Why I Am An Atheist By Bhagat Singh

 

Why I Am an Atheist and other works 

By : BHAGAT SINGH

Collection of Letters & essay

Published By : Om Sai Tech Books

Edition 2022

price : 199

Readers view  : E_003



The very first thing about the book is that Bhagat Singh wrote the essay in English in October 1930 in Lahore Central jail , which was published in "The People" on 27 Sep 1931 after his death . this is not a book but an essay of 24 pages, The essay originally written in English was later translated into Tamil by P. Jeevanandham at the request of Periyar E.V. and this Tamil version was published in Kudi Arasu in 1935 . As the original manuscript of the essay was unfortunately lost during World War 2nd ,   or during partition and thus the present edition we see is the translation of essay from its Tamil version. So , when we  read the English version of "Why I am an Atheist," we are reading   essays  by The Bhagat Singh, that was originally written in English, translated to Tamil, and then translated back to English. Book also contains some other letters written by Bhagat Singh .

Before We discuss further it is important to know, why the essay was written. In this regard following information is available and quite worthy. Major part of the following text is well known to every Indian but few points are noticeable.  It’s true that some people had blamed him of his atheist behaviour and he responded to those through this essay

As we all know that Bhagat Singh was a member of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, He believed in socialism, and he wrote so many  articles on anarchism and socialism .

He was sentenced to 14 years life imprisonment, in connection with the Central Legislative Assembly bombing case . He was re-arrested in connection with the murder of John Saunders; a deputy superintendent of police killed in 1928 in retaliation with the death of Lala Lajpat Rai . In that case, while the trial was going on he was transferred to Lahore jail. On 4 October 1930, Baba Randhir Singh, a religious man and member of GADAR Party, who was convicted in the first Lahore conspiracy case, met Bhagat Singh and tried to incite his belief in God , but, Bhagat Singh did not change his stance. finally , Randhir Singh said "You are giddy with fame and have developed an ego which is standing like a black curtain between you and the God".

As a reply to Randhir Singh, he wrote this essay on 5 and 6 October 1930. On 7 October 1930, all three of the defendants were convicted in the murder of Saunders and sentenced to death. On 23 March 1931, they were executed by hanging in the Lahore jail.

In this particular essay, Bhagat Singh states very clearly and boldly that his atheism was not a result of vanity. He very clearly admits that he was from a family where all were firm believers in God, and he also   grew up as a religious boy in fact, he used to recite the Gayatri Mantra in school for hours. Further he explains how, despite this, he went on to become an atheist, eventually he came to question his belief and started believing in disbelief "the Almighty" .

He also mentions that his atheism was not a result of his association with a revolutionary organization as most of his comrades were firm believer in God. Further he asks the open question that why your Almighty can not stop war or, can stop people while they committing sin and offence or why does he not just produce a certain sentiment in the mind of the British people to liberate India?

He had raised so many questions in his essay and these points mainly  forced him to disbelief . At the end, he also writes that existence of God is due to man's limitation, weakness and shortcoming.  Also, while talking about  origin of life and humanity, he writes "This is a phenomenon of nature. The accidental mixture of different substances in the shape of nebulae produced this earth. and the same process produced animals and, in the long run, man. and quotes Darwin's theory of Origin of Species.

In the next part of the book, it contains various letters written from jail either to authorities or to his co revolutionary. Letters like "; I would not defend myself" , "Don't hang us, shoot us" increases our respect for them in our hearts in which he demanded for death by shoot not by hanging as they were political prisoners and he thought that hanging is not the way of execution what they actually deserve .  Other letters also like "I would not defend myself", "When Sukhdev thought of Suicide", "Letter to Jaidev Gupta" , "letter for the removal of Justice Hilton", "letter to B K Dutt" and his message to Punjab Student conference and to young political workers worth reading and brings us closer to his thought and opinion on various matters related with freedom of the nation.

Atulya    

 

 

 

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