Bhagat Singh transformed Swami Vivekananda’s call for heroic spirituality into a political struggle for justice. In that transformation, the hero of the freedom struggle built a bridge between spiritual nationalism and revolutionary activism in India’s freedom movement. OSWALD PEREIRA analyses how the non-violent sage inspired the revolutionary freedom fighter
Did Swami Vivekananda and Bhagat Singh have anything in common? Vivekananda was a monk, a yogi and renunciate, who believed in non-violence. Singh was a revolutionary freedom fighter who believed in the use of violence to secure liberation from British rule.
But beneath these apparent contrasts lies a shared thread of transformative idealism. Bhagat Singh’s political philosophy—particularly his ethics of sacrifice, valour, and service—was shaped in part by the ideological current that Swami Vivekananda set in motion. Though Singh eventually grounded his worldview in historical materialism and rejected metaphysical religion, he retained a deep respect for Vivekananda as a moral and intellectual exemplar.
Though Singh ultimately embraced atheism and revolutionary violence, Vivekananda’s emphasis on fearlessness, sacrifice, and national pride played a crucial role in forging Singh’s resolve and providing a spiritual framework—even if indirectly—for revolutionary action.
In his prison writings, Singh often used language that bordered on spiritual. He spoke of “duty to humanity,” “service to the cause,” and “fearless commitment”—phrases that echo both the Bhagavad Gita and Vivekananda’s Karma Yoga, even as he couched them in Marxist terms.
Swami Vivekananda’s message to the youth of India was electrifying: he called for strength, manliness, sacrifice, and active service to the motherland. He thundered against passivity, superstition, and colonial servility, urging young Indians to see divinity in themselves and in their nation. This resonated deeply with early 20th-century revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh.
He was born in 1907, just five years after Vivekananda’s death, into a politically active Sikh family in Lyallpur district, Punjab, and came of age in an atmosphere where Vivekananda’s writings were considered essential reading for nationalist youth. The atmosphere of patriotic fervour was already alive in Punjab, and Vivekananda’s writings circulated widely, even in rural areas. Singh is known to have read Vivekananda as part of his early education in revolutionary and philosophical literature. Vivekananda held a special place for his message of fearlessness, self-sacrifice, and service.
According to biographical accounts, Singh read Lectures from Colombo to Almora and Karma Yoga in his teenage years and was particularly moved by Vivekananda’s call for youth to “arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached.”
As he grew up, and, later in his writings, such as Why I Am an Atheist later, Singh spoke of rationalism, humanism, and was critical of organized religion. But he never rejected the ideal of self-sacrifice or the spiritual valour that Vivekananda championed.
Vivekananda’s call to build an India of “muscles of iron and nerves of steel” left a lasting impression on the revolutionary Singh. In a letter dated 1930, Singh recommended that young comrades read Swami Vivekananda to cultivate strength and moral courage. Even as Singh leaned toward Marxism, he continued to admire Vivekananda’s fiery nationalism and spiritual discipline, seeing in it a source of ethical strength that could animate revolutionary ideals.
Swami Vivekananda’s lectures in the late 19th century awakened a dormant India to its spiritual and cultural heritage. His insistence on strength (shakti), selfless action (karma yoga), and national pride provided an antidote to the colonial narrative of Indian inferiority.
Vivekananda declared, “What we need is man-making religion. The ideal of faith in ourselves is of the greatest help to us.” This message had an electrifying impact on youth movements across India. In Punjab, Bengal, and Maharashtra, secret societies and political cells found in Vivekananda a moral compass that transcended sectarian religion and emphasised duty to the nation.
By the early 20th century, his writings were widely disseminated in revolutionary circles.
Even as Singh leaned toward Marxism, he continued to admire Vivekananda’s fiery nationalism and spiritual discipline, seeing in it a source of ethical strength that could animate revolutionary ideals.
Vivekananda’s emphasis on tyaga (renunciation) and seva (service) contributed to Bhagat Singh’s ideal of the revolutionary as a renunciate—a modern sannyasi who renounces personal comfort and even life itself for the cause of national liberation. The ascetic ideal was transformed into revolutionary martyrdom.
