WHY AM I AN ATHEIST?

(Partly adapted from an essay by Bhagat Singh with the same title, viz, “Why Am I An Atheist?” published in the Frontline)

“Socialism is a question of Atheism, a question of building a tower of Babel, consciously rejecting the help of God. The objective over here is not to reach unto heaven but to bring down heaven to earth.”- Fyodor Dostoyevsky in his magnum opus “Crime and Punishment”.

Most of us know that Shaheed Bhagat Singh was hanged to death at the tender age of 23 and that he popularized the slogan of 'Inquilab Zindabad’. But what most of us don't know is that he was a convinced Atheist and a Socialist of the classical Marxist traditions. Here, we’ll analyze an essay written by him from his prison cell a few days before he was hanged.

Bhagat Singh writes in “Why Am I An Atheist?”…..

“Iam of the opinion that the concept of 'God' was used by certain dominant interests to perpetuate their social hegemony using the institution called 'Religion'. The empirical proof of this is that no religion advocates to its adherents that they should a revolt against their mortal king. The British are now ruling India not because God wills it but because the textile millowners of Manchester will it. The Britishers don't rely on God to suppress us but on the police, the militia and the other coercive instruments of State power.

We are now seeing the most virulent of all crimes against humanity the exploitation an entire nation by another. Where is God? What is he doing? Is he a Nero who fiddles while Rome burns? or is he a Chengiz Khan? We don't need this kind of God. Down with him! My belief in atheism does not arise from a personal fancy but because I believe that the concept of 'God' is incompatible with our common struggle for a just world order.

Personally, I understand that a faith in god would make the circumstances of my harsh life seem less painful to me and would enable me to face death easier. A bit of religious mysticism will add a poetic touch to my impending death at the gallows. But I don't need any spiritual intoxication to face death because Iam a Realist. I neither have a fear of death nor a faith in God.”

Coming back to current times, a few years back, we saw 5 films being released from Bollywood on Bhagat Singh's life. This seems to be a welcome development, but the sad truth is these films cater to the some erroneous, populist notions of 'Patriotism' ie, the Hinduised version of patriotism which assumes a rabid Anti-Pakistan and a sober anti-Muslim dimension. This has become possible because a strong element in the Hindutva ideology doing the rounds has an unscientific, ahistorical understanding of Sikhism as the sword arm of Hinduism and so in the corollary, this gives rise to the false assumption that the Sikhs are no more than Hindus with turbans. Though the Sikh ‘Khalsa’ under Guru Gobind Singh arose as a militant protest against the Mughals, Sikhism as a religion per se has its roots in the Bhakthi and the Sufi movements of the 15th century which emphasized Hindu-Muslim unity and the universal brotherhood of mankind.

In these films that had been released, Bhagat Singh is depicted as a God-Fearing, Hindu-Sikh spiritualist, who resorts to a jingoistic kind of heroic, individualistic patriotism. This is nothing but a patent disrespect to the memory of that martyr. For instance, according to historical proof, when the jailor came to take him to the gallows, Bhagat Singh was reading a work of Lenin. But in these films, they show him to be reading the Bhagawad Gita. Here it is not implied that the Gita should not be read or that it is not valuable. The Gita may be dear to many spiritual adherents of Hinduism. It may also.have many insightful elements of a seminal epistemological value. It But why distort history to prove a parochial point?

Bhagat Singh was also not under the thrall of any adventuristic, heroic, individualistic ideas of the James Bond type. He was a member of the HSRA (the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army) which included other revolutionaries like Chandra Sekhar Azad, Bismillah, Ashfaquallah, Raj Guru etc. All the members of the HSRA, were conscious of the need for organizing a revolutionary party of the Indian people which can act as the vanguard of the historic struggle against British Imperialism. In no way were the HSRA members thinking of themselves as Robin Hood type ‘Heroes’ of the freedom struggle. Amongst the five films released, the only film which depicts the true story of Bhagat Singh in a sober realistic vein, is the one by Rajkumar Santhoshi.

We have to remember that Bhagat Singh lived and died not for the cause of 85 crore Hindus and Sikhs but for a cause dear to 650 crore humans - the cause of Human Liberty and Social Justice. And he did this not out of a disproportionate sense of individual heroic-adventurism but out of a profound scientific understanding of his own life’s purpose in that particular epoch of history.