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

the names of national leaders in Indian history from the fall of the Peshwas down to our times. I told them I would select from them the twelve who top the list by the total number of votes against their names. The discussion went on for a week and the names were at last submitted. In the list there was no name from among the leaders of the Mutiny of 1857. One alone had mentioned the name of Laxmibai of Jhansi. I called them together and discussed the mutiny with them in several meetings through lectures, conversation, and by questions and answers. I brought the book on the Indian Mutiny by Rajanikant. I pointed out to them how his designation that it was the Sepoy War was a mistake. I showed that it was really a revolutionary movement, a war of independence on a larger scale. Thereafter every one of them knew who were Tatya Tope, Nanasaheb Peshwa, Kunwar Singh and Laxmibai. They became familiar names to them. My study of the Koran Thomas a Kempis' " Imitation of Christ" was a favourite book of mine. When I began the study of Koran in England, I read it first in its English translation. Then I turned to its Bengali version. Back to India I read it in Marathi. I read it in the original with- a Mohammedan friend who always told me that its beauty and spirit could only be felt by its study in the tongue it was delivered. I read the scripture page by page with him, washing my hands and feet and sitting apart and with my mind concentrated on the text. I made my friend recite the suras and translate them into Hindi for me, as we studied the text together from day to day, at a stated hour, and in a devoted frame of mind. I then read Mohomad Ali's modern version of Koran in English. I had already read the English Bible twice. I had studied the ten principal Upanishads, finishing each of them in one month, and taking one whole year to complete them. I used to read them and ponder every night with deep thought and meditation. All of a sudden I fell upon the Yoga Vashistha, and I found it of such absorbing interest that I have come to regard it ever since as the best work on the Vedanta Philosophy. The propositions were so logical, the verse is so beautiful, and the exposition is so thorough and penetrating that the soul loses itself in raptures over it. Such a fine combination of philosophy and poetry is a gift reserved only for Sanskrit poets. Look at the eleventh chapter of the Bhagwat Gita, and remark the manifestation in it of the Divine Spirit as cosmic force, embracing in its sweep both the One and the Manifold. Note, again, the verses in Kalidas on the manifestation of Vishnu, or note in his Kumar Sambhava those grand lines in which the poet compresses the vastness and majesty of thought into the setting of a beautiful lake—like flowing stanza of charming verse. And, indeed, there cannot be any antagonism between poetry and philosophy. Poetry is the expression of beauty, and that alone is beauty which communicates ineffable and perfect bliss; and nothing can bring perfect bliss but truth. "Beauty is truth and truth beauty." And that alone is truth which communicates to the soul the feeling of doubtless and deepest satisfaction above the conflicting suggestions of the senses, the emotions and the reasoning faculty of man. That is peace, that is pure contemplation of truth, that is

ecstatic beauty and joy. Hence the highest poetry fulfils itself by locking herself in deep excellences of truth. As I went on studying Vedanta Philosophy, I began to experience one feeling above everything else. And it was that the study of these books relaxed every fibre and nerve of my mind, and merged me completely in the contemplation of the Universal, to the extent that I completely turned away from fruitless action in the world of man. It destroyed my will to power and my power to act. "The highest attainment was inaction." This text resounded continuously in my brain. And words like 'the service of my country', 'altruism and humanity' faded into the back-ground as useless phantoms. Before this supreme goal, they appeared as transient and childish pastimes. A similar feeling of higher pessimism was breathed upon me when I read master-works on geology and astronomy. But for different reasons. These works describing as they did the earth and the starry heavens, brought home to me infinity of time and space, and, correspondingly puniness of man and the briefness of his life on this tiny globe. Why then struggle, why work and strive, why not live like lotus-eaters? That is what I felt. For all this was to end and to be lost in the depth of space and time. The study of Vedanta did not fill the heart of man with this kind of cynicism and despair. It did commend inaction; but in order to reveal to us the deeper joy and the higher realisation of our being, it exhorted man to cast off spurious dolls, but to endow him with something higher, deeper and more abiding than the fleeting pleasures of this world. In Vedanta the abandonment of action was in itself supreme self-realisation and supreme bliss. Not so the mood of despair and