In this way, Singh did not see contradiction between spiritual heroism and material struggle. He adapted Vivekananda’s ideal of the karmayogi—the one who acts without attachment—to his revolutionary praxis.
Considering that Bhagat Singh was inspired by Swami Vivekananda, the question that pops up is: How did a man inspired by spiritual figures like Vivekananda justify the use of political violence? The answer is: Singh did not indulge in violence for its own sake; rather, he saw it as a necessary tactic in a historical context where moral appeals and petitions had failed. In his article “Philosophy of the Bomb,” co-authored with B K Dutta, co-revolutionist, Singh argued that when injustice becomes institutionalised and legal methods are futile, violence can be a form of awakening the masses and shaking the foundations of oppression.
This belief was not devoid of ethical reflection. Singh approached revolutionary violence as an act of self-sacrifice rather than vengeance. Like Vivekananda, he believed in fearlessness as a supreme virtue. The bombing of the Central Legislative Assembly in 1929 was, non-lethal and symbolic, intended not to kill but to make a statement—“to make the deaf hear.”
The act was theatrical and moralistic, akin to a yajna (ritual sacrifice), where the self is offered on the altar of the nation. Singh’s calm demeanour during his trial and execution reflected the spirit of detachment and courage celebrated in the Bhagavad Gita, which both Vivekananda and Singh revered, albeit through different lenses.
While Bhagat Singh declared himself an atheist, he did not dismiss the moral and psychological power of religious or spiritual thought. In fact, his atheism was an ethical stance against dogma and fatalism, not a denial of the spiritual dimension of courage and sacrifice.
Vivekananda too was a critic of mechanical religiosity and caste orthodoxy, preaching a dynamic, living Vedanta that emphasised inner strength and social duty. Singh’s rejection of metaphysical belief did not preclude admiration for those spiritual figures who embodied revolutionary action.
Thus it is right to say that Bhagat Singh’s revolutionary spirit was deeply influenced by Swami Vivekananda’s ideals. Even though the two stood on different sides of the religious spectrum, their visions converged in their insistence on courage, service, and self-sacrifice.
Bhagat Singh transformed Swami Vivekananda’s call for heroic spirituality into a political struggle for justice. In that transformation, the hero of the freedom struggle built a bridge between spiritual nationalism and revolutionary activism in India’s freedom movement.
Swami Vivekananda and Bhagat Singh both envisioned the emergence of a new India, strong, free, and awakened. While Vivekananda saw spiritual realisation as the path to national renewal, Bhagat Singh championed political and economic liberation through revolutionary means. Yet both emphasised the moral imperative of self-sacrifice, courage, and service to the oppressed.
Singh’s Marxist reinterpretation of Vivekananda reveals a complex but fruitful dialogue between two seemingly opposing worldviews. Rather than viewing Vivekananda as antithetical to revolution, Singh saw in him a precursor—an awakener of souls, whose spiritual thunder laid the foundations for political fire. In doing so, Bhagat Singh not only honoured Vivekananda’s legacy but transformed it, giving it a new form in the crucible of revolutionary struggle.
References
- Mahesh Sharma, Bhagat Singh and His Ideology
- Bhagat Singh, Selected Writings of Shaheed Bhagat Singh
- Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt, “Philosophy of the Bomb,” in Documents of Bhagat Singh and His Companions
- Swami Vivekananda, Lectures from Colombo to Almora
- Bhagat Singh, “Letter to Young Political Workers,” in The Bhagat Singh
- Chaman Lal, Understanding Bhagat Singh
Oswald Pereira, a senior journalist, has also written ten books, including Beyond Autobiography of a Yogi, The Newsroom Mafia, Chaddi Buddies, The Krishna-Christ Connexion, How to Create Miracles in Our Daily Life and Crime Patrol: The Most Thrilling Stories. Oswald is a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda, and practises Kriya Yoga.
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