Vande Mataram

Sources are present within the slides themselves. Vande Mataram!

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In July 1910, while being transported by the British aboard the S.S. Morea, Savarkar made one of the most dramatic escape attempts in the history of the Indian revolutionary movement. As the ship was docked at Marseilles in France, he slipped out through the porthole of the ship’s lavatory, jumped into the sea, and swam to the French shore in an attempt to escape British custody.

Although he was quickly recaptured, news of the incident spread widely across India and among Indian revolutionaries abroad. The daring nature of the escape transformed Savarkar into a legendary figure in popular imagination. Stories and exaggerations began circulating about him, with many people attributing almost superhuman qualities to the man who had leapt into the sea at Marseilles.

Years later, in My Transportation for Life, Savarkar himself reflected on how ordinary people reacted when they finally met him in prison:

> [while Savarkar was being held at the Alipore Jail in Calcutta following his transfer from the Andamans in 1921, he was taking to a guard] As I talked to him, I knew that he was not unfamiliar with my name. He could not believe his eyes when I told him that I was that Savarkar of whom he had heard. How could a big man be contained in the ordinary cell of a prison! His idea of a big man was that he must be a man of abnormal size. Ordinary people have always had similar notions of greatness and, when they see that the great man before them does not come up to their notion of him, they are often shocked and disillusioned. So the Chinaman put me the question, “Does a gun-shot pierce your body?” I answered, “No doubt, it will.” And a deep disappointment was visible on his face.

> Another sepoy asked me, “How many days and nights were you swimming in the sea?” Of course, he meant at Marseilles. I answered, “What of days and nights? I swam only for ten minutes before I reached the shore across.” This reply gave a rude shock to his admiration for me, and to the miraculous powers he attributed to me. If I had bragged and lied to him, he would not have received any shock, but the barest truth that I told him seemed to put him out. My habit of reporting correctly what happened at Marseilles had lost me many friendships in life and their reverence for me.

Reference: My Transportation for Life, page 363.

What stands out in this passage is Savarkar’s insistence on telling the truth exactly as it happened. He could easily have encouraged the myths and exaggerations surrounding the Marseilles escape, but instead he deliberately corrected them, even when it reduced the awe people felt toward him.

Rather than presenting himself as an invincible hero, Savarkar chose honesty over self-glorification. In doing so, he offered a rare reflection on how political legends are created, and how truth is often less satisfying to people than myth.

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Reference: My Transportation For Life

Read the whole book from here: https://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf

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Reference: https://www.livemint.com/news/india/asaduddin-owaisi-objects-to-centre-equating-vande-mataram-with-jana-gana-mana-nation-is-not-a-goddess-11778203789994.html

A hundred years ago, they objected to Vande Mataram, and we complied and decided to make concessions in the hope that we could live together in harmony. A few decades later, they asked for a separate nation. Now again, we're at the same crossroads.

Let's leave the Islamists out of the question. The left-wing extremists who hurl slurs at Hindus and call us regressive for something as simple as celebrating our festivals, who want to "reform" our religion and its rules, as evident in the Sabrimala case, are supporting the "rights" of Islamists to deny singing Vande Mataram on the grounds of their religious theology? Sheer hypocrisy!

The only solution, as told by Dr. Ambedkar, is establishing boundaries, not concessions.

> There are the Congress Hindu nationalists whose policy is to tolerate and appease the Muslims by political and other concessions, because they believe that they cannot reach their cherished goal of independence unless the Muslims back their demand…Is the Congress way, the right way? It seems to me that the Congress has failed to realize two things: The first thing which the Congress has failed to realize is that there is a difference between appeasement and settlement, and that the difference is an essential one. Appeasement means buying off the aggressor by conniving at his acts of murder, rape, arson and loot against innocent persons who happen for the moment to be the victims of his displeasure. On the other hand, settlement means laying down the bounds which neither party to it can transgress. Appeasement sets no limits to the demands and aspirations of the aggressor. Settlement does. The second thing the Congress has failed to realize is that the policy of concession has increased Muslim aggressiveness, and what is worse, Muslims interpret these concessions as a sign of defeatism on the part of the Hindus and the absence of the will to resist. This policy of appeasement will involve the Hindus in the same fearful situation in which the Allies found themselves as a result of the policy of appeasement which they adopted towards Hitler

—Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in his book Pakistan or partition of India, p. 261.

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The “O! Martyrs!” pamphlet was a powerful four-page leaflet written and distributed by Swatantrya Veer Savarkar in May 1908. It honored the heroes of the 1857 uprising and also called for a new revolutionary movement against British rule.

Savarkar wrote the pamphlet to mark the anniversary of the Meerut uprising on May 10, 1857. He argued that the event was not just a “mutiny,” as the British described it, but India’s “First War of Independence.”

The pamphlet was also a response to the British Golden Jubilee celebrations of 1857 held in 1907 and 1908. British newspapers had described the Indian rebels as criminals and murderers, but Savarkar praised them as martyrs who sacrificed themselves for their country, religion, and freedom.

A central idea of the text was that the fight for independence was still continuing. It famously stated: “The war begun on the 10th of May 1857 is not over on the 10th of May 1908, nor can it ever cease till a 10th of May to come sees the destiny accomplished.”

Thousands of copies of the pamphlet were circulated in both England and India. Indian students in London wore badges saying “Honours to the martyrs of 1857” along with the pamphlet’s message, which led to clashes with British authorities and professors.

The pamphlet also emphasized Hindu-Muslim unity during the 1857 revolt. Savarkar described the uprising as a movement in which both communities united under the idea of the Motherland.

Because the pamphlet used the memory of the 1857 revolt to encourage resistance against British rule, the British government considered it seditious. In 1910, it was later used as evidence against Savarkar in the case accusing him of conspiring to wage war against the British Crown.

Here is the full text of the pamphlet:

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> The battle of freedom once begun And handed down from sire to son Though often lost, is ever won!!

Today is the 10th of May! It was on this day that, in the ever-memorable year of 1857, the first campaign of the War of Independence was opened by you, O Martyrs, on the battlefields of India. The Motherland, awakened to the sense of her degrading slavery, unsheathed her sword, burst forth the shackles, and struck the first blow for her liberty and for her honour.

It was on this day that the war cry Maro Firungee Ko was raised by the throats of thousands. It was on this day that the sepoys of Meerut, having risen in a terrible uprising, marched down to Delhi, saw the waters of the Jumna glittering in the sunshine, caught one of those historical moments which close a past epoch to introduce a new one, and found, in a moment, a leader, a flag, and a cause, and converted the mutiny into a national and a religious war.

All honour be to you, O Martyrs; for it was for the preservation of the honour of the race that you performed the fiery ordeal of a revolution, when the religions of the land were threatened with a forcible and sinister conversion; when the hypocrite threw off his friendly garb and stood up in the naked heinousness of a perfidious foe—breaking treaties, smashing crowns, forging chains, and mocking all the while our Merciful Mother for the very honesty with which she believed the pretensions of the white liar.