utter futility brought on by the study of geology and astronomy. In Vedanta, man is the master and the maker of his being, the spark of the divine, the emanation from the fount of life. To Science, man is the creature of nature, and subject to her mutations, and heading for the final dissolution of the universe into the vast emptiness of space and time. When I used to be lost in the reading of the Yoga Vashistha, the coil of rope I was weaving dropped automatically from my hands; and, for hours on end I lost the sense of possessing the body and the senses associated with that body. My foot would not move and my hand was at a stand-still. I felt the deeper yearning to surrender it all. All propaganda, all work seemed such a worthless task, a sheer waste of life. At last the mind and the matter asserted their sway over the body and swung it back to work again. On the other hand, when I read history and the other sciences, the will to power asserted itself with tremendous impact. When I read about revolutionary upheavals in the East and West, tottering thrones and empires to their fall, the news went to my brain like heady wine, and I felt that I should forthwith break the bars of my prison-door and escape, in order to hold up the flag of independent India, and plant it on the Himalayas. I felt I must rush into the fray, be in the thick of the battle, fight and win, or lose and be in the dust. These conflicts were all on the battle-field of my mind, and when I recovered from them, I used often to laugh at myself. What a plaything I was to be so tossed between these emotions—But! This is not the occasion for a synthesis of these questionings, imaginings and feelings. Hence, I mark the end of these musings with a 'Yet', and hasten on with the main narrative.

A travelling library There were educated men even among ordinary prisoners. And of those whom we had taught to read and write, we found some men of talent and intelligence who proved to be keen on reading books of history and other serious subjects. We had to open for them another library well-stocked with Hindi and Marathi books. Where were we to open it? And who will provide books for it? The officers were dead against providing such reading facility for ordinary prisoners. They would connive at their chewing tobacco, carrying tales, and indulging openly in any unseemly- vice. But if ten of them were to open and manage a reading room for themselves, it would be a serious offence in their eyes. Hence, we had to provide them this convenience on our own, and through an organisation we had already started for outdoor propaganda and work, mention of which we have already made in a former chapter. From the secret funds of this secret association we procured books on Economics, history, fiction and novel, and made them accessible to ordinary prisoners. We ordered them on the address of Hindu officers outside the jail. We did not stock them in one place, and we circulated them among intending readers. By turns the books passed from hand to hand and were duly returned to the place from where they were being circulated among the readers. The movement spread all over the settlement, and we added Hindi and Marathi newspapers to the circulation of books. I had also prepared a list of books on general politics which were read accordingly by the Hindu officers themselves. Every man who earned a monthly salary of seventy-five or hundred rupees had his small library at home full of such select books. We were always pressing for such a home library and we largely succeeded in our efforts. Another advantage of training ordinary Hindu prisoners was that as soon as they could read and write in Hindi and English, and had learnt English up to the Third Standard, they could get jobs as Munshis. Thus many of our trained prisoners had gradually spread over the whole island, in districts and at the centre, as clerks, writers, munshis and petty officers. They were freed from their hard hips of manual labour and could save from four to five rupees per month. And they became available to us for our propaganda of "Swadeshi" all over the place, among prisoners as well as free citizens, without any interference with their settled and usual work. And there was a distinct improvement in their private and personal life. They were intellectually better and morally purer. There were less quarrels among them because they were now free from the common vices of their class like drinking and theft, riotry and beating, wickedness and deceit. The main object of putting them in prison and segregating them from society in this settlement was thus bearing its fruit. It was for the Government to introduce these measures, but it never cared for their improvement, for that was not its ideal and goal. What it cared for most was to exact as much work from them as it could, and to punish them severely if they failed to give that much work. The officers appointed on prisons had no better outlook than this, and we were forced to undertake the work of improving them without their knowledge. Otherwise, there was no need for secrecy in such a laudable enterprise.

