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Today's
Stories
October
2, 2007
Ibrahim
Warde
Logical Lies About Bin Laden's Wealth
October
1, 2007
Al
Giordano
The Clinton Campaign's Reckless
Race for Big Money Donors
Paul
Craig Roberts
From Burma to Iraq: Hypocrisy Rules the West
Moshe Adler
The Crimes of Microsoft
Ingmar Lee
My Kayak Journey Down the Wild Pacific Coast
John V. Walsh
Ahmadinejad is Not My Enemy
Norman Solomon
Political Science and Truth of Consequences
Roger Burbach
Historic Victory in Ecuador for the Left
Ramzy Baroud
The Politics of Assassination
Stephen Lendman
The Maestro of Misery: Greenspan's Dark Legacy
Susie Day
Honey, I Shrank the Military!
Website of the Day
Letters from Fort Lewis Brig
September
29 / 30, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Clinton Time: Do We Set Our Clocks
Forward or Back?
Uri
Avnery
So What About Iran?
Andrew
Cockburn
Iraq's WMD Myth: Why Clinton is Culpable
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Through the Gates of Lodore
Wajahat
Ali
The Good, the Bad and the Iraqi
Andy
Worthington
The Curse of the Military Commissions
Don
Santina
Ethnic Cleansing in San Francisco
Ralph
Nader
Free Lunches, for Corporations!
Fred
Gardner
The Man Behind the MoveOn Ad
Seth
Sandronsky
The US Economy Since 1980
Gideon
Levy
The Children of 5767
William
S. Lind
A Ticking Bomb
Reza
Fiyouzat
An Anti-Imperialist Case Against a Nuclear Iran
Richard
Rhames
Wag the Tail, Frag the Dog
David
Michael Green
Buyer's Remorse: Their Purchase, Our Regret
Zach
Mason
Hate and Hope in Herndon
Poets'
Basement
Gibbons, Ali, Davies and Suss
Website
of the Weekend
Domestic Crusaders
September
28, 2007
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
The Teflon Alliance with Israel
Roberto
J. González /
David H. Price
When Anthropologists Become Counter-Insurgents
Saul
Landau
September, the Cruelest Month in Chile
Tom
Clifford
Burma by the Numbers
Christopher
Brauchli
Of Toxic Almonds and Bad Beef
Martha
Rosenberg
Spinning Suicide Statistics
Dave
Zirin
Soldier in Winter: John Carlos Speaks Out on the Jena 6
Laray
Polk
Bush Library or Lockbox?
Binoy
Kampmark
When Reagan Turned Brown
James
McEnteer
Hell, Columbia: an Academic Hotshot Introduces a Petty Tyrant
Website
of the Day
Concerned Anthropologists
September
27, 2007
Alan
Farago
Housing Market Crashes and Burns
Andy
Worthington
A Bad Week at Guantánamo
Jonathan
Cook
Why Did Israel Attack Syria?
William
Hughes
Billy Graham, a Prince of War Exposed
Ray
McGovern
Bush, Oil and Moral Bankruptcy
Ron
Jacobs
Joe Biden's Plan to Chop Up Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Quit the Party! Join the Mass Resignation Movement!
Joshua
Frank
Pruning the Green Party
Anne
Dachel
The CDC, Vaccines and Autism
Website
of the Day
The God-O-Meter
September 26, 2007
Bill
Quigley
HUD's Home Wreckers
Paul
Craig Roberts
A Pandemic of Police Brutality
Jeff
Kisseloff
Still Smearing Alger Hiss
China
Hand
Is China the True Target of Financial Sanctions Against Iran?
Behzad
Yaghmaian
At the Gates of Paradise
Sonja
Karkar
The Quality of Mercy in Gaza
Mike
Ferner
Interrupting the Empire, 30 Seconds at a Time
Col.
Dan Smith
Freedom to Speak, Freedom to Learn
Clifton
Ross
Bollinger's Barbarous and Ignorant Speech
Brenda
Norrell
A Meeting of Indigenous Peoples in Caracas
Website
of the Day
The Smearing of Jean Maria Arrigo, a Psychologist Opposed to
Torture
September
25, 2007
Nicole
Colson
On the March Against Racism
Uri
Avnery
Foam on the Water
Brendan
Cooney
Ahmadinejad on Broadway: Free Speech? Arrest Him!