Then you, O Martyrs of 1857, awoke the Mother, inspired the Mother, and for the honour of the Mother rushed to the battlefield, terrible and tremendous, with the war cry Maro Firungee Ko on your lips, and with the sacred mantra “God and Hindustan” on your banner!

Well did you in rising! For otherwise, although your blood might have been spared, yet the stigma of servility would have been the deeper; one more link would have been added to the cursed chain of demoralizing patience, and the world would have again contemptuously pointed to our nation, saying: “She deserves slavery; she is happy in slavery! For even in 1857, she did not raise even a finger to protect her interests and her honour!”

This day, therefore, we dedicate, O Martyrs, to your inspiring memory!

It was on this day that you raised a new flag to be upheld; you uttered a mission to be fulfilled; you saw a vision to be realized; you proclaimed a nation to be born!

We take up your cry, we revere your flag, we are determined to continue that fiery mission of “Away with the foreigner!”, which you uttered amidst the prophetic thunderings of the Revolutionary War—revolutionary, yes, it was a revolutionary war. For the War of 1857 shall not cease till the revolution arrives, striking slavery into dust, elevating liberty to the throne.

Whenever a people rises for its freedom, whenever that seed of liberty gets germinated in the blood of its martyrs, and whenever there remains at least one true son to avenge that blood of his fathers, there never can be an end to such a war as this. No, a Revolutionary War knows no truce save liberty or death!

We, inspired by your memory, determine to continue the struggle you began in 1857. We refuse to acknowledge the armistice as a truce; we look upon the battles you fought as the battles of the first campaign—the defeat of which cannot be the defeat of the war.

What? Shall the world say that India has accepted the defeat as a final one? That the blood of 1857 was shed in vain? That the sons of Ind betray their fathers’ vows? No, by Hindustan, no!

The historical continuity of the Indian nation is not cut off. The war that began on the 10th of May of 1857 is not over on the 10th of May of 1908, nor shall it ever cease till a 10th of May to come sees the destiny accomplished, sees the beautiful Ind crowned either with the lustre of victory or with the halo of martyrdom.

But, O glorious Martyrs, in this pious struggle of your sons, help! O help us by your inspiring presence!

Torn in innumerable petty selves, we cannot realize the grand unity of the Mother. Whisper, then, unto us by what magic you caught the secret of Union. How the Firungee Rule was shattered to pieces and the Swadeshi thrones were set up by the common consent of Hindus and Mahomedans. How, in the higher love of the Mother, united the differences of castes and creeds; how the venerated and venerable Bahadur Shah prohibited the killing of cows throughout India; how Shrimant Nana Saheb, after the first salute of thundering cannon to the Emperor of Delhi, reserved for himself the second one!

How you staggered the whole world by uniting under the banner of the Mother and forced your enemies to say:

> “Among the many lessons the Indian Mutiny conveys to the historian and administrator, none is of greater importance than the warning that it is possible to have a revolution in which Brahmins and Shudras, Mahomedan and Hindu, were united against us, and that it is not safe to suppose that the peace and stability of our dominion in any great measure depends on the continent being inhabited by different races with different religious systems, for they mutually understand each other and respect and take a part in each other’s modes and ways and doings.”

Whisper unto us the nobility of such an alliance of Religion with Patriotism—the true religion which ever is on the side of patriotism, the true patriotism which secures the freedom of religion!

And give us the marvelous energy, daring, and secrecy with which you organized the mighty volcano; show us the volcanic magma that underlay the green thin crust on which the foe was to be kept lulled into a false security; tell us how the chapatti—that fiery cross of India—flew from village to village and from valley to valley, setting the whole intellect of the nation on fire by the very vagueness of its message; and then let us hear the roaring thunder with which the volcano at last burst forth with an all-shattering force, rushing, smashing, burning, and consuming into one continuous fiery flow of red-hot lava flood!

Within a month, regiment after regiment, prince after prince, city after city, sepoys, police, zemindars, pundits, moulvis—the multiple-headed Revolution sounded its tocsin, and temples and mosques resounded with the cry “Maro Firungee Ko!” Away with the foreigners!

Meerut rose, Delhi rose, rose Benares, Agra, Patna, Lucknow, Allahabad, Jadagerpoor, Jhansi, Banda, Indore—from Peshawar to Calcutta and from the Narbada to the Himalayas, the volcano burst forth into a sudden, simultaneous, and all-consuming conflagration!!

And then, O Martyrs, tell us the little as well as the great defects which you found out in our people in that great experiment of yours. But above all, point out that most ruinous—nay, the only material drawback in the body of the nation—which rendered all your efforts futile: the mean selfish blindness which refuses to see its way to join the Nation’s cause.

Say that the only cause of the defeat of Hindustan was Hindustan herself; that, shaking away the slumber of centuries, the Mother rose to hit the foe, but while her right hand was striking the Firungee dead, her left hand struck—alas!—not the enemy but her own forehead! So she staggered and fell back into an inevitable swoon of 50 years!

50 years are past, but O restless spirits of 1857, we promise you with our heart’s blood that your Diamond Jubilee shall not pass without seeing your wishes fulfilled!!

We have heard your voice and we gather courage from it. With limited means you sustained a war, not against tyranny alone but against tyranny and treachery together. The Duab and Ayodhya, making a united stand, staged a war not only against the whole of the British power but against the rest of India too; and yet you fought for three years, and yet you had well-nigh snatched away the crown of Hindustan and smashed the hollow existence of the alien rule.

What an encouragement this! What the Duab and Ayodhya could do in a month, the simultaneous, sudden, and determined rising of the whole of Hindustan can do in a day! This hope illumines our heart and assures us of success. And so we avow that your Diamond Jubilee, the year 1917, shall not pass without seeing the resurging Ind making a triumphant entry into the world!

For the bones of Bahadur Shah are crying vengeance from their grave! For the blood of dauntless Laxmi is boiling with indignation! For the shahid Peer Ali of Patna, when he was going to the gallows for having refused to divulge the secrets of the conspiracy, whispered defiance to the Firungee and said in prophetic words:

> “You may hang me today, you may hang such as me every day, but thousands will still rise in my place—your object will never be gained.”

Indians, these words must be fulfilled! Your blood, O Martyrs, shall be avenged!!!

Bande Mataram!

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Reference:

Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past by Vikram Sampath, page 514.

Link: https://savarkar.org/en/encyc/2017/5/22/Oh-Martyrs.html

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The “O! Martyrs!” pamphlet was a powerful four-page leaflet written and distributed by Swatantrya Veer Savarkar in May 1908. It honored the heroes of the 1857 uprising and also called for a new revolutionary movement against British rule.

Savarkar wrote the pamphlet to mark the anniversary of the Meerut uprising on May 10, 1857. He argued that the event was not just a “mutiny,” as the British described it, but India’s “First War of Independence.”

