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

tion of truth? Why did he not say he should have nothing to do with such a course? And was it not a betrayal of confidence on his part to tell the officer the name of the prisoner who had rendered that service to him? If this were truth, then Narendra Goshen must be worshipped by him as a sincere non-cooperator. No doubt the man was taken aback by this counterargument. He did not act as he had threatened. But he kept on maintaining that getting news in a secret manner was a sin, that founders of secret societies like Mazzini were all sinners. He asserted that whatever a non-cooperator did, he did openly, and there was no secrecy or cowardice behind his single action. He went about spinning long yarns on the subject. One day, in order to make a fun of him, we adopted a plan just when we were dining together. The gentleman in question always managed to eat a 'Chapati' by flattering the cook in charge, while all of us were being served at dinner with rice. On the day in question, while the gentleman was eating his 'Chapati' as usual, one of us raised an alarm that the Superintendent was coming. The man instantly concealed the 'Chapati' under a dinner plate near him and began quietly eating his rice. There was a roar of laughter raised around him, and all began cross-questioning him. "0, fellow, is it not a sin to conceal the 'Chapati' as you have done it? Is it following truth, according to your article of the creed, to eat the 'Chapati' stealthily?" Another answered on his behalf, of course, ironically, "A non-cooperator lover of truth does not regard it as a violation to eat a small 'Chapati' even stealthily, to feed his stomach. For that is an act of necessity, while your getting news surreptitiously and reading it is violation of truth as harmful to the national cause. "Surely it is no cowardice to eat forbidden food in order to live; that is not a lie or an evil act. To lie for the sake of a nation is, surely enough, an unpardonable sin, and an act of down-right cowardice." I would not have referred to the story if it were an isolated and exceptional incident. But I found this attitude but too common among the non-cooperators and Khilafatists I met in this jail. Hence I found it worthwhile to mention it in this narrative. That they may take in correctly the situation in Malabar I spoke to them in several lectures on that momentous topic, dealing at large with the whole history of the question. Our friends in that prison were dead against my Sanghatan movement. I convinced them of their inconsistent attitude in the light of the unity they were working after. For the larger unity was impossible so long as we were weak and divided among ourselves as Hindus. As to discussion on politics there was no end to it here.