The existence of God has been one of the highly debated topics in theology. In that context, I always remember the story of two scientists, one being Thomas Alva Edison, on creation and its creator. I picked up this book to understand if religion has a place in India’s freedom struggle and what led a revolutionary socialist to proclaim his faith in God.

Why I am an Atheist is a non-fiction work written by the revolutionary freedom fighter, Bhagat Singh. It depicts his ideology and clear thinking and why he calls himself a realist and materialist . In this book, he poses himself the question, reasons out and disproves that it is not vanity, which some of his friends presumed to be a reason for his disbelief in God. The literary work was written in the form on a pamphlet in the year 1930, few days before his martyrdom, while he was at Lahore Central Jail.

In early days of his life, Singh identifies himself as a staunch believer of the God and a romantic idealist revolutionary like most of his predecessors. He respects the viewpoints of early revolutionaries who used to derive energy and see mysticism as a source of inspiration required for sacrificing personal life and to sustain spiritually during their fight for freedom. But later, he realized the very existence of the revolutionary party, which he was part of, seemed impossible and felt the need to replace the romantic violent methods by serious ideas with a clear conception of the ideal for which they were to fight.

A man who claims to be a realist has to challenge the whole of a ancient faith. No more mysticism. No more blind faith. Realism became our cult. Use of force justifiable when resorted to a matter of terrible necessity.

His ability to read and understand the various political theories across the world to conceptualize the ideal convinced him to give out his disbelief and become a pronounced atheist. In the pamphlet, he interestingly questions God and believers across all religious faiths comparing Him with Nero and Changezkhan for making a world in which none is living happily. He also critically analyzes the role of religion and religious punishments and efforts of omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient God with limited powers in controlling His own creation.

Finally, while he denied to offers prayers for selfish motives to live longer or attain pleasures after death he concludes saying..

The idea of God is helpful to a man in distress. Without Him, man has to depend upon himself. To stand upon one’s own legs amid storms and hurricanes is not a child’s play. At such testing moments, vanity-if any-evaporates.

I must also appreciate that the pamphlet projects the little known political thinking of Singh as a Socialist and emphasizes greatly on why force be used to only to counter the hurdles of progress. This is in contradiction to his known identity as rebellion or revolutionary during Indian Independence movement.

This book is a must read for those who are interested in reading about theology and political philosophy and those who enjoy non-fiction.