“Bhagat Singh in his time had written that it is a shame that even in the 20th Century people are fighting over caste, creed, religion and so on. Almost a century later, unfortunately nothing much has changed. The country is grappling over similar concerns pertaining to religion and caste. It is important for the next generation to ponder upon why this is the case,” said Sheonon Singh, nephew of Shaheed Bhagat Singh.
Mr. Singh was speaking at an event to mark the first anniversary of the Bhagat Singh Archives and Resource Centre at the Delhi Archives Complex on Saturday. It was also the matrydom day of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev.
Emphasising the importance of critical thinking among the current generation, Mr. Singh said, “Critical knowledge is extremely important which even Bhagat Singh emphasised in his writings. Patriotism is not an ornament, but an ideology.”
Further Mr. Singh added, “One should never blindly accept what is being told to them. It is important to analyse what is being fed and ascertain whether we are going in the right direction. Loudly screaming from stages is not what patriotism entails, especially when there are crores of people who are left without basic essentials, including food.”
Chaman Lal, who has contributed several documents and journals on Bhagat Singh, from his personal collection to the resource centre, highlighted the need for “authentic history” to be presented before the general public. “It is important that authentic history is presented to the general public. Especially in the era of WhatsApp forwards, a lot of distorted information goes around which misleads the public. It is important to know the real Bhagat Singh; he taught how to question unlike what we are seeing in the current scenario,” Mr. Lal said.
“The aim of the resource centre is to keep historical documents in front of people to educate them. We want to make this centre a central source on Bhagat Singh. The credit goes to the Delhi government and all the officials who have worked on this project,” he added.