The pamphlet was also a response to the British Golden Jubilee celebrations of 1857 held in 1907 and 1908. British newspapers had described the Indian rebels as criminals and murderers, but Savarkar praised them as martyrs who sacrificed themselves for their country, religion, and freedom.

A central idea of the text was that the fight for independence was still continuing. It famously stated: “The war begun on the 10th of May 1857 is not over on the 10th of May 1908, nor can it ever cease till a 10th of May to come sees the destiny accomplished.”

Thousands of copies of the pamphlet were circulated in both England and India. Indian students in London wore badges saying “Honours to the martyrs of 1857” along with the pamphlet’s message, which led to clashes with British authorities and professors.

The pamphlet also emphasized Hindu-Muslim unity during the 1857 revolt. Savarkar described the uprising as a movement in which both communities united under the idea of the Motherland.

Because the pamphlet used the memory of the 1857 revolt to encourage resistance against British rule, the British government considered it seditious. In 1910, it was later used as evidence against Savarkar in the case accusing him of conspiring to wage war against the British Crown.

Here is the full text of the pamphlet, made available thanks to historian Vikram Sampath, who shared it on page 514 of his book, Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past.

You can download the PDF of the book for free here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Uuq65oIXW_AIqiX4S_Xs8lqL1c0cw9f-

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> The battle of freedom once begun And handed down from sire to son Though often lost, is ever won!!

Today is the 10th of May! It was on this day that, in the ever-memorable year of 1857, the first campaign of the War of Independence was opened by you, O Martyrs, on the battlefields of India. The Motherland, awakened to the sense of her degrading slavery, unsheathed her sword, burst forth the shackles, and struck the first blow for her liberty and for her honour.

It was on this day that the war cry Maro Firungee Ko was raised by the throats of thousands. It was on this day that the sepoys of Meerut, having risen in a terrible uprising, marched down to Delhi, saw the waters of the Jumna glittering in the sunshine, caught one of those historical moments which close a past epoch to introduce a new one, and found, in a moment, a leader, a flag, and a cause, and converted the mutiny into a national and a religious war.

All honour be to you, O Martyrs; for it was for the preservation of the honour of the race that you performed the fiery ordeal of a revolution, when the religions of the land were threatened with a forcible and sinister conversion; when the hypocrite threw off his friendly garb and stood up in the naked heinousness of a perfidious foe—breaking treaties, smashing crowns, forging chains, and mocking all the while our Merciful Mother for the very honesty with which she believed the pretensions of the white liar.

Then you, O Martyrs of 1857, awoke the Mother, inspired the Mother, and for the honour of the Mother rushed to the battlefield, terrible and tremendous, with the war cry Maro Firungee Ko on your lips, and with the sacred mantra “God and Hindustan” on your banner!

Well did you in rising! For otherwise, although your blood might have been spared, yet the stigma of servility would have been the deeper; one more link would have been added to the cursed chain of demoralizing patience, and the world would have again contemptuously pointed to our nation, saying: “She deserves slavery; she is happy in slavery! For even in 1857, she did not raise even a finger to protect her interests and her honour!”

This day, therefore, we dedicate, O Martyrs, to your inspiring memory!

It was on this day that you raised a new flag to be upheld; you uttered a mission to be fulfilled; you saw a vision to be realized; you proclaimed a nation to be born!

We take up your cry, we revere your flag, we are determined to continue that fiery mission of “Away with the foreigner!”, which you uttered amidst the prophetic thunderings of the Revolutionary War—revolutionary, yes, it was a revolutionary war. For the War of 1857 shall not cease till the revolution arrives, striking slavery into dust, elevating liberty to the throne.

Whenever a people rises for its freedom, whenever that seed of liberty gets germinated in the blood of its martyrs, and whenever there remains at least one true son to avenge that blood of his fathers, there never can be an end to such a war as this. No, a Revolutionary War knows no truce save liberty or death!

We, inspired by your memory, determine to continue the struggle you began in 1857. We refuse to acknowledge the armistice as a truce; we look upon the battles you fought as the battles of the first campaign—the defeat of which cannot be the defeat of the war.

What? Shall the world say that India has accepted the defeat as a final one? That the blood of 1857 was shed in vain? That the sons of Ind betray their fathers’ vows? No, by Hindustan, no!

The historical continuity of the Indian nation is not cut off. The war that began on the 10th of May of 1857 is not over on the 10th of May of 1908, nor shall it ever cease till a 10th of May to come sees the destiny accomplished, sees the beautiful Ind crowned either with the lustre of victory or with the halo of martyrdom.

But, O glorious Martyrs, in this pious struggle of your sons, help! O help us by your inspiring presence!

Torn in innumerable petty selves, we cannot realize the grand unity of the Mother. Whisper, then, unto us by what magic you caught the secret of Union. How the Firungee Rule was shattered to pieces and the Swadeshi thrones were set up by the common consent of Hindus and Mahomedans. How, in the higher love of the Mother, united the differences of castes and creeds; how the venerated and venerable Bahadur Shah prohibited the killing of cows throughout India; how Shrimant Nana Saheb, after the first salute of thundering cannon to the Emperor of Delhi, reserved for himself the second one!

How you staggered the whole world by uniting under the banner of the Mother and forced your enemies to say:

> “Among the many lessons the Indian Mutiny conveys to the historian and administrator, none is of greater importance than the warning that it is possible to have a revolution in which Brahmins and Shudras, Mahomedan and Hindu, were united against us, and that it is not safe to suppose that the peace and stability of our dominion in any great measure depends on the continent being inhabited by different races with different religious systems, for they mutually understand each other and respect and take a part in each other’s modes and ways and doings.”

Whisper unto us the nobility of such an alliance of Religion with Patriotism—the true religion which ever is on the side of patriotism, the true patriotism which secures the freedom of religion!

And give us the marvelous energy, daring, and secrecy with which you organized the mighty volcano; show us the volcanic magma that underlay the green thin crust on which the foe was to be kept lulled into a false security; tell us how the chapatti—that fiery cross of India—flew from village to village and from valley to valley, setting the whole intellect of the nation on fire by the very vagueness of its message; and then let us hear the roaring thunder with which the volcano at last burst forth with an all-shattering force, rushing, smashing, burning, and consuming into one continuous fiery flow of red-hot lava flood!

Within a month, regiment after regiment, prince after prince, city after city, sepoys, police, zemindars, pundits, moulvis—the multiple-headed Revolution sounded its tocsin, and temples and mosques resounded with the cry “Maro Firungee Ko!” Away with the foreigners!

Meerut rose, Delhi rose, rose Benares, Agra, Patna, Lucknow, Allahabad, Jadagerpoor, Jhansi, Banda, Indore—from Peshawar to Calcutta and from the Narbada to the Himalayas, the volcano burst forth into a sudden, simultaneous, and all-consuming conflagration!!

