“History doesn't repeat itself,
but it does rhyme.”
― Mark Twain
The resonance of the assonance
the time weaves is an imperative that inevitably comes. That is the history of
history.
So history may be subjected to subjective
subjugations, manipulating it to the extent to sound its alter-ego. But, in the
contemporary history where history records itself, as the time moves ahead, by
having enough of the 'types' being its eyes and ears, that they preserve its objectivity
for everyone who cares for.
So, people, even in the
archetypal dictatorships, take on to the streets, to revisit their history, to
correct their history, to make premises for a history that would be recorded 'as
it goes'.
Like everywhere else, in the
contemporary history, it is true with the contemporary Indian history as well,
including its Independence Movement.
Most of us (who are willing) have
access to what happened during the pre-Independence era and what followed.
And it tells us India owes its
Independence in 1947 to the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. No rational mind
would debate it.
And it is equally true that no
rational mind would debate the contributions of those who differed with the
Mahatma on the issue of ideology - the league of revolutionaries including
Subhash Chandra Bose, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh and many more.
They all inspired the ordinary Indians
to go beyond their personal perceptions to raise a collective call for full
independence.
But the way the post-Independence
India followed its history skewed the facts of its Independence struggle giving
space to few while ignoring others. It left it poorly expressed. It left it
incompletely done, a verse with no rhyming.
So, while most of us, who bother
to read, know about Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, or even Bal Gangadhar
Tilak or Gopal Krishna Gokhale or Lala Lajpat Rai or Madan Mohan Malaviya or
many more like them - but don't know when they were born, when they died, the
place of their final journies, where their descendents are - because the
politics of post-Independence India never bothered about them beyond lip-service.
But as Mark Twain says, history
does find ways to find elements to rhyme itself.
March 23 is the Martyrdom Day of
Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru who were hanged by the
colonial British rulers in a Lahore prison in 1931.
March 23 comes every year and
goes. Apart from routine mentions and some social media activity (in recent
times), it doesn't generate much buzz.
But with a changed political
dispensation with a different ideology, Indian politics is searching for
different symbols, to add to the existing ones or to replace them - to rework
the ideological symbolism of Indian politics.
And March 23 has rightly found a
prominent place in this search, and through it, the contemporary Indian history
has found the elements to find a way to rhyme its tales on Indian freedom
struggle.
The Martyrdom Day of the great revolutionaries
this year is going to create front page headlines and round the clock coverage
and thus a greater public exposure.
A very handful of Indians would
be aware of 'Hussainwala' or 'Khatkar Kalan' but tomorrow most of them would be
reading or googling about them.
The colonial cowardice of the
then British government pushed for a secretive, hastened hanging of the
revolutionary trio and their bodies were cremated at Hussainiwala in Punjab's
Ferozepur district. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going there tomorrow to pay
his tributes. A PM is going there after 30 years when it had to be a regular
affair.
Khatkar Kalan is the ancestral
village of Bhagat Singh. It is Punjab's Nawanshahr district that is now known
as Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar. Anna Hazare is going there tomorrow to pay
homage.
Let's see if we see similar moves
followed with native places of Sukhdev and Rajguru.
The Aam Aadmi Party is going to
launch a state-wide agitation in Uttar Pradesh against the Land Acquisition
Bill. Congress is going to do that in Tamil Nadu.
Include many other planned and
unplanned incidents on the similar lines and expect social media trends
generating high volumes.
So, there are by-the-government-
and anti- government moves planned for tomorrow, but the good thing for Indian
history is that March 23 is the central theme, the common cord of all.
Hope, the rhyming will be
lyrically balanced this time.