Harry
Browne
Bruce Springsteen Comes Home ... to Hell
Marjorie
Cohn
The Drift Toward War with Iran
David
Macaray
The UAW-GM Strike: the Long Knives are Already Out
Ralph
Nader
Hypocrisy and Inverted Priorities in Congress
Dan
Bacher
Schwarzenegger, the Climate Change Hypocrite
Anthony
Papa
Perverted Justice & America's Drug Laws
Christopher
Ketcham
All Politicos Now Classed as Sexual Deviants
Website
of the Day
John Waters on Free Speech
September
24, 2007
George
Ciccariello-Maher
Racist Violence from Jena to Oakland
Saree Makdisi
The
War on Gaza's Children
David
Keen
Action-as-Propaganda: Learning About the Iraq War from Hannah
Arendt
Sherwood
Ross
Just How Powerful is the Israel Lobby? Only Cheney Knows for
Sure
Ron
Jacobs
Greenspan's Open Secret
Donna
Saggia
The Cult of the Military and the Decline of Democratic Values
Mike
Ferner
Free Speech Takes a Capitol Beating
Malini
Johar Schueller
Norman Hsu is a Model Minority
Monique
Dols
and Dylan Stillwood
Ahmadinejad and Columbia
Website
of the Day
The Promotion
September 22 / 23, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
On Naomi Klein's "The Shock
Doctrine"
Jennifer
Loewenstein
Beneath the Hideous Veneer of
Security
Linn
Washington, Jr.
The Injustice in Jena: Prosecutorial Misconduct More Dangerous
Than Racism
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Going Down in Dinosaur: Oil, Dams and Whitewater (Part One)
Alan
Farago
Genuflecting to China
Brian
Cloughley
Of Hate, Hubris and Atrocities
Robert
Fantina
The Deadly Pattern of US Imperialism
Roxanne
Dunbar-Ortiz
Land Tenure and Resistance in New
Mexico
Jason
Hribal
Fear of an Animal Planet
David
Rosen
Slugger Sex: Athletes, Violence and Male Sexuality
Mike
Whitney
The Era of Global Financial Instability
John
V. Walsh
Who Will Lead a Filibuster of the Iraq War Spending Bill?
Dave
Lindorff
Why Aren't We Banning Blackwater Here?
David
Michael Green
Hiding Behind a Camouflage Skirt
Fred
Gardner
Claudia Jensen (Look Back in Anger)
Cassandra
Jones
Support Our Mercenaries
Roger
van Zwanenberg
Pluto Press Under Attack by Israel Lobby
Poets'
Basement
Buknatski, Davies and Ford
Website
of the Weekend
"For the Bible Tells Me So"
September
21, 2007
Karim
Makdisi
Letter from Lebanon
M.
Shahid Alam
A History of Violence
Alan
Farago
Who Will Buy My House?
Joshua
Frank
The Demise of the Congressional Black Caucus
Dave
Zirin
Notre Dame and the Economy of Sports
Kenneth
Couesbouc
A Short History of Lending and Borrowing
Dr.
Steffie Woolhandler and Dr. David Himmelstein
Mass Health Care Failure
Ben
Terrall
The Streets of San Francisco: Where Impeachment is Taken Seriously--By
Everyone But Pelosi
Steve
Fournier
Ex-Dems, Sign Up Here
Frederico
Fuentes, et al
Voices in Defense of Bolivia
Website
of the Day
Sabra and Shatila, Remembered
September
20, 2007
Kathleen
Christison
Whatever Happened to Palestine?
Zoltan
Grossman
An Endless Occupation?
Paul
Craig Roberts
As the Empire Slips: Greenspan and the Economy of Greed
Stan
Cox
and Wes Jackson
Carbon-Free and Still Wrecking the Planet
Russell
Mokhiber
AARP to Kucinich: Drop Dead
Charles
Modiano
Jim Crow's Children: the Jena 6, Shaquanda Cotton and Blog Power
Raymond
J. Lawrence
Bush's Worrisome Use of Religion
Brendan
Cooney
Body-Snatched Nation
Website
of the Day
Mind Control for Breakfast
September
19, 2007
Paul
Craig Roberts
Why Did Senator John Kerry Stand
Idly By?
Paul
Krassner
The Power of Laughter
Sgt.
Martin Smith
The New Private Warriors: Blackwater in Iraq
Seth
Sandronsky
Living in a Dilapidated Market: To Rent or Own?
Claud
Cockburn
Looking back at the Great Crash
Victoria
Buch
Israel's Agenda for Ethnic Cleansing
and Transfer
Robert
Weissman
Oil Warriors: From Greenspan to Kissinger
Mike
Ferner
Can We Talk?
