Letter 6

My dear brother,
I was very glad to read your letter. This year owing to the regularity with which your parcels and letters had been dispatched we could get them all at the expected time and were thus able to get rid of a lot of anxiety and trouble and petitioning . The answer to my letter, then the parcel to brother and then his letter-all these enabled us to get your news almost every three months. Please to follow up this plan as regularly as possible. The news that the Maharashtra provincial conference had passed a strong resolution and that with greater unanimity in favour of the release of all political prisoners was very welcome! In fact the Bombay provincial conference has been doing its duty with greater vigour, consistency and persistence than any other P.C. in India. Last year so far as I could know the provincial conference of U.P. and especially the Andhra Conference had also passed resolutions in favour of this release. The resolution of the Andhra conference was very definitely and comprehensively worded and showed that the heart of the Andhras beat in thorough and honest sympathy with those who, with the means they thought best to effect the Great Deliverance had, may be rightly, may be wrongly but in utter sincerity and indisputable selflessness offered themselves to pine away in prisons. You write that many of the papers write constantly for the release and magazines too press on to the point that the release of all political prisoners is one of the conditions under which the removal of Indian discontent is possible. If all this be true then I really fail to understand why the Congress so far as I know, should still be fighting shy, should still be trembling to utter a syllable that might smell of sympathy, nay even of ordinary humanity for the political prisoners, of the people in whose name it poses to speak! Last year they passed a resolution for the release of the interned forgetting totally and very conveniently that the sufferings which brought tears to the eyes of the patriots sitting comfortably in the well aired and well decorated Pandal had been indefinitely multiplied and incessantly faced by other men-not one not two but thousands of other men whose services or sacrifices cannot at least be less than our interned brothers and who because their misery cannot automatically end with the war as in the case of the interned and therefore demand a greater and more persistent agitation on the part of those who are passing as responsible leaders of the people! ‘Responsible’ that is the thing! They talk of the ‘interned’ only, because they know that it is Safer to do so and they dare not talk of the rest because they might be losing their responsible positions in the eyes of their boss! Otherwise when the different provincial conferences have so clearly and so often made it obvious that the majority of the provinces heartily wish to effect the release of the political prisoners, one fails to understand why the Congress should fail to do so. T he business of the Congress is not to voice the sentiments of the few that dominate its proceedings but of the many who give it its. Weight and support and in whose name ought to derive its right to be a ‘Congress’ at all. When so many provincial conferences have passed this resolution and so often, when the leading papers and magazines have incessantly pressed this point, when many of the leaders of the Congress itself when it was their turn to be rotting behind the prison walls had expected and had thought they had a right to expect the sympathetic mention of them by the people for whom they fought, above all or rather least of all when the very Austrian people, not to mention the Irish, the Boers &c. had been bold and honest and grateful enough to agitate for the release of all their political prisoners and succeeded in getting it done, when all these things are known and admitted then I think that the Congress could be and should be immediately forced to pass as bold and as comprehensive a resolution as that of the Andhra or Maharashtra Conferences this year. If some old hags tremble let them absent themselves from the sittings that adopts this resolution. Why should you all share in this guilty silence because a handful of ‘Responsible’ are shaky about it ?

