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

are Mussulmans. On the other hand you should not harm, or create trouble for, any prisoner because he happens to be a Hindu. I would not accept even a pie from you. Do your work well and as thoroughly as you can. I shall see to it that you are not unnecessarily harassed for it. But if you conspire to give me less work than is your due, because I am a Hindu, or harass, persecute or extort money from Hindu prisoners under you, then beware I am not the man to put up with such a conduct." So long as I was on the job, I treated them accordingly. One or two of the hardened ones among them made away with a quantity of oil and had intended to involve me in that affair. But I caught them on the spot and sacked them, and none dared do the same thing again. Thereafter all of them proved as submissive as lambs. I appointed Hindu warders in place of those I had to dismiss. The Kolu, which had come to be looked upon in the early years of my prison-experience as an engine of torture more terrible than the gallows,—for if one was to be persuaded to hang himself, the right way to do it was to put him on the Kolu—became under my supervision and control just an ordinary oil- mill. I had not to put any one in handcuffs or even give a slap in the face, or offer any tip that it may he turned properly and yield its normal quantity of oil per day. The oil-depot was stocked well and the income had not gone down. This was the period when Mr. Diggins— Mr. Barrie's brother-in-law—was the jailor in charge. Under his kind, civil and generous treatment, the normal work of the prison went on without a hitch, and the prisoners had nothing to complain of. Mr. Diggins was a at help to me in doing away with the many horrors of the Kolu in my charge. The Hindu prisoners were particularly grateful to me and words failed them to express what they felt. I was touched by their simple faith and by their devotion to me. What I had done for them? Nothing out of the way. They were drawn to me because I did not treat them badly. That was all. Pleased with that little, they expressed their gratitude to me; and that made me cry, betimes; and tears flowed from my eyes. We had to drink water with nostrils closed During the time that I was in charge of the oil depot, the greatest satisfaction that I had was that I could do a good turn to those who in our direst days as prisoners had been so helpful to us. I could also render assistance to the fittest men and families among the free settlers of that island and made gratitude a thing of joy. None of them could be persecuted as in the past. The old and heartless method of sending prisoners to answer the call of nature in a row of eight standing in a queue, who were compelled to come out from the closet at the bidding of the jamadar whether they had done the thing and cleared the parts or not, or without water enough to clean them, had become an antiquity. This is only one instance of the many disabilities they had to put up with. From that bestial, savage and inhuman state of things we had been extricated for good. In those days, if a Mussulman warder saw a Hindu prisoner helping himself to water in the reservoir, he at once plunged his feet into it and if the Hindu used the dirty water, he would chaff at him to his heart's content. He went about telling others what a fine thing he had done and often boasted about it. All this had stopped now. The Mussulmans ceased to be