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Another year of Independence, another year of celebration. The youth of today, far away from understanding or comprehending the feeling of Independence is more lost in enjoying a weekday with no work and social media feeds full of offers and discounts. And we certainly are not blaming them for it.

The youth of today was born in the era of progress and development, there was less to learn from the history and more to look forward to from the future. And we can definitely pat ourselves on the back for what has been achieved in the fields of agriculture, space research and infrastructure over the last 20 years alone.

With futuristic dreams coming to reality more easier than ever, we thought, this Independence day we should revisit the archives and use this holiday to fill ourselves with some rarely found patriotism. We dug through the internet and finally found this masterpiece. This is Bhagat Singh’s letter to the Governor of Punjab, it might be a tough read for some, but by the end everyone will be shocked to see what was in the heart of a 23 year old and why we should be more enthusiastic about our Independence.

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, if 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 futur, 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

Translated by the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Research Committee (shahidbhagatsingh.org)

A 23 year old standing till the end with his thoughts and his action, that’s what this letter is about. These were the words of someone who evidently had just one purpose when he wrote this, and that purpose was to see his nation independent. We will never understand the sacrifices made by young fighters such as Bhagat Singh, the least we can do is help the generations to come understand the importance of our land, the sacrifices that were made and the respect that it deserves.