Secondly one or two precautions should be taken in case of any such resolution or movements if to be effective. Many papers write about ‘Political prisoners’ but the language is so conveniently dubious that the Government and even the people are quite likely to fail to understand what is meant by that omnibus term ‘Political prisoner’. Some times it means interned, at others the detenue, then deported or the state prisoners, but hardly it ever means those who are convicted for offences of political nature. I pointed out to you last year that Mr. Bonarlaw himself made a distinction in Irish cases that the rebels were not guilty of ‘individual acts’ including arson ! Yet they were released as soon as the war broke out by the very Government in which Mr. Bonarlaw works. Then I don’t see why the word ‘convicted’ should be a bogey to the Indian ‘Responsibles ’ and the ‘individual acts’ a screen to hide the Government anomalies in the hands of Mr. Bonarlaw. Botha is a prime minister and Redmond the constituted Leader of a Parliamentary Party and yet they released their own opponents and actual rebels, against their Government. But the congressmen think they are ‘responsible men’ ! The pariah that stands begging at the city gate is more responsible citizen and belongs to a higher caste than the Sheriff and the Chairman of the city itself! So in the future resolution and articles this point should be clearly and definitely pressed that ‘political prisoners means all those undergoing imprisonment whether convicted or not, whether for individual acts or acts in general’ (I indeed fail to understand it altogether!!!)- for actions which proceeded from purely and admittedly political motives.’ The term political can be distinguished from private only by the criterion of the motive of the act and not by the act itself. No act is or can be by itself political. For even a rebellion if that proceeds entirely for my own bread and butter is not political and ought not to create any sympathy in others, unless indeed my cause was only a case in hand and was fought out for establishing a general privilege or in vindicating of a general right. The Thugs fought battles and were not political in the sense of sacrificing for the General Good. But even the arson cases or flogging the prime ministers by a suffragist in England had been recognized by the British Government itself as political because the motive was neither personal aggrandizement nor revenge but the advancement of some social good. The means may be wrong, even criminal or not, the Motive counts so far as the moral value, and here national aspect of the act is concerned. I write this with special stress for the reason that in case of an amnesty being granted –which I expect not –this point will be a stumbling block in our path, for the Government might adopt some anomalous distinction and interprete the term in any sense convenient to them but not just in itself. Try your best to make this clear to all you can approach and let our journalists and leaders keep this constantly before them.

(a)Please to write to me in your letter whenever any of the provincial conferences have passed any resolution to this effect, whether last year’s Congress had deliberated on it in the subjects committee; how many papers write wholeheartedly about it, and if
something could be done in this year’s Congress. When you write about it only mention those cases in which the general amnesty is asked and not only that of a few interned &c.

(b)Then again what had come of the movement of sending a general and mob petition –of which you did not speak in your last. That idea should not be dropped at all. I believe you have only postponed it in order to put it forward more effectively at the end of the war. If it is so all right. In the meanwhile I saw in one of the letters here that a petition for the release of P.P.s had been forwarded to Montague while he was in India. How far is this correct? (c) The campaign of the meetings of which once you spoke should be kept in view and not only once but almost every year it should be carried on. (d) The Congress, the P. conferences the petitioning of the individual members, families, special series of meetings arranged for this purpose, the constant attention of the press, questions in the Viceregal and Provincial Councils and in the Parliament: all this and each of this must be systematically and persistently carried year in and year out till the amnesty question becomes a necessity of the politics there. In each of your letter please to give me a summary of what could be done in each of these directions, and forget not to make clear the meaning of the ‘Political prisoners’ whenever resolutions and articles talk about it to the people and the Government as well.

Throughout the discussion, I must frankly admit, I have aimed not so much at the actual result of the agitation as to the moral effect of it. I know and have clearly written to the Government in one of my petitions last year that the question of a general amnesty of the political prisoners is closely and inevitably bound up with the question of the establishment of a progressive and really constitutional Government in India. So the chances of such an amnesty being actually granted are not and cannot be immediately and primarily expected. But though thus we should fully realize the impossibility of any actual results being attained yet we should not lose sight of the moral ones, which would reward our efforts immediately by an elevation of the national tone and character and which by reminding the nation of the sufferings of their Martyrs and soldiers and victims that fought for the success of the common cause, and more enthuse the people to see the fight continued and fought out to its ultimate victory. Gratefully remembering the soldiers who fell is the most effective way of recruiting more soldiers to continue the fight.

