78th Independence Day: The Sacrifices Behind Our Liberty
Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s Letter to B.Okay. Dutt
[This letter gives an idea as to what Bhagat Singh expected from those comrades who would escape capital punishment.]
Central Jail, Lahore
November, 1930
DEAR BROTHER,
The judgement has been delivered. I’m condemned to dying. In these cells, in addition to myself, there are various others prisoners who’re ready to be hanged. The one prayer of those folks is that someway or different they might escape the moose.
Maybe I’m the one man amongst them who’s anxiously ready for the day after I will probably be lucky sufficient to embrace the gallows for my excellent. I’ll climb the gallows gladly and present to the world as to how bravely the revolutionaries can sacrifice themselves for the trigger.
I’ll condemned to dying, however you’re sentenced to transportation for all times. You’ll stay and, whereas residing, you’ll have to present to the world that the revolutionaries not solely die for his or her beliefs however can face each calamity.
Loss of life shouldn’t be a way to flee the worldly difficulties. These revolutionaries who’ve by likelihood escaped the gallows for the best but in addition bear the worst kind of tortures at nighttime dingy jail cells.
Yours
Bhagat Singh
Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s Final Letter
On March 22, 1931, simply sooner or later earlier than his execution, Bhagat Singh penned his ultimate letter to his comrades. Though a few of his fellow revolutionaries believed that an escape plan may nonetheless save him from the gallows, Bhagat Singh, whereas acknowledging their heartfelt concern, emphasised the essential significance of his impending execution for the nation.
Comrades!
It’s pure that the need to stay ought to be in me as nicely, I don’t need to conceal it. However I can keep alive on one situation that I don’t want to stay in imprisonment or with any binding.
My identify has develop into a logo of Hindustani revolution, and the beliefs and sacrifices of the revolutionary celebration have lifted me very excessive – so excessive that I can definitely not be increased within the situation of being alive.
As we speak my weaknesses are usually not seen to the folks. If I escape the noose, they are going to develop into evident and the image of revolution will probably be tarnished, or probably be obliterated. However to go to the gallows with braveness will make Hindustani moms aspire to have kids who’re like Bhagat Singh and the variety of those that will sacrifice their lives for the nation will go up a lot that it’ll not be attainable for imperialistic powers or all of the demoniac powers to comprise the revolution.
And sure, one thought happens to me even in the present day – that I’ve not been capable of fulfil even one thousandth components of the aspirations that had been in my coronary heart to do one thing for my nation and humanity. If I may have stayed alive and free, then I could have gotten the chance to perform these and I might have fulfilled my wishes.
Aside from this, no temptation to flee the noose has ever come to me. Who could be extra lucky than me? Nowadays, I really feel very happy with myself. Now I await the ultimate check with nice eagerness. I pray that it ought to draw nearer.
Your comrade
Bhagat Singh
78th Independence Day: Revisiting the Wrestle Via Historic Letters
Gandhi’s letter to Lord Irwin
On March 2, 1930, Mahatma Gandhi penned an in depth letter to Lord Irwin, the Viceroy of India, formally notifying him of his determination to defy the oppressive salt legal guidelines enforced by the British authorities. In his letter, Gandhi outlined his intention to problem these unjust laws, which he believed had been deeply unfair to the Indians.
DEAR FRIEND,
God prepared, it’s my intention … to set out for Dharasana and attain there with my companions . . . and demand possession of the Salt Works. The general public have been advised that Dharasana is a personal property. That is mere camouflage. It’s as successfully beneath Authorities management because the Viceroy’s home. Not a pinch of salt could be eliminated with out the earlier sanction of the authorities.
It’s attainable so that you can forestall this raid, because it has been playfully and mischievously referred to as, in 3 ways:
By eradicating the Salt Tax;
By arresting me and my celebration, until the nation can, as I hope it can, change each one taken away;
By sheer goondaism until each head damaged is changed, as I hope it can.
It’s not with out hesitation that the step has been determined upon. I had hoped that the Authorities would combat the civil resisters in a civilized method. I may have had nothing to say if, in coping with the civil resisters, the Authorities has happy itself with making use of the unusual processes of legislation. As an alternative, while the recognized leaders have been handled kind of in line with the authorized formality, the rank and file has been usually savagely and in some circumstances even indecently assaulted. Had there been remoted circumstances, they may have been neglected. However accounts have come to me from Bengal, Bihar, Utkal, U.E, Delhi and Bombay confirming the experiences of Gujarat of which I’ve ample proof at my disposal.
