The elimination of force at all costs is Utopian and the new movement which has arisen in the country and of whose dawn we have given a warning is inspired by the ideals which Guru Gobind Singh and Shivaji, Kamal Pasha and Reza Khan, Washington and Garibaldi, Lafayette and Lenin preached.
Interpretation
A call to recognize the necessity of force in certain movements for justice.
In this quote, Bhagat Singh articulates a perspective on the role of force in revolutionary movements. He suggests that the absolute avoidance of force is an unrealistic ideal (Utopian), and he highlights the historical figures who, despite their diverse ideologies, embraced the use of force when necessary to fight for justice, freedom, and change. This reflects the complexities of social and political struggles where ideals must sometimes confront the harsh realities of oppression.
In practice
In a speech about social justice movements, one could use this quote to illustrate the complexities of revolutionary action.
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.
In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.
Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human Nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?
There are, indeed, things that cannot be put into words. They make themselves manifest. They are what is mystical.
Man's sin is in his failure to live what he is. Being the master of the earth, man forgets that he is the servant of God.
Your primary purpose is to be here fully, and to be total in whatever you do so that the preciousness of the present moment does not become reduced to a means to an end. And there you have your life purpose. That's the very foundation of your life.
Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.
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