And then, O Martyrs, tell us the little as well as the great defects which you found out in our people in that great experiment of yours. But above all, point out that most ruinous—nay, the only material drawback in the body of the nation—which rendered all your efforts futile: the mean selfish blindness which refuses to see its way to join the Nation’s cause.

Say that the only cause of the defeat of Hindustan was Hindustan herself; that, shaking away the slumber of centuries, the Mother rose to hit the foe, but while her right hand was striking the Firungee dead, her left hand struck—alas!—not the enemy but her own forehead! So she staggered and fell back into an inevitable swoon of 50 years!

50 years are past, but O restless spirits of 1857, we promise you with our heart’s blood that your Diamond Jubilee shall not pass without seeing your wishes fulfilled!!

We have heard your voice and we gather courage from it. With limited means you sustained a war, not against tyranny alone but against tyranny and treachery together. The Duab and Ayodhya, making a united stand, staged a war not only against the whole of the British power but against the rest of India too; and yet you fought for three years, and yet you had well-nigh snatched away the crown of Hindustan and smashed the hollow existence of the alien rule.

What an encouragement this! What the Duab and Ayodhya could do in a month, the simultaneous, sudden, and determined rising of the whole of Hindustan can do in a day! This hope illumines our heart and assures us of success. And so we avow that your Diamond Jubilee, the year 1917, shall not pass without seeing the resurging Ind making a triumphant entry into the world!

For the bones of Bahadur Shah are crying vengeance from their grave! For the blood of dauntless Laxmi is boiling with indignation! For the shahid Peer Ali of Patna, when he was going to the gallows for having refused to divulge the secrets of the conspiracy, whispered defiance to the Firungee and said in prophetic words:

> “You may hang me today, you may hang such as me every day, but thousands will still rise in my place—your object will never be gained.”

Indians, these words must be fulfilled! Your blood, O Martyrs, shall be avenged!!!

Bande Mataram!

---

---

The “O! Martyrs!” pamphlet was a powerful four-page leaflet written and distributed by Swatantrya Veer Savarkar in May 1908. It honored the heroes of the 1857 uprising and also called for a new revolutionary movement against British rule.

Savarkar wrote the pamphlet to mark the anniversary of the Meerut uprising on May 10, 1857. He argued that the event was not just a “mutiny,” as the British described it, but India’s “First War of Independence.”

The pamphlet was also a response to the British Golden Jubilee celebrations of 1857 held in 1907 and 1908. British newspapers had described the Indian rebels as criminals and murderers, but Savarkar praised them as martyrs who sacrificed themselves for their country, religion, and freedom.

A central idea of the text was that the fight for independence was still continuing. It famously stated: “The war begun on the 10th of May 1857 is not over on the 10th of May 1908, nor can it ever cease till a 10th of May to come sees the destiny accomplished.”

Thousands of copies of the pamphlet were circulated in both England and India. Indian students in London wore badges saying “Honours to the martyrs of 1857” along with the pamphlet’s message, which led to clashes with British authorities and professors.

The pamphlet also emphasized Hindu-Muslim unity during the 1857 revolt. Savarkar described the uprising as a movement in which both communities united under the idea of the Motherland.

Because the pamphlet used the memory of the 1857 revolt to encourage resistance against British rule, the British government considered it seditious. In 1910, it was later used as evidence against Savarkar in the case accusing him of conspiring to wage war against the British Crown.

Here is the full text of the pamphlet, made available thanks to historian Vikram Sampath, who shared it on page 514 of his book, Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past.

You can download the PDF of the book for free here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Uuq65oIXW_AIqiX4S_Xs8lqL1c0cw9f-

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> The battle of freedom once begun And handed down from sire to son Though often lost, is ever won!!

Today is the 10th of May! It was on this day that, in the ever-memorable year of 1857, the first campaign of the War of Independence was opened by you, O Martyrs, on the battlefields of India. The Motherland, awakened to the sense of her degrading slavery, unsheathed her sword, burst forth the shackles, and struck the first blow for her liberty and for her honour.

It was on this day that the war cry Maro Firungee Ko was raised by the throats of thousands. It was on this day that the sepoys of Meerut, having risen in a terrible uprising, marched down to Delhi, saw the waters of the Jumna glittering in the sunshine, caught one of those historical moments which close a past epoch to introduce a new one, and found, in a moment, a leader, a flag, and a cause, and converted the mutiny into a national and a religious war.

All honour be to you, O Martyrs; for it was for the preservation of the honour of the race that you performed the fiery ordeal of a revolution, when the religions of the land were threatened with a forcible and sinister conversion; when the hypocrite threw off his friendly garb and stood up in the naked heinousness of a perfidious foe—breaking treaties, smashing crowns, forging chains, and mocking all the while our Merciful Mother for the very honesty with which she believed the pretensions of the white liar.

Then you, O Martyrs of 1857, awoke the Mother, inspired the Mother, and for the honour of the Mother rushed to the battlefield, terrible and tremendous, with the war cry Maro Firungee Ko on your lips, and with the sacred mantra “God and Hindustan” on your banner!

Well did you in rising! For otherwise, although your blood might have been spared, yet the stigma of servility would have been the deeper; one more link would have been added to the cursed chain of demoralizing patience, and the world would have again contemptuously pointed to our nation, saying: “She deserves slavery; she is happy in slavery! For even in 1857, she did not raise even a finger to protect her interests and her honour!”

This day, therefore, we dedicate, O Martyrs, to your inspiring memory!

It was on this day that you raised a new flag to be upheld; you uttered a mission to be fulfilled; you saw a vision to be realized; you proclaimed a nation to be born!

We take up your cry, we revere your flag, we are determined to continue that fiery mission of “Away with the foreigner!”, which you uttered amidst the prophetic thunderings of the Revolutionary War—revolutionary, yes, it was a revolutionary war. For the War of 1857 shall not cease till the revolution arrives, striking slavery into dust, elevating liberty to the throne.

Whenever a people rises for its freedom, whenever that seed of liberty gets germinated in the blood of its martyrs, and whenever there remains at least one true son to avenge that blood of his fathers, there never can be an end to such a war as this. No, a Revolutionary War knows no truce save liberty or death!

We, inspired by your memory, determine to continue the struggle you began in 1857. We refuse to acknowledge the armistice as a truce; we look upon the battles you fought as the battles of the first campaign—the defeat of which cannot be the defeat of the war.

What? Shall the world say that India has accepted the defeat as a final one? That the blood of 1857 was shed in vain? That the sons of Ind betray their fathers’ vows? No, by Hindustan, no!

The historical continuity of the Indian nation is not cut off. The war that began on the 10th of May of 1857 is not over on the 10th of May of 1908, nor shall it ever cease till a 10th of May to come sees the destiny accomplished, sees the beautiful Ind crowned either with the lustre of victory or with the halo of martyrdom.

But, O glorious Martyrs, in this pious struggle of your sons, help! O help us by your inspiring presence!

