My applications submitted to the Tribunal regarding my interview during the hunger strike were misinterpreted, and it was published in the press that I was going to offer defence, though in reality I was never willing to offer any defence.
Interpretation
The quote expresses Bhagat Singh's frustration over the misinterpretation of his intentions during a critical moment, revealing the challenges faced by those who stand up for their beliefs.
In this quote, Bhagat Singh highlights the difficulties he encountered in ensuring his stance and intentions were accurately represented during a time of significant personal sacrifice. His experience during the hunger strike, a powerful act of defiance, was distorted by external narratives, emphasizing the struggle for truth and integrity in the face of oppression and misinformation. Singh's unwillingness to defend himself in a conventional sense illustrates his commitment to his cause and the conviction that his actions spoke louder than words.
In practice
In a speech about human rights, referring to Bhagat Singh's struggle for justice.
One should not interpret the word “Revolution” in its literal sense. Various meanings and significances are attributed to this word, according to the interests of those who use or misuse it. For the established agencies of exploitation it conjures up a feeling of blood stained horror. To the revolutionaries it is a sacred phrase.
Non-violence is backed by the theory of soul-force in which suffering is courted in the hope of ultimately winning over the opponent. But what happens when such an attempt fail to achieve the object? It is here that soul-force has to be combined with physical force so as not to remain at the mercy of tyrannical and ruthless enemy.
Those revolutionaries who have, by chance, escaped the gallows should live and show to the world that they cannot only embrace gallows for the ideal but also bear the worst type of tortures in the dark, dingy prison cells.
Love always elevates the character of man. It never lowers him, provided love be love
A rebellion is not a revolution. It may ultimately lead to that end.
They may kill me, but they cannot kill my ideas. They can crush my body, but they will not be able to crush my spirit.
I tried to get into the mind of my opponent and psyche him out.
I became a firefighter because I wanted to save people. But I should have been more specific. I should have named names.
Under the influence of fear, which always leads men to take a pessimistic view of things, they magnified their enemies' resources, and minimized their own.
I knew that I would have to be brave. Not foolhardy, not in love with risk and danger, not making ridiculous exhibitions of myself to prove that I wasn't terrified--really genuinely brave. Brave enough to be quiet when quiet was called for, brave enough to observe before flinging myself into something, brave enough to not abandon my true self when someone else wanted to seduce or force me in a direction I didn't want to go, brave enough to stand my ground quietly.
When people are suicidal, their thinking is paralyzed, their options appear spare or nonexistent, their mood is despairing, and hopelessness permeates their entire mental domain. The future cannot be separated from the present, and the present is painful beyond solace. ‘This is my last experiment,’ wrote a young chemist in his suicide note. ‘If there is any eternal torment worse than mine I’ll have to be shown.
She had put despair and fear aside, as if they were garments she did not choose to wear.
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