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

you, and talk about it, discuss it with every Sikh whom you meet here and in India, I feel sure that within five years you will witness a great change in them, and they will all range themselves on our side. I have no doubt about it." This was said somewhere between 1908 and 1009. I remember the meeting and the conversation when I saw the Sikh prisoners pouring into the jail of the Andamans. And I said to my friends, "They have come as I told they would." Now remained the Nepalese to be one with us. If the Gurkha along with the Sikhs were absorbed in the camp of Hindu Sanghatan, all Hindus would be one and would present a solid front to the rest of India. These feelings would well up within me according to the changing phases of thought through which I was passing at the moment. After the batch of Sikh convicts, came in batches of political prisoners in the Punjab sentenced in conspiracy case in different parts of the province. Several batches of soldiers were transported to this place for refusing to go to Rangoon, Singapore, Basra and other fronts; and there were among them convicts in revolutionary conspiracies. Their advent in this prison surcharged the atmosphere with shades and differences of live political opinion. About a hundred and fifty political prisoners had gathered in this prison as convicts for different kinds of offences. There were those who had mutineed at Singapore; others who had proceeded to Rangoon via Siam to spread sedition in the army and raise a rebellion; others again who were involved in Benares Conspiracy Case; there were some from Bengal charged and sentenced for political dacoity; and all sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. It is impossible here to give a full story of all their adventures, their daring exploits, their secret movements, and their mysterious plans. We cannot even mention their names in this edition. We have to leave that task for the future. Among these recent arrivals, there was only one man whom I had known personally and he was Professor Permanand, However, I had referred to all of them in my previous talks with the prisoners, so that when they came in this prison, there was a complete change in their political outlook. They heard from these recent arrivals about their ideals, about their self-sacrifice; they heard stories of those who had been sent to the gallows, or had died fighting; of their plots and conspiracies; they heard descriptions of battlefronts in France, and of the war as it was being fought. This first-hand information had worked such a revolution in their thoughts and behaviour. We had already endeavoured to educate them in these high matters and to make them capable of thinking about them and of playing their part in the political life of their country. But personal contact with these new men had helped considerably to widen their interest and deepen that knowledge.