We hear allegations that many freedom fighters have been jailed in Antaman but only Savarkar has written an apology. Let’s check the reality of this.

Most of those in Kalapani Jail have filed such mercy petitions. Bharindra Kumar Ghosh, Rishikesh, Nand Gopal, Sudhir Kumar Sarkar, etc., will be among those who filed such petitions. Many such petitions can be found in the National Archives.

S A Dange, co founder of the Communist Party, was one such amnesty petitioner, and the archive documents state that he agreed upon not to engage in revolutionary activities in future.

Can we call communists as boot lickers because their ancestors were mercy petitioners?

Many of the workers who participated in the 1923 Congress Flag Satyagraha have apologized and come out. So can we call Congressmen as boot lickers?

Also, petitions have been filed by Sachindranath Sanyal, founder of HSRA (Hindustan Socialist Republican Army) of which Bhagat Singh, Azad and others are members. From his autobiography ‘Bandhijeevan’…

“मैने जवाब में यह कहा था कि “विनायक दामोदर सावरकर ने भी तो अपनी चिट्ठी मे ऐसी ही भावना प्रकट की थी जैसे कि मैंने की है तो फिर सावरकर को क्यों नही छोड़ा गया और मुझी को क्यों छोड़ा गया?” (I said in response, “Why was Vinayak Damodar Savarkar not released but I was, although I wrote almost the same petition as him?”)

Sanyal adds:

“दुसरी बात सावरकर के न छूटने मे यह थी कि सावरकरजी और उनके दो-चार साथियों की गिरफ्तारी के बाद महाराष्ट्र में क्रांतिकारी आंदोलन समाप्त-सा हो गया था इसलिये सरकार को यह डर था कि यदि सावरकर इत्यादि को छोड दिया जय तो ऐसा ना हो की फिर महाराष्ट्र में क्रांतिकारी आंदोलन प्रारंभ हो जाए” (“Another reason that Savarkar was not released was that the revolutionary movement in Maharashtra had been subdued following the arrest of Savarkar and his companions. And the government feared that if Savarkar and others were released, the revolutionary movement in Maharashtra would revitalise.”)

Sanyal was later re-arrested in 1937 and again submitted a mercy petition in 1941. 

Revolutionaries like Ram Prasad Bismil also have written such petitions.

Mercy petitions of other such prisoners-

1) Sushil Kumar Badra

2) Bagh Ali Khan

Gandhi wrote a letter to Narayan Savarkar (younger brother of Savarkar) in 1920 and asking him to submit a petition and also wrote an article in Young India asking the British government to release the Savarkar brothers. 

It was a legal right for prisoners to file such mercy petitions at that time. It was a natural practice for those who were sentenced to the death penalty or life-time imprisonment to file such mercy petitions.

(This article was first published on the author’s blog and has been reproduced here.)