Dan
Bacher
Schwarzenegger's $9 Billion Boondoggle for Big Water
Website
of the Day
Housing Cost Calculator
September
18, 2007
Mike
Whitney
U.S. Banks Brace for Storm Surge
as Dollar and Credit System Reel
Alan
Farago
Interviewing Alan Greenspan: How 60
Minutes Blew It
John
Ross
America's Great Wall:
Where Will the Workers Go
When They Finish It?
Ron
Jacobs
Nooses Hung From Jena, La. to College
Park, Md.
Alex
Doherty
Britain's 9/11 "Truth Movement":
Who's Responsible?
September
17, 2007
Marjorie
Cohn
Erwin Chemerinsky and the Post-9/11
Attack on Academic Freedom
Paul
Craig Roberts
Conservatism Isn't What It Used to
Be
Ricardo
Alarcón
The Return of C. Wright Mills Amid
the Dawn of a New Era
Marc
Levy
Fake Vets Chasing Fame
Eva
Liddell
In 1969 We Already Knew What 2007
Would Look Like
Website
of the Day
Propaganda:
Your Job in Germany. Directed by Frank Capra, and written by
Theodor Geisel
Sept.
15-16, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
The General Came to Washington
Vicente
Navarro
How the U.S. Schemed Against Spain's
Transition from Dictatorship to Democracy
Mike
Whitney
Plummeting Dollar, Credit Crunch
Herman
Mindshaftgap
Has There Ever Been a Surge?
If so, Has it a Future?
Ellen
Cantarow
Girls! Music! Palestine!
Jordan
Flaherty
K-Ville: Fox's New Paean to the
N.O.P.D.
Zachary
Hurwitz
Julio Cusurichi on Amazonian Development
September
14, 2007
Debbie
Nathan
New York Times reporter was a member
of an illegal underage porn site, claims he was only "posing
as online predator"
Franklin
Lamb
Sabra-Shatilla, 25 Years Later
Patrick
Cockburn
Greet Bush and Die: The Killing of
Abu Risha
Farzana
Versey
The World's Richest Muslim Tycoon
Alan
Farago
This is Florida, Epicenter of the
Housing Bust and of Public Corruption
Hank
Edson
Bill's New Book is Giving Me a Headache
September
13, 2007
Patrick
Cockburn
Petraeus Confided Presidential Ambitions
to Iraqi Official
Scott
Vest, former Air Force Captain at Minot
The Barksdale Nukes
Andy
Worthington
Guantánamo: "Ghost"
Prisoners Speak At Last
Michael
Baney
Mr. Fixit of Quake-Stricken Peru Has
Death Squad Past
Dr.
Susan Block
Is U.S. Run by Secret Homintern?
September
12, 2007
Paul
Craig Roberts
American Economy: RIP
Stan
Goff
The Petraeus Report
William
Blum
When Soldiers Mutiny...Only Those Fighting
the War Can End It.
Manuel
Garcia
Forgetting 9/11
Debbie
Nathan
Why One Sex Survey Didn't Make the
Big Time
September
11, 2007
Patrick
Cockburn
The Fakery of General Petraeus
Iain
Boal
Specters of Malthus: Scarcity, Poverty,
Apocalypse
Michael
Dickinson
Osama on 9/11
Guerry
Hoddersen
Free Speech is Not Given, but Taken
Bill
Hatch
Irish Politics in Old Time California
Gary
Leupp
The Legacy of Luciano Pavarotti
Website
of the Day
Elisa Salasin's
"My September 11th"
September
10, 2007
Uri
Avnery
A Big Victory Against the Wall
Patrick
Cockburn
Petraeus's Closet
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
Screwing Up In Iraq
David
Michael Green
Why Fred Thompson is Uniquely Qualified
to be the GOP's Nominee
Pius
Adesanmi
A Solidarity Letter to a Victim
of Michael Vick
Betty
Schneider
How to Deal With Sex Offenders
September
8 / 9, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Will the US Really Bomb Iran?
Saul
Landau
The Irrational Drama of a Declining Empire
Ismael
Hossein-Zadeh
Hurricane Katrina and Bush's Wars
Ray
McGovern
Petraeus, the Westmoreland of Iraq
Matthew
Abraham
Finkelstein's Legacy at DePaul
Alan
Farago
The Governor and the Growth Machine
Christopher
Brauchli
Grand Old Party Animals
Rannie
Amiri
Battle of the Camps
Fred
Gardner
Will Snoops Get Stopped?