CHAPTER II The "Shuddhi" movement in the Andamans I was sent to the Andamans in 1911, and I soon found out that some Hindu prisoners had been converted to Islam and assumed Muslim names after their transporta- tion to the Andamans. And when I traced the genesis of this change, I found that the Hindus in that place never found it worth while to think of, and took it as a matter of course. What was there in it, they felt, that one should look into its origin or trace it to its cause? The Andamans were in fact under the supreme authority of the British people, and if at all Hindus were to be converted under that rule to any faith, that faith was Christianity and not Islam. Till 1857, both in prisons and in the armies, the ruling authorities had encouraged the spread of Christianity. But after the terrible catastrophe of that war of Independence,. the British authorities seldom interfered with religion and did not encourage conversion. However, even today the Christian missionaries try to convert the so-called criminal tribes in India to their own faith. At least, they exert considerable influence over their lives and social habits. But I dare say, with all my knowledge and experience about it, that prisons are never utilised by the authorities to convert Hindu prisoners into Christians by propaganda or by any other similar influence. Sometime a Christian missionary comes there to offer a prayer. But none of the prisoners are compelled to attend that prayer. With very rare exceptions, no concealed or open effort, either official or non-official, is made throughout the Andamans to convert Hindus to Christianity. And no officer was found to use his influence in that direction. The exception was brought home to me in a strange manner. And I shall mention it in its due place. But I can bear out, by my fourteen years' experience, the fact that not even four examples can be quoted of forcible conversion of Hindus by Christian missionaries of that place. Nor was any temptation or bribe used by them for that purpose, How strange is it, then, that under such a power and in the prison and the islands under its suzerainty, the Pathan and other Mussulman warders, petty officers and jamadars of that prison could convert the Hindu prisoners to Islam, by methods of conversion and coercion. Leave alone the prisoners who knew by their age what they were doing. But what of lads of tender age who were so forcibly converted to Islam by their Muslim warders? Is it not the duty of the British officers to care for their spiritual welfare as it is their care to look after their physical and moral well-being? Is it not, at least, their charge to guard them from such conversion till they come of age? It is as sacred as to protect the property of a minor from spoliation and misuse. But in the prison of the Andamans, this is a duty totally neglected by its officers. And I go further and say that in all the prisons of India such conversion to Islam is going on systematically under the very nose of the jailors themselves. And it is the Mussulman warder, jamadar and petty officer who are doing it without let or hindrance. Fourteen years of prison experience made me assert, without fear and favour, that prison-mosque converts in one year more Hindus to Islam than the Jumma Masjid of Delhi or Bombay is found to do it. The organised efforts of Hassan Nizami to catch Hindus in the net of Islam are not so dangerous as the insidious and wicked way of conversion practised in this jail-masjid of India and the Andamans.

The preliminaries of Conversion There are no appointed persons to bring about conversion in jails, nor is there any organisation behind it. Every Muslim is trained from his very childhood to regard the conversion of a Kaffir to his own faith as his sacred duty. He is told that thereby he will be forgiven ail his sins and abide in the heaven of Allah with all its pleasure and ease to be his, from eternity to eternity. This is, in truth, the mainspring of conversion of Hindus to Islam throughout the prison-world of India. The process begins in big cities like Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, Lahore and Madras in the gangs of thieves, robbers and dacoits v their own dens to lurk in. The Mussulman gang of criminals do not consider it a sin in the eye of God to raid a Hindu village and to loot and burn the property of a Hindu sowcar. Nay, it is a matter of pride to the gang to have successfully brought off the coup. I have met Maulvis who have condoned these crimes and declared their perpetrators as innocent beings. Those who know anything about this side of human life will bear me out when I say that in places like Bombay, every den of thieves and robbers has its 'Mahant' or high priest to propitiate its tutelary deity. Ostensibly each of these mahants is a decent shop-keeper doing his own particular trade. "Honest, decent and above-board" is his reputation in the ordinary world. Young boys as novitiates are given to work under him. And, in course of time, they turn out clever pick-pockets and cut-purses. Then they are promoted to the job of cat-burglars—those who enter people's houses through windows by climbing over the pipes and by breaking open the doors. Then they are put upon the work of breaking safes, and finally in the highest standard of a highway