Seventy seven years ago, on the night of September 9, 1943, a young man in Madras Jail, awaiting death by hanging, wrote his last letter to...
Seventy seven years ago, on the night of September 9, 1943, a young man in Madras Jail, awaiting death by hanging, wrote his last letter to his father, in Vakkom, a village near Trivandrum in what was then Travancore.
“Dear father, God has blessed me by bestowing a peaceful and tranquil mind. In this present helplessness of mine and yours, we should not grudge or be disturbed. This is the moment to sacrifice a life gladly, yielding to the will of God…
“Men though destined to death as every animal, rise above the bestial plane to devote an aim and a meaning to life. He tries to give it a perfume and purpose; occasionally he even forgets himself and challenges death, holding fast to his ideals. Thus, he is prepared to do anything, to face any eventuality sincerely and selflessly. Straightaway he starts to act…”
He was one of four – three of them in their early 20s, the fourth in his late 30s – who were sent to their gallows at dawn the next morning, on Friday, September 10, 1943. They were members of a group of 20 who had entered colonial India, travelling from Penang in what was then Malaya, to work with the...
