मेरा आजीवन कारावास / माझी जन्मठेप (स्वातंत्र्यवीर सावरकर - काले पानी का ऐतिहासिक संस्मरण)

suffered for them, paid with their lives for then spent their monies on them, flattered them, bribed then coerced them and persuaded them. They have done a this for the sake of Christ. Is this also a childish act? C what use are these sinners and criminals to them? Why not then should the. Hindus seek to save them where the; are? They are of as much use to Hindus as they are a converts to Islam and Christianity. I may as well as: the Christian missionary and the Mohomedan Moulvi why they should be so keen on their conversion. Why do the; taint and tarnish their purer faith by assimilation of sue] wretched souls into it? Why not let us retain them? The; are after all born Hindus and our kith and kin. Do no waste millions of your precious money on their conversion and we shall not pursue the useless task of Shuddhi am reconversion. Evidently, the Christian missionary and the Mohomedian Moulvi undertake the task as a religious duty. The: convert heathens, the fallen, the criminals, and the derelicts —for the salvation of their souls. Why then do you blame us if we seek to keep them in their own religion and work for their uplift and redemption as Hindus? We believe fervently in the Gita doctrine that the salvation of man lies in dying in his own religion. And we seek to save their souls and redeem them for Hindu society on that principle. Hindu religion and Hindu culture have in them the power to work such redemption. That is our faith and we act up to it. It is the sinful that need salvation The individual whom you try to convert may be a wicked man, a sinner or a drunkard. But after deep thought you have learnt the social law that if you make him a Christian or a Mohomedan by means fair or foul, and if you change his name, you are really adding to your strength. In course of time children come into his family and it grows. The children become Muslims and Christians by name, birth and association. And they turn out better than their parents and add in number to the well-to-do, educated, well-behaved number of Muslim citizens. And, in that proportion, the Hindu society loses its good members. The history of Canada and Australia is an instance in point. England started deporting to those colonies her criminals and her unemployed families. Today the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren of these first inhabitants have built up prosperous dominions and commonwealths and powerful self-governing nations out of these colonies. Where are those criminals and outcastes of society sent to Botany Bay in those days and where is the Commonwealth of Australia today? You are dragging to-day by your shovels dregs of Hindu society into your soil, and you know how to use these dregs to manure and enrich it. And, in course of a few generations, the soil so enriched will yield you an abundant harvest. The fields will smile and wave with their dancing ears of golden corn. We have come to realise this law of social growth and hence we are following in your footsteps. We will no longer let any Hindu boy or girl, man or woman, however fallen they may be, pass into another religion, and we shall not fail to reconvert those