Torn in innumerable petty selves, we cannot realize the grand unity of the Mother. Whisper, then, unto us by what magic you caught the secret of Union. How the Firungee Rule was shattered to pieces and the Swadeshi thrones were set up by the common consent of Hindus and Mahomedans. How, in the higher love of the Mother, united the differences of castes and creeds; how the venerated and venerable Bahadur Shah prohibited the killing of cows throughout India; how Shrimant Nana Saheb, after the first salute of thundering cannon to the Emperor of Delhi, reserved for himself the second one!

How you staggered the whole world by uniting under the banner of the Mother and forced your enemies to say:

> “Among the many lessons the Indian Mutiny conveys to the historian and administrator, none is of greater importance than the warning that it is possible to have a revolution in which Brahmins and Shudras, Mahomedan and Hindu, were united against us, and that it is not safe to suppose that the peace and stability of our dominion in any great measure depends on the continent being inhabited by different races with different religious systems, for they mutually understand each other and respect and take a part in each other’s modes and ways and doings.”

Whisper unto us the nobility of such an alliance of Religion with Patriotism—the true religion which ever is on the side of patriotism, the true patriotism which secures the freedom of religion!

And give us the marvelous energy, daring, and secrecy with which you organized the mighty volcano; show us the volcanic magma that underlay the green thin crust on which the foe was to be kept lulled into a false security; tell us how the chapatti—that fiery cross of India—flew from village to village and from valley to valley, setting the whole intellect of the nation on fire by the very vagueness of its message; and then let us hear the roaring thunder with which the volcano at last burst forth with an all-shattering force, rushing, smashing, burning, and consuming into one continuous fiery flow of red-hot lava flood!

Within a month, regiment after regiment, prince after prince, city after city, sepoys, police, zemindars, pundits, moulvis—the multiple-headed Revolution sounded its tocsin, and temples and mosques resounded with the cry “Maro Firungee Ko!” Away with the foreigners!

Meerut rose, Delhi rose, rose Benares, Agra, Patna, Lucknow, Allahabad, Jadagerpoor, Jhansi, Banda, Indore—from Peshawar to Calcutta and from the Narbada to the Himalayas, the volcano burst forth into a sudden, simultaneous, and all-consuming conflagration!!

And then, O Martyrs, tell us the little as well as the great defects which you found out in our people in that great experiment of yours. But above all, point out that most ruinous—nay, the only material drawback in the body of the nation—which rendered all your efforts futile: the mean selfish blindness which refuses to see its way to join the Nation’s cause.

Say that the only cause of the defeat of Hindustan was Hindustan herself; that, shaking away the slumber of centuries, the Mother rose to hit the foe, but while her right hand was striking the Firungee dead, her left hand struck—alas!—not the enemy but her own forehead! So she staggered and fell back into an inevitable swoon of 50 years!

50 years are past, but O restless spirits of 1857, we promise you with our heart’s blood that your Diamond Jubilee shall not pass without seeing your wishes fulfilled!!

We have heard your voice and we gather courage from it. With limited means you sustained a war, not against tyranny alone but against tyranny and treachery together. The Duab and Ayodhya, making a united stand, staged a war not only against the whole of the British power but against the rest of India too; and yet you fought for three years, and yet you had well-nigh snatched away the crown of Hindustan and smashed the hollow existence of the alien rule.

What an encouragement this! What the Duab and Ayodhya could do in a month, the simultaneous, sudden, and determined rising of the whole of Hindustan can do in a day! This hope illumines our heart and assures us of success. And so we avow that your Diamond Jubilee, the year 1917, shall not pass without seeing the resurging Ind making a triumphant entry into the world!

For the bones of Bahadur Shah are crying vengeance from their grave! For the blood of dauntless Laxmi is boiling with indignation! For the shahid Peer Ali of Patna, when he was going to the gallows for having refused to divulge the secrets of the conspiracy, whispered defiance to the Firungee and said in prophetic words:

> “You may hang me today, you may hang such as me every day, but thousands will still rise in my place—your object will never be gained.”

Indians, these words must be fulfilled! Your blood, O Martyrs, shall be avenged!!!

Bande Mataram!

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The “O! Martyrs!” pamphlet was a powerful four-page leaflet written and distributed by Swatantrya Veer Savarkar in May 1908. It honored the heroes of the 1857 uprising and also called for a new revolutionary movement against British rule.

Savarkar wrote the pamphlet to mark the anniversary of the Meerut uprising on May 10, 1857. He argued that the event was not just a “mutiny,” as the British described it, but India’s “First War of Independence.”

The pamphlet was also a response to the British Golden Jubilee celebrations of 1857 held in 1907 and 1908. British newspapers had described the Indian rebels as criminals and murderers, but Savarkar praised them as martyrs who sacrificed themselves for their country, religion, and freedom.

A central idea of the text was that the fight for independence was still continuing. It famously stated: “The war begun on the 10th of May 1857 is not over on the 10th of May 1908, nor can it ever cease till a 10th of May to come sees the destiny accomplished.”

Thousands of copies of the pamphlet were circulated in both England and India. Indian students in London wore badges saying “Honours to the martyrs of 1857” along with the pamphlet’s message, which led to clashes with British authorities and professors.

The pamphlet also emphasized Hindu-Muslim unity during the 1857 revolt. Savarkar described the uprising as a movement in which both communities united under the idea of the Motherland.

Because the pamphlet used the memory of the 1857 revolt to encourage resistance against British rule, the British government considered it seditious. In 1910, it was later used as evidence against Savarkar in the case accusing him of conspiring to wage war against the British Crown.

Here is the full text of the pamphlet, made available thanks to historian Vikram Sampath, who shared it on page 514 of his book, Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past.

You can download the PDF of the book for free here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Uuq65oIXW_AIqiX4S_Xs8lqL1c0cw9f-

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> The battle of freedom once begun And handed down from sire to son Though often lost, is ever won!!

Today is the 10th of May! It was on this day that, in the ever-memorable year of 1857, the first campaign of the War of Independence was opened by you, O Martyrs, on the battlefields of India. The Motherland, awakened to the sense of her degrading slavery, unsheathed her sword, burst forth the shackles, and struck the first blow for her liberty and for her honour.

It was on this day that the war cry Maro Firungee Ko was raised by the throats of thousands. It was on this day that the sepoys of Meerut, having risen in a terrible uprising, marched down to Delhi, saw the waters of the Jumna glittering in the sunshine, caught one of those historical moments which close a past epoch to introduce a new one, and found, in a moment, a leader, a flag, and a cause, and converted the mutiny into a national and a religious war.

All honour be to you, O Martyrs; for it was for the preservation of the honour of the race that you performed the fiery ordeal of a revolution, when the religions of the land were threatened with a forcible and sinister conversion; when the hypocrite threw off his friendly garb and stood up in the naked heinousness of a perfidious foe—breaking treaties, smashing crowns, forging chains, and mocking all the while our Merciful Mother for the very honesty with which she believed the pretensions of the white liar.