James
L. Secor
B-52 Flexing Nuclear Muscles: H-Bombs Over Barksdale
Missy
Comley Beattie
Choices: Shall We Stay or Shall We Go Now?
Ben
Tripp
Still in the Clover
Francis
Boyle
The University of Illinois' Little Red Sambo Show
Joe
Allen and Paul D'Amato
Jason Bourne vs. James Bond
Website
of the Weekend
Drilling Wyoming: the View from Above
September 7, 2007
Robert
Fantina
Those Iraq Reports: Bush vs. Reality
John
Ross
Coca-Cola's Raid on a Sacred Mountain
James
Brooks
The Occupation Within
Russell
Mokhiber
Robert Reich and the Elimination of Corporate Criminal Liability
Joshua
Frank
The Green Implosion Continues: Cyberlynching John Murphy
John
Walsh
On the Green Party
Mark
Brenner
New York Taxi Workers Strike Over Tracking Devices
Mike
Ferner
"I Will Salute No More Forever"
Website
of the Day
Help Save Osny Zachary's Life
September
6, 2007
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Bush, Iran and Israel's Hidden
Hand
Allan
J. Lichtman
When General Petraeus Speaks, Don't Listen ...
Norman
Solomon
The Secret Addiction of Thomas Friedman
Yifat
Susskind
Hurricane Felix's First Responders: Courage and Tragedy on the
Miskito Coast
Catherine
Fenton
Why I Am Going to the Protest
Laura
Santina
Can the War Machine be Contained?
Farzana
Versey
Fission Kashmir
Yves
Engler
Haiti: Where a Wage of $2 a Day is Too Much for the Lords of
Industry to Pay
Kelly
Overton
Bang Bang; Shoot Shoot: Is Hunting Racist?
Michael
Simmons
One Jew's Views: The Strange Genius of Drew Friedman and Kominsky
Crumb
Website
of the Day
Dams and Genocide in Guatemala
September
5, 2007
Stan
Goff
The End Begins
Michael
Dickinson
Working for Mother Teresa: Memoirs of a Rebellious Volunteer
Matthew
Abraham
Standing Firm with Norman Finkelstein and DePaul's Heroic Students:
a Defining Moment
Patrick
Cockburn
The Basra Debacle
Dave
Lindorff
Beware the Wounded Beast
Paul
Craig Roberts
Who Are the Fanatics?
Clifton
Ross
Ecuador and the Struggle for Latin American Unity
Elizabeth
Schulte
Katrina's Forgotten Refugees
Joseph
Grosso
Labor Day in New York City
Ben
Terrall
Where's Nancy? On Trying to Protest Pelosi in San Francisco
Website
of the Day
A Guide to Narco Dollars
September
4, 2007
Jean
Bricmont
Why Bush Can Get Away with Attacking
Iran
Patrick
Cockburn
Cut and Run in Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
The Haditha Massacre: Spinning a War Crime
Tom
Kerr
Buried Alive on San Quentin's Death Row
Gary
Leupp
The Case of Jose Maria Sison
Sonja
Karkar
The Weeping Olive Trees of Palestine
Heather
Gray
The Best and Worst of America: 9/11, Joseph Lowery and the Lethal
Silence of Billy Graham
Fidel
Castro
The Super-Revolutionaries
Jackie
Corr
Home Depot Comes to Butte--Begging Bowl in Hand
Sunsara
Taylor
Katrina and the Progress of the System
Website
of the Day
Colombia Journal
September
3, 2007
Patrick
Cockburn
Brits Flee from Basra
Eamon
McCann
Qana, Derry: The Dead Lie in Familiar Shapes
Joshua
Frank
The End of the Green Party?
