Revolutionaries in Dialogue By Prof. Malwinderjit Singh Waraich

Revolutionaries in Dialogue

Lala Ram Saran Das Talwar was born at Kapurthala, on 24th August, 1888 in a middle class Kshatriya family, who devoted his heart and soul into the Freedom Movement. of India. On the deportation of L. Lajpat Rai and S. Ajit Singh to Mandalay (Burma) in July-August, 1907, he founded the First Revolutionary Secret Society in the Punjab in October 1907, and was admitted to the Bengal Revolutionary Party in Nov 1908. Since then he remained an active worker in the entire Freedom Movement. He Worked with the revolutionary parties of the Punjab, U .P. and Bengal, besides the America returned Ghadar Party leaders, in organizing a military revolution in these provinces. But on account of a leakage, it failed and most of the workers were arrested and tried in the First Lahore Conspiracy Case in 1915. Lala Ram Saran Das was also convicted and sentenced to death with the confiscation of all his property, but afterwards, the death sentence was commuted to transportation for life which he undergone for six years in the Cellular Jail, Port Blair (Andamans) and six years in the Madras Jail. He was unconditionally released from the jail on 25-9-1927.

On 23rd February, 1929 he attended a meeting of the Naujawan Bharat Sabha at Lahore and recited a poem. On the next day also he attended the meeting and delivered a speech. He was again arrested in 1929 in the Lahore Conspiracy Case and was made an approver. (Appendix-VIII-Confessional Statement of Lala Ram Saran Das as approver in the Lahore Conspiracy case). On 25-6-29 he was tendered pardon on the conditions of his making a full and true disclosure of the whole of the circumstances within his knowledge related to the said offences and every other person concerned whether as principal or abetter in the circumstances thereof, which he did on Solemn Affirmation on 26-8-29, (Appendix VII). But later on he retracted his statement and was prosecuted under section 193, I. P. C and was sentenced to two  years' rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 500/- on 13th March, 1933. It is pertinent to mention here that Lala Ram Saran Das had been an active worker throughout the entire Ghadar Movement and the movement of the Revolutionary Secret Societies, till the execution of S. Bhagat Singh and his comrades, which enabled him to present the true history of the· Revolutionary Movements in the Punjab, with the Biographical sketches of the prominent freedom fighters, which has a lasting value in itself.

During the period when he was in Madras Jail he started writing this English poem. " The Dreamland," on the night of the 26th August 1926, with the opening lines.

When I arose from sleep I found,

I was with the ropes of Maya bound.

The author was totally isolated as a life prisoner in Madras Jail when he penned down this poem and till then Lala Talwar and Shahid Bhagat Singh did not even meet each other. Bhagat Singh had gone through the poem only in Lahore Jail, where both were together in 1929-30 as cq-prisoners.

It was during that period that Lala Ram Saran Das asked Shahid Bhagat Singh to write down its introduction. It may sound paradoxical that an atheist like Shahid Bhagat Singh would have agreed to write an introduction to " The Dreamland," which was sub-titled "Ram Rajya" (The Kingdom of God on earth-A vision). But this is what he did on 15-1-1931 i.e. barely 66 days before his martyrdom on 23-3-1931. While doing so he was fully conscious of his being an atheist, and the author of the poem being a firm believer in God.

The initial hesitation of Shahid Bhagat Singh in writing down the introduction of "The Dreamland " is very clear in the opening lines of the "Introduction" itself:

"My noble friend L. Ram Saran Das has asked me to write. an introduction to his poetical work "The Dreamland". I am neither a poet nor a literateur; neither am I a journalist nor a critic. Hence by no stretch of imagination can I find the justification of this demand. But the circumstances in which I am placed do not afford me any opportunity of discussing the question with the author, arguing back and forth, and thereby do not leave me any alternative but to comply with the desire of my friend."