Bhagat Singh was a keen student of world history. He firmly believed that world history is nothing but philosophy teaching by example. History is but the unrolled scroll of prophecy. In the last two years of his life in Jail, unmindful of the sure prospect of death by hanging, inspired and sustained by nothing but his soaring and deathless idealism, Bhagat Singh immersed himself in books on history'political, economic, social, religious and cultural'and literature and law.
His immortal message to us on every page of his Jail Notebook can be paraphrased by me in this manner: 'Books are bred by men, men by life and life by books through a constant interrelation and cross-fertilization, so that an element of political, social, economic, and cultural history can scarcely be dispensed with in any account of literary phenomena and forces'.
The only inference we can draw from the quotations in his Jail Notebook is that Bhagat Singh was greatly inspired by the political writings of John Locke (1632 - 1704), particularly by his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), the Two Treatises of Civil Government (1680 -1690) and A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689). It is an accepted fact that John Locke had a tremendous intellectual and political influence on men like Thomas Jefferson (1743 -1826), George Washington (1732 - 1799), Benjamin Franklin (1706 -1790) and John Adams (1735 - 1826) and many others who created the American State in the last two decades of the 18th century. On page 23 of the Jail Notebook, Bhagat Singh, under the heading Tree of Liberty, has recorded the following quotation of Thomas Jefferson with approval: �The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure�.
On page 24 of the Jail Notebook, we see the following inspiring message from the Will of Fanscisco Ferrer (1859 - 1909), a Spanish Catalan free-thinker and anarchist:
'I also wish my friends to speak little or not at all about me, because idols are created when men are praised, and this is very bad for the future of the human race.... Acts alone, no matter by whom committed, ought to be studied, praised or blamed. Let them be praised in order that they may be initiated when they see to contribute to the common weal; let them be censured when they are regarded as injurious to the well-being, so that they may not be repeated. I desire that on no occasion, whether near or remote, nor for any reason whatsoever, shall demonstrations of a political or religious character be made before my remains, as I consider the time devoted to the dead would be better employed in improving the conditions of the living, most of whom stand in great need of this.� Men like Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Kamaraj are being idolized by the Congress Party with supreme unconcern for the current problems being faced by the toiling and faceless poor masses of India today.
On page 21, Bhagat Singh quotes the following poem of Walt Whitman (1819 � 1892) on LIBERTY:
'Those corpses of young men,
Those martyrs that hang from the gibbets-
Those hearts pierced by the grey lead,
Cold and motionless as they seem, live elsewhere
With unslaughtered vitality.
They live in other young men, O Kings!
They live in other brothers again ready to defy you!
They were purified by death-
They were taught and exalted!'
On page 25 of the Jail Notebook, Bhagat Singh has quoted the famous poem of FIGHT FOR FREEDOM by William Wordsworth (1770-1850). On page 26, we see him recording in his own hand-writing the immortal poem THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE by Lord Tennyson (1809-1892). He has also translated a few of the lines from this poem into Urdu. The facsimile of his writing of this poem (both in English and Urdu) is presented below:
Bhagat Singh thought deeply about Law, Justice and Jurisprudence and their impact on society and politics through the ages. Bhagat Singh was convinced that Law without Justice resulted in only an arid formation. Here are some of his observations in his Jail Notebook (pages 105-106):
Historical Jurisprudence: Deals with the general principles governing the origin and development of Law; legal conceptions. It is the history.
Ethical Jurisprudence: Is concerned with the theory of justice in its relation to Law.
Law and Justice: The total disregard of the ethical implications of the Law tends to reduce analytical jurisprudence to a system which is only in the nature of an arid formation.
According to Bhagat Singh, in England, two different words 'Law' and 'Justice', are a constant reminder that these are two different things and not the same thing. And their use tends to hide from view the real and intimate relation which exists between them. In the European Continent, Bhagat Singh says that 'Continental Speech' conceals the difference between 'Law' and 'Right', whereas the �English Speech� conceals the connection between them.
On Page 107, Bhagat Singh has quoted Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780), English jurist, whose Commentaries on the Laws of England, 4 vol. (1765-69), is the best-known description of the doctrines of English law. The work became the basis of university legal education in England and North America. He was knighted in 1770. Here is the quotation given by Bhagat Singh from Blackstone:
'Law in its most general sense signifies a rule of action and is indiscriminate to all kinds of action, whether rational or irrational, animate or inanimate. Thus we say, the Laws of Motion, of Gravitation, of Optics, of Nature, and of Nations.'
On page 104 of his Jail Notebook, it is fascinating to note that Bhagat Singh, under the title 'All Legislators Defined as Criminals', has quoted Feodor Mikhailovach Dostoevski (1821-1881), one of the greatest Russian novelists in world literature. In his famous novel 'Crime and Punishment', he wrote as follows: �All Legislators and Rulers of men commencing with the earliest down to Lycurgus, Solon, Mahomed, Napoleon, etc. etc., have, one and all, been criminals, for, while giving new laws, they have naturally broken through older ones which had been faithfully observed by society and transmitted by its progenitors�.
On page 107, Bhagat Singh defines the pernicious nature of 'Foreign Subjugation' in the words of Prof. A.E. Ross: 'Subjugation to foreign yoke is one of the most potent causes of the decay of nations'.
There are brilliant quotations under the headings and themes like 'Life and Education', 'Truth', 'Desire vs. contentment', 'Aims of Life', 'Science of the State', 'Kinds of Governments', 'Sovereignty of the People', 'French Revolution', 'Hindu Civilization', and many other interesting subjects.
On page 278, under the title 'No Indian Parliament Conceivable!', Bhagat Singh has noted: 'The Indian National Congress assumed unto itself, almost from the beginning, the function of a Parliament. There was and is no room for a Parliament in India, because, so long as British Rule remains a reality, the Government of India, as Lord Morley (1838-1923) has plainly stated, must be an autocracy�benevolent and full of sympathy with Indian ideas, but still an autocracy.'
I have very carefully read all the pages of Bhagat Singh's Jail Notebook. If I am permitted to speak on his behalf, I would summarize the letter and spirit of his message to us in the following words:
a) The best and noblest lives are those which are set toward high ideals.
b) Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not long remain so if you but perceive an ideal and strive to reach it. You cannot travel within and stand still without.
c) The ideal life is in our blood and never will be lost.
d) An ideal is the only thing that has any real force. We have lost sight of our own ideal and its tremendous force and vigour. Somehow, that must be recaptured.
e) Expedients are for an hour, but principles are for the Ages. Just because the rains descend, and the winds blow, we cannot afford to build on the shifting sands.
f) All politicians, regardless of caste, colour, creed or race are fraternal companions in hypocrisy.
g) To live in the presence of great truths and eternal laws, to be led by permanent ideals'that is what keeps a man patient when the world ignores him, and calm and unspoiled when the world praises him.
h) Better be poisoned in one's blood, than to be poisoned in one's principles. Blessed is the Man who carries within himself a God, an ideal, and who obeys it.
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