My dear Mrs. Mookerjee,
It was with deep grief that I learnt a few days ago, as I was leaving Geneva for Cairo, that your son, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, had died. The news came as a shock to me for though we may have differed in politics, I respected him aid had affection for him .To you, his mother, the shock must have been very great and I can say little to lessen your sorrow.
I sent a telegram from Cairo to Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy asking him to convey my deepest sympathy and condolences to you. It is a matter of particular sorrow to me that Shyama Babu's death should have occurred as it did under detention.When I went to Kashmir about five Weeks ago, I enquired particularly as to where he was kept and about his health . I was told that he was being kept, not in any prison but in a private villa on the side of the famous Dal Lake in Srinagar. I found that the Kashmir government was anxious to give him such comfort and amenities as were possible and that he was keeping well. I was happy to learn this at the time. Indeed, I hoped that the healthy climate of Kashimir might lead to an improvement in Shyama Babu's health.
But it was not to be so and the shock and sorrow are', therefore, all the greater. I suppose it was beyond human power to do anything and we have to bow to circumstances beyond our control.
To you, revered lady, I offer my respectfully homage and expression of sorrow. If I can be of any service to you, you will please not hesitate to inform me.
Yours sincerely,
Sd. Jawaharlal Nehru
Dear Mr. Nehru,
Your letter dated 30th June was forwarded to me on the 2nd. of July by Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy. I thank you for your message of condolence and sympathy.
The nation mourns the passing away of my beloved son. He has died a martyr's death. To me, his mother. the sorrow is too deep and sacred to be expressed. I am not writing to you to seek my consolation But what I do demand of you is justice. My son died in detention-a detention without trial. In your letter you have tried to impress that Kashmir
Government has done all that should have been done. You base your impression on the assurances and information you have received .What is the value, I ask, of such information when it .comes from persons who themselves should stand trial? You say, you had visited Kashmir during my son's detention. You speak of the affection you had for him. But what prevented you, I wonder, from meeting him there personally and satisfying yourself about his health and arrangements?
His death is shrouded in mystery. Is it not most astounding and shocking that ever since his detention there, the first information that I, his mother, received from the Government of Kashmir was that my son was no more and that also at least two hours after the end? And in what a cruel cryptic way the message was conveyed! Even the telegram from my son that he had been removed to the hospital reached us here after the tragic pews of his death, There is definite information that my son had not been keeping well practically from the beginning of his detention. He had been positively ill a number of times and for successive periods. Why did not, I ask the Government of Kashmir or your Government, to send any information whatsoever to me and my family?
Even when he was removed to the hospital they did not think it necessary to immediately intimate us or Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy. It is also evident that the Kashmir Government had never cared to acquaint itself with the previous history of Syamaprasad's health and provide for nursing arrangements and emergent medical attendance in case of need. Even his repeated attacks of illness were not taken as a warning. The result was disastrous. I have positive evidence to prove that he had, to quote his own words, a "sinking feeling'' on the morning of 22nd June. And what did the Government do? The inordinate delay in getting any medical assistance, his removal to the hospital in a most injudicious manner, the refusal to allow even his two co-detenus to be by his side in the hospital are some glaring instances of the heartless conduct of the authorities concerned.
The responsibility of the government and their own doctors can be, in any way, evaded or lightened by some stray quotations from Syama Prasad's letters chosen at random, that he was keeping well. What is the value of such quotations? Does anybody seriously expect that he of all persons and that while in detention far away from his dear and near ones would ventilate his grievances through letters or diagnose his own malady? The responsibility of the Government was immense and serious.
I charge them that they had utterly neglected and failed to discharge this bounden duty .You speak of the comforts and amenities given to dear Syama Prasad in detention. It is a matter to be enquired into .The Kashmir Government had not even the courtesy to allow free flow of family correspondence. Letters were held up with inordinate delay and some mysteriously disappeared. His anxiety for home news, particularly of his ailing daughter and my poor self. was distressing .Will you be astonished to learn that on the 27th June last.
It was with deep grief that I learnt a few days ago, as I was leaving Geneva for Cairo, that your son, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, had died. The news came as a shock to me for though we may have differed in politics, I respected him aid had affection for him .To you, his mother, the shock must have been very great and I can say little to lessen your sorrow.
I sent a telegram from Cairo to Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy asking him to convey my deepest sympathy and condolences to you. It is a matter of particular sorrow to me that Shyama Babu's death should have occurred as it did under detention.When I went to Kashmir about five Weeks ago, I enquired particularly as to where he was kept and about his health . I was told that he was being kept, not in any prison but in a private villa on the side of the famous Dal Lake in Srinagar. I found that the Kashmir government was anxious to give him such comfort and amenities as were possible and that he was keeping well. I was happy to learn this at the time. Indeed, I hoped that the healthy climate of Kashimir might lead to an improvement in Shyama Babu's health.
But it was not to be so and the shock and sorrow are', therefore, all the greater. I suppose it was beyond human power to do anything and we have to bow to circumstances beyond our control.
To you, revered lady, I offer my respectfully homage and expression of sorrow. If I can be of any service to you, you will please not hesitate to inform me.
Yours sincerely,
Sd. Jawaharlal Nehru
Dear Mr. Nehru,
Your letter dated 30th June was forwarded to me on the 2nd. of July by Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy. I thank you for your message of condolence and sympathy.
The nation mourns the passing away of my beloved son. He has died a martyr's death. To me, his mother. the sorrow is too deep and sacred to be expressed. I am not writing to you to seek my consolation But what I do demand of you is justice. My son died in detention-a detention without trial. In your letter you have tried to impress that Kashmir
Government has done all that should have been done. You base your impression on the assurances and information you have received .What is the value, I ask, of such information when it .comes from persons who themselves should stand trial? You say, you had visited Kashmir during my son's detention. You speak of the affection you had for him. But what prevented you, I wonder, from meeting him there personally and satisfying yourself about his health and arrangements?
