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

for anything he did in the world. Mirza Khan was out to use him and convert him. And the Hindus must now show their mettle to save him. If they were to forego their right on that occasion, Mr. Barrie was sure to make a capital out of it. He will send a counter- report to the Superintendent and make him look small for deciding in their favour. Mirza Khan will then dance upon their chests and be more impudent and overbearing than ever before. He was crest-fallen today; but will strut like a cock tomorrow. So I argued with them endlessly but they would not make a definite answer. I and two others literally folded our hands to them, and personally appealed to them. At last, one or two of them were stricken with shame. And almost all agreed that the boy should sit at the extreme end of the line, and myself and two others be seated close to him. And, further, this was to be accomplished by eluding the lynx-eyed Mirza Khan. What a trouble it was to all of us! But it had to be done at any cost. At last the boy began gradually to sit with us for dinner and the Hindus who agreed with us also reconciled themselves to it. Mr. Barrie had lost the game. Yet insidi- ously the Muslims went on with their work, for there was no fiat to the contrary from the Superintendent upon the policy as a whole. But there was a difference in position, and that was an important difference. The Mohome-dans had ceased to bully and to brow-beat the Hindus on this particular matter. They behaved with caution. But that had deepened their hatred for us. Mr. Barrie kept going on with his incitement work in favour of conversion. The news went round the whole of the Andamans that I had put an effective check upon the machinations of Mussulman warders in this prison to bring about forcible conversion of Hindu boys to Islam. Some of our prisoners were from Northern India; they had heard Arya Samajists and they started helping us. Before my going to the Andamans, some enthusiasts had already opened a branch of the Arya Samaj in that settlement. But they were unable so far to do any organised work there for the propagation of the Arya Samaj doctrines or to do any kind of Shuddhi movement. They had not even a notion of what could be done in this direction and in that place. They were gratified to learn of our efforts and began to help us. Later on some of them took the most enthusiastic part in the propagation of Shuddhi tenets. Some independent officers also joined us in that work. A prisoner who had imbibed the principles of the Arya Samaj in his own country and who was for some time working on the settlement was sent back to the Silver Jail just at that time. He was himself a goonda and defied the Muslim goondas in our jail. He had served his sentence of transportation in the jail, was sent out to settle in the Andamans when again he entered on a terrible career of crime, and was, on that account, sent back to this prison. He was a terror, all over the place, to the Mussulman goondas. He was a seasoned jail-bird, expert in every form of crime from ordinary theft to breaking open prisons, smuggling narcotics like opium, street brawls and similar anti-social crimes. The Mussulman dared not look at Hindu boys whom he had once taken under his wings. For whosoever harassed those whom he had regarded as his protegees and friends, came in