In Karachi, Peshawar and Madras the firing would seem to have been unprovoked and pointless. Bones have been damaged, non-public components have been squeezed for the aim of creating volunteers surrender, to the Authorities worthless, to the volunteers treasured salt. At Muthra an Assistant Justice of the Peace is claimed to have snatched the Nationwide Flag from a ten-year-old boy. The gang demanding restoration of the Flag thus illegally seized is reported to have been mercilessly overwhelmed again. That the Flag was subsequently restored betrayed a responsible conscience.
In Bengal there appear to have been only some prosecutions and assaults about salt, however unthinkable cruelties are mentioned to have been practised within the act of snatching flags from volunteers. Paddy fields are reported to have been burnt, eatables forcibly taken. A vegetable market in Gujarat has been raided, as a result of the sellers wouldn’t promote greens to officers. These acts have taken place in entrance of crowds who, for the sake of Congress mandate, have submitted with out retaliation.
I ask you to imagine the accounts given by males pledged to reality. Repudiation even by excessive officers has, as within the Bardoli case, usually proved false. The officers I remorse to must say, haven’t hesitated to publish falsehoods to the folks even over the past 5 weeks. I take the next samples from Authorities notices issued from Collectors’ places of work in Gujarat:
“1. Adults use 5 kilos of salt per 12 months, subsequently pay three annas per 12 months as tax. If Authorities eliminated the monopoly, folks should pay increased costs and as well as make good to the Authorities the loss sustained by the elimination of the monopoly. The salt you are taking from the sea-shore isn’t eatable, subsequently the Authorities destroys it.”
“2. Mr. Gandhi says that Authorities has destroyed hand-spinning on this nation, whereas everyone is aware of that this isn’t true, as a result of all through the nation there’s not a village the place hand-spinning of cotton isn’t happening. Furthermore in each province cotton spinners are proven superior strategies and are supplied with higher devices at much less costs and are thus helped by Authorities.”
“3. Out of each 5 rupees of the debt that the Authorities has incurred, rupees 4 have been beneficially spent.”
I’ve taken these three units of statements from three completely different leaflets. I enterprise to counsel that all of those statements is demonstrably false. The day by day consumption of salt by an grownup is thrice the quantity acknowledged and subsequently the ballot tax and the salt tax undoubtedly is a minimum of 9 as. per head per 12 months. And this tax is levied from man, girl, youngster and home cattle no matter age and well being.
It’s a depraved falsehood to say that each village has a spinning wheel and that the spinning motion is in any form or kind inspired or supported by the Authorities. Financiers can higher eliminate the falsehood that 4 out of each 5 rupees of the general public debt is used for advantage of the general public. However these falsehoods are mere samples of what folks know is occurring in every single day contact with the Authorities. Solely the opposite day a Gujarati poet, a courageous man, was convicted on prejudged official proof regardless of his emphatic assertion that on the time talked about he was sleeping soundly in one other Place.
Now for cases of official inactivities. Liquor sellers have assaulted pickets admitted by officers to have been peaceable and offered liquor in contravention of laws. The officers have taken no discover both of the assaults or the unlawful gross sales of liquor. As to the assaults, although they’re recognized to everyone, they might take shelter beneath the plea that they’ve acquired no complaints.
And now you have got sprung upon the nation a Press Ordinance surpassing any hitherto recognized in India. You’ve gotten discovered a brief reduce by way of the legislation’s delay within the matter of the trial of Bhagat Singh and others by eliminating the unusual process. Is it any marvel if I name all these official actions and inactivities a veiled type of Martial Regulation? But that is solely the fifth week of the wrestle.
Earlier than then the reign of terrorism that has simply begun overwhelms India, I really feel that I need to take a bolder step and if attainable divert your wrath in a cleaner if extra drastic channel. You could not know the issues that I’ve described. You could not even now imagine in them. I can however invite your critical consideration to them.
Anyway I really feel that it might be cowardly on my half to not invite you to open up to the complete the leonine paws of authority, in order that the people who find themselves struggling tortures and destruction of their property might not really feel that I, who had maybe been the chief celebration inspiring them to motion that has dropped at proper gentle the Authorities in its true colors, had left any stone unturned to work out the Satyagraha programme as totally because it was attainable beneath given circumstances.
In line with the science of Satyagraha, the higher the repression and lawlessness on the a part of authority, the higher ought to be the struggling courted by the victims. Success is the sure results of struggling of the extremest character voluntarily undergone.
