CPI(M) Dupes the People, Edits Bhagat Singh

Socialistplatform receieved this from prominent human rights activist Thushar Nirmal Sarathy.

"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."

These words are from the last petition written by the great Indian revolutionary Bhagat Singh. According to historian K.N.Panicker "Bhagat Singh was as widely known all over India and as popular as Gandhiji. He was an idol of the youth and a household name, which aroused admiration and respect"

The court which tried Bhagat Singh's case sentenced him and his comrades to death penalty.The charge against them was that they waged war against the British empire. In this letter written to the Punjab governor he discusses the charge against him and asserts that there exist a state of war and instead of stopping there he further goes on stating that such state of war shall exist as long as the toiling masses and natural resources are being exploited by a handful of parasites.

Communist party of India (Marxist) had published the Malayalam translation of this letter in 'Bhagat Singh therenjedutha kruthikal'.This book is translated from English, which was edited by veteran freedom fighter Siva Varma .Translators are K.E.K.Namboodiri,B.B.Nair and Rajasekharan Nair.It was first published in 1988 and second edition on june 2005.The translators simply omitted "shall exist "from the above passage and limited to the circumstances prevailing at the time of british rule. But the english version is self speaking and needs no explanation.

Is it an accidental mistake of translators or a deliberate attempt to edit Bhagat singh ?

Anyway the politics of CPI(M) and the omitted translation goes hand in hand.CPI(M) says that we India is a democratic state and parliament should be used.The above passage of Com.Bhagat Singh clearly contradicts this view. He says that as long as a handful of parasites exploits the toiling masses and the natural resources plundered there will remain a state of war in india.He clarifies that these parasites may be british capitalists or a mix of Indian and British or purely Indian.Being a real revolutionary Bhagat Singh remained true to his vision even at the time of his Martyrdom. The above passage explains/justifies the armed resistence of adivasis in central India today which the CPI(M) fails to acknowledge.

Following are the original letter and its Malayalam translation.

Bhagat Singh's last petition

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 demoralization 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, it 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 future 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 Mr. Das and most tragic but noblest sacrifice of Comrade Bhagawati Charan and the glorious death of our dear warrior 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

And here is the scanned copies of Malayalam translation published by Chintha Publishers of CPI(M)