Bhagat Singh and Savarkar, Two Petitions
that Tell Us the Difference Between Hind and Hindutva
Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s Last Petition
Lahore Jail, 1931
To: The
Punjab Governor
Sir, With due
respect we beg to bring to your kind notice the following:That we were
sentenced to death on 7th October 1930 by a British Court, L.C.C Tribunal,
constituted under the Sp. Lahore Conspiracy Case Ordinance, promulgated by
the H.E. The Viceroy, the Head of the British Government of India, and that
the main charge against us was that of having waged war against H.M. King
George, the King of England.
The
above-mentioned finding of the Court pre-supposed two things:
Firstly, that
there exists a state of war between the British Nation and the Indian Nation
and, secondly, that we had actually participated in that war and were
therefore war prisoners.
The second
pre-supposition seems to be a little bit flattering, but nevertheless it is
too tempting to resist the desire of acquiescing in it.
As regards
the first, we are constrained to go into some detail. Apparently there seems
to be no such war as the phrase indicates.
Nevertheless,
please allow us to accept the validity of the pre-supposition taking it at
its face value. But in order to be correctly understood we must explain it
further.
Let us
declare that the state of war does exist and shall exist so long as the
Indian toiling masses and the natural resources are being exploited by a
handful of parasites.
They may be
purely British capitalist or mixed British and Indian or even purely Indian.
They may be carrying on their insidious exploitation through mixed or even on
purely Indian bureaucratic apparatus. All these things make no difference.
No matter, if
your government tries and succeeds in winning over the leaders of the upper
strata of the Indian society through petty concessions and compromises and
thereby cause a temporary demoralisation in the main body of the forces.
No matter, if
once again the vanguard of the Indian movement, the Revolutionary Party,
finds itself deserted in the thick of the war.
No matter if
the leaders to whom personally we are much indebted for the sympathy and
feelings they expressed for us, but nevertheless we cannot overlook the fact
that they did become so callous as to ignore and not to make a mention in the
peace negotiation of even the homeless, friendless and penniless of female
workers who are alleged to be belonging to the vanguard and whom the leaders
consider to be enemies of their utopian non-violent cult which has already
become a thing of the past; the heroines who had ungrudgingly sacrificed or
offered for sacrifice their husbands, brothers, and all that were nearest and
dearest to them, including themselves, whom your government has declared to be
outlaws.
No matter, it
your agents stoop so low as to fabricate baseless calumnies against their
spotless characters to damage their and their party’s reputation.
The war shall
continue.
It may assume
different shapes at different times. It may become now open, now hidden, now
purely agitational, now fierce life and death struggle.
The choice of
the course, whether bloody or comparatively peaceful, which it should adopt
rests with you. Choose whichever you like. But that war shall be incessantly
waged without taking into consideration the petty (illegible) and the
meaningless ethical ideologies.
It shall be
waged ever with new vigour, greater audacity and unflinching determination
till the Socialist Republic is established and the present social order is completely
replaced by a new social order, based on social prosperity and thus every
sort of exploitation is put an end to and the humanity is ushered into the
era of genuine and permanent peace.
In the very
near future the final battle shall be fought and final settlement arrived at.
The days of
capitalist and imperialist exploitation are numbered. The war neither began
with us nor is it going to end with our lives. It is the inevitable
consequence of the historic events and the existing environments.
Our humble
sacrifices shall be only a link in the chain that has very accurately been
beautified by the unparalleled sacrifice of [Jatin] Das and most tragic but
noblest sacrifice of Comrade Bhagawati Charan and the glorious death of our
dear warrior [Chandrashekhar] Azad.
As to the
question of our fates, please allow us to say that when you have decided to
put us to death, you will certainly do it.
You have got
the power in your hands and the power is the greatest justification in this
world.
We know that
the maxim “Might is right” serves as your guiding motto. The whole of our
trial was just a proof of that.
We wanted to
point out that according to the verdict of your court we had waged war and
were therefore war prisoners. And we claim to be treated as such, i.e., we
claim to be shot dead instead of to be hanged.
It rests with
you to prove that you really meant what your court has said.
We request
and hope that you will very kindly order the military department to send its
detachment to perform our execution.
Yours,
BHAGAT SINGH
V.D. Savarkar’s Petition
Cellular Jail, Andamans, 1913
To: The Home
Member of the Government of India
I beg to
submit the following points for your kind consideration:(1) When I came here
in 1911 June, I was along with the rest of the convicts of my party taken to
the office of the Chief Commissioner. There I was classed as “D” meaning dangerous
prisoner; the rest of the convicts were not classed as “D”. Then I had to
pass full 6 months in solitary confinement. The other convicts had not.