I do know the hazards attendant upon the strategies adopted by me. However the nation isn’t prone to mistake my that means. I say what I imply and assume. And I’ve been saying for the final fifteen years in India, and out of doors for twenty years extra, and repeat now that the one technique to conquer violence is thru non-violence pure and undefiled. I’ve mentioned additionally that each violent act, phrase and even thought interferes with the progress of non¬violent motion.
If regardless of such repeated warnings, folks will resort to violence, I need to personal duty save equivalent to inevitably attaches to each human being for the acts of each different human being. However the query of duty aside, I dare not postpone motion on any trigger by any means if non-violence is the power the seers of the world have claimed it to be and if I’m not to belie my very own in depth expertise of its working.
However I might fain keep away from the additional steps. I might subsequently ask you to take away the tax which a lot of your illustrious countrymen have condemned in unmeasured phrases and which, as you might not have failed to look at, has evoked common protest and resentment expressed in civil disobedience. You could condemn civil disobedience as a lot as you want. Will you like violent revolt to civil disobedience? In case you say, as you have got mentioned, that the civil disobedience should finish in violence, historical past will pronounce the decision that the British Authorities not bearing as a result of not understanding non-violence, goaded human nature to violence, which it may perceive and take care of. However regardless of the goading, I shall hope that God will give the folks of India knowledge and power to resist each temptation and provocation to violence.
If, subsequently, you can not see your technique to take away the Salt Tax and take away the prohibitions on non-public salt- making I need to reluctantly start the march adumbrated within the opening paragraph of my letter.
I’m,
Your honest buddy,
M.Okay. GANDHI
78th Independence Day: The Enduring Influence of Freedom Fighters’ Letters
Letter of Sukhdev to Mahatma Gandhi
Simply earlier than his execution, Sukhdev penned a letter to Mahatma Gandhi, articulating his disagreement with Gandhi’s strategy to reaching independence. This correspondence highlighted the ideological rift between the 2 main factions of freedom fighters in India. Whereas Gandhi was engaged in negotiations with the federal government to safe the discharge of political prisoners accused of violent acts and urging revolutionaries to stop their actions, Sukhdev opposed this pacifist stance. He believed that freedom couldn’t be attained by way of non-violence alone. Sukhdev’s letter was printed in Younger India following the hanging of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev on March 23, 1931.
“Most revered Mahatma ji,
Latest experiences counsel that after the failure of the peace talks, you have got repeatedly appealed to the revolutionaries to cease their actions and provides one final likelihood to your Non-Violent Motion. The Congress is sure by its Lahore Decision that we’ll proceed the wrestle till full independence is achieved. In line with it, peace and compromise are merely short-term truces in order that we might have a possibility to organise ourselves higher for the subsequent wrestle.
Because the identify of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Occasion itself suggests, the objective of the revolutionaries is the Socialist Republic established in India. Till the revolutionaries obtain their objective, their rules are usually not fulfilled, they’re decided to proceed the wrestle. The revolutionary can also be adept at altering his technique in altering circumstances and environments.
The revolutionary wrestle has been taking completely different types at completely different instances. Typically it comes out brazenly, typically it hides, typically it takes the type of a khadi agitator and typically it’s a wrestle for all times and dying. In these circumstances, there ought to be some essential elements in view of which the revolutionaries could also be able to droop their motion.
After the accord, you (Gandhi) ended your motion and your jailed activists have additionally been launched. However what occurred to the revolutionary prisoners? Dozens of Ghadar Occasion revolutionaries are rotting in jail since 1915. These revolutionaries are nonetheless there even after finishing their sentences. Revolutionaries of Deogarh, Kakori, Machhuva Bazar, and Lahore conspiracy circumstances are nonetheless in jail. Dozens of such conspiracy circumstances are nonetheless happening in Delhi, Lahore, Chittagong, Mumbai, Kolkata, and different locations. Dozens of revolutionaries are lacking, a lot of them ladies. What do you concentrate on these folks?
The three accused of the Lahore Conspiracy, who bought prominence by luck and who have gotten the sympathy of most of the people, it doesn’t resolve the results of the revolutionary celebration, the very fact is that the results of hanging these revolutionaries can be higher. That is why you’re requested to both discuss to an enormous revolutionary chief or cease making such appeals. Hope you’ll kindly think about the above request and make your views public.”
