Revolutionary Visions in British India: Bismil and Bhagat Singh, 1924–31

This paper explores the historical imagination of Indian revolutionaries (1924-1931) belonging to the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) and its revolutionary offspring Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA). It focuses in particular on the writings and poetry of Ram Prasad Bismil (1897-1927) the founder of HRA and Bhagat Singh (1907-1931) the leading light of HSRA. Common to both Bismil and Bhagat Singh were their sources of inspiration (the Irish Revolutionary movement, the Bolshevik Revolution and the American Revolution) and their belief in creed of violence. Both of them were hanged for their role in revolutionary conspiracies, Bismil in 1927 and Bhagat Singh in 1931. Notwithstanding the fact Bhagat Singh inherited the movement founded by Bismil, there was a huge divergence in their political ideology. Bismil belonged to the older generation of revolutionaries and was firmly wedded to the right-wing Hindu nationalist ideology. Bhagat Singh on the other hand was a staunch atheist in the line of Marxian revolutionaries. In analyzing their writings the central question this paper explores is – What held together a devout Hindu and an atheist revolutionary? In order to answer this question this paper explores the way Bismil and Bhagat Singh conceptualized India’s past. A juxtaposition of Bismil and Bhagat Singh’s writing not only brings to fore the internally differentiated character of the revolutionary movement but more importantly it challenges the nationalist classificatory categories of right and left-wing, violent and non-violent, secular and non-secular.