In the petition to which I referred to above I had put before Mr. Montague and the Viceroy a frank statement of the case of such an amnesty as this. The main points being that while they were considering the question of the Reforms in India they should not fail to recognize that if they aimed at the establishment of any responsible Government in India they should thereby render it utterly futile to continue to lock us in jail. For if a real responsible Government be given and still the amnesty not granted then the latter fact would act as a millstone round the neck of such a system as that. For our presence behind the stone walls and cells cannot fail to keep the memory of the old suspicion and embitterment between the people and the Government living and would take away much from whatever claims and confessions the Government might make as to change of angles & efforts for co-operation and mutual trust. For even if Home Rule be granted to the people unaccompanied by a general amnesty of the P.P.s how is it likely to touch the real roots of discontent in the Land? How can there be peace and contentment and trust in a land where a brother is torn away from a brother, where thousands upon thousands are rotting in cage cells and stand exiled and in jails and where every other family has a brother or a son, or a father, or a friend, or a lover snatched away from its bosom and kept pining away his life in the parched and thirsty Saharas of Separation!! While on the other hand it would be as futile; I stated this for the sake of entire honesty and truth though it was against my personal interest –to release the political prisoners unaccompanied with a sincere and substantial effort to a responsible Government in India. For it would be intolerable for us to live in a land where all paths to progress are barred by a ‘Trespassers would be prosecuted’ or to move there without treading on suspicious paths, where every step forward is an affront to the Sultans ahead and every step backward an affront to one’s self-respect and conscience which is no less Sultanic in its exaction. Therefore Home Rule and Amnesty go hand in hand and in order that the one may be effective, it should and must be accompanied by the latter. I also stated in it that my motive and aim in sending the petition being the Grant of a General Amnesty, I should be the last to be dissatisfied if that could be done by omitting my own name, if that alone be a thorn in the way of its fulfilment. If such view be ever taken by the Government and I see that the recently published Draft of Mr. Montague’s Scheme has in a striking paragraph expressed the hope almost in it –a way of answer to a corresponding question-that the revolutionists would now find something to be constitutionally done to the realizing of their hopes and aspirations and would change their minds and return to useful paths of activity;-and a really Responsible Government meaning thereby at least a substantial majority in the Viceregal Council-without of course the fetish of a Council of State kept presiding over it and mixing a curse with every blessing the first may confer on the land –if I say a substantial majority of the elected be granted in the Viceregal Council, and such a great be accompanied with a graceful and general amnesty of the P.P.s, including the Exiles in other lands such as America and Europe –then I for one and many whom I know would consciously accept such a constitution as that and would, if thought fit by our people and given a chance to do so by the Government work under it and try to fulfil the Mission of our life through the council chambers which have up to this time been bearing nothing but ill will towards us and have spared nothing to embitter our hearts against them and their policy. Where is the man who would run the ordeals of fire or would tread the paths of furies with bleeding feet-for sheer amusement! That is rare and rarer it is to find true patriot and humanitarian who would indulge in reckless and bloody and necessarily outrageous Revolutions –if but and even when, a safer, nobler, more certainly moral because entirely effective and employing least resistence, if but such a path, the path of constitutional Progress be open and accessible to him? It is mockery to talk of constitutional agitation when there is no constitution at all; but it is worse than a Mockery-a crime to talk of Revolutions as if it was a work of Rose –water even when there is as elastic and progressive a constitution as say there is in England or in America.

This word for word I wrote in October last to the Government and the recent changes give me a hope that if properly and organisedly pressed the bill when it comes before the Parliament would grant us acceptable scheme. And I would like to bring this to the notice of the Victory once more and ask whether the Indian Government have come to any definite decision as to my petition. I received an answer on 1-2-18 from the Viceregal Government that the ‘petition for the Amnesty of political prisoners’ is being considered by the Government. After that I have reason to think that the Government mentioned to submit the question of such a release immediately after the war. Please to enquire directly yourselves as it takes a lot of cajoling the Red Tape System for me to enquire often.

