On the idea of freedom and Bhagat Singh
I have been recently seeing a lot of content of the CJP protests and how the indian populace have reacted to a largly valid and mostly non-violent movement of (young) citizens holding the gov responsible for its various failures. What I have been largely intrigued by are the various forms of art pieces which tend to "serve" the protest in the sense of both giving power and hope to the citizens as well as to educate them about our freedom, democracy as well as the power structure of our nation.
Songs have had a big role to play, from Faiz Ahmed Faiz' "Bol Ke Lab Azad Hai" (speak - for your lips are still free), various songs from the movie Rang De Basanti : "Roobaroo", the title track, "Khalbali" etc, low key songs like "Jaago" by Lifafa to various english songs like "Happy Nation" by Ace of Base, "They Don't Care About Us" by MJ and the list goes on.
One of the more intriguing occurrence was the discourse on Bhagat Singh and his ideals how how it plays into our ideas of freedom: to be free in the most literal sense: the freedom of thought and ideas. This motivated me to read about him and also an essay written by him called : Why am I an Atheist, in which he outlines his views and demonstates the fact that he is someone whose stands behind his ideals even on the face of death and does not take the easy decision to pray to god before he dies.
a quote by him:
Let us see how I carry on; one friend asked me to pray. When informed of my atheism, he said, 'During your last days vou will begin to Believe I said, No, dear sir, it shall not be. I will think that to be an act of degradation and demoralization on my part. For selfish motives I am not going to pray. Readers and friends, "Is this vanity?" If it is, I stand for it.
-shaan