Quotes

Revolutionaries like Savarkar created an atmosphere which made it possible for Mahatma Gandhi to succeed. It would be unpatriotic if the people of India failed to give Savarkar a prominent place in the history of India. (M. C. Chagla) The role of the revolutionaries has been either ignored or underplayed. It has been so due to two factors, the British rulers and the Congress leaders. Both had their well-calculated reasons. If the revolutionaries were given a separate status, they would claim their share at the time of independence, sooner or later The Congress, for apparent reasons, wanted to be the sole claimant. And it has actually been such. By 1946-47, there appeared another factor, not visualised at the early stage. The Muslim League claimed and got its share, Pakistan. (Satyavrata Ghosh, Revolutionary) Revolution does not necessarily involve sanguinary strife, nor is there any place in it for individual vendetta. It is not the cult of the bomb and the pistol. By 'Revolution' we mean that the present order of things, which is based on manifest injustice, must change. Producers or labourers, in spite of being the most necessary element of society, are robbed by their exploiters of their labour and deprived of their elementary rights. The peasant who grows corn for all, starves with his family; the weaver who supplies the world market with textile fabrics, has not enough to cover his own and his children's bodies; masons, smiths and carpenters who raise magnificent palaces, live like pariahs in the slums. The capitalists and the exploiters, the parasites of society, squander millions on their whims. These terrible inequalities and forced disparity of chances are bound to lead to chaos. This state of affairs cannot last long, and it is obvious that the present order of society in merry-making is on the brink of a volcano. (Bhagat Singh, Indian Revolutionary) The real revolutionary armies are in the villages and in factories, the peasantry and the labourers. But our bourgeois leaders do not and cannot dare to tackle them. The sleeping lion once awakened from its slumber would become irresistible even after the achievement of what our leaders aim at. After his experience with Ahmedabad labourers in 1920, Mahatma Gandhi declared: 'We must not tamper with the labourers. It is dangerous to make political use of the factory proletariat.' ('The Times', May 1921). Since then, they never dared to approach them. There remains the peasantry. The Bardoli resolution of 1922 clearly defines the horror these leaders felt when they saw the gigantic peasant class rising to shake off not only the domination of an alien nation but the yoke of the landlords. (Bhagat Singh, Indian Revolutionary) It is there that our leaders prefer a surrender to the British than to the peasantry ... That is why I say they never meant a complete revolution. (Bhagat Singh, Indian Revolutionary) By 'Revolution' we mean the ultimate establishment of an order of society which may not be threatened by such breakdowns, and in which the sovereignty of the proletariat should be recognised and a world federation should redeem humanity from the bondage of capitalism and misery of imperial wars. (Bhagat Singh Indian Revolutionary) I do not care about sentence of death. It means nothing at all ... I do not worry about it at all. I am dying for a purpose. We are suffering from the British Empire. ... I am proud to die to free my native land and I hope that when I am gone, ... in my place will come thousands of my countrymen to drive you dirty dogs out; to free my country ... you will be cleansed out of India. And your British imperialism will be smashed. Machine guns on the streets of India mow down thousands of poor women and children wherever your so-called flag of democracy and Christianity flies. Your conduct, your conduct - I am speaking about the British government. I have nothing against the English people at all. I have more English friends living in England than I have in India. I have great sympathy with the workers of England. I am against the imperialist government...Down with British imperialism! (Udham Singh, Indian Revolutionary, at his trial) Our struggle will continue as long as a handful of men, be they foreign or native, or both in collaboration with each other, continue to exploit the labour and resources of our people. Nothing shall deter us from this path. (Kartar Singh Sarabha, Indian Revolutionary) You can only hang me, what more can you do? We are not afraid of that. (Kartar Singh Sarabha, Indian Revolutionary) Today there begins in foreign lands a war against the British Raj. What is our name? Mutiny. What is its work? Mutiny. Where will mutiny break out? In India. The time will soon come when rifles and blood will take the place of pen and ink. (Ghadar Party) The Revolutionary Party is not national but international in the sense that its ultimate object is to bring harmony in the world by respecting and guaranteeing the diverse interests of the different nations; aims not at competition but at cooperation between the different nations and states, and in this respect it follows the footsteps of the great Indian Rishis and of Bolshevik Russia in the modern age. (Ghadar Party)