when bhagat singh was in lahore jail, he used to call a sweeper named mansha as bebe (mother). when asked the reason bhagat singh replied, only 2 persons cleaned my waste products - my mother & this sweeper. so he is like my mother. before going to the gallows bhagat singh expressed a desire to eat a roti made by sweeper mansha. jail authorities asked ,how can you eat food made by a sweeper? he does dirty work. bhagat singh replied, mother cleans fecal matter of baby with her hands & with the same hands she cooks food for the baby. exactly the same way i will eat roti made by bebe (sweeper). the jail authorities called sweeper mansha & bhagat singh ate food made by him. this was the time when people used to call scheduled class people as untouchables & used to think that things become unholy just by mere touch of untouchables. this example shows how matured bhagat singh was! bhagat singh wrote an article - problems of untouchability in june 1928 (at the age of 21 years) with pen name vidrohi. this aricle was first published in kirti - a journal of kirti kisan party (communist party). this article is quite long. so i intend to write it in parts. part 1- bhagat singh has written- no other country is in as miserable state as our country. here many strange questions keep on emerging. one of the most important problems is problem of untouchability. our countrys population is 30 crores. out of 30 crores- 6 crores are untouchables. our religion gets degraded by mere touch of these people. our gods & goddesses feel offended if these untouchables enter in the temple. our wells (water sources) become unholy if untouchables draw water from them. i feel ashamed to hear this. our country is very spiritual. but here we hesitate to give a person proper place in the society just because of his caste. on the other hand the so called materialistic europe is raising the voice of revolution since centuries. today even russia has said no to all types of discrimination & is ready for revolution with full determination. but here we are busy in the worries of existence of soul & god (atma & paramatma). here we have engulfed ourselves in strange arguments such as - is it right to give janeu (janeu- yajnopavitam- a sacred thread wore only by upper caste brahmins) to untouchables? do the untouchables deserve a right to read vedas? here we complain that foreigners dont treat us well, british govt dont treat us with equal respect as they treat their own citizens. but do we have such right to complain? here in this regard a sindhi muslim scholar mr. noor mohammad who is also a member of bombay counsil has said in 1926 - if the hindu society refuses to allow other human beings , fellow creatures so that to attend public schools, and if the president of local board representing so many lakhs of people in this house refuses to allow his fellows & brothers the elementary human right of having water to drink, what right have they ask for more rights from the bureaucracy? before we accuse people coming from other lands, we should see how we ourselves behave towards our own people... how can we ask for greater political rights when we ourselves deny elementary rights of human beings. the point raised by mr. noor mohammad is quite valid. but as he is a muslim, now hindu will say that he wants the untouchables to get converted into islam & thats why he is speaking for them. to be continued....
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 12:57:42 +0000
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