Thread by @sanjeevsanyal

People should read "Why I am an Atheist" before imputing a Marxist origin to Bhagat Singh's revolutionary activities. On the very first page, he clearly states that virtually everyone else in the movement were not Marxists including HRA founder Sachin Sanyal & Rajendra Lahiri 1/2

Sachin Sanyal, founder of Hindustan Republic Association, disliked Marxism & explicitly says so in Bandi Jeevan. He at most allowed for the word "socialism" as it was then a generic word for anything against imperialism. 2/n

Bhagat Singh derived his revolutionary zeal from his family who were Sikh Arya Samajis (the two groups had close links before splitting over language, not theology). He was ultimately hanged for avenging killing of Lajpat Rai, a "Hindu nationalist" 3/n

The true founder Indian communism is MN Roy but he is conveniently forgotten as he later left the movement. The movement was then taken over British communists including a double agent called Rajani Palme Dutt. 4/n

Interestingly, some HRA revolutionaries went to prison as nationalists and came out in the 1930s as communists. They have left us testimonies that the British jail authorities mostly provided them with Marxist literature in prison. Why? 5/n

The conversion of these revolutionaries to communism came handy for the British in WW2 as they would work for the British, and against their former colleagues, during the war. 6/n

The real success of the communists was infiltrating the revolutionary movement in the '30s. However, those claimed as communist freedom fighters had almost always made their contributions before they turned Marxist (and been indoctrinated in jail). 7/n

Here is what Bhagat Singh wrote about Sachindra Nath Sanyal, the founder of his movement, in Why I am an Atheist 8/n

Also from Why I am an Atheist. What Bhagat Singh wrote about the beliefs of Bismil and Rajendra Lahiri - and their behaviour as the bravely faced the gallows. 9/n

Here is what Sachin Sanyal has to say about how a Marxist called Qutubuddin tried to covert him. Not only was he not convinced by the purely materialist view of history, he was very suspicious of Q's intentions. 10/n

Here Subodh Roy tells us how younger Revolutionaries from mid 1930s were systematically indoctrinated in Marxism in jail so that they broke away from their earlier nationalist beliefs & no longer listened to the earlier generation of revolutionary leaders. 12/n

Bhagat Singh did develop an interest in Marxism towards the end of his short life. However, he neither derived his revolutionary zeal from it not did he found the Indian communist movement. He is today remembered as part of a movement that was explicitly not Marxist. 13/n