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

organisation like ours. And yet he was anxious to know our opinion on the matter under discussion. Hence the Officers discussed the question with me though in an indirect manner. To them some of us gave very discouraging answers. They would say, "No, we have nothing to do with politics; we do not desire freedom for India at this moment. What we want is peace, to think of God and lead an undisturbed life. What we pray for is our own release." Others, and the fire-eaters among them, repeated to the officers the pledges they had taken for the independence of India. They had nothing else to say to them. In these circumstances they welcomed my offer to write to Mr. Montagu a balanced statement of our aims and objects, our methods, and our future attitude to the proposed reforms. It would have pleased the authorities better if the political prisoners, who had gone under their wings, had drafted the memorandum. But, somehow, none of them would come forward to undertake the task. Again, they realised that the authorities in India would prefer my signed letter to any memorandum on our behalf without an authority behind it. The rules of the prison could not come in my way for I had not joined the strike and was no obstructionist. So, at length, permission was granted to me to forward my letter to Mr. Montagu through the Governor General of India, and I despatched the letter accordingly. It was necessary that the contents of the letter should be known in India in order that the letter should produce its desired effect. It was not enough for that purpose that Mr. Montagu alone or the Governor General along with him, should read it. For in that case the hands of the Indian leaders would not be strengthened for demanding the reforms that would bring back the revolutionaries to the paths of peace. I was anxious to give as much help to them as it was possible for me to give them in my present condition of life. And, therefore, in my annual letter to my brother, I outlined what I was going to put in my communication to Mr. Montagu. As the letter also indicates the state of my mind at that moment, I give its bare outline here for the information of my readers. It will also convince him how much I was working in this jail for the release of my colleagues and of political prisoners as a class. The original letter is printed in full in an English book entitled, "Echo from the Andamans." The curious reader may get to read the letter in full in the pages of that book. It embodies all the letters I had sent from the Andamans to India. However, to proceed with the narrative, the gist of the letter was as follows: "I am glad that the Maharashtra Provincial Conference has passed a resolution asking the government to grant amnesty to all political prisoners. It is important to note that a similar resolution was adopted by that Conference in its session at Nasik. This shows that the Bombay Provincial Conference is more keen, courageous and persistent in its demand for our release than any other Provincial Conference in the whole of India. And we, political prisoners, are grateful to the Conference for its efforts in our cause. So far as I know a similar resolution was passed in our behalf by Conferences in the United Provinces and the Andhra. The resolution passed at the Andhra Conferences was all- inclusive and full of sincerity. It is clear from this expression of opinion that the heart of the people of Andhra goes out in sympathy towards those who have served and sacrificed for the freedom of the Motherland according to their honest convictions, even though the convictions may not commend themselves to the Andhra people on grounds of method of work, and the ways and means adopted by them to reach the goal. That