man, stopping men to stand and deliver, with a knife pointed to their chest. At last they are initiated into the gang itself which plans and executes organised raids and dacoities. It is these street- arabs that often go to jail. The mahant, the leader, the high-priest is ever safe, he never leaves his place and is never taken in. The profession lives and thrives on the continuous recruitment of these lads into the gangs. The Dens of Hindu Thieves In the dens of Hindu Thieves you will find a large number of helpless orphans and vagabonds belonging to many faiths. But these don't dine together, eat together and mix together, for the Hindu religion does not sanction such practice and allows no conversion from one. religion to another. Hence in the dens of Hindu thieves presided over by Hindu mahants, you will find but a sprinkling of Muslim lads. And those who are in it practise the usual trade of thieving, pickpocketing and street-hooliganism. But they are never decoyed from Islam. They retain their faith intact, whatever they do or become otherwise. In case the Hindu lads and the Hindu mahants mess with their Muslim fellows, it is the former that go down and are corrupted. The lads and recruits in Muslim gangs from the fold of Hinduism inevitably catch the faith of their Muslim fellows and mahants and gradually drift into Islam. They learn thieving and other crimes which take them to jail. They commit all sorts of sins from cheating, lying and pilfering to rape, incest and murder. As occasion demands, they assume disguises in which they have to cut their sacred tuft of hair and grow a beard. And if once or twice they are made to eat flesh and

break bread with their Mohomedan companions, they are stamped as Muslims and swear by Muslim names. In order to cheat the Police in their track, they circumcise themselves and throw off their sacred thread. Once this change is achieved, they remain Muslims for ever. Besides, in their own homes as Hindus, they are brought up to regard the slightest departure from these conventions as utter ruin of faith. In this way hundreds of Hindu lads and young men are becoming Muslims in the haunts of thieves and criminals in the city of Bombay. Their castes, if they learn of their breaking bread and eating meat with Muslims, excommunicate them. And the Moulvi-Mahant is ever ready to receive them with open arms into the fold of Islam. He tells them, "My friend, you are already a Mussulman, now do nimaz, get circumcised, you will have a fine girl for a wife, and I shall make you happy." As the mahant has on his record these vagabond lads, he has also at his disposal a large number of girls who are as reckless as the boys. Thus, step by step, the vagabond thief climbs into Mohomedanism, and is lost for good to the Hindu religion. . The way and the path is not only familiar to the Moulvi-mahant at the top, but also to his henchmen in the craft. And these often lure the Hindu lads into that way. The source of it all from top to bottom is the fanatical belief that to turn a Kafir into a Mussulman is absolution from all sins and the surest gateway to heaven. Those who are saved from the dens in this city, are converted to Islam in the ' prison that follows them. The Muslim warders and jamadars are adept in this art and other Mohomedan prisoners help in the process. The former do it openly with all the weapons of offence and defence available to them. Others proceed indirectly and tempt them into ways from which there is no going back. If this is the situation in India, what can you say of the Andamans? There the warders, the petty officers, and the jamadars are double-distilled rascals and bigoted Mussulmans—the tribe of Pathans, Baluchis, Panjabis and Sindhees. The political prisoners, of all others, suffer most at their hands, because the bulk of them are Hindus. These officers subject them to the hardest labour, threaten them with the severest punishment and lodge false complaints against them. They thus make their lives a hell for them, and out-and-out tell them to become Mussulmans to escape from these throes. The young, the ignorant and the helpless easily succumb to them. How this is being practised I have already indicated in the first part of this book. As I began noticing this, I felt an urge within me to put an end to it. Every week or fortnight I had seen one Hindu prisoner at dinner sitting in the rank of his Mohomedan fellows. It was impossible for me to witness the scene. But I was only a prisoner here; what could I do to save them? I tried hard to infuriate the Hindu prisoners against this act of sacrilege. But one and all of them I found so callous. Each one of them used to say, "What is it to me?", and "What do I care?" The opposition begins

