Dhruv Rathee 1-Oct-21 Gandhi did try to save Bhagat Singh .. and more interesting facts about right wingers contrasted..
23-Mar-22 The Wire Article republished on the death anniversary of the three martyrs – Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev – were hanged by the British colonial rulers on 23-Mar-31.
Excerpts:
Eighty-five years ago, on March 23, 1931, Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his two comrades-in-arms, Shaheed Rajguru and Shaheed Sukhdev were hanged in Lahore by the British colonial government. At the time of his martyrdom, Bhagat Singh was barely 23 years old. Despite the fact that he had his whole life ahead of him, he refused to seek clemency from the British as some well-wishers and family members wanted him to do. In his last petition and testament, he demanded that the British be true to the charge they laid against him of waging war against the colonial state and that he be executed by firing squad and not by hanging. The document also lays out his vision for an India whose working people are free from exploitation by either British or Indian “parasites”.
Sent to the notorious Cellular Jail in the Andamans in 1911 for his revolutionary activity, Savarkar first petitioned the British for early release within months of beginning his 50 year sentence. Then again in 1913 and several times till he was finally transferred to a mainland prison in 1921 before his final release in 1924. The burden of his petitions: let me go and I will give up the fight for independence and be loyal to the colonial government.
Savarkar’s defenders insist his promises were a tactical ploy; but his critics say they were not, and that he stayed true to his promise after leaving the Andamans by staying away from the freedom struggle and actually helping the British with his divisive theory of ‘Hindutva’, which was another form of the Muslim League’s Two Nation theory.
Enlightening to read the “mercy” petitions of Savarkar and Bhagat Singh which are reproduced in the article.
Another historical account:
mkgandhi.org Paper by Chander Pal Singh sheds some more light on the points Dhruv Rathee has made in his video a