Then you, O Martyrs of 1857, awoke the Mother, inspired the Mother, and for the honour of the Mother rushed to the battlefield, terrible and tremendous, with the war cry Maro Firungee Ko on your lips, and with the sacred mantra “God and Hindustan” on your banner!

Well did you in rising! For otherwise, although your blood might have been spared, yet the stigma of servility would have been the deeper; one more link would have been added to the cursed chain of demoralizing patience, and the world would have again contemptuously pointed to our nation, saying: “She deserves slavery; she is happy in slavery! For even in 1857, she did not raise even a finger to protect her interests and her honour!”

This day, therefore, we dedicate, O Martyrs, to your inspiring memory!

It was on this day that you raised a new flag to be upheld; you uttered a mission to be fulfilled; you saw a vision to be realized; you proclaimed a nation to be born!

We take up your cry, we revere your flag, we are determined to continue that fiery mission of “Away with the foreigner!”, which you uttered amidst the prophetic thunderings of the Revolutionary War—revolutionary, yes, it was a revolutionary war. For the War of 1857 shall not cease till the revolution arrives, striking slavery into dust, elevating liberty to the throne.

Whenever a people rises for its freedom, whenever that seed of liberty gets germinated in the blood of its martyrs, and whenever there remains at least one true son to avenge that blood of his fathers, there never can be an end to such a war as this. No, a Revolutionary War knows no truce save liberty or death!

We, inspired by your memory, determine to continue the struggle you began in 1857. We refuse to acknowledge the armistice as a truce; we look upon the battles you fought as the battles of the first campaign—the defeat of which cannot be the defeat of the war.

What? Shall the world say that India has accepted the defeat as a final one? That the blood of 1857 was shed in vain? That the sons of Ind betray their fathers’ vows? No, by Hindustan, no!

The historical continuity of the Indian nation is not cut off. The war that began on the 10th of May of 1857 is not over on the 10th of May of 1908, nor shall it ever cease till a 10th of May to come sees the destiny accomplished, sees the beautiful Ind crowned either with the lustre of victory or with the halo of martyrdom.

But, O glorious Martyrs, in this pious struggle of your sons, help! O help us by your inspiring presence!

Torn in innumerable petty selves, we cannot realize the grand unity of the Mother. Whisper, then, unto us by what magic you caught the secret of Union. How the Firungee Rule was shattered to pieces and the Swadeshi thrones were set up by the common consent of Hindus and Mahomedans. How, in the higher love of the Mother, united the differences of castes and creeds; how the venerated and venerable Bahadur Shah prohibited the killing of cows throughout India; how Shrimant Nana Saheb, after the first salute of thundering cannon to the Emperor of Delhi, reserved for himself the second one!

How you staggered the whole world by uniting under the banner of the Mother and forced your enemies to say:

> “Among the many lessons the Indian Mutiny conveys to the historian and administrator, none is of greater importance than the warning that it is possible to have a revolution in which Brahmins and Shudras, Mahomedan and Hindu, were united against us, and that it is not safe to suppose that the peace and stability of our dominion in any great measure depends on the continent being inhabited by different races with different religious systems, for they mutually understand each other and respect and take a part in each other’s modes and ways and doings.”

Whisper unto us the nobility of such an alliance of Religion with Patriotism—the true religion which ever is on the side of patriotism, the true patriotism which secures the freedom of religion!

And give us the marvelous energy, daring, and secrecy with which you organized the mighty volcano; show us the volcanic magma that underlay the green thin crust on which the foe was to be kept lulled into a false security; tell us how the chapatti—that fiery cross of India—flew from village to village and from valley to valley, setting the whole intellect of the nation on fire by the very vagueness of its message; and then let us hear the roaring thunder with which the volcano at last burst forth with an all-shattering force, rushing, smashing, burning, and consuming into one continuous fiery flow of red-hot lava flood!

Within a month, regiment after regiment, prince after prince, city after city, sepoys, police, zemindars, pundits, moulvis—the multiple-headed Revolution sounded its tocsin, and temples and mosques resounded with the cry “Maro Firungee Ko!” Away with the foreigners!

Meerut rose, Delhi rose, rose Benares, Agra, Patna, Lucknow, Allahabad, Jadagerpoor, Jhansi, Banda, Indore—from Peshawar to Calcutta and from the Narbada to the Himalayas, the volcano burst forth into a sudden, simultaneous, and all-consuming conflagration!!

And then, O Martyrs, tell us the little as well as the great defects which you found out in our people in that great experiment of yours. But above all, point out that most ruinous—nay, the only material drawback in the body of the nation—which rendered all your efforts futile: the mean selfish blindness which refuses to see its way to join the Nation’s cause.

Say that the only cause of the defeat of Hindustan was Hindustan herself; that, shaking away the slumber of centuries, the Mother rose to hit the foe, but while her right hand was striking the Firungee dead, her left hand struck—alas!—not the enemy but her own forehead! So she staggered and fell back into an inevitable swoon of 50 years!

50 years are past, but O restless spirits of 1857, we promise you with our heart’s blood that your Diamond Jubilee shall not pass without seeing your wishes fulfilled!!

We have heard your voice and we gather courage from it. With limited means you sustained a war, not against tyranny alone but against tyranny and treachery together. The Duab and Ayodhya, making a united stand, staged a war not only against the whole of the British power but against the rest of India too; and yet you fought for three years, and yet you had well-nigh snatched away the crown of Hindustan and smashed the hollow existence of the alien rule.

What an encouragement this! What the Duab and Ayodhya could do in a month, the simultaneous, sudden, and determined rising of the whole of Hindustan can do in a day! This hope illumines our heart and assures us of success. And so we avow that your Diamond Jubilee, the year 1917, shall not pass without seeing the resurging Ind making a triumphant entry into the world!

For the bones of Bahadur Shah are crying vengeance from their grave! For the blood of dauntless Laxmi is boiling with indignation! For the shahid Peer Ali of Patna, when he was going to the gallows for having refused to divulge the secrets of the conspiracy, whispered defiance to the Firungee and said in prophetic words:

> “You may hang me today, you may hang such as me every day, but thousands will still rise in my place—your object will never be gained.”

Indians, these words must be fulfilled! Your blood, O Martyrs, shall be avenged!!!

Bande Mataram!

---

Credits to @kraantiie on Instagram for making this post

https://www.instagram.com/p/DP1bBQMAcv4/

This is a British news covering of the Direct Action Day killings in Kolkata, 1946

Since this is a video of a news outlet in itself, I assume a link as a source is not required.

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The recent violence in Bengal recalls the dark events that unfolded here 80 years ago. History exists not merely to remember the past, but to learn from it.

This post draws from Stern Reckoning: A Survey of the Events Leading Up To and Following the Partition of India (pp. 50–53) by G. D. Khosla, former Chief Justice of the Punjab High Court.

In the days leading up to August 16, 1946, the Muslim League organized Direct Action Day with extensive preparation across Calcutta and surrounding districts. Meetings were held, pamphlets distributed, and the Muslim Press widely publicized the programme.

