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

I wrote this letter in September 1914 and I received Government's reply to it at the end of December. The answer was brief. It informed me that the Governor-General had read the letter and noted all its contents, although no official reply could be sent to it for the present. In the present circumstances of the situation, Government found it impossible to give effect to my suggestions. I had reason to infer, even from this brief answer, that I had helped by it the efforts of far-seeing leaders in the country to win more rights for India. Government had known by it that we revolutionaries and conspirators were behind the demands of the constitutionalists in the country. And it must have exercised some pressure upon it to be willing to listen to them. "Give us rights and take our help and co-operation." "No rights, no co-operation." That was my plea all along. I impressed it upon my colleagues in the prison, and, to the end of the war, I acted up to that precept. If the political prisoners were released with the concessions to back them up, they were to co-operate in filling the army with young recruits and help Government to win the war. I persuaded many to that view though I had to linger alone in this prison. With the beginning of the war and for a month and a half after I had sent the letter, myself and the officers of the jail were on most cordial terms. But an occasion arose when a sharp altercation became inevitable. For as news about the war came on to me, I passed it on to other prisoners. The early reports of the war were,. all, of the advance of Germany. The officers sought to conceal them. Mr. Barrie behaved very queerly at times. He began telling them of victories of England all over the Held. He spun long yarns about them. His motive was that we should not lose faith in British power and in its prestige over the Empire. The moment we felt that these tottering to their fall, there would be, he imagined, riots and confusion all over the settlement. That was Mr. Barrie's fear about it. Knowing this full well, two or three of the political prisoners, who were his henchmen, outdid him in showing up Germany as a weak and wicked nation, and in belauding England as an embodiment of righteous indignation against Germany's betrayal. For they received the reward of this praise in this world, at the very moment, and in the prison of the Andamans itself. The Lord God of the Silver Jail, Mr. Barrie, relieved them of hard labour; let them mingle freely with other prisoners; and appointed them as Mukadams. Two or four of us had proved quite useless for that task. For we could not tell the prisoners that England, like the Knight of chivalry and romance, was out to save the lambs of Belgium and other smaller countries from the jaws of the tiger that was Germany. We did expose the selfish ambition of Germany for a place in the sun, but we did not shield England from its greed for power, and its jealousy of Germany's growing might. We did not observe the day of German victory as a day of mourning. We gave the as it came to us without gloss or criticism. Only we pointed out how each move on the battlefield would affect the politics of India. We felt that it was a fine opportunity to enlighten the prison-world of the Andamans on the of India, and of the burning question of the hour.