Hundred percent correct. I have highlighted two revolutionaries but to me the ordinary people are very great. They gave up their education and careers, not for glory or power, which they wouldn't get anyways. These are some of the punishments they faced, only read this if you can tolerate reading gruesome depictions of violence.

1. Lathi blown on head, chest, stomach, and joints.
2. Thrusts with lathis in private parts, abdominal regions.
3. Stripping the men naked before beating.
4. Tearing off loin cloths and thrusting of sticks into anus.
5. Pressing and squeezing of testicles till a man becomes unconscious.
6. Dragging of wounded men by legs and arms, often beating them the while.
7. Throwing of wounded men into thorn hedges or into salt water.
8. Riding of horses over men as they lie or sit on the ground.
9. Thrusting of pins and thorns into men's bodies, sometimes even when they are unconscious.
10. Beating of men after they have become unconscious, and other vile things too many to relate, besides foul language and blasphemy, calculated to hurt as much as possible the sacred feelings of Satyagrahis.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose records the above in The Indian Struggle. And this is for Satyagrahis, what punishment the revolutionaries faced are not fully known to me but Kalapani is a good indicator.

Why do all this? Just for a far-off ideal of freedom, for their future generations to live a better life. You are right. We must always preserve it. This was Ramprasad Bismil's last message to the Nation as well, that we must stay united and preserve freedom.