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

CHAPTER VIII The First Week in my cell The Jamadar led me to Chawl No. 7. On the way lay a big reservoir of water. The Jamadar asked me to take my bath there. I had not taken my bath for four or five days My body was full of sweat and dart. The sea- voyage had done it I was delighted with the permission to bathe. But I had no garment to change. The Jamadar gave me a piece of cloth no better than a suspender. I had never entered my bath in that naked condition. What then? Was I not to wear it for bath and for my labour all my life here? The mind revolted, but then said, "Fool ! did not a saint like Ramdas use the same apparel? The world knows what you carry within it. From whom are you hiding it now? Has not Milton described it as honour dishonourable'?" There was a sect in Europe which considered it a sin to wear clothes For Adam and Eve never wore any. Their followers adopted the same mode of life. And they called themselves Adamites. Even today, if not for religion, then for hygiene, colonies of men and women in certain regions of the world go about as nudists except in the cold season. They expose their bodies to sunlight as a matter of health. For, certain doctors in the West condemn the practice of excessive clothing as harmful to a man's health. In Europe they wear too many clothes for fashion's sake They seldom expose their bodies to sunlight From berth to death they wrap themselves up in clothes; and the health of these people had suffered So doctors had opened, and the people had followed them I was thanking all this over whale I was donning the strap of cloth that was given to me by the Jamadar. The Jamadar had watched, with delight, the trepidation and shame of many a person here when he was called upon to take a bath in this dress or absence of dress. But he was disappointed in me and, perhaps, he set me down as the most shameless of them all ! I went to the tank and was about to dip my pot into it, when the Jamadar cried out, "Not so here, you are a prisoner, you first stand up, I will say, `take the water' you will then bend down and dip the pot in the reservoir I will their say, 'rub your body clean'; then you will clean it with your hands. I will say, 'have one more'. You will dip your pot for a second round, and so on. The whole bath has to be finished in three pot-fuls of water." This order of the Pathan Jamadar simply surprised me. I was a resident of Nasik, a place of pilgrimage where hundreds bathed freely on the bands of the Godavari. I was accustomed, however, to the ritual of the bath finished with scanty water. I laughed to myself and finished my bath here in the same mood. That was a pious act done within my sea, this I had to do when I was transported beyond it One was white and the other was black water ! That was all the difference between the two The priest here was my bearded Jamadar and a Mohammedan ! As I poured the water on my person I felt a strange sensation. I shut my eyes and could see nothing. I felt like burning all over the body. "Was the Jamadar wrong in his recital?", I asked myself. Just then, I happened to gargle my mouth, and, instantly, spewed out the water. Was it salt water I was bathing in? The tongue tasted it as salt. I asked the Jamadar about it. He retorted, "Was ever sea- water sweet?" It was then that I realised that I had a sea- bath here Sweet water is scarce throughout the Andamans They all use sea-water for bathing, for washing clothes, and for several miscellaneous purposes. And the water is