The League called for a total hartal and complete shutdown of business. To facilitate this, H. S. Suhrawardy’s Muslim League government in Bengal declared August 16 a public holiday across Bengal despite opposition warnings that it would unleash lawlessness by sending large numbers of workers, labourers, and agitators into the streets.

A massive rally was planned at the Ochterlony Monument, where Suhrawardy was to preside. The Mayor of Calcutta reportedly called upon a million Muslims to gather and demonstrate their united strength.

The following was the speech made in the program:

> Muslims must remember that it was in Ramzan that the Quran was revealed. It was in Ramzan that the permission for Jehad was granted by Allah. It was in Ramzan that the battle of Badr, the first open conflict between Islam and Heathenism, was fought and won by 313 Muslims; and again it was in Ramzan that 10,000 under the Holy Prophet conquered Mecca and established the kingdom of Heaven and the commonwealth of Islam in Arabia. The Muslim League is fortunate that it is starting its action in this holy month.

The leaflets issued by Mr. Usman were in the same strain. An Urdu circular bearing the title “Manifesto” contained the following exhortation:—

> Brethren of Islam,

> Please explain this circular to the people of your ilaga, mohalla, in mosques, schools, colleges, clubs, tea-stalls, and hotels. Ask them to awake, arise and unite under the banner of the Muslim League and make this hartal a success. Assemble at the foot of the Ochterlony Monument in processions with the accompaniment of bands at 3 p.m. Lead the procession with such strength and enthusiasm that even the blind, deaf, and dumb can appreciate their strength and determination.

Another leaflet containing a special prayer for the crusade is worth quoting in full:

                MUNAJAT FOR THE JEHAD

(To be said at every mosque after the Jumma prayer)

> It was in this month of Ramzan that the Holy Quran was revealed! It was in this month of Ramzan that 313 Muslims were victorious through the grace of God over many Kafers in the battle of Badr, and the Jehad of the Muslims commenced! It was in this month that ten thousand Muslims marched to Mecca and were conquerors, and thus there was the establishment of the Kingdom of Islam.

> By the grace of God, we are ten crores in India, but through bad luck we have become slaves of the Hindus and the British. We are starting a Jehad in Your Name in this very month of Ramzan. We promise before You that we entirely depend on You. Pray make us strong in body and mind—give Your helping hand in all our actions—make us victorious over the Kafers—enable us to establish the Kingdom of Islam in India and make proper sacrifices for this Jehad—by the grace of God may we build up in India the greatest Islamic kingdom in the world.

> The Muslims in China, Manchuria, Mongolia, Malaya, Java, and Sumatra are all fighting for their freedom—pray by Your grace they may succeed. May You bring freedom to the Muslims of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Albania, Arabia, Egypt, and the Sudan, and also to the Muslims of Tunis, Algiers, Morocco, Africa. May God help us so that Muslims of the world may be able to build up a very strong Islamic kingdom in this world.

(Then followed some Arabic quotations from Quran and Hadis.)

Note: This form of prayer should be kept with care—must not be touched with the foot or dishonoured in any way.

A Bengali pamphlet Mugur (Club) concluded with a passionate appeal:

> The Bombay resolution of the All-India Muslim League has been broadcast. The call to revolt comes to us from the Qaid-e-Azam of the Muslim leaders. Braves, this is what we want. This is the policy for the nation of heroes. For so long we have been acting like beggars. We are glad from the core of our hearts to hear this magnificent news. This is what we have been eagerly waiting for. God has granted to the Muslims in the month of Ramzan what they have been clamouring for. The day for an open fight, which is the greatest desire of the Muslim nation, has arrived. Come, those who want to rise to heaven. Come, those who are simple, wanting in peace of mind, and who are in distress. Those who are thieves, goondas, those without the strength of character, and those who do not say their prayers—all come. (Italics ours.) The shining gates of heaven have been opened for you. Let us enter in thousands. Let us all cry out: Victory to Pakistan, victory to the Muslim nation, and victory to the army which has declared a Jehad.

A leaflet bearing a picture of Mr. Jinnah with a sword in hand said:—

> The sword of Islam must be shining on the heavens and will subdue all evil designs. … We Muslims have had the Crown and have ruled. Do not lose heart. Be ready and take your swords. Think you, Muslims, why we are under the kafirs today. The result of loving the kafirs is not good. O kafir! Do not be proud and happy. Your doom is not far, and the general massacre will come. We shall show our glory with swords in hands and will have a special victory.

Another leaflet asked the Muslims to come into the arena with their swords and change their tactics:—

> We shall then see who will play with us, for rivers of blood will flow. We shall have the swords in our hands and the noise of takbir. Tomorrow will be doom’s day!

And Dooms Day it was…

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Images:

1-4) Pages 50–53 of Stern Reckoning, documenting the declaration prepared by the Muslim League to be recited at every mosque following Jumma prayers.

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References:

Stern Reckoning: A Survey of the Events Leading Up To and Following the Partition of India [P. 50–53], authored by G. D. Khosla, Chief Justice of the Punjab High Court, was originally published in 1949.

Archive link: https://archive.org/details/stern-reckoning

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---

The recent violence in Bengal recalls the dark events that unfolded here 80 years ago. History exists not merely to remember the past, but to learn from it.

This post draws from Stern Reckoning: A Survey of the Events Leading Up To and Following the Partition of India (pp. 50–53) by G. D. Khosla, former Chief Justice of the Punjab High Court.

In the days leading up to August 16, 1946, the Muslim League organized Direct Action Day with extensive preparation across Calcutta and surrounding districts. Meetings were held, pamphlets distributed, and the Muslim Press widely publicized the programme.

The League called for a total hartal and complete shutdown of business. To facilitate this, H. S. Suhrawardy’s Muslim League government in Bengal declared August 16 a public holiday across Bengal despite opposition warnings that it would unleash lawlessness by sending large numbers of workers, labourers, and agitators into the streets.

A massive rally was planned at the Ochterlony Monument, where Suhrawardy was to preside. The Mayor of Calcutta reportedly called upon a million Muslims to gather and demonstrate their united strength.

The following was the speech made in the program:

> Muslims must remember that it was in Ramzan that the Quran was revealed. It was in Ramzan that the permission for Jehad was granted by Allah. It was in Ramzan that the battle of Badr, the first open conflict between Islam and Heathenism, was fought and won by 313 Muslims; and again it was in Ramzan that 10,000 under the Holy Prophet conquered Mecca and established the kingdom of Heaven and the commonwealth of Islam in Arabia. The Muslim League is fortunate that it is starting its action in this holy month.

