SUKHDEV'S LETTER TO GANDHIJI
[Gandhiji was negotiating with the government for the release of political prisoners not convicted of violence. He was also appealing to the revolutionaries to stop their movement. It was in this context that Sukhdev wrote this letter. It was published in Young India, April 23, 1931, after the execution of Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru and Sukhdev.]
MOST GRACIOUS MAHATMA JI,
Recent reports show that, since the successful termination of your peace negotiations, you have made several public appeals to the revolutionary workers to call off their movement at least for the present and give you a last chance to try your non-violent cult. As a matter of fact the calling off any movement is neither an ideological nor a sentimental act. It is the consideration of the peculiar needs of different times that force the leaders to change their tactics.
Let us presume that at the time of peace parley, you did not overlook the fact even for a single moment, and did not make a secret of it, that this was not going to be the final settlement. I think all intelligent people would have understood quite easily that the final stage was not reached. The Congress is bound by its Lahore resolution to carry on the struggle relentlessly till the Complete Independence is achieved. In face of the resolution, the peace and compromise is but a temporary truce which only means a little rest to organise better forces on a larger scale for the next struggle. The possibility of compromise and a truce can be imagined and justified in the light of the above consideration alone.
At regards the proper opportunity and the conditions on which any truce can be effected, it rests with the leaders of the movement to decide. In face of the Lahore resolution you have thought it expedient to call off the active movement for the present, but nevertheless that resolution stands. Similarly, as is evident from the very name - The Hindustan Socialist Republican Party - the revolutionaries stand for the establishment o the socialist republic which is not a half-way house. They are bound to carry on the struggle till their goal is achieved and their ideal is consummated. But they would be quite apt to change their tactics according to the changing circumstances and environment. Revolutionary struggle assumes different shapes at different times. It becomes sometimes open, sometimes hidden sometimes purely agitational and sometimes a fierce life-and-death struggle. In the circumstances, there must be special factors, the consideration of which may prepare the revolutionaries to call of their movement. But no such definite idea had been advanced by you. Mere sentimental appeals do not and cannot count much in the revolutionary struggle.
Since your compromise you have called off your movement and consequently all of your movement and consequently all of your prisoners have been released. But, what about the revolutionary prisoners? Dozens of Ghadar Party prisoners imprisoned since 1915 are still rotting in jails; inspite of having undergone the full terms of their imprisonments scores of martial law prisoners are still buried in these living tombs, and so are dozens of Babbar Akali prisoners. Deogarh, Kakori, Machhua Bazar and Lahore Conspiracy Case prisoners are amongst those numerous still locked behind bars. More than half a dozen conspiracy trials are going on at Lahore, Delhi, Chittagong, Bombay, Calcutta and elsewhere. Dozens of revolutionaries are absconding and amongst them are many females. More than half a dozen prisoners are actually waiting for their executions. What about all of these people? The three Lahore Conspiracy Case condemned prisoners, who have luckily come into prominence and who have acquired enormous public sympathy, do not form the bulk of the revolutionary party. Their fate is not the only consideration before the party. As a matter of fact their executions are expected to do greater good than the commutation of their sentences.
But, inspite of all this, you are making public appeals, asking them to call off their movement. Why should they do so? You have not mentioned any very definite things. In these circumstances your appeal means you are joining hands with bureaucracy to crush that movement, and your appeals amount to preaching treachery, desertion and betrayal amongst them. If that were not the case, then the best thing for you would have been to approach some of the prominent revolutionaries and balk over the whole thing with them. You ought to have tried to convince them to call off their movement. I do not think you also share the general conservative nation that the revolutionaries are devoid of reason, rejoicing in destruction and devastation. Let us inform you that in reality the case is quite contrary. They always consider the pros and cons of every step they take and they fully realise the responsibility which they thus incur and they attach greater importance to the constructive phase of the revolutionary programme than to any other, though in the present circumstances, they cannot but occupy themselves with the destructive part of their programme.
The present policy of the government towards them is to deprive them of the sympathy and support of the masses which they have won in their movement, and then crush them. In isolation they can be easily hunted down. In face of that fact any sentimental appeal to cause demoralisation amongst their ranks would be utterly unwise and counter-revolutionary. It would be rendering direct assistance to the government to crush them.
Therefore we request you either to talk to some revolutionary leaders - they are so many in jails - and come to terms with them or to stop these appeals. Please, for goodness sake, pursue one of these two alternative courses and pursue it whole-heartedly. If you cannot help them, then please have mercy on them. Let them alone; they can better take care of themselves, they know that the hegemony of the revolutionary party in the future political struggle is assured. Masses are rallying around them and the day is not far off when they will be leading the masses under their banner towards their noble and lofty ideal - the socialist republic.
Or, if you seriously mean to help them, then have talk with them to understand their point of view, and discuss the problem in detail.
Hope you will kindly consider the above request and let your view be known publicly.
Yours,
One of the Many.
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- source: http://www.punjabilok.com/misc/freedom/sukh_togandhi.htm