Leave alone the ordinary Hindu prisoners, it was the same with the political prisoners as well. They dared not put a fight against conversion, and for obvious reasons. For they were already suffering enough, and they were not willing to put an additional strain on their patience. Having done the most ceaseless daring work in the country, they were paying for it heartily in this jail. And in the prison again they had to struggle and fight for their very existence. How then can their mind and body bear the additional burden I was putting on them? This work had to be done by others and not by them. Hence they often used to say, "Leave alone this trouble, for the time being, it is already hard for us to be constantly fighting with the jamadar for our right to live. We are not willing to expose ourselves to his malice all the more by opposing him on the ground of conversion." I did not blame them, but I certainly blamed three or four of them who dismissed the effort as a sheer waste of time, as a foolish action. For they were thus shielding their own cowardice, and their conduct deserved censure from me. Others went even further in order to insinuate themselves into the favour of the jamadar and save their skin. They used to show to them that they were themselves going to adopt the Muslim faith. How could they, then, openly join a movement to resist conversion? The next step with them was, that when some of us tried to save the Hindu prisoners from the jaws of Islam and the battle was joined on that account, to denounce our action as foolish and to propitiate the jamadar by addressing their coreligionists in the following words : "What is pollution or purity in this? These are after all the dregs of society,—convicts, sinners, and the meanest of mankind, unredeemed and irreclaimable miscreants. What is it to Hinduism if they are in it or out of it? What difference does it make? Those who embrace Islam by threat or bribe, how are they better as Hindus? To keep them in Hinduism is utter folly and childish nonsense." That was also the vein in 'which the Superintendent, the jailor and the Commissioner tried to argue with me on the point. And the self- conceited, hypocritical Mussulman said the same thing to me. Those who are against the Shuddhi movement are often found to object to reconversion and purification on similar grounds. Not only those who are hypocrites but those also who are honest and sincere in their opinions. • It, is, therefore, imperative that I should clear all misconceptions on this burning question. Is the Shuddhi Movement so childish ? If it is a foolish waste of time and a childish pursuit to retain in Hinduism those born in it, may be, sinners, criminals and the miscreants of society, how can one explain the Muslim campaign, now going on for a thousand years, to win this riff-raff, condemned class of Hindu society for Islam? The Mussulmans have waged wars it, they have put men and women to the sword, they have burnt and looted houses—in short they have declare Jehad—for effecting this mass conversion. Is this a childish game? May be the Mussulmans are a bigoted and fanatical race. But even the level-headed, thoughtful Christians in Europe and America have raised vast sums, sent their missionaries, not only to Indian cities and towns, but to the backwoods of India and the jungles of Africa to win the unregenerate and the heathens for Christianity. The have worked among savages, among criminal tribes an the depressed classes and sought, by fair means or foul to bring them within the Christian fold. The missionaries have

suffered for them, paid with their lives for then spent their monies on them, flattered them, bribed then coerced them and persuaded them. They have done a this for the sake of Christ. Is this also a childish act? C what use are these sinners and criminals to them? Why not then should the. Hindus seek to save them where the; are? They are of as much use to Hindus as they are a converts to Islam and Christianity. I may as well as: the Christian missionary and the Mohomedan Moulvi why they should be so keen on their conversion. Why do the; taint and tarnish their purer faith by assimilation of sue] wretched souls into it? Why not let us retain them? The; are after all born Hindus and our kith and kin. Do no waste millions of your precious money on their conversion and we shall not pursue the useless task of Shuddhi am reconversion. Evidently, the Christian missionary and the Mohomedian Moulvi undertake the task as a religious duty. The: convert heathens, the fallen, the criminals, and the derelicts —for the salvation of their souls. Why then do you blame us if we seek to keep them in their own religion and work for their uplift and redemption as Hindus? We believe fervently in the Gita doctrine that the salvation of man lies in dying in his own religion. And we seek to save their souls and redeem them for Hindu society on that principle. Hindu religion and Hindu culture have in them the power to work such redemption. That is our faith and we act up to it. It is the sinful that need salvation The individual whom you try to convert may be a wicked man, a sinner or a drunkard. But after deep thought you have learnt the social law that if you make him a Christian or a Mohomedan by means fair or foul, and if you change his name, you are really adding to your strength. In course of time children come into his family and it grows. The children become Muslims and Christians by name, birth and association. And they turn out better than their parents and add in number to the well-to-do, educated, well-behaved number of Muslim citizens. And, in that proportion, the Hindu society loses its good members. The history of Canada and Australia is an instance in point. England started deporting to those colonies her criminals and her unemployed families. Today the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren