द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

232 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE .
Conspiracy Case. Pressure was brought to bear upon the
Mahatma to try to save the lives of these young men and it
must be admitted that he did try his very best. On this
occasion, I ventured the suggestion that he should, if necessary,
break with the Viceroy on the question, because the execution
was against the spirit, if not the letter, of the Delhi Pact. I
was reminded of a similar incident during the armistice
between the Sinn Fein Party and the British Government,
when the strong attitude adopted by the former, had secured
the release of an Irish political prisoner sentenced to the
gallows. But the Mahatma who did not want to identify
himself with the revolutionary prisoners, would not go so
far and it naturally made a great difference when the Viceroy
realised that the Mahatma would not break on that question.
However, at that time, Lord Irwin told the Mahatma that he
had received a largely-signed petition asking for the com-
mutation of the death-sentence passed on the three Lahore
prisoners. He would postpone their execution for the time
being and give serious consideration to the matter, but beyond
that he did not want to be pressed at the moment. The
conclusion which the Mahatma and everybody else drew
from this attitude of the Viceroy, was that the execution would .
be finally cancelled and there was a jubilation all over the
country and especially in Bengal, where some revolutionary
prisoners were also going to be executed.
About ten days after this incident the Congress was to
meet at Karachi. The general expectation being that the
execution would be cancelled, it was a most painful and
unexpected surprise when on March 24th, while we were on
our way to Karachi from Calcutta, the news was received
that Sardar Bhagat Singh and his comrades had been hanged
the night before. Gruesome reports were also afloat in the
Punjab about the manner in which their dead bodies had
been disposed of. It is impossible to understand at this
distant date the poignant grief which stirred the country
from one end to the other. Somehow or other, Bhagat Singh
had become the symbol of the new awakening among the
youths. People did not stop to inquire if he was really guilty
of the murder charge brought against him. It was enough