Chris
Floyd
Post-Mortem America: Bush's Year of Triumph
Marjorie
Cohn
A Look at Bush's Iran War Plans
Walter
Brasch
The News Drones: How Fake Photos Helped Lead the US to War in
Iraq
Matt
Reichel
Redefining the American Dream
Website
of the Day
Don't Get Fooled Again
September
1 / 2, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Entrapment Snares Larry Craig
Andy
Worthington
Britain's Guantánamo
Saul
Landau
The Tragic Ordeal of the Cuban Five
David
Keen
An Occident Waiting to Happen: Intellectuals and the War on Terror
Patrick
Cockburn
The Collapse of Iraq's Health Care
Services
Diana
Johnstone
Back in Uncle Sam's Pocket
George
Longstreth, MD
& Karen Longstreth, RN
The Sorrows of Occupation: Life in the West Bank
Linda
M. Woolf
A Sad Day for Psychologists--a Sadder Day for Human Rights
Ralph
Nader
Wrapping the World with Advertising
Fred
Gardner
The Trial of Mollie Fry, MD
Ben
Tripp
Enquiry in America Today
David
Michael Green
American Indigestion: Why Bush Governs from the Gut
Missy
Comley Beattie
Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: What the GOP Hasn't
Learned About Tolerance
Michael
Dickinson
Who's Cheating: Remembering Princess Diana
Paul
Krassner
Assholes of the Week: From Larry Craig to Wesley Clark
Ron
Jacobs
A Sports Nation of Millions
Poets'
Basement
Buknatski, Davies and Mickey Z
|
October
2, 2007
Two
Indian Birth Anniversaries
The
Meteor and the Mahatma
By NIRANJAN RAMAKRISHNAN
This week marks the birth anniversaries
of two of India's heroes. As everyone knows, that of Mahatma
Gandhi falls on Oct 2. Of the other -- I am ashamed to say that
until a couple of days back I didn't even know Bhagat Singh's
birthday. I only learnt of it from an article by Mahir
Ali , to be informed that September 28, 2007 was Bhagat Singh's
birth centenary!
It is the lot of many historical figures to be known mainly for
one thing. Gandhi is anchored in the Indian consciousness as
the leader of India's independence struggle, and known in the
rest of the world as an apostle of non-violence. Ask anyone in
India about Bhagat Singh and they would say that he went to the
gallows for shooting a British policeman. Others might add that
he did so without flinching, refusing even to appeal his case.
Some might know that he had exploded a bomb in India's Central
Assembly. Part of this name recognition can be credited to a
couple of recent Bollywood films about his life.
When I read that Bhagat Singh would have been 100 this year,
it was somewhat shocking and sad; a real but absurd feeling
of wistfulness at a youth suddenly turned old. Famous people
who die young forever remain that way in our memories. Bhagat
Singh was exactly 23 1/2 when he died. By that age he had blazed
across the Indian political sky, lighting it up with an electricity
that dazzled the entire country. Even in the glow of an Indian
Golden Age (1915-1947) that witnessed a galaxy of towering political
figures, Bhagat Singh's story has a special luminance.
Coming from a family of freedom fighters (father imprisoned,
one uncle hanged, and another in exile, all for anti-British
activities), Bhagat Singh was a patriot and erstwhile follower
of Gandhi, later growing disenchanted when Gandhi abruptly called
off his non-cooperation movement after a mob burnt a police station
killing a number of policemen (see The
Great Trial, 1922).
Outraged by a British officer's assault of a veteran leader of
Punjab, Lala Lajpat Rai (shortly following which Rai died),
Bhagat Singh and other young associates planned to kill the officer
to redeem Indian honor. As it turned out, they killed another
British officer, and, though they were prepared to die in their
attempt or be arrested, every one of them escaped.
In a separate incident later, to protest the promulgation of
the Defence of India Ordinance (akin to the Patriot Act, giving
unprecedent powers to the police), Bhagat Singh and another colleague,
Batukeshwar Dutt, exploded a bomb in the Indian Central Assembly
in Delhi. They deliberately designed it so as to hurt no one
but to cause the maximum noise. Following this Bhagat Singh and
BK Dutt planned to give themselves up to the authorities. Their
purpose was to rouse the nation's outrage. The bomb went off
without hurting anyone (deliberately set off in a vacant section
of the gallery), and they duly turned themselves in. It was only
following their arrest that the British realized (by means of
confessions extracted by torture of other prisoners) of Bhagat
Singh's connection in the Saunders's murder. From being sentenced
to imprisonment in the Andamans (the Guantanamo of the Raj),
Bhagat Singh and two other associates were instead sentenced
to hang.
Far from fighting the charges, Bhagat Singh fully accepted them,
having decided to use his trial as an opportunity to inspire
young India, So quickly did his his popularity soar that the
government decided to conduct the rest of his case without having
him in the courtroom. His time in prison was spent organizing
a movement for betterment of prison conditions for political
prisoners, in studying and keeping a prison notebook, in rallying
his fellow freedom fighters and through osmosis, the entire country.