of these first inhabitants have built up prosperous dominions and commonwealths and powerful self-governing nations out of these colonies. Where are those criminals and outcastes of society sent to Botany Bay in those days and where is the Commonwealth of Australia today? You are dragging to-day by your shovels dregs of Hindu society into your soil, and you know how to use these dregs to manure and enrich it. And, in course of a few generations, the soil so enriched will yield you an abundant harvest. The fields will smile and wave with their dancing ears of golden corn. We have come to realise this law of social growth and hence we are following in your footsteps. We will no longer let any Hindu boy or girl, man or woman, however fallen they may be, pass into another religion, and we shall not fail to reconvert those

whom you may have duped into embracing your faith. This is the rationale of the Shuddhi movement which we have resolved to launch, and no specious argument can divert us from our true path. A Hindu thief is less harmful to Hindu culture than a Mohomedan thief. The former will only rob, the latter will break the temple he has robbed, he will break the idol in it and give a shattering blow on the head of a kaffir, while running away from the place of robbery. He will spill his blood to save his soul in heaven. This difference between the two has ever to be borne in mind by everyone as a probabilty. Hence persuading as we must a thief to give his thieving, a drunkard to give up his drink, and a greedy wicked man to give up his greed and wickedness, we must not give him up, as a Hindu, to any other faith or religion than his own. It is the duty of every Hindu to persuade a Hindu to remain a Hindu. It is a principle to be followed as vital to his community and culture for the preservation and progress of both. But there is another valid reason why the cult of Shuddhi must be propagated throughout the Hindu society, and why, above all, our boys and girls, our young men and women, must be persuaded to adopt it. It is well if a Hindu thief gives up thieving, but even if he does not give it up, he must be made to remain a Hindu. The theft is a sin no doubt, but to cease to be a Hindu is a greater sin, and a social and national sin. Persuade a Hindu thief not to commit that sin. Every one who calls himself a Hindu must impress it upon the most abandoned Hindu that it is not well for him to change his religion. He must strive his hardest to do it. For our ancestors committed the greatest blunder when they allowed such persons to go out of their fold, in pride of self-sufficiency and moral superiority. "Let them go where they choose", said they, "we are sufficient unto ourselves." "He is, after all, a wretched being, let him be a Mohammedan, a Christian or whatever he will. It is nothing to us." And what was the result? For one person whom they so neglected there arose, hundred years ago, hundred Muslims and Christians to be born enemies of Hinduism, Hindu society and Hindu culture. Aurangzeb was born to such an abandoned Rajput woman. The Moplas of Malabar are by blood and bone half-Hindus. They have forgotten the mothers who gave them birth, and today, they swear by their fathers and behave as bitter enemies of the Hindus. Whence this difference in one generation or two? The difference has arisen by their conversion to Islam, by "the childish play" of the Moulvi who cut their tuft of hair and made them grow a beard. The Childish play of great men Thus even for its name the meanest man or the most useless man must be kept a Hindu if he happens to be born a Hindu. We as Hindus have lost terribly for not playing the game which others have played. It has affected us detrimentally, as we should come

to realise after the Malabar riots. We must not now, for our very existence and preservation, refrain from playing the "childish game" of pulling out a convert's beard, and making him wear a tuft of hair instead. We must change his Christian or Muslim name into a Hindu name; we must give him a Tulsi leaf to eat and we must declare that he is purified and accepted back into his own faith. Our leaders must play the game as the Christian and the Muslim leaders have played it in the past and are playing it today. We must admit these sinful men in our society not for themselves but for their progeny which, otherwise, will be lost to it. It is first, our social duty, and it is a religious duty as well. Who knows that a Valmiki may not be born to any one of these Hindu robbers, dacoits and highwaymen? You denounce and disown them today as being more holy, more pious Hindus than they are. This is a pride and self-righteousness highly injurious to the future of Hinduism and Hindu culture. A pirate robber and highwayman wrote the Ramayan which is the admiration of the world. Let, therefore, a Hindu however depressed, criminal and abandoned in character he may be, repeat the name of Ram, however wrongly he may utter it to start with. Make it worth his while to do it. Do not shun him, do not revile him, do not turn him out. Treat him as your own brother, make him love his religion. Then he will recite that holy name properly, and it is sure to be good for him. Inspired by this conviction, I taught the Hindu prisoners of our jail, and chiefly