It is difficult to write a comprehensive review of Bhagat Singh’s ‘Jail Notebook.’ For one, it gathers excerpts of texts that Singh read while he was imprisoned, with little explanation about what made him note those lines. Individually, these extracts make little sense, but when read together, a vague picture of a painfully young and courageous person emerges.

The recent edition, a slim softbound yellow copy, includes other writings, like his address to young political workers, which paint a clearer image of his political ideals and the psychological strength he was willing to exercise for them. In one essay he writes that the revolution needs people who toil for it every minute of every day. Borrowing Lenin’s words, he describes this class as “professional revolutionaries” and “the whole time worker.”

Two things strike me here. First, how Bhagat Singh’s revolutionary story has been rewritten in recent times, reducing him to an unrecognisable vacuous personality. Today, he is almost a motivational speaker, divorced from his specific context and far-reaching tenacity. His burning desire for independence from capital, caste, and colonialism replaced with a bowl of politically meaningless sentiments. The common opinion seems to be that this is a result of fascists wanting claim over him, and this is likely true, but centrist thought has also contributed to this mischaracterisation. Certain figures have been made into a museum, without any real engagement outside textbook images and tweets.

The second thing that comes to me is that revolution is work. Someone has to do it–– all the time. This work is often unsaid, invisible, and likely not calculated as labour because people– well-intentioned liberals and unthinking individuals are often alike in this–– consider it as a nuisance. An obstacle to work and not itself work. In an era when the revolution is so liquid and spread out, it is easy to forget that there is a large mechanics involved with any positive change. A lot of work. Who is going to do it?