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

to feed him through the nose. A month passed after this. The man began to get emaciated, resolved to die, and never to surrender his will or prove false to his vow. The hardships he had suffered in Siam, and, added to this, a fast unto death in the prison of the Andamans had done him up completely. He developed pain in the chest and the doctor declared that consumption had set in. Every one begged of him to take food; but he would not yield. He was at the death's door when I wrote to him to give up his fast. It was with great difficulty that I persuaded him to take his meal. But unfortunately, the disease developed fast, and in two months he died of it. Dharmavir Ramraksha But the episode did not end there. The matter was taken up to the higher officials, to the Indian press, and before a special Commission appointed to examine into the state of prison administration in India. As a result a Brahmin was allowed to wear his sacred thread even as a prisoner. But, for this trifle, Dharmavir Ramraksha had to lay down his life! Now prisoners of all sects in Hindu Society and not Brahmins alone, are permitted to wear the sacred thread as a symbol of their faith. As the war began to draw to its close, the defeat of Germany became an evident fact. In the early years of the war, the Englishmen here were given to spreading false reports of England's advance against Germany. Now there grew a tendency among the prisoners of this jail to spread fantastic stories of German victories in order to blunt the edge of their own despair. The stories became so extravagant during the concluding period of the war that, after the war, the officers thought it expedient to provide the prisoners with newspapers in order to remove that illusion. For the newspapers would not publish fantastic reports like the fall of London, or the Amir's capture of Lahore. The Superintendent gave me from this time a copy of the weekly edition of the 'London Times', so that I might be enabled to remove their misapprehension as also to read news that would interest me. The defeat of Turkey filled me with joy," though the news was a bitter pill to swallow not only for the Mussulmans but for all other prisoners in this jail. But soon they realised the cause of my satisfaction. I reported about Germany's defeats as faithfully as I had read about them; but they were very angry with the reporter himself, and yet they could not resist the temptation of asking for the news. If I said to them that I was not going to give them any news at all, and they had better not ask for it, because to report something that was not true I considered reprehensible, they used to supplicate me for it. In order to enlighten them on the point, I used to take up the subject of the enemy's defeat for a talk at our weekly meetings. "To hear favourable news only is the part of a fool. A brave and forceful man likes to know first of his reverses, for to meet them fearlessly is his first task. Napoleon Bonaparte had strict orders for his staff never to delay the news that went against him but to report at once, even if it be at the dead of night when he happened to be fast asleep. It was no matter if good news were kept back from him till the following morning. India has not yet gone through the discipline and preparation for the coming in of good news to her. It is her destiny to hear bad news for a good long time to come. But she must be fortified to know the truth, for she has to face it.