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

And exactly similar was the attitude of many prisoners in the Andamans towards me because they felt that I was siding this time with the officers instead of opposing them. The more the local officers persuaded them to stay on in the Andamans, the more eager they became to leave that place. They felt that their interests lay in abandoning the place because the officers, who often deceived them, now importunated them to stick to it. And when I joined my voice to theirs adding, that going back to India was not desirable, that staying there was more advantageous to them because of the new concessions, they were surprised and puzzled in mind, and went the length of suspecting me as they had so long suspected the officers And in this way those who were my staunch friends and devoted disciples till then, prepared themselves to lead an open opposition to my advice and action on this particular question, albeit they did it most reluctantly. Those who strive for the good of the people are ever ready to sacrifice for it their property and even their life but they dare not sacrifice popularity for it; they often shrink from such a sacrifice as I have found from many instances in my own experience of public life. Not to fore go popularity at any cost has been the grave of many ; good cause in this world. Knowing as I did this side of public life but too well, I have striven to the best of my power, never to succumb to this temptation, and have sacrificed popularity as I have sacrificed myself whenever found it necessary to do so. I know that it has caused me a severe wrench of the heart. But I have borne the agony; of it for the sake of what I was convinced to be my duty As to that, there was no doubt in my mind. The prisoners sent to me, under one pretext or another their respective leaders, one after another, to know my real mind on the subject. To one and all of them I gave the same advice. I said to them, "Most of the prisoners in the settlement are drawn from the lowest and the most poverty-stricken strata of society. If they were taken back to India and were but set free at once, without being made to rot in the jails of India, how will they be the better for such freedom That they shall not be so set free was a certainty, for the; were bound to serve out their fourteen years' term c imprisonment in India, if not in the Andamans. The breaking up of the colony in the Andamans by no means implied such a pardon for them. Granted that they were free they will inevitably go back to poverty which will hold them in its grip. If they happened to have a small piece of land, they will find that their kith and kin had already swallowed it. Homeless they will either fight for them in the law-courts, or, worse than that, quarrel with them and beat them. And if they did not do so, they shall have to beg for their subsistence and at last lapse into a career of crime. This state of things was good neither for them, nor for their country. On the other hand, to settle in the Andamans, and to make the fullest use of the new opportunity opened out to them to own and cultivate the land and to earn an independent living, was to bring into existence a prosperous colony which would be both an individual and a national gain. The greatest drawback in the past life of the Andamans had been the dearth of females, and, therefore, little or no scope, whatever, for marriage and home life. But if in years to come—say in five years— the officers permit and encourage prisoners to