Sri Aurobindo
Bande Mataram
Calcutta, March 11th, 1908
Part Six. Bande Mataram under the Editorship of Sri Aurobindo with Speeches Delivered during the Same Period 6 February – 3 May 1908
A Victim of Bureaucracy
We publish today a brief account of Lala Gurdas Ram Sawhny and the circumstances which led up to his death from a correspondent intimate with the deceased barrister. It will be seen that the utterly unnecessary and unwarranted incarceration was the cause of his death, as Lala Gurdas Ram was rapidly recovering when the fury of a panic-stricken bureaucracy selected him as one of the objects of its vindictive wrath. It was an irony of fate which brought in to examine the dead man the same brutal Civil Surgeon who had certified to the authorities that imprisonment would not be injurious to the prisoners, but rather beneficial. This official medico had certified that there was nothing so much the matter with Gurdas Ram’s heart as to justify his being let out on bail. Gurdas Ram has proved by his death the inaccuracy as well as the brutal levity of the report. But the Punjab Government must no doubt be well-pleased with itself and Sir Denzil Ibbetson on his way to the eternal judgment-seat may at least know that a necessary witness has received the summons before him and gone in front.
This work was not included in SABCL, vol.1 and it was not compared with other editions.