THE UNTOLD TRUTH OF BHAGAT SINGH

"They may kill me, but they cannot kill my ideas"

-Bhagat Singh

March 23, 1931 was the day when Bhagat Singh, along with Sukhdev and Rajguru, were martyred in Lahore. The Bravery and revolution led by Bhagat Singh has always been idolized. His contribution in a very small span of life is inspiring till date. But more than his revolutionary moves against the British rule, there is something about which many of us are unaware. Let's know an inspiring truth of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh.

Inspiring Traits of Bhagat Singh

Whenever something is said regarding Bhagat Singh, an image of a person having a gun in his hand, twisting the moustaches, and chanting the slogan "Inquilab Zindabad" comes in our mind. But in reality, he was known as 'Fierce Intellect' of his time and he always had a book in his hand. He Studied British, European, American, and Russian Literature at length. Before his arrest, he had read about 250 books and while in his 2 years of imprisonment he read more than 300 books.

These Traits signifies that he was fond of writing and his ideas were strong enough to empower and inspire generations. His articles were published in famous magazines like Kirti, Akali, Veer Arjun, and Pratap. He was the intellectual of the highest order in a very short span of his life. He once stated in his article- 

"Bombs and Pistols cannot bring revolution. Revolution's sword is sharpened on Thoughts."

The Ideologies of Bhagat Singh

Born in Banga (now in Pakistan) in 1907, it is said that Bhagat Singh collected a bottle of blood filled dirt from Jallianwala Bagh (massacre took place in 1919) and worshipped it everyday. He just aged 12 at that time when the idea of revolution had begun in his mind. He believed in three main ideologies.

• Socialism
• Internationalism
• Atheism

1. Socialist Revolutionary

He was very much influenced by Karl Marx, Lenin, and other Socialist ideologies. It pained him when he saw how society treated farmers, laborers, and factory workers. For these downtrodden people he wanted to fight. The priority of almost all the freedom activists was to make the country British free, while for Bhagat Singh the priority was to eradicate injustice and exploitation.

Lines from article written in Kirti Magazine

According to him, whether British or our own sovereign, if prejudice and oppression kept happening it would just downgrade the whole Nation. The name of his revolutionary party was Hindustan Socialist Republican Association.

2. Internationalism

In his 1924 article Vishav Prem, he praised the Rigveda based shloka वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम् (vasudhaiva kutumbakam), which means the whole world is my family. Though as a freedom fighter he had his duties but it pained him to see the racist and national differences that led to revolts among the civilizations. 

He once dreamed that France-Germany, America-Japan, the then big enemy nations, would one day no longer fight and would do trade with each other. For him, the revolution and fights should be against the injustice, inequality, prejudice, and exploitation, and not against each other's ego. In his 1928 article titled "Different ideologies of different politicians", he praised as well as criticized many ideas of big leaders and suggested measures to unite as much nations as possible.

3. Atheism 

While Mahatma Gandhi was following Indian view of Secularism, Bhagat Singh was in more favor of French view of Secularism which says that there must be a distance between Religion and government, which is horribly missing even in today's democracy. In one of his manifesto named "Naujavan Bharat Sabha", he stated religious indifferentism and why the value of humanity and equality among various group is important to fight against upper class oppressions.

Bhagat Singh was an atheist. In his 1927 article "Communal Riots and remedies", his powerful message to all the Indians was to see the imbalance between rich and poor rather than focusing on religious ideologies mismatch. The poor people, irrespective of their ethnicity, race, religion, or country, must have same rights as of rich capitalists. The discrimination based on these differences must stop and power of government should be in their hands.

Lines from famous book "Why I am an Atheist"

His personal views on religion were very well described in his book "Why I am an Atheist". He firmly criticized various religious ideas such as:

• He believed if God made this world then why there is so much sufferings and pain?
• If we don't logically understand something, then we should not follow it, doesn't matter it is written in Popular Religious Texts.
• Revenge as a justice is an outdated idea.
• He criticized the punishment theory, as if someone reborn as cow, donkey, dog, etc. then how he/she would be able to reform him/herself?
• He Supported reformative theory as a universally acceptable solution. It states that if someone had done something wrong, he/she should be converted and reformed as peace-loving citizen.

His ideas was not to hurt religion but to logically figure out what to follow and what not to. Ultimately, he wanted people to gain knowledge of the truest sense. He wanted people to unite against British rule and dreamed that all the people across the country breathe the air of peace and prosperity.

Conclusion

Bhagat Singh had written number of articles, manifestos, poems, books, etc. and all of them had something highly revolutionary. If we can read and relate it to this day, it definitely proves that Bhagat Singh was not only a lion-heart freedom fighter but also an outstanding visionary way ahead of his time. The combination of these ideologies can create, unite, and prosper nations; though these qualities might not reflect much because of high sentiments human being has.

From Bhagat Singh's Jail Diary

If we truly idolize him then we should read about his ideas and try to understand values that he followed. His dream to eradicate injustice and exploitation should be worked upon. The Indian history could have been pleasurably different if he would have lived for a few more years. If we are really willing to change ourselves, our coming generations should be taught how in such a small age he conquered such an immensely appreciable crown of intelligence and revolution.

Thank you for reading.

IMPACT OF WAR ON RUSSIA

Though war is going on in Ukraine where Russia has been dominating, yet Russia is paying the price for the heavy destruction caused. The Russian currency Ruble has crashed in last few days. The banks are out of cash. But why? Let's try to figure out what happens to a superpower country involved in a war even when the war is not going on in that country.

Economic Sanctions

To overpower or stop an extremely powerful country for invading another country, it is obvious that any country would fear to send its own military. So, the best way to do it is by imposing Sanctions. Sanctions refers to a penalty or a punishment that a country imposes on another country for breaking an international law. Russian citizens, these days, are facing difficulties which they would have never imagined.

The cost of just starting the invading operation is around $7 billion which is more than 50,000 Crores. Till now, the cost has reached $24 billion; more importantly it is the taxpayer's money. 

Trade losses in Russia

1. 33 Countries have closed their airlines for Russia due to which more than 1,50,000 Russians who are out of Russia are finding it difficult to get back to their country.
2. Airbus and Boeing, the biggest of the companies that manufactures airplane spare parts, have denied exporting to Russia.
3. All the Super giant Car manufacturing companies stopped their export as well as production in Russia.
4. All the digital platforms such as Netflix, Tiktok, etc. have stopped operating in Russia.
5. More than 70% of FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) have withdrawn their ventures.
6. The Formula 1 racing event, which was about to be held in Russia, has been cancelled.
7. FIFA and UEFA, the two biggest Football Associations in the world, have banned Russian team from all the soccer events.
8. Visa and Mastercard have blocked Russian banks due to which around 74% of payment through credit and debit cards have completely stopped.
9. People are standing in queues outside the ATM to withdraw cash. Banks are running out of cash. This situation is called Bank run.
10. Russian Stock Market has been closed since the war initiated. This has led to economic isolation of Russia and its downfall of economy at least for short duration of time.

Actions taken on International level

Till now, we have understood that how big MNCs have stopped operating with Russia due to war like situations. But there have been actions taken from all over the world against Russia. One of them is SWIFT block. 

SWIFT stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. It is payment system used by 200 countries and more than 1100 financial institutions. All the banks throughout the world have their SWIFT code that helps proper transaction of money from one place to another. SWIFT block for Russia signifies that Russian banks can neither accept nor send money internationally.

Russia's central bank's assets have been freezed. Assets usually contains Forex (Foreign Exchange) reserves which is the money in another country's currency. Russian central bank has money in US Dollars of worth $630 billion dollar. Freezed central bank assets means USA is no longer accepting the Forex reserves.

Assets and properties of Russian billionaires outside Russia have been seized by government of that country to pressurize Putin to stop invasion. Germany suspended the approval of Nord Steam 2 Pipeline for natural gas, which is considered as a brave step against Russia because the whole world is heavily dependent on Russia for its crude oil and gas requirements.

Countries are trying to come up with alternatives to overcome existing crude oil and gas dependency on Russia. It is important to remember that Russia is the 2nd biggest exporter of these resources.

Conclusion

The Russia-Ukraine war is the result of extremism, not peace. Even though Russia was successful in stopping Ukraine to join NATO, but the common Russian citizens are paying the price for the war they never asked for. The destruction in Ukraine is visible but Russian destruction tells us that how choosing war can put a country way too behind and only the common man has to pay for it.

The value of 1 US dollar has reached 150 Russian Ruble. High inflation would result in decrease in standard of living. Large population will be pushed into poverty, lack of money in banks, unemployment, etc.  are approaching Russian citizens at least for the next few years.