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1939
Letter to the President
of the United States
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December 15,
1939
To the
President of the United
States
Honorable Franklin Delano
Roosevelt
The White House
Washington, D. C.
Mr.
President:
Ever since
your inauguration as the President
of our United States, daily
without exception have I prayed
for you and our first lady of the
land for Divine blessings and
Divine guidance, so you may steer
the ship of the nation straight
towards the goal our humanity must
reach in the fulfillment of its
destiny.
Your humanitarian administration;
true to the highest
American traditions, needs no
stamp of approval;
it is legend already. Your
name will ever remain linked with
whatever is human, humane and holy
;
let critics criticize,
rivals and Republicans repudiate
what you have done – the fact
remains, unobscured – you have
successfully guided our beloved
America through the depths of
depression, neither denying nor
destroying
whatever was essential,
purifying the corrupt and exalting
the pure. It is true, the promised
land is not reached yet, but most
surely it is insight.
In you, Mr. President, we
have a man of Divine Vision. You
see things whole;
issues of life are beheld
by you in their true perspectives.
All honor to your great
soul, and glory to our Eternal
Father.
In you Democracy finds its
highest exponent and most liberal
interpreter, not only at home,
but abroad also – you
have championed the cause of
democracy for Czecho-Slovakia,
Poland and heroic Finland.
All the world admires you
and calls you blessed for your
truly American expressions of
genuine practical sympathies.
You have shown that
American ideals are of universal
application and bigger than
castes, colors and creeds, they
embody the truths of human
existence and are meant for all
mankind.
All men must be given a
chance to govern themselves and
their own countries by the truths
of their own lives for the
individual and collective good of
their nations.
America
rightly condemns all
“isms”, be it greedy
and corrupt capitalism, bloody
bolshevism, nasty nazi – ism or
foul fascism – they are at best
impositions on the people – not
born of their own free
self-determination, but foisted on
them by dictatorial rulers;
they shall fail in the long
run to bring progressive peace and
prosperity to their respective
nations.
Mr.
President, I have the rare honor
and blessed privilege of being
born in the Sikh community of the
great Indian nation, and have the
still greater privilege of being
an American citizen.
It is natural for me to
feel for the woes of a nation that
bore me in its womb.
For two hundred years the Indian
people have been ruthlessly,
barbarously kept down by British
Imperialism.
Grinding poverty, appalling
illiteracy are the fruits of an
imperialism which has destroyed
the ancient industries and crafts
of a great people, and
deliberately and wantonly withheld
education from the masses.
They, the Indian people,
have prayed for unity, education,
freedom, and industry and have
been kept purposely divided in the
interests of the ruling race.
After decades
of strenuous struggles, paying
bitterly in sufferings, sorrows
and humiliations untold, the
Indian people have steeled
themselves against brutish,
British imperialism, and are
demanding the right to govern
themselves, unmolested from
without. Indian
problems, after all, will have to
be solved
by Indians themselves.
The British seem to be more
anxious for the Welfare of the
Moslem minority or the piratical
Maharajas – who are their
playthings – than the native
sons themselves. This
is hypocritical and is meant to
play one party against the other.
Indian National Congress is
composed of the representatives of
all the people of India, Moslems
included. They
are demanding Dominion status, and
the right to calling in of the
Parliament of the People of Free
India to determine the form of
government and frame the
Constitution thereof.
Indian Constitution must be framed
by the Indian nation and not by
the outsiders. Congress
and Mahatma Gandhi – the saintly
lover of truth and humanity –
are non-violent and using passive
resistance and moral pressure to
achieve their ends. Mr.
President, unless humanity is to
sink into barbarism, peaceful
methods and reason must be
preferred over bloodshed and brute
force.
Justice must prevail.
The British
champion the liberties of small
nations in Europe, but persist
in keeping India under
their heels and denying her the
rights which they would never
consent to part with themselves.
Their brand of “democracy”
is only for the few countries in
Europe whose total population does
not exceed the population of one
Indian province. If the spread of democracy be the true aim, why should
they not make a restitution
of what they have robbed of India
– her right to be ruled by her
own citizens?
In India, Mr.
President, is not given her
birthright through peaceful and
just means – she will have to
secure it ultimately by all means
and methods,
be they fair or foul.
She must live and take her
rightful place in the galaxy of
great nations.
Peaceful solutions will
unite the East and the West into
mutual understanding and free
comradeship, and our humanity will
advance towards higher goals.
Will you,
noble soul, the beloved head of
our revered America, upholder of
her highest traditions, take the
initiative in the name of humanity
and justice to call upon Britain
to be fair-minded and give the
people of India the right to
determine their own future and
form of government best suited to
the genius of that noble nation?
You will be earning
the heartfelt devotion and
blessings of all those who
struggle to free and unite our
humanity in bonds of brotherhood
and service – “A stitch in
time saves nine”.
Mr. President, America
alone can be instrumental in
successfully interceding on behalf
of struggling, suffering Indian
humanity. I
beg of you, as the head of our
democratic America, to use your
great office and genius for
immediate understanding and
conclusion of a pact guaranteeing
the integrity and independence of
India – between Britain and
India.
Long live democracy, America, and
you, beloved President of our
truly great people!
With sincerest blessings,
love and peace profound for you.
Radiantly
yours,
Dr. B. S.
Thind
Suite 760 Auditorium Hotel
Chicago, Illinois
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