REMEMBER THE REVOLUTIONARIES ... 2

REMEMBER THE REVOLUTIONARIES ... 2

The brutality of the British unleashed on the revolutionaries of the freedom movement does not mark them out as having much of civilisation which they vaunted of and, by their own mischievous assertion, supposedly tried to bring to nations colonised by them.

The justification of colonising so-called uncivilised peoples across the world with the alleged intent of civilising them does not hold much ground. Neither can it be brushed aside today by merely calling it a historical aberration called colonialism but the British, in so far as India is concerned, must be held accountable for it. The unthinkable sustained drainage of wealth for centuries from India which was their primary reason for occupation of an 'uncivilised' land cannot be camouflaged anymore by their supposed motive of spreading civilisation across the world. The British must be held accountable, I reiterate, for each and every act of depredation they have perpetrated in India.

This so-called attitude of friendliness to the colonising country by the colonised one and allowing it to go scot-free without ever having to answer for its misdeeds is the sign of mental servitude of the colonised and not the sign of genuine freedom. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong and never that of the weak. It implies that the one who forgives knows full well what he is forgiving the enemy for, that is, what the offences committed by the enemy are. It necessarily means that he is not forgetful of the injustices suffered by him. But this is not the case with us. We have conveniently chosen to remain oblivious of the facts of history, what the British have done to us and we keep blaming the Government for such imposed oblivion.

While there is sufficient justification for such a line of thinking as the Government of India from Nehru's time has not much bothered about unravelling the real history of the British depredation of India and their barbaric treatment of the revolutionaries, we can in no way absolve ourselves of the sin of a terrible apathy we bear towards our revolutionaries by neglecting to study their lives which are already well documented. This comes from a shallowness of the intellect and a levity of spirit that revels only in sensory pleasures of the hour with no commitment whatsoever to the past to which we owe so much. This ingratitude is also symptomatic of a depraved stated of existence what may be termed the mental colonisation by the erstwhile masters.

This attitude must change and we must gear ourselves to seriously studying the history of our freedom movement and rediscovering our past in the true national colours and not in the painted colours of the British or their Anglophile representatives in the Indian intelligentsia. But we must stop abusing others and save the energy instead for serious study. In this self-awareness lies our national good.

Written by Sugata Bose

Photo : Bhagat Singh in boyhood.