During that time I was put on the coir pounding though my hands were
bleeding. Then I was put on the oil-mill – the hardest labour in the jail.
Although my conduct during all the time was exceptionally good still at the
end of these six months I was not sent out of the jail; though the other
convicts who came with me were. From that time to this day I have tried to
keep my behaviour as good as possible.(2) When I petitioned for promotion I
was told I was a special class prisoner and so could not be promoted. When
any of us asked for better food or any special treatment we were told “You
are only ordinary convicts and must eat what the rest do”. Thus Sir, Your
Honour would see that only for special disadvantages we are classed as
special prisoners.
(3) When the
majority of the casemen were sent outside I requested for my release. But,
although I had been cased (caned?) hardly twice or thrice and some of those
who were released, for a dozen and more times, still I was not released with
them because I was their casemen. But when after all, the order for my
release was given and when just then some of the political prisoners outside
were brought into the troubles I was locked in with them because I was their
casemen.
(4) If I was
in Indian jails I would have by this time earned much remission, could have
sent more letters home, got visits. If I was a transportee pure and simple I
would have by this time been released, from this jail and would have been
looking forward for ticket-leave, etc. But as it is, I have neither the
advantages of the Indian jail nor of this convict colony regulation; though
had to undergo the disadvanatges of both.
(5) Therefore
will your honour be pleased to put an end to this anomalous situation in
which I have been placed, by either sending me to Indian jails or by treating
me as a transportee just like any other prisoner. I am not asking for any
preferential treatment, though I believe as a political prisoner even that
could have been expected in any civilized administration in the Independent
nations of the world; but only for the concessions and favour that are shown
even to the most depraved of convicts and habitual criminals? This present
plan of shutting me up in this jail permanently makes me quite hopeless of
any possibility of sustaining life and hope. For those who are term convicts
the thing is different, but Sir, I have 50 years staring me in the face! How
can I pull up moral energy enough to pass them in close confinement when even
those concessions which the vilest of convicts can claim to smoothen their
life are denied to me? Either please to send me to Indian jail for there I
would earn (a) remission; (b) would have a visit from my people come every
four months for those who had unfortunately been in jail know what a blessing
it is to have a sight of one’s nearest and dearest every now and then! (c)
and above all a moral – though not a legal – right of being entitled to
release in 14 years; (d) also more letters and other little advantages. Or if
I cannot be sent to India I should be released and sent outside with a hope,
like any other convicts, to visits after 5 years, getting my ticket leave and
calling over my family here. If this is granted then only one grievance
remains and that is that I should be held responsible only for my own faults
and not of others. It is a pity that I have to ask for this – it is such a
fundamental right of every human being! For as there are on the one hand,
some 20 political prisoners – young, active and restless, and on the other
the regulations of a convict colony, by the very nature of them reducing the
liberties of thought and expression to lowest minimum possible; it is but
inevitable that every now and then some one of them will be found to have
contravened a regulation or two and if all be held responsible for that, as
now it is actually done – very little chance of being left outside remains
for me.
In the end
may I remind your honour to be so good as to go through the petition for
clemency, that I had sent in 1911, and to sanction it for being forwarded to
the Indian Government?
The latest
development of the Indian politics and the conciliating policy of the
government have thrown open the constitutional line once more.
Now no man
having the good of India and Humanity at heart will blindly step on the
thorny paths which in the excited and hopeless situation of India in
1906-1907 beguiled us from the path of peace and progress.
Therefore if
the government in their manifold beneficence and mercy release me, I for one
cannot but be the staunchest advocate of constitutional progress and loyalty
to the English government which is the foremost condition of that progress.
As long as we
are in jails there cannot be real happiness and joy in hundreds and thousands
of homes of His Majesty’s loyal subjects in India, for blood is thicker than
water; but if we be released the people will instinctively raise a shout of
joy and gratitude to the government, who knows how to forgive and correct,
more than how to chastise and avenge.
Moreover my
conversion to the constitutional line would bring back all those misled young
men in India and abroad who were once looking up to me as their guide. I am
ready to serve the Government in any capacity they like, for as my conversion
is conscientious so I hope my future conduct would be. By keeping me in jail
nothing can be got in comparison to what would be otherwise.
The Mighty
alone can afford to be merciful and therefore where else can the prodigal son
return but to the parental doors of the Government?
Hoping your
Honour will kindly take into notion these points.
V.D. SAVARKAR
(From R.C.
Majumdar, Penal
Settlements in the Andamans, Publications Division, 1975)
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Great
compilation! Please send soft copy of it asap to me.
Regards,
S. Islam
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