Thread by @PSainath_org

1/5. Bhagat Singh. Today is the 113th birth anniversary of the man we celebrate as a martyr, political activist, thinker, revolutionary – and rightly so. Sadly, an element central to his identity – Bhagat Singh the journalist, remains largely unknown
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2/5. Bhagat Singh the journalist wrote in four languages, English, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi. While underground, he learned some Bengali. He even understood a little Persian. All this - achieved by a young man hanged at age 23. Many of us began journalism at that age
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3/5. A lot of Bhagat Singh’s journalism appeared in Kirti, Pratap, Vir Arjun, Milap and Akali. Much that he wrote under pseudonyms is lost to us. At age 17, he translated the revolutionary Dan Breen’s book ‘My Fight for Irish Freedom’ from English into Hindi
#Bhagat_Singh

4/5. A voracious reader, Bhagat Singh during his 716 days in prison, borrowed over 300 books to make notes from - a right he won by hunger strike. Those included 63 Hindi books, 197 English, 28 Urdu, 17 Bengali and 7 in Punjabi
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5/5. Bhagat Singh saw the communal riots of his time as being spearheaded by political leaders – and a communalised press. He worried greatly about religious zealots and their media friends twisting and poisoning his profession – journalism.
#Bhagat_Singh