His death is shrouded in mystery. Is it not most astounding and shocking that ever since his detention there, the first information that I, his mother, received from the Government of Kashmir was that my son was no more and that also at least two hours after the end? And in what a cruel cryptic way the message was conveyed! Even the telegram from my son that he had been removed to the hospital reached us here after the tragic pews of his death, There is definite information that my son had not been keeping well practically from the beginning of his detention. He had been positively ill a number of times and for successive periods. Why did not, I ask the Government of Kashmir or your Government, to send any information whatsoever to me and my family?
Even when he was removed to the hospital they did not think it necessary to immediately intimate us or Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy. It is also evident that the Kashmir Government had never cared to acquaint itself with the previous history of Syamaprasad's health and provide for nursing arrangements and emergent medical attendance in case of need. Even his repeated attacks of illness were not taken as a warning. The result was disastrous. I have positive evidence to prove that he had, to quote his own words, a "sinking feeling'' on the morning of 22nd June. And what did the Government do? The inordinate delay in getting any medical assistance, his removal to the hospital in a most injudicious manner, the refusal to allow even his two co-detenus to be by his side in the hospital are some glaring instances of the heartless conduct of the authorities concerned.
The responsibility of the government and their own doctors can be, in any way, evaded or lightened by some stray quotations from Syama Prasad's letters chosen at random, that he was keeping well. What is the value of such quotations? Does anybody seriously expect that he of all persons and that while in detention far away from his dear and near ones would ventilate his grievances through letters or diagnose his own malady? The responsibility of the Government was immense and serious.
I charge them that they had utterly neglected and failed to discharge this bounden duty .You speak of the comforts and amenities given to dear Syama Prasad in detention. It is a matter to be enquired into .The Kashmir Government had not even the courtesy to allow free flow of family correspondence. Letters were held up with inordinate delay and some mysteriously disappeared. His anxiety for home news, particularly of his ailing daughter and my poor self. was distressing .Will you be astonished to learn that on the 27th June last.
we received here his letters dated 15th
June, despatched by the Kashmir Government in a packed on the 24th
June. that is, a day after sending his dead body? That packet also
brought back to us the letters addressed by myself and others here to
Syama Prasad which had reached Srinagar on the 1 1th and 16th June, but
had never been delivered to him. It was purely a case of mental
torture. He had been repeatedly asking for sufficient space for walking
. He was feeling ill for want of it. But he was persistently refused
it. Is not this a method of physical torture too? I am filled with
surprise and shame to be told by you "that he was being kept not in any
prison but in a private villa on the famous Dal Lake in Srinagar''
Strictly confined in a small bungalow with a little compound , guarded
day and night by a body of armed guards such was the life that he was
leading. Is it seriously maintained that a golden cage should make a
prisoner happy? I shuddered hear such desperate propaganda.
I do not know what medical treatment and assistance had been given to him. The official reports, I am told, are selfcontradictory. Eminent physicians have expressed their views that it was in the least, a case of gross negligence.The matter requires a thorough and impartial enquiry.
I do not bewail here the death of my beloved son. A fearless son of Free India has met his death while in detention without trial under most tragic and mysterious circumstances.
I, the mother of the great departed , demand that an absolutely impartial and open enquiry by independent and competent persons be held without delay. I know nothing can bring back to us the life that is no more. But what I do want is that the people of india must judge for themselves the real causes of this great tragedy enacted in a free country and the part that was played by your Government.
If a wrong has been done anywhere, by any person however high he may be - let justice take its course and let the people be cautious so that no mother in free india has again to shed tears with the same agony and grief that has befallen me.
You are good enough to tell me not to hesitate to inform you about any service that you may render to me. Here is the demand on my own behalf and on behalf of the mothers of India. May God give you courage to allow Truth to see the Light.
Before I close my letter I would refer to one very important fact. Syama Prasad's personal diary and his other manuscript writings were not returned by the Kashmir Government along with his other belongings. Copies of correspondence between Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed and my eldest son, Ramaprasad, are enclosed herein. I shall be deeply grateful if you could recover the diary and the manuscripts from the Kashmir Government.
They must be with them.
With my blessings.
Yours in grief,
Sd/-Jogmaya Debi
I do not know what medical treatment and assistance had been given to him. The official reports, I am told, are selfcontradictory. Eminent physicians have expressed their views that it was in the least, a case of gross negligence.The matter requires a thorough and impartial enquiry.
I do not bewail here the death of my beloved son. A fearless son of Free India has met his death while in detention without trial under most tragic and mysterious circumstances.
I, the mother of the great departed , demand that an absolutely impartial and open enquiry by independent and competent persons be held without delay. I know nothing can bring back to us the life that is no more. But what I do want is that the people of india must judge for themselves the real causes of this great tragedy enacted in a free country and the part that was played by your Government.
If a wrong has been done anywhere, by any person however high he may be - let justice take its course and let the people be cautious so that no mother in free india has again to shed tears with the same agony and grief that has befallen me.
You are good enough to tell me not to hesitate to inform you about any service that you may render to me. Here is the demand on my own behalf and on behalf of the mothers of India. May God give you courage to allow Truth to see the Light.
Before I close my letter I would refer to one very important fact. Syama Prasad's personal diary and his other manuscript writings were not returned by the Kashmir Government along with his other belongings. Copies of correspondence between Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed and my eldest son, Ramaprasad, are enclosed herein. I shall be deeply grateful if you could recover the diary and the manuscripts from the Kashmir Government.
They must be with them.
With my blessings.
Yours in grief,
Sd/-Jogmaya Debi
No comments:
Post a Comment