You asked in your last letter about the advantages we reap in being promoted to the second class; Well going out of the jail? No! Being allowed to keep writing material? No! Being allowed to live with or even to speak with my brother? No! Being exempted from the compulsory and hard labour? No! Being promoted to be a warder or cease to be locked up in the cell? No! Better and hospitable treatment ? No! More letters? No! Any visit from home? –others get it after five years and I am in the 8th- No! Then if you still ask what advantages in being promoted to 2nd class-well the great one-that of being promoted to the second class!! Do you understand, Doctor?

So far as to the advantages in the jail : but all this was bearable to me when my health was comparatively sound. But this year I must tell you that great and counting disadvantage has been added to my lot for my health is utterly broken. You know I could not have used such language but I feel it my bounden duty to do so. Confident am I that a student of Gita and my own brother would not be shaken under any calamities that the Blind Dame may bring to us in her usual rounds and would stand squarely firm facing all winds as they list. Brother ! each year one day which was joy unalloyed –that was the day of writing the letter Home. This year even that is a partial joy for though I am writing to you to the immence delight of memory –all the pleasant scenes and dear faces and grateful remembrances being made alive –yet am feeling the strain of penning even such a letter as this! The flesh complains and I could not go on without a rest! Last year March, I weighed 119- this year I weigh 98! They take the weight with which we come here as the normal one; that is a wrong test for we come here after rotting for years in the jails and custodies there; But even when I came here I was 111Lbs. Chronic Dysentry due to disregard of the medical treatment in the beginning has reduced me to a skeleton. Eight years I bore the burden well. Innumerable and unknown hardships taxed my metal and an atmosphere of frowns and threats and sighs, of demoralizing and disheartening stench tried to stifle the noble breath of life-but God gave me strength to stand and stand firm and face it all for these eight years or so. But now I feel the flesh has received wounds that are hard to heal and is day by day pining away. Recently the Medical Superintendent has been paying a little special attention to my weakness and though I am still on ‘Duty’ i.e. work and not in the Hospital yet I get Hospital diet that is better cooked, and eat only rice and am allowed milk and bread at present. It is better a bit and hope it may improve. But what is likely is that this constant debility may end in some fatal malady or that inevitable friend so well known in jails, specially in Andamans-the Pthysis. Only one thing and one thing alone could assure me of my recovering and that is a change –not in the sense of jail technicalities where a change means always for the worse- but a change for the better to a better climate in some Indian jail. The monotony is getting appalling ! And yet be not over-anxious, trying it is but it cannot be decisive. For jails as such have a great sustaining power. They corrode but they do not kill. They petrify but they preserve.And cases are not wanting of prisoners living with slender chances of life for 80 years and more. So however weak the body be still there is no fear, at any rate unless some further complications arise of any fatal event.

And all this again so far as the flesh is concerned. For although one cannot afford to be flamboyantly defying fire while one is bound to a pile of leaping flames-yet I may mention that the sprit is still willing and able to dominate the quivering flesh, willing to suffer even further and even all not only ungrudgingly, but even unflinchingly. Brother’s health is relatively better though the headache has reduced him to 106 lbs.

Please to give my reverence and love to my dear Madam Cama, Hope she takes care of her health. How aweful for her to pass her days in exile when one should have thought of passing them attuned to the Music of sweet smiling children? Then what of Mai? Our sister! Never mind whatever troubles she has to face –let her remember first that her brothers are facing greater troubles for Duty and secondly come what may her Vasant is with her and the sight of his face should make her forget and forgive all the miseries of her life. Nevertheless the love of a brother goes out to her and his sympathy and hope that may be a little cheering news for her. My love to my dear Yamunabai and my dear sister-in-law. Glad to hear Shanta improves. And about the friend –the Dear and kind hearted Doctor whom you mentioned in your letter please ask him to forgive me. If ever I see him he could know how I prize him and friend-few indeed-but so constant as he-Sorry I would do nothing for him or for my brothers –in-law Balu, Anna, and others or for my chosen chums of College days or for my dear and faithful comrades-except to send forth my hearty grateful memory of them all. How is my little Ranjan? Does he know me? I hear that plague is likely to break out once more. Sc be watchful and take care of your health which is life to us!!