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CPI founder SA Dange pleaded mercy from the British reveals 1924 letter

Author:
Publication: VSKtelangana.org
Date: January 12, 2020
URL:      http://vsktelangana.org/cpi-founder-sa-dange-pleaded-mercy-from-the-british-reveals-1924-letter

In the letter, the Communist leader SA Dange vouches for his subservience and loyalty towards the British crown in exchange for his release from imprisonment.

Communist Party of India (CPI) founder SA Dange’s mercy petitions to the British in 1924 reveals the Communists subservience to the British from their early days. The CPI was founded in 1920 and even during their first steps into the polity of the country, the panicky leadership of the CPI had written apology letters to the British district administration and the governor general over their involvement in the Bolshevik Conspiracy case in Cawnpore (Kanpur).

In the letter addressed to the The District Magistrate of Cawnpore, Shripad Dange and Nalini Das Gupta (co-founder of CPI) agree to give an undertaking to Government not to commit any more offences, for which they were convicted. They then grovellingly request the government to release them as soon as possible as they are ‘undergoing suffering which they cannot sustain’. “We shall be personally thankful to you if you will arrange with Government for our petition being granted”, pleads their letter.
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File No. 421-Poll (Home Deptt.) 1924

 

To

The District Magistrate,
Cawnpore.
Sir,

We, the undersigned, beg to inform you that we are willing to give an undertaking to Government not to commit any more offences, for which we are at present convicted and we shall be thankful to Government if they will deign to consider our request favourably and release us as soon as possible, as we are undergoing suffering which we cannot sustain. We shall be personally thankful to you if you will arrange with Government for our petition being granted.

We are,

Your Obdt. Servants,

Shripad Amrit Dange

Nalini Bhushan Das Gupta.

Communist leaders SA Dange and Nalini Gupta’s letter of undertaking to Cawnpore District Magistrate

It is ideal to remember that it is the present day CPI(M) which foul-mouths Veer Savarkar who suffered untold miseries in the Cellular Jail in Andaman for decades. The Communist leaders were jailed in a regular jail for their involvement in the Bolshevik revolution in India which was triggered in Russia. He and others were charged with seeking “to deprive the King Emperor of his sovereignty of British India”.

In another letter addressed to the Governor General of India SA Dange, prays for the remission of his sentences in the Bolshevik Conspiracy case. He tries to make a case for pardon by using a side talk he had with a counsel who had told him that the administration did not have much proof of the Bolshevik Conspiracy in India. He then goes on to question his relationship with another top communist leader MN Roy.

He then writes, “If your Excellency is pleased to think that I should use that position (as influential Communist leader) for the good of Your Excellencies Government and the country, I should be glad to do so, if I am given the opportunity by Your Excellency granting my prayer for release.” He then submits that the imprisonment has brought a ‘salutory (sic) change in his attitude towards the King Emperor’s sovereignty in India’. “I beg to inform Your Excellency that those years are unnecessary as I have never been positively disloyal towards His Majesty in my writing or speeches nor do I intend to be so in future.”, pleads SA Dange in the same letter which he signs off as ‘Your Excellency’s Most Obedient Servant’.
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His Excellency the Governor General in Council.

Your Excellency,

I am one of the four in the Bolshevik Conspiracy case of Cawnpore. I beg to put forward for your Excellency’s consideration a prayer for the remission of my sentences for following reasons.

In submitting my prayer I have to refer to certain fact, which your Excellency may not be cognisant of; but Your Excellency can verify their truth by referring to Col. C Kaye, Director Central Intelligence Bureau or to the persons mentioned hereinafter.

When the above referred case was proceeding in the Lower Court Mr. Ros Alstron, the learned Counsel for prosecution happened to have a side talk with me, during the course of which he remarked, Government is not very particular about the punishment of the individual accused. The case is instituted only to prove to a doubting the truth of Government’s statements, made from time to time as to the existence of Bolshevik Conspiracy in India. I think the learned Counsel is not likely to have misrepresented Your Excellency’s Government’s policy, as he was in too close a touch with Government’s officials to have mistaken Government’s intentions. As the position your Excellency has been vindicated by the verdict of the Court, Your Excellency may not mind remitting my sentences and granting my prayer.

I might also refer to another incident. Exactly on year back, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, of Bombay Mr. Stewart was having a conversation with me, in his office, regarding my relations with MN Roy and an anticipated visit to me of certain persons from abroad. During the course of the conversation the Honourable officer let drop a hint in the following words, the full import of which I failed to catch at that moment. Mr. Stewart said, “you hold an exceptionally influential position in certain circles here and abroad, Government would be glad if this position would be of some use to them.” I think I still bold the position/Rather it has been enhanced by the prosecution. If you Excellency is pleased to think that I should use that position for the good of Your Excellences Government and the country, I should be glad to do so, if I am given the opportunity by Your Excellency granting my prayer for release.

I am given the punishment of four year’s rigorous imprisonment in order that those years may bring a salutory change in my attitude towards the King Emperor’s sovereignty in India. I beg to inform Your Excellency that those years are unnecessary, as I have never been positively disloyal towards His Majesty in my writing or speeches nor do I intend to be so in future.

Hoping this respectful undertaking will satisfy and move Your Excellency to grant my prayer and awaiting anxiously a reply.

I beg to remain,

Your Excellency’s Most Obedient Servant,

Shripat Amrit Dange

Copy of SA Dange letter to British Governor General pleading for his subservience and release from imprisonment

These letters were first made public by The Current, a Bombay magazine which published these letters in 1964. The expose had the Communists grapple among themselves which resulted in a power struggle. Dange who was the supreme leader of the CPI, used his influence as Chairman of the party to denounce the letters as a forgery through the Secretariat. But the other Communist leaders and cadre did not buy this move and this started a power struggle which resulted in the splitting of the party. Dange’s opponents exploited the letters and called for his removal from the leadership and also to investigate his submission of co-operating with the British.
 
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