By Justice Markandey Katju
Today, 23rd March, is the death anniversary of one of my heroes, Bhagat Singh
I have expressed my views about him in several articles, facebook posts, blogs, and youtube videos, given below, so I am not repeating them.
Many people say that India got Independence because of Gandhi. I totally disagree.
A real freedom struggle is always a violent struggle. This is because no imperialist power gives up its conquered country without an armed struggle. Did George Washington fight against the British rulers of America from 1775-1781 with an army ( the Continental army ) or by presenting the British flowers and bouquets ? Did Bolivar fight the Spanish rulers of Latin America with his batallions, or with lollipops ? Did Ho Chi Minh fight the French with guns or by satyagraha and fasting ? Did the Chinese fight the Japanese with salt marches ?
The British left India not because of Gandhi, but because in the Second World War Germany attacked and weakened England, and may have possibly conquered it, but for American help. And the Americans gave that help by putting pressure on the British to give Independence to India so that the Indian market and raw materials may not remain monopolised by the British, but be opened up for American investment too.
Our real freedom fighters were Bhagat Singh, Surya Sen ( Masterda ), Chandrashekhar Azad, Ashfaqulla, Rajguru, Khudiram Bose, Ram Prasad Bismil, etc. They were taking our freedom struggle against the British in the correct revolutionary direction, and had they succeeded we would have had a prosperous India today. But instead our forefathers stupidly deserted them and followed Gandhi who diverted the freedom struggle towards a nonsensical channel called satyagrah which was harmless and posed no danger to British economic interests.
In our history books the real patriots like Bhagat Singh, Surya Sen, Chandrashekhar Azad, Ashfaqulla etc are barely mentioned. They are generally relegated to a footnote, and treated as mavericks, deviants or outsiders, not freedom fighters. Instead, Gandhi and his coterie, are depicted as the real freedom fighters.
Gandhi described the militant Indian youth fighting against British Imperialism as 'misguided souls'. He often said that militant nationalism was injurious to India's struggle for freedom. In reality he knew that if those methods became widespread among the Indian masses his own popularity would decline, and his ' Mahatmahood ' would disappear.
When the British sentenced Bhagat Singh to death, Gandhi made no effort to save his life. He never wrote any letter to the British Viceroy to commute his sentence , nor did he issue any public appeal for this purpose, and he never went to meet Bhagat Singh in jail when the latter was on hunger strike.
Because of our forefathers' stupidity we are still suffering today with massive poverty, massive unemployment, massive child malnutrition, almost total lack of healthcare and good education for the masses, skyrocketing prices, atrocities on minorities, etc. Is this real freedom ?
If we had instead followed the revolutionary path of Bhagat Singh and other real freedom fighters we would have today had a prosperous India, with our people enjoying a high standard of living, and leading decent lives.
(Justice Katju is a former Judge, of the Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman, the Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own)
