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.
If the deaf are to hear, the sound has to be very loud. When we dropped the bomb, it was not our intention to kill anybody. We have bombed the British Government. The British must quit India and make her free.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the need for strong actions to create significant change and highlights the unintended consequences of those actions.
Bhagat Singh's quote reflects the idea that for important messages or revolutionary actions to be heard and understood, they often need to be expressed with great force. The reference to the bombing not intending to kill anyone underscores the tragedy of war and violence, while simultaneously advocating for India's freedom from British rule. It suggests that sometimes, drastic measures are taken to achieve justice and equality, even if those measures result in unforeseen harm.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of fighting for justice.
More from Bhagat Singh
All quotes →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.
Similar quotes
The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, Sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable; and let it come! I repeat, Sir, let it come!
Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards any one.
When we look squarely at injustice and get involved, we actually feel less pain, not more, because we overcome the gnawing guilt and despair that festers under our numbness. We clean the wound - our own and others' - and it can finally heal.
and even when I was broken the way sometimes one can be broken, and even though I had fallen, I found upon arising that I was stronger than before, that the glories, if I may call them that, which I had loved so much and that had been darkened in my fall, were shinning even brighter and nearly everytime subsequently I have fallen and darkness has come over me, they have obstinately arisen, not as they were, but brighter.
The motto of all the mongoose family is, "Run and find out," and Rikki-tikki was a true mongoose.
I realized now that militancy in the best sense of the word was the only answer where the black man was concerned, that any black man who wasn't a militant in 1970 was either blind or a coward.