Ladha Ram

Ladha Ram Kapur was from Varaichanwala district in Gujarat. He preferred to join the revolutionary struggle to a life of comfort. Like his predecessors-in-office, he too was arrested and prosecuted on 22nd March 1910 for writing three `offending` articles and was sentenced to expatriation for ten years for each one of the three offences. He was deported to Kala Pani.

Ladha Ram preferred to join the revolutionary struggle to a life of comfort. Like his predecessors-in-office, he too was arrested and prosecuted on 22nd March 1910 for writing three `offending` articles and was sentenced to expatriation for ten years for each one of the three offences. He was deported to Kala Pani. In the first article `wafadaari` (loyalty), Ladha Ram had criticised an Englishman who had raped an Indian woman and even feared that the English offender will not be convicted by the British courts. In the second article `Political Ode`, the Indian youth was pressed to cast out the `national calamity` (British rule). And in the third article, `Spring and Us`, the author compared India to a beautiful garden in which the cruel gardener i.e. the British government was practising all kinds of tyranny. The British government was labelled as a `tyrant` and also as `white ants` who were ravening the roots of the country`s garden and plants.

The observations of the judge on the first charge are worth noticing: "I do not see what strongest language could be used by the writer for bringing into hatred or contempt or for exciting disaffection towards the Government established by law in British India. In my opinion this article is clearly seditious and undoubtedly transgresses the law as laid down in section 124-A IPC". The other two articles were also considered `seditious`.

The intrepid spirit of Ladha Ram braved all atrocities with utmost resilience which earned him the honorific of `Field Martial` from his comrades in the Andaman prison. He died on 5th January 1966 as a destitute in a colony in New Delhi without any medical assistance leaving his old widow behind him to mourn his loss.