Yours
‘A Citizen of India,
78th Independence Day: Reflecting on the Legacy of Our Freedom Fighters
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s Letter to the Bengal Authorities
On November 26, 1940, Subhas Chandra Bose wrote a compelling letter from Presidency Jail to the Governor of Bengal and different officers, expressing his deep dissatisfaction with the British colonial administration’s dealing with of his detention. This letter, written within the context of his disillusionment with the unjust authorized and political remedy he acquired, outlines his grievances concerning the unlawful and vindictive nature of his imprisonment. Bose declares his intention to start a starvation strike as a ultimate act of protest, emphasising his perception that non-public sacrifice is essential for the bigger reason behind India’s freedom and justice.
Too H.E. the Governor of Bengal,
The Hon. Chief Minister
and
The Council of Ministers,
Your Excellency and Gents! I’m penning this in reference to my letter of thirtieth October 1940, addressed to the Hon. Minister (copy of which was forwarded to the Hon. Chief Minister) and my confidential letters to the Superintendent, Presidency Jail, dated thirtieth October and 14th November, which had been forwarded to Authorities sooner or later.
Herein I shall additionally put down in black and white the concerns which can be impelling me to take essentially the most fateful step in my life.
I’ve now not any hope that I shall receive redress at your fingers. I shall, subsequently, make however two requests, the second of which will probably be on the finish of this letter.
My first request is that this letter be rigorously preserved within the archives of the Authorities, in order that it might be accessible to these of my countrymen who will succeed you in workplace in future. It accommodates a message for my countrymen and is subsequently my political testomony.
I used to be arrested with none official rationalization or justification on 2nd July 1940, as per orders of the Authorities of Bengal, beneath Part 129 of the Defence of India Guidelines. The primary rationalization subsequently emanating from official sources got here from the Rt. Hon. Mr Amery, Secretary of State for India, who acknowledged within the Home of Commons fairly categorically that the arrest was in reference to the motion for the demolition of the Holwell Monument in Calcutta.
The Hon. Chief Minister just about confirmed this pronouncement at a sitting of the Bengal Legislative Meeting and acknowledged that it was the Holwell Monument Satyagraha which stood in the way in which of my launch. When the Authorities determined to take away the Monument, all those that had been detained with out trial in connection therewith had been let out apart from Mr. Narendra Narayan Chakravarti, M.L.A., and myself. These releases befell in the direction of the top of August 1940, and nearly concurrently an order for my everlasting detention was served beneath Part 26 of the Defence of India Guidelines, in lieu of the unique order beneath Part 129, which offered for short-term detention.
Unusually sufficient, with the brand new order beneath Part 26, got here the information that prosecution was being launched in opposition to me tinder Part 38 of the D.I. Guidelines earlier than two Magistrates — for 3 of my speeches and for a contributed article within the weekly journal ‘Ahead Bloc’, of which I had been the Editor. Two of those speeches had been delivered in February 1940, and the third one early in April. Thus the Authorities created a novel and unprecedented scenario in the direction of the top of August final by detaining me completely with out trial beneath one part of the Defence of India Guidelines and concurrently prosecuting me earlier than judicial tribunals beneath one other part of the identical Guidelines. I had not seen an analogous mixture of government fiat and judicial process earlier than this prevalence befell. Such a coverage is manifestly unlawful and unjust and smacks of vindictiveness, pure and easy.
One can’t fail to see that the prosecution was launched lengthy after the alleged offences had taken place. Nor can or not it’s neglected that for the related article in ‘Ahead Bloc’, the paper had already been penalised by way of forfeiture of the safety of Rs 500 and deposit of an additional safety of Rs 2000. Furthermore, the assault on the paper was made unexpectedly, after a protracted interval throughout which no warning had been given to the paper in accordance with the observe of Authorities.
The angle of the Bengal Authorities was additional uncovered when purposes for my launch on bail had been made earlier than the 2 attempting Magistrates. Each these purposes had been stoutly opposed by the Authorities spokesmen. On the final event, one of many Magistrates, Mr. Wali-ul-Islam granted the bail utility, however was constrained to comment that this order would stay infructuous until the Authorities withdrew their order for my detention with out trial beneath Part 26 of the D.I. Guidelines.
It’s thus as clear as daylight that the Authorities has been pursuing a coverage which fetters the discretion of judicial tribunals and interferes with the administration of legislation. The motion of the native Authorities seems all of the extra objectionable when it’s remembered that they’ve given the go-by to the directions of the Authorities of India with regard to such circumstances.