its political prisoners, to rescue the worst of Hindu prisoners from the grip of Islam, to save them from the coercion and blandishments of their Pathan jamadars. For six or seven years these thoughts were passing in my mind and these words were dancing on my lips. In 1913, that is a year and a half or two years after my coming to the Andamans, the first complaint was lodged by me against a forcible conversion in our jail. This was the first resistance I offered. I carried on the campaign of resistance and Shuddhi which began in that year to the end of 1921-22, that is till the day I was transferred to a prison in Hindusthan. My friends, the political prisoners, and my friends, the ordinary prisoners, gave me considerable co-operation in that work, and gave the moment, the impetus, and the drive it had received. I did not give up even when I was a prisoner in India. For that, attempts were made on my life by Pathan Goondas from time to time. There were riots on that account in that jail itself. My brother was actually injured in such a strife. But we never gave up the movement. The movement went on and one appreciable result of it was that forcible conversion in the Andamans had become a thing of the past, and the reconversion of the forcibly converted by Shuddhi became an established fact. Shuddhi in the Andamans The usual way of conversion in the Silver Jail of the Andamans was as follows:- As soon as the Chalan came in that prison or whenever, later on, a suitable opportunity was found for the purpose, the young and the simple-minded lads out of Hindu prisoners were taken in charge by the head of the Mussulman warders and

jamadars, the notorious Mirza Khan, and at once put on hard labour. The Mussalman warder or petty officer, in their immediate charge, lost no time in browbeating and thrashing them on the one hand, and in offering them baits on the other in order to force them into Islam. He would give them, with that end in view, tobacco to chew and sweetmeats to eat. On such an occasion, he treated these gullible lads with extreme kindness. When these boys were beaten and worked to the point of crying, he would openly advise them to become Muslims and all their troubles would be over. Gradually these new victims were caught in his net, and at last the ceremony of conversion came to be completed, by making them openly abandon their seats for meal among the Hindu prisoners and go into the rank of Muslim prisoners. They were then served Mohomedan food so that there was no more chance left open for them to rejoin their Hindu friends. The Hindu and the Mohomedan kitchens were kept separate in this jail and the cooks were Hindus or Mohomedans according to the kitchen they looked after. Once the Hindu lads were discovered dining with the Mohomedans, they were sure to be banned by the Hindus. This was, therefore, an effective mode and final stroke of absorbing them in the Islamic faith. They were at once baptised with Muslim names. If any one called them by their former names, Mirza Khan would growl at them, and his myrmidons would threaten them with severe punishment. "He is now a Mussulman" -they would say, "and you must call him by his new name, beware." This was all the ceremony through which these poor lads were made to pass to be the followers of the new faith. No circumcision, no recital of the Koran, no Nimaz, was necessary in their case. Tobacco was their circumcision, hard labour their Koran, and dining with Muslims was their Nimaz. The Hindu prisoners, themselves, against Shuddhi Generally these were the means employed to convert them. Some of them were, later on, circumcised. When they passed from the prison, they registered their names as Mussulmans. None of the officers cared to enquire how they had happened to change their names. None asked them if they were converted by force and bribes or were converts through the intelligent study of the Koran. When they went out to settle in the colony, the officers to watch them were also Mussulmans. The officers outside converted the Hindus by pursuing similar methods. And if, fortunately enough, they happened to be thrown into the company of Hindus and showed their desire to cast off their borrowed feathers, it was the Hindus themselves who threw the greatest obstacles in their way. If they tried to mix among them they shouted at them as polluted beings, and reminded them that they had lost their caste by dining with Mohammedans. And they at once turned them out as untouchables. I have seen that a convert Muslim takes on his own Hindu name and sits for his meal among his former coreligionists, whereas he is driven out by the Hindus with a hue and cry much worse than the Mussulmans would have raised against him. They make him sit down with the Mussulmans, at any cost. And this made the task of Mirza Khan much easier to accomplish. He had only to put a Hindu prisoner into a tight corner; he had to make him dine with a Mussulman, and all was done. He need not then keep the new convert under his eye; he need no more give him a pinch of tobacco; he need not make him do the Nimaz. For the rest was done by the Hindus themselves to keep the convert safe under his paw. Only one day he had to do his

