Understanding Bhagat Singh

Who was Bhagat Singh? There are six films made and more than 400 books published in almost all Indian languages, more than 200 in Hindi alone. The maximum numbers of publications proscribed during British colonial period were again on Bhagat Singh. Was he a Sikh nationalist or Arya Samajist like his family? Was he an admirer of the RSS or Veer Savarkar or was he a Marxist Socialist revolutionary? Did he grow a beard and became a faithful Sikh in jail, as some religious people would like others to believe or did he remain a confirmed atheist till the end? What was his approach towards Dalits and communal issues in Indian society or what kind of Indian society did he envision after a successful revolution of his dreams? What kind of forces did he imagine as the main driving force of Indian socialist revolution and how the revolution was to be made? There exists a long list of questions regarding the personality of Bhagat Singh, a popular hero of Indian youth for all ages. Was he a kind of Indian Che Guevara or Hugo Chavez?

Understanding Bhagat Singhis a collection of articles written by Professor Chaman Lal, a leading researcher on Bhagat Singh. Professor Lal has written more than a dozen publications on the hero in numerous Indian languages, during the Bhagat Singh’s birth centenary and after, on various aspects of the revolutionary personality of the hero. the book includes rare documents as well, some from Bhagat Singh’s own pen and others from Periyar, Jinnah and such eminent people of the time, in an attempt to provoke the reader to think deeply on one of the most iconic figures of Indain Freedom Struggle.