The News Minute | September 28, 2014 | 7.05 pm ISTGroups of all political shades, even opposing ones, claim Bhagat Singh as their very own, sing his praises without even a basic understanding of his sheer intellect in a very short life.Hindustan Times traces his political thought, and the short-sightedness of Indian mainstream historiography in understanding his contribution political thought, limiting to just being a revolutionary who believed in armed struggle to gain independence from the British.Just 23 when he was hanged to death along with his associates Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar, Bhagat Singh had gone from being a devout Sikh to writing a well-argued essay titled “Why I am an Atheist” when he was in jail; and from considering armed struggle as the means to freedom from the British, to understanding its futility.Bhagat Singh wrote, “Let me announce with all the strength at my command, that I am not a terrorist and I never was, expect perhaps in the beginning of my revolutionary career. And I am convinced that we cannot gain anything through those methods.”He also understood how true emancipation could be achieved. Hindustan Times quotes his writing: “the struggle in India would continue so long as a handful of exploiters go on exploiting the labour of the common people for their own ends. It matters little whether these exploiters are purely British capitalists, or British and Indians in alliance, or even purely Indians.”Read the full piece at Hindustan Times which describes him as a person who "transformed himself from an action-oriented teenage revolutionary to a rational, socialist and democratic thinker with an egalitarian view of society"