BookMarks #90: Bhagat Singh Jail Diary

Title: Bhagat Singh Jail Diary 

Compiled By: Yadavinder Singh Sandhu 

Genre: Diary 

Published: 2021 

BookMarks 

The book is a collection of notes from Bhagat Singh’s jail term from September, 1929 to just the day before his martyrdom in March, 1931. The jail diaries are a series of notes kept by Bhagat Singh from his readings. In modern times it would have been a blog or a podcast. The notes cover a variety of subjects including history, civic society, the many hypocrisies of the British rule, economics, law etc. There are quotes from various authors and extracts from poems kept for his records. The notes also present Bhagat Singh’s views on a variety of subjects like marriage, charity, slavery, inequality in distribution of wealth, conducting a revolution etc. 

We have been reading about Bhagat Singh since childhood. His image has been of an action figure, but he certainly was much more than that. Just look at the variety of subjects he covers in his notes and the clarity of the thoughts. Also, he was just 23. Certainly someone much more mature beyond their age. The biggest tragedy is that such a life got cut short so early. 

And inspired by his writings, here is me taking notes from his notes. These are the lines which stood out to me. 

• The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. 
• Their’s not to make reply, Their’s not to reason why; Their’s but to do and die 
• Don’t ask for rights. Take them. And don’t let anyone give them to you. 
• Great are great because we are on knees. 
• So long as the laws are made by the ruling class and the courts are presided over by members of the class; so long as lawyers are private practitioners who sell their skill to the highest bidder, and litigation is technical and costly, so long will the nominal equality before the law be a hollow mockery. 
• For reform, a threat of revolution is necessary 
• Neither the machine nor the machine owner may rule the human race. 
• In politics as in war, tactics means the art of conducting isolated operations; strategy means the art of victory, that is the actual seizure of power. 
• Teach him to live rather than to avoid death! Life is not breath, but action! Life consists less in length of days than in keen sense of living. 
• The end of Law is not to abolish or restrain but to preserve or enlarge freedom. 
• A revolution is justifiable when the government ceases to fulfil its part of contract — the protection of personal rights. 
• No one should be rich enough to buy another nor poor enough to be forced to sell himself. Great inequalities pave the way for tyranny. 
• The first man who, having enclosed a piece of land, thought of saying ‘that is mine’, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of Civil Society. 
• An insurrection is an equation with very indefinite magnitudes, the value of which may change every day. 
• Remember that plague and cholera may attack you tomorrow, and is it not better for you to die as heroes? - Can't beat this logic for motivating more people to join the revolution

What remarkable thoughts! 

Previously on BookMarks: Siddhartha  

Previously on Bhagat Singh on the blog: Learn N Blog #11