On Bhagat Singh martyrdom anniversary, recalling his message to Dalits: ‘Organise, unite, challenge the world’

Revolutionary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, along with his comrades Rajguru and Sukhdev, was executed by the British on March 23, 1931.

On the anniversary of his martyrdom, with caste emerging as a key issue this poll season — the Opposition has been pressing for a national caste census, while the Narendra Modi government claims to have given adequate representation to the marginalised — here is a look at Bhagat Singh’s views on caste and untouchability, which are far less known than his contribution to the freedom struggle and his views on atheism.

Singh was one of the earliest freedom fighters to take up the question of caste, converging with B R Ambedkar on some points while diverging with him on others.

He discussed untouchability at length in an article written in June 1928 for the left-wing publication Kirti, taking a line radically different from that of the Arya Samaj, whose Dalit outreach involved the practice of shuddhi (purification) to integrate the ‘untouchables’ into Hindu society. Part of the Arya Samaj’s concern — as also of Mahatma Gandhi since the 1930s — was that unless ‘upper castes’ could be persuaded to accommodate in Hindu society the Dalits, the latter would convert to other religions while also breaking ranks with the largely upper caste-led freedom struggle.

Deviating from this line, Singh saw one positive aspect in the competition between religions — all religions had to ‘accommodate’ the ‘untouchables’ to enhance their numbers. “There is a lot of choice. The Christians are enhancing their status silently. In any case, it is good that at least a curse on the country is becoming lighter because of these developments,” he wrote in Kirti.

Taking a line similar to Ambedkar’s ‘autonomous’ Dalit politics,