One other fascinating function of the Authorities’s coverage is my simultaneous prosecution earlier than two Magistrates. If the intention was to position a couple of speech of mine earlier than a courtroom of legislation, that might very nicely have been fulfilled with out resorting to 2 Magistrates, for I’ve delivered any variety of speeches over the past twelve months inside the limits of Calcutta correct. The person on the street is, subsequently, pressured to assume that the Authorities is so eager on seeing me convicted that they’ve offered for a second string to the authorized bow.
Final however not the least, Authorities’s motion seems to an neutral man to be altogether mala fide, as a result of proceedings had been instituted so lengthy after the alleged prejudicial acts had been dedicated. If the acts in query had been in reality prejudicial, then motion ought to have been taken by the Authorities way back, i.e. on the time that the alleged offences had been dedicated.
Could I request you to match for one second your angle in the direction of folks like myself and in the direction of Muslims arrested and imprisoned beneath the Defence of India Guidelines? What number of circumstances have occurred up until now during which Muslims apprehended beneath the D.I. Guidelines have been all of a sudden launched with out rhyme or cause? The newest instance of the Maulvi of Murapara is simply too recent within the public thoughts to wish recounting. Are we to know that beneath your rule there’s one legislation for the Muslim and one other legislation for the Hindu and that the D.I. Guidelines have a unique that means when a Muslim is concerned? If that’s the case, the Authorities may as nicely make a pronouncement to that impact.
Lest or not it’s argued or urged for one second that for my incarceration, the Authorities of India and never the Native Authorities are accountable, I could remind you that in reference to an adjournment movement regarding myself, tabled by Pandit L.Okay. Maitra earlier than the Indian Legislative Meeting solely the opposite day, it was acknowledged on behalf of the Authorities of India that the matter mustn’t come earlier than the Central Meeting, since I had been incarcerated by the Bengal Authorities. I imagine an analogous admission was made within the Bengal Legislative Meeting on behalf of the Ministry.
And we can’t neglect that right here in Bengal we stay beneath the benign safety of a ‘in style’ ministry.
My current election to the Indian Legislative Meeting has raised one other problem — that of ‘immunity,’ from imprisonment for members of the Legislature, whereas the Legislature is in session. It is a proper inherent in each structure, irrespective of whether or not it’s explicitly offered within the statute or not and this proper has been established after a protracted wrestle. Fairly not too long ago, the Burma Authorities allowed a convicted prisoner to attend the sittings of the Burma Legislative Meeting, however although I’m not a convicted prisoner, I’ve been denied that proper by our ‘in style’ ministry.
If apologists try and invoke the precedent of Captain Ramsay M.P. in assist of the Authorities, I could level out that Capt. Ramsay’s case stands on a unique footing altogether. Critical costs have been most well-liked in opposition to him, however all of the details not being recognized to us, it’s tough to argue both approach. One might, nonetheless, urge that if Capt. Ramsay has been unjustly imprisoned and no redress will probably be finally forthcoming, it might lend substance to what Mr Kennedy (American Ambassador to Nice Britain) and others are reported to have mentioned — specifically, that democracy is useless in England. In any case, Capt. Ramsay has had the chance of getting his case examined by a Committee of the Home of Commons.
In coping with my case typically, two broad points have now to be thought-about. Firstly, have the Defence of India Guidelines any sanction — moral or in style? Secondly, have the principles, as they stand, been correctly utilized in my case? The solutions to each the questions are within the unfavorable.
The D.I. Guidelines don’t have any moral sanction behind them as a result of they represent an infringement of the elementary rights and liberties of the folks. Furthermore, they’re basically a war-measure and, as is understood to everyone, India was declared a belligerent energy and was dragged into the struggle with out the consent of the Indian folks or the Indian Legislature. Additional, these Guidelines militate in opposition to the declare to vociferously made in Britain that she is combating the reason for freedom and democracy. And lastly, the Congress Occasion within the Central Meeting was not a celebration to the adoption of the Defence of India Act or the Defence of India Guidelines. In these circumstances, it might not be improper to ask whether or not the Defence of India Guidelines mustn’t extra appropriately be referred to as the Suppression of India Guidelines or the Defence of Injustice Guidelines.
It might be urged on behalf of this Authorities that the Defence of India Act being an Act of the Central Legislature, all provincial Governments are obliged to manage the Guidelines framed there beneath. However sufficient has already been mentioned above to justify the cost that the Guidelines, at the same time as they stand, haven’t been correctly utilized in my case. There was manifest illegality and injustice. Just one rationalization can, to my thoughts, account for such an odd conduct, viz. that Authorities have been pursuing a frankly vindictive coverage, in the direction of me for causes which can be fairly inexplicable.