In popular belief, Bhagat Singh and Gandhi occupy two antipodes
in India's struggle for freedom -- the former representing the
young generation impatient to overthrow foreign rule by any means
necessary, the latter navigating a plodding course alternating
between negotiation and struggle.
The truth is that they had a lot in common.
Reading about Bhagat Singh, one is struck by three qualities
that he shared with Gandhi: fearlessness, calm, and an enormous
spirit of self-sacrifice. Torture of prisoners was common in
British prisons in India (freedom has brought no changes here,
incidentally), and Bhagat Singh and his associates were physical
wrecks when they were brought to trial. >From his writings
it appears that Bhagat Singh accepted this as a matter of course
("we have done the deed and we must now pay the price",
he writes to a fellow prisoner). Like Gandhi, too, he had the
capacity to be stoical without turning cynical. Instead of complaining
of his own abuse in prison, he organized a 63-day hunger strike
for proper treatment of all political prisoners. The British
authorities would try to to force-feed the prisoners, who took
deliberate measures, even in their weakened condition, not to
permit the British to do so. In the end the authorities had to
concede these prison reforms.
To his fellow-prisoner Rajguru (later hanged with Bhagat Singh
and Sukhdev), who once contemplated suicide rather than face
a life-sentence at the notorious Andaman Prison (British India's
Guantanamo, you might say), he counseled the same attitude, asking,
"If the prison conditions irk you, why don't you fight for
their betterment?" Life to Bhagat Singh was an opportunity
to sacrifice for the country and to improve conditions for all
mankind. Mahir
Ali observes that he explicitly rejected terrorism as a means
of struggle, always saw his role as one who would sacrifice himself
to inspire others.
Gandhi recognized Bhagat Singh's heroism, although he rejected
his technique. What he said about Bhagat Singh after the execution
(on March 23, 1931) remains as much an example of Gandhi's political
courage even as Bhagat Singh's own attitude to the gallows represented
the pinnacle of physical courage. (It should be remembered that
this was at a time when Bhagat Singh had acquired legend/martyr
status and Gandhi himself was under attack for not having done
enough to secure his release). On March 29, 1931 Gandhi wrote
in his journal, 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."
The temptation to pit Gandhi
and Bhagat Singh against each other is little more than a dilettantish
pastime. For all their differences, Gandhi could criticize Bhagat
Singh's violence with a free conscience only because he himself
was equally ready to die for the country. Bhagat Singh (as Subhash
Bose later, who gave Gandhi the title of Father of the Nation)
knew what Gandhi meant to India, and urged youth to join Gandhi's
movement. Similarly, despite Gandhi being a man of faith and
Bhagat Singh a non-believer (though I read that he began his
letters to his uncle with an OM -- a Hindu symbol of auspiciousness),
neither one held with religious sectarianism (a la a Jinnah
or a Savarkar).
Thus in the larger battle, Gandhi and Bhagat Singh must be classed
in the same camp -- as against that of the supplicants.
The journalist and cartoonist Rajinder Puri, who is highly critical
of Gandhi's inability (he hints at reluctance) to save Bhagat
Singh from the gallows, relates a wonderful story: At the height
of the communal frenzy in India in 1946-47, when the Congress
leadership overrode Gandhi's objections and accepted partition,
Gandhi remarked, I only wish I had my son by my side. "Who
are you talking about? Harilal? Manilal...?" asked someone
nearby, echoing the names of Gandhi's sons. "No, No",
said Gandhi, shaking his head. "Subhas..."
He was talking about his political children, in this case, Subhas
Chandra Bose. But he might just as soon have said 'grandson'
and "Bhagat Singh".
Above all, both men were Idealists who could lay claim to these
words of the young Karl Marx (written before his own conversion
to Materialism): "If we have chosen the position
in life in which we can most of all work for mankind, no burdens
can bow us down, because they are sacrifices for the benefit
of all; then we shall experience no petty, limited, selfish joy,
but our happiness will belong to millions, our deeds will live
on quietly but perpetually at work, and over our ashes will be
shed the hot tears of noble people."
Bibliography:
1. http://www.shahidbhagatsingh.org
contains many photographs of Bhagat Singh and his associates,
and a number of his writings including his jail journal.
2. Rajinder Puri's critique
of Gandhi and the Congress with regard to Bhagat Singh's execution
can be found in his book, "Re-discovery of India".
NIRANJAN RAMAKRISHNAN can be reached at njn_2003@yahoo.com.
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