The leaflets issued by Mr. Usman were in the same strain. An Urdu circular bearing the title “Manifesto” contained the following exhortation:—

> Brethren of Islam,

> Please explain this circular to the people of your ilaga, mohalla, in mosques, schools, colleges, clubs, tea-stalls, and hotels. Ask them to awake, arise and unite under the banner of the Muslim League and make this hartal a success. Assemble at the foot of the Ochterlony Monument in processions with the accompaniment of bands at 3 p.m. Lead the procession with such strength and enthusiasm that even the blind, deaf, and dumb can appreciate their strength and determination.

Another leaflet containing a special prayer for the crusade is worth quoting in full:

                MUNAJAT FOR THE JEHAD

(To be said at every mosque after the Jumma prayer)

> It was in this month of Ramzan that the Holy Quran was revealed! It was in this month of Ramzan that 313 Muslims were victorious through the grace of God over many Kafers in the battle of Badr, and the Jehad of the Muslims commenced! It was in this month that ten thousand Muslims marched to Mecca and were conquerors, and thus there was the establishment of the Kingdom of Islam.

> By the grace of God, we are ten crores in India, but through bad luck we have become slaves of the Hindus and the British. We are starting a Jehad in Your Name in this very month of Ramzan. We promise before You that we entirely depend on You. Pray make us strong in body and mind—give Your helping hand in all our actions—make us victorious over the Kafers—enable us to establish the Kingdom of Islam in India and make proper sacrifices for this Jehad—by the grace of God may we build up in India the greatest Islamic kingdom in the world.

> The Muslims in China, Manchuria, Mongolia, Malaya, Java, and Sumatra are all fighting for their freedom—pray by Your grace they may succeed. May You bring freedom to the Muslims of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Albania, Arabia, Egypt, and the Sudan, and also to the Muslims of Tunis, Algiers, Morocco, Africa. May God help us so that Muslims of the world may be able to build up a very strong Islamic kingdom in this world.

(Then followed some Arabic quotations from Quran and Hadis.)

Note: This form of prayer should be kept with care—must not be touched with the foot or dishonoured in any way.

A Bengali pamphlet Mugur (Club) concluded with a passionate appeal:

> The Bombay resolution of the All-India Muslim League has been broadcast. The call to revolt comes to us from the Qaid-e-Azam of the Muslim leaders. Braves, this is what we want. This is the policy for the nation of heroes. For so long we have been acting like beggars. We are glad from the core of our hearts to hear this magnificent news. This is what we have been eagerly waiting for. God has granted to the Muslims in the month of Ramzan what they have been clamouring for. The day for an open fight, which is the greatest desire of the Muslim nation, has arrived. Come, those who want to rise to heaven. Come, those who are simple, wanting in peace of mind, and who are in distress. Those who are thieves, goondas, those without the strength of character, and those who do not say their prayers—all come. (Italics ours.) The shining gates of heaven have been opened for you. Let us enter in thousands. Let us all cry out: Victory to Pakistan, victory to the Muslim nation, and victory to the army which has declared a Jehad.

A leaflet bearing a picture of Mr. Jinnah with a sword in hand said:—

> The sword of Islam must be shining on the heavens and will subdue all evil designs. … We Muslims have had the Crown and have ruled. Do not lose heart. Be ready and take your swords. Think you, Muslims, why we are under the kafirs today. The result of loving the kafirs is not good. O kafir! Do not be proud and happy. Your doom is not far, and the general massacre will come. We shall show our glory with swords in hands and will have a special victory.

Another leaflet asked the Muslims to come into the arena with their swords and change their tactics:—

> We shall then see who will play with us, for rivers of blood will flow. We shall have the swords in our hands and the noise of takbir. Tomorrow will be doom’s day!

And Dooms Day it was…

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Images:

1. A segment of the vast assembly that attended the Muslim League's Direct Action Day meeting in Kolkata.

2. Photograph capturing the crowd gathered at the base of the Ochterlony Monument (presently known as the Shahid Minar) in Kolkata, assembled to attend the Muslim League’s Direct Action Day meeting.

3,4,5,6) Pages 50–53 of Stern Reckoning, documenting the declaration prepared by the Muslim League to be recited at every mosque following Jumma prayers.

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References:

Stern Reckoning: A Survey of the Events Leading Up To and Following the Partition of India [P. 50–53], authored by G. D. Khosla, Chief Justice of the Punjab High Court, was originally published in 1949.

Archive link: https://archive.org/details/stern-reckoning

Image 1: https://www.gettyimages.in/detail/news-photo/section-of-the-huge-crowd-which-attended-the-muslim-league-news-photo/3361503

Image 2: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Muslim_League_rally_on_Direct_Action_Day.jpg

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I think this is more relevant today than ever.

> I spoke once before with this force in me and I said then that this movement is not a political movement and that nationalism is not politics but a religion, a creed, a faith. I say it again today, but I put it in another way. I say no longer that nationalism is a creed, a religion, a faith; I say that it is the Sanatan Dharma which for us is nationalism. This Hindu nation was born with the Sanatan Dharma, with it it moves and with it it grows. When the Sanatan Dharma declines, then the nation declines, and if the Sanatan Dharma were capable of perishing, with the Sanatan Dharma it would perish. The Sanatana Dharma, that is nationalism.

—Sri Aurobindo on the Uttarpara Address, 30 May 1909

Very pleasant to see the election results today, Vande Mataram!

​

References for the quotes are provided within the images.

Post created by @Savarkarite on Instagram.

Link of his resignation letter in which all these incidents are personally narrated by him:

https://ia801904.us.archive.org/8/items/joginder-nath-mandal-resignation-letter/Joginder-Nath-Mandal%20Resignation%20Letter.pdf

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The Karnataka High Court ruled that chanting “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” does not constitute hate speech. Justice M. Nagaprasanna, sitting as a single-judge bench, granted relief to five individuals accused of promoting enmity between different groups and engaging in acts harmful to social harmony. The Court held that such slogans are not intended to incite division.

Chanting “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” is not considered hate speech and cannot be viewed as promoting religious disharmony or enmity. The Court dismissed an FIR filed against five men under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Justice Nagaprasanna provided relief to the accused, noting that the allegations did not satisfy the essential ingredients of Section 153A.

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Key Observations of the Court

> In light of the afore-narrated facts and the judgments extracted supra, permitting even investigation into the case at hand would be prima facie permitting investigation into the sloganeering of ‘Bharath Matha Ki Jai,’ which can by no stretch of imagination be promoting disharmony or enmity amongst religions.

The Court further stated:

> Section 153A criminalizes actions that promote enmity between religious groups. In this case, it is a clear example of the misuse of Section 153A. It is a counterblast to the petitioners’ original complaint. The petitioners were accused of shouting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and praising the Prime Minister, but the complainant’s allegations do not even mention those actions. It appears that the complainant is attempting to protect themselves by targeting the petitioners. None of the essential elements of Section 153A are present in this case. A clear instance of retaliation is being framed as a crime under this section.

As a result, the High Court quashed the FIR against the petitioners.

Reference:

https://lawchakra.in/high-court/chanting-bharat-mata-ki-jai-isnt-hate-speech-hc/

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