals alone who insisted that freedom fighters should continue their struggle for "Puran Swaraj".
It is a historical fact that Mahatma Gandhi and his associates in the face of British cunning were willing to adopt the middle path.
The bombs were clearly meant to be purely demonstrative. It is noteworthy that the occasion was the anti-Labour Trades Disputes Bill. The year 1928-29 had witnessed a massive labour upsurge in India.
Finally, awaiting his own execution for the murder of Saunders, Bhagat Singh at the young age of 23 studied Marxism thoroughly and wrote a profound article, "Why I am an atheist".
It was at this juncture that many organisations of the times fervently appealed to Mahatma Gandhi to save the life of Bhagat Singh.
The Yuva Vahini of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Aruna Asaf Ali, all the known radical revolutionaries, pleaded with Mahatma Gandhi to save Bhagat Singh and his associates Sukhdev and Rajguru.
The Gandhi-Irwin talks were on and political observers were confident that a word from Gandhi will certainly commute hanging to life imprisonment.
The historical records of the dialogue between Gandhi and Irwin in the series of crucial meetings that took place pretty close to the hanging of Bhagat Singh reveal a dismal picture.
Mahatma Gandhi spoke for everyone and every issue but did not utter a single word to bargain for Bhagat Singh's life. Hence his statement after the hanging of martyr Bhagat Singh, "the Congress made many attempts to save the lives of Bhagat Singh and his two associates", is not a substantiated fact.
Historian Dr Rajiv Lochan whose major research work revolves around Mahatma Gandhi puts this whole historical perspective in the following observations:"From all events and records available it is quite obvious that Gandhiji perceived both Subhas Chander Bose and Bhagat Singh as potential threats to his own highly acclaimed position".
At Hussainiwala in Ferozepore the place where Bhagat Singh's samadhi has been built to keep his memories alive, the scene fills you with tears flowing from your heart. B.K.Dutt's samadhi as per his last wish has also been made in the lap of Bhagat Singh's own samadhi. Amidst silence, flowers and water flows a question which will never get answered :"What if Bhagat Singh had lived ?"

Durga bhabhi

Durga bhabhi : A forgotten revolutionary

As member of the Hindustan Republican Association, Durga bhabhi worked with the zeal of a missionary. A meticulous planner, her plans never failed.

SHE appeared like a meteor on the firmament of freedom struggle in India and wielded tremendous influence on revolutionaries such as Bhagat Singh, Ashfaqullah and Chandrashekhar Azad. Her name was Durgavati Devi and she was the wife of professor Bhagvati Charan Vohra. Those were the days when courting arrest was greeted with distribution of ladoos and the sight of a policeman with summons was welcomed with shouts of "Hurrah, they have come."
An active member of the Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Durga bhabhi came into prominence when the Sabha decided to observe the 11th anniversary of Kartar Singh Sarabha’s martyrdom on November 16, 1926 at Lahore. It may be recalled that Kartar Singh Sarabha was executed in Lahore Central Jail 11 years earlier. One of the youngest martyrs of the freedom struggle, he was 19 when he kissed the gallows. Sarabha had planned to overthrow the British by spreading "sedition" among the Indian soldiers. For Durga bhabhi and Bhagat Singh Sarabha was an all-time hero.

On the Shaheedi Divas a lifesize portrait of Sarabha prepared by two ladies with their blood was unveiled. One of the ladies was Durgavati Devi and the other Susheela Devi, Professor Vohra’s sister. When Bhagat Singh finished his speech dedicated to ‘Chandi’; and pledged to oust the firangee by means of an armed struggle, Durga bhabhi got up and put a ‘tilak ‘ on Bhagat Singh’s forehead, blessed him and wished him success for his mission. As member of the Hindustan Republican Association, she worked with the zeal of a missionary. A meticulous planner, her plans never failed.