For greater than two months, the query has been knocking on the door of my conscience over and over as to what I ought to do in such a predicament. Ought to I undergo the stress of circumstances and settle for no matter comes my approach — or ought to I protest in opposition to what to me is unfair, unjust and unlawful? After essentially the most mature deliberation I’ve come to the conclusion that give up to circumstances is out of the query. It’s a extra heinous crime to undergo a fallacious inflicted than to perpetrate that fallacious. So, protest I need to.
However all as of late, protest has been happening and the unusual strategies of protest have all been exhausted. Agitation within the press and on the platform, representations to Authorities, demand within the Meeting, exploration of authorized channels — haven’t all of those been already tried and located ineffective?
Just one technique stays — the final weapon within the fingers of a prisoner, i.e. starvation strike or quick. Within the chilly gentle of logic I’ve examined the professionals and cons of this step and have rigorously weighed the loss and achieve that can accrue from it. I’ve no illusions within the matter and I’m totally aware that the quick, tangible achieve will probably be nil, for I’m sufficiently conversant with the behaviour of Governments and bureaucracies in such crises. The traditional and immortal examples of Terence Macsweeney and Jatin Das are floating earlier than any thoughts’s eye for the time being. A system has no coronary heart that may very well be moved, although it has a false sense of status to which it all the time clings.
Life beneath current situations is insupportable for me. To buy one’s continued existence by compromising with illegality and injustice goes in opposition to my very grain. I might throw up life itself, relatively than pay this worth. Authorities are decided to carry me in jail by brute power. I say in reply: ‘Launch me or I shall refuse to stay — and it’s for me to resolve whether or not I select to stay or to die.’
Although there could also be no quick, tangible achieve — no struggling, no sacrifice is ever futile. It’s by way of struggling and sacrifice alone {that a} trigger can flourish and prosper and in all ages and clime, the everlasting legislation prevails — ‘the blood of the martyr is the seed of the church’.
On this mortal world, every thing perishes and can perish — however concepts, beliefs and desires don’t. One particular person might die for an thought however that concept will, after his dying, incarnate itself in a thousand lives. That’s how the wheels of evolution transfer on and the concepts, beliefs and desires of 1 technology are bequeathed to the subsequent. No thought has ever fulfilled itself on this world besides by way of an ordeal of struggling and sacrifice.
What higher solace can there be than the sensation that one has lived and died for a precept? What increased satisfaction can a person possess than the information that his spirit will beget kindred spirits to hold on his unfinished activity? What higher reward can a soul need than the knowledge that his message will probably be wafted over hills and dales and over the broad plains to each nook of his land and throughout the seas to distant lands? What increased consummation can life attain than peaceable self-immolation on the altar of 1’s trigger?
Therefore it’s evident that no one can lose by way of struggling and sacrifice. If he does lose something of the earth earthy, he’ll achieve way more in return by turning into thee inheritor to a life immortal.
That is the strategy of the soul. The person should die, in order that the nation might stay. As we speak I need to die, to that India might stay and will win freedom and glory.
To my countrymen I say, ‘Neglect not that the best curse for a person is to stay a slave. Neglect not that the grossest crime is to compromise with injustice and fallacious. Bear in mind the everlasting legislation: You have to give life, if you wish to get it. And do not forget that the best advantage is to battle in opposition to inequity, it doesn’t matter what the fee could also be.’
To the Authorities of the day I say, ‘Cry halt to your mad drive alongside the trail of communalism and injustice. There’s but time to retrace your steps. Don’t use a boomerang which is able to quickly recoil on you. And don’t make one other Sindh of Bengal.’
I’ve completed. My second and final request to you is that you shouldn’t intrude forcibly with my quick, however ought to allow me to strategy my finish peacefully. Within the case of Terence Macsweeney, of Jatin Das, of Mahatma Gandhi and in our personal case in 1926 Authorities did resolve to not intrude with the quick. I hope they are going to do the identical this time — in any other case any try and feed me by power will probably be resisted with all my power, although the implications thereof could also be much more drastic and disastrous than in any other case. I shall start my quick of the twenty ninth November 1940.
Yours faithfully,
Subhas Chandra Bose
Presidency Jail,
26.11.1940
P.S. As in my earlier fasts, I shall take solely water with salt. However I could discontinue this afterward, if I really feel referred to as upon to take action.
S.C.B
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