"Excuse me, what prompted you to see this film on Spiderman?"

"I came to see because I knew it was a great film."

"How did you know it was a great film?"

"I read reviews and I saw so many TV channels showing its promos."

"Have you seen any of the films on Bhagat Singh?"

"Oh! No! I would not waste my time on any of the films on Bhagat Singh."

"Why do you think that would be a waste of time?"

"Who wants to see the buried past, blood-soaked, tear-jerker story of Bhagat Singh?"

"What did you find interesting in Spiderman?"

"Oh! It was a very fascinating and exciting film. Besides being technically sound, it kept you glued to the chair throughout…it entertained endlessly."

All the films on Bhagat Singh miserably failed at the box office in a country of 100 crore people. But films like Spiderman and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which were far removed from our way of life, have been hits in the country even though a miniscule percentage of Indians can understand English films. No doubt some of these films were dubbed in Hindi, but the reason of their success lies elsewhere.

I went to the cinema halls to peep into the minds of youngsters who had thronged to see Spiderman and Harry Potter. Most of them had not seen any film on Bhagat Singh. They had, of course, seen the promos of the movies and had even read what was being written about the films in the papers. Yet, they had not been inspired enough to learn more about Bhagat Singh.

My queries about Bhagat Singh’s life to students have shown a near-total ignorance on their part. Most of them knew little about him and/or his companions, Raj Guru and Sukhdev. All of them had learnt a little bit about Bhagat Singh in their early years of schooling. I was not surprised that this generation also knew very little about Subhas Chandra Bose, Maulana Azad, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Dr S Radhakrishnan and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

It is not difficult to realise why our younger generation does not display any reverence for a person like Bhagat Singh. There cannot be a national hero until he is built into one. I am sure you will agree that heroes, who set an example through their acts of bravery and sacrifice, help generate reverence for one’s motherland. Somehow, our system has failed to do this.

A prominent social activist Pappo Avinash Singh of Ludhiana recalls that when Ajit Singh, chacha of Bhagat Singh, sacrificed his life for the country, thousands of people thronged Dalhousie for his cremation. Surely, those thousands of people did not live in Dalhousie but came from far-off places. "My grandmother was busy in the kitchen when the congregation passed our house. She grabbed her duppatta and told all of us to cover our heads and join the congregation. All through the route, she was crying as if someone from her own family had passed away. She also continued to tell us about Ajit Singh and Bhagat Singh. We were at the impressionable age and it left a deep mark on our minds. Till date, we have immense reverence for both Ajit Singh and Bhagat Singh."

The government schools still continue to follow certain practices like staging plays on the lives of Indian heroes or celebrating certain important days like the Independence Day, Republic Day, etc. However, private schools all over the country have passed a "look-down-upon attitude" towards all such celebrations to their students.

The caretaker at the Bhagat Singh Memorial said, "While many government schools bring bus-loads of students to Hussainiwala, where Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru and Sukhdev were cremated, private schools seldom display such interest."

The so-called convent schools try to dispense a western ethos in their education system. But, unfortunately, while they have succeeded in adopting superficial western styles like clothing, accent, individualism, etc, their students have failed to imbibe punctuality, dignity of labour, discipline and respect for law. It is not that students from government schools grow up to be ideal citizens but they, by and large, develop a passionate bond with their motherland.

It is ironical that our country, whose constitution pledges equal educational opportunities for all, does not have a uniform system of education. Even the government schools in the urban and rural areas are different. Various states also have different syllabi. Hence, students grow understanding different languages and issues. In the first place, there is very little stress on national heroes in our schools’ syllabi. In the second place, our regional biases fanned by the vote-hungry political leaders have pushed our students to be more patriotic towards the region rather than the nation. So a student from Punjab will never learn about the heroes of Maharashtra or Bengal who sacrificed their lives in the struggle for freedom of our country and vice versa.

Another major factor that has not allowed the younger generation to establish a bond with our national heroes is the new brand of Hindi cinema, which is providing youngsters with frivolous and vulgar entertainment. TV’s role has been far from satisfactory, too. Similarly, parents, who prefer to buy Enid Blytons, Harry Potters, Mills and Boons, etc, for their children rather than books on martyrs and historical figures — have to share the blame too. In fact, parents themselves display no pride in their own country. I wonder where we are heading!