Her most glorious moment came on December 17, 1928 when Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev went to Durga bhabhi’s house after killing Saunders. Bhagat Singh had got his hair shorn off and both of them wore suits and felt hats. Durga bhabhi knew what had happened but was sorry that the real culprit J.A Scot somehow escaped. The idea of going to Calcutta was given by Durga bhabhi, since Prof. Vohra had already gone to Calcutta to attend the Congress Session.
Hurriedly they packed up hired a horse driven tonga and proceeded to Lahore railway station from where they purchased two first class tickets. Since Bhagat Singh was travelling with his "family", the sahib was given a coupe. There were nearly 500 policemen at the platform in serach of Bhagat Singh but he hoodwinked them and escaped. It was like Shivaji’s escape from the clutches of Aurangzeb. In this sensational drama, Rajguru acted as a servant and sat in the servant’s compartment attached to Calcutta Mail. In another third class compartment sat Chandrashekhar Azad, disguised as a sadhu singing the dohas of Tulsidas. Each one of them had a loaded pistol duly tested and tried.

December 18, 1928 will always be remembered as a red-letter day in the history of the freedom movement since Calcutta Mail was the historic train that created a sensation in the whole country.

As Calcutta Mail moved towards away from the platform, it seemed as if the wheel of history moved its revolutionary goal. Someone rightly said that on that evening of December 18, 1928 it was easier to escape from the clutches of death but to escape from Lahore railway station was nothing short of miracle. It was a clean operation, nothing short of a coup. Every now and again Rajguru would ensure the safety of the sahib and his ‘family’. Once he came with a bottle of milk for Shashi Durga bhabhi’s babe-in-arms. At Lucknow railway station he again came with milk while Durga bhabhi gave a telegram to her husband prof Vohra in Calcutta, informing him that she was coming with her brother and he should come to Calcutta railway station to receive her.
When the train arrived in Calcutta, Prof Vohra and his sister Susheela Devi were at the station. Susheela Devi has made fool-proof arrangements in Calcutta. The first day they stayed in a hotel. Thereafter for one week they shifted to the three-storeyed building of Seth Chajju Ram. Susheela Devi had taken Sethji’s wife Mataji into confidence and told her everything about the visiting party. At Calcutta, Bhagat Singh attended the Congress Session incognito, had a glimpse of Gandhiji, Nehru and Subhas Bose. Alongwith Durga bhabhi, he met several Bengali revolutionaries such as Atul Ganguli, G.N. Das and Phinininder Gosh. He opened a branch of his party there and learnt the process of bomb-making.

According to Yogesh Chander Chatterji, the plan to throw a bomb in the Central Assembly Delhi was made in Calcutta. Bhagat Singh’s photograph with the felt hat was also taken in Calcutta. B.K. Dutt taught him Bengali. One day the entire party went to see a film: Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The movie had a lasting impact on Bhagat Singh and his comrades.

After throwing the bomb on April 8, 1929, Bhagat Singh surrendered. When Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were awarded the death sentence, Durga bhabhi came out openly in the field. She decided to kill Lord Hailey, an ex-Governor of Punjab, a staunch enemy of revolutionaries. Although the Governor escaped, his aides were injured. She even pleaded with Gandhiji to save the lives of the three fearless partriots. Meanwhile, Prof Bhagvati Charan Vohra and Chandra Shekhar Azad planned to free Bhagat Singh by bombing the jail itself. While testing the bomb, however, on the banks of the Ravi, Prof Vohra died.

Durga bhabhi was arrested and awarded three years imprisonment. After Independence she was virtually forgotten, except for an occasional write-up by an old comrade. She died in Ghaziabad on October 15, 1999 at the age of 92. While her earlier life reads like a thriller, her later years were spent in exclusion and relative anonymity. The least this great freedom fighter and fearless woman deserves is a biography, if not a film or a complete documentary to inspire the younger generation. A terror to the British police she was "The Agni of India’, a flashback of its ancient heritage of sacrifice and fearlessness, a legend in her lifetime.