business thoroughly to make a Hindu convert, and for the rest of his life and generations after, it was Hindus themselves who detained him in that fold. If this was what happened in India, the same was the case in the Andamans also. For Hinduism was not better there than in the mother-country, and the shadow of the latter was bound to fall upon the former. In this manner, every one or two months, at least three to four Hindus were found going over to Islam in this settlement. And when they had married and settled, whether in the Andamans or in India, their children were bound to belong to Islam. And after a generation or two they developed fanaticism that made them forget and disown that they had come of Hindu ancestry. Not only that, but they hated Hinduism as only converts could do it. If a Hindu woman married a Mohomedan, she became a Muslim forthwith. But if a Muslim woman married a Hindu, she could never become a Hindu, For who would admit her to the fold of Hinduism? The Hindus would, by no means, welcome her, and her Hindu husband was compelled to be a Mussulman! He was treated as Mussulman and was presently ex-communicated from Hindu Society. I resolved to put an end to this suicidal policy. And in 1910, when a Brahmin boy was hemmed in by Mussulmans, I openly tried to save him. As the instance is typical of many that followed, I may as well narrate it here in full. This boy hailed from the North of India and was about twenty years old. He was a thief and had undergone conviction for that offence. He was, in consequence, a thoroughly spoilt youth, though he was still proud of his Brahminism. The moment he saw the Andamans and the jail, and realised that he was transported to that place, he was in a fright. And, then, he was about to be put on 'Kolu'. In this frame of mind, the Mussulman warders surrounded him. It was the slogan of this wicked gang that a Hindu boy was first to be crushed by hard labour— straightened out as they put it—then he was to be spoilt, and, last, get him converted to Islam. The boy had already succumbed to pollution at the first temptation, and now he was to be taken for dinner with his Muslim prisoners. I sent him a word that on no account was he to submit himself to dine with them. He was not to give up his Hinduism thus. To this the boy answered that he had no other help than this, for, otherwise, Mirza Khan was sure to put him on the oil-mill. It was useless to preach that he should put up with that hard labour for the sake of his religion. For that was not going to influence a rake like him. I must help him against Mirza Khan and I could not do it from my cell where I was in solitary confinement. At last I carried the whole news to Mr. Barrie, at a private meeting with him. Not that Mr. Barrie was altogether ignorant of such happenings under his very nose, he did nothing in the matter. On the contrary, he turned round upon me and questioned me how I had come to know about it. He added, "Let alone these evil fellows, why should you bother with these derelicts?" He put me off with questions and cross-questions, and went away. I next took up the matter with the Superintendent. But as Mr. Barrie had primed him full on the topic, he gave me the stock answer that it did not matter if such evil persons were Hindus or Muslims. I argued with him in defence, in the same way that I had argued on the subject with my Hindu friends. Then the Superintendent clinched the point by asking me how I was going to prevent it. I answered that I had no objection to conversion if it happened as a free wish on the part of the convert. But the warders and the jamadars made converts by harassing the Hindus, by putting them on hard labour, by bribery and coercion. That was highly objectionable and must be resisted. The Superintendent

informed me to catch them in the act, and then he would certainly resist it, and bring them severely to book for it. The Superintendent left, and Mr. Barrie and Mirza Khan were very much angered. For in my conversation with him I had to expose many of their machinations. To ask me to catch them in the act was, in Mr. Barrie's opinion, an encroachment upon his rights and the violation of his orders. Among the Mohomedan prisoners every one was gnashing his teeth at me. For to them Hindus were a negligible quantity. And the complaint was against their so-called individual privilege of a Mussulman to convert a Hindu. They had never heard such a thing in their lives. Barrie decided to teach me a lesson and ordered Mirza Khan and the angry Mussulman warders to tutor the boy to declare that he was embracing. Islam of his own accord. Next day he was brought to our block, though his cell was in another block, and Mirza Khan gave him food along with the Muslim prisoners in our block. He went away after showering indecent abuse upon me without uttering my name. The Hindu lad was for the whole day called by his Muslim name. This was done to humiliate me by showing how helpless I was before them. I had, of course, to quietly pocket that insult. Next morning a Mussulman warder was giving two or three annas worth of tobacco to the Brahmin boy when I saw him; and I drew the attention of the Hindu warder to that act. He went down on his knees before me and requested that he should be spared the step of catching the Mussulman warder in the act of •bribery, as that would mean Mirza Khan's grudge against him. I then raised