Bhagat Singh and His Legend

This unique collection on Bhagat Singh brings out the distinctiveness of his life, activities and thought which made him an iconic figure in his life time. Based on his own writings and other contemporary sources, four essays dwell on the transitions in his worldview, ideology and methods, which mark a great advance over the Ghadarites and other revolutionaries. The fine nuances of Bhagat Singh moving away from terrorism to become a social revolutionary and artificiality of the binary of ‘violence’ and ‘non-violence’ in case of Bhagat Singh and Gandhi are discussed in two essays. One contribution shows that the networks of colonial control were so powerful and pervasive that armed revolution was foredoomed to failure. The image of Bhagat Singh in contemporary India and efforts of writers, politicians, organizations and ideologues of different political parties to appropriate his legacy, without reference necessarily to his goal, is highlighted by one study. The legend of Bhagat Singh with its multiple meanings in different literary forms in Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and Punjabi comes out in half a dozen essays. With contributions from historians, political scientists, scholars of literature, creative writers and senior journalists this volume should be of great interest to the general reader, the politician and the social scientist.