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

Hindu prisoners they insist on that practice in this prison—and these Mussulmans are the worst dacoits and criminals of that place. If a party of prisoners were sent out for work on the islands, the Muslim section in it did the Nimaz five to seven times during the day, for that obtained respite from the officers in their day's work on grounds of religion, and the Hindus were hard put to it to finish the day's allotted labour; while the Muslims safely escaped all the rigour of it. It is very interesting to note on such an occasion what apparent absorption in prayer these Muslim miscreants put on. They spend a good deal of time in washing their hands and feet, they slowly clean and stroke their beard; they sit long with eyes shut after the Nimaz is done; and they assume an air of quiescence and deep contemplation. One may feel, as he looks at them, as if they had passed in all yogi practices like "Pranayam", "Karma", "Japa" and "meditation", leading up to final ecstasy or beatitude. There were only two items wanting in it to complete the show— either a pot of milk or line of fishes in front of them, and hard labour in the prison itself ! For, in the first item, their attitude will be no better than that of a cat or crane watching for its prey, and, in the second, that of the miscreants silent and lost in prayer to evade the work before them. They resorted to another trick in order to harass their Hindu brethren in prison and to defy the prison regulation in the spirit of a goonda. That was to cry 'bang' early at day- break. The term 'bang' meant a call to prayer from the top of a minaret to the faithful ones in Islam. And it is to be uttered with the topmost note of one's voice. In the prison this was definitely an intolerable nuisance, for, at that hour, all were fast asleep after the day's exhausting work, and it was liable to censure and inter-diction by the authorities. The man who, for years, opened the prison gate with the utmost reluctance and straightaway lapsed into sleep at day time, had, sometimes, the frenzy in him to get up and utter this piercing cry, and disturb the peace of the entire prison. Who can then say that it was all well-meant, and not an action just to tease and harass the Hindu Section of the Jail? Nimaz may be a solemn duty of every Muslim under the sun; but to cry 'bang' at an odd hour and in prison is not enjoined, surely enough, by his religion. But to shield themselves behind a religious sanction and be able, at the same time, to make themselves a nuisance to others was a chance too tempting for them to forego. It was an intoxication with 'bang' which they were not prepared to miss. The Conch-blowing by the Hindus The Mussulman prisoners were stricken with this frenzy in the prison-house of the Andamans. Each one of them, from his respective cell, began one early morning to cry 'bang'. The whole prison was roused by this clamour. The Burmese and the Hindu prisoners suffered the most by this uproar. The officers rebuked the Mussulmans for creating the noise but they did not stop it. On the other hand, they maintained that it was a religious act and they must perform it. The Burmese prisoners were hand-in-glove with the Hindus in their Shuddhi and Sangathan movements. And the Mussulman could not convert a single Burmese in the Andamans. For the Burmese do not regard inter-dining as loss of caste and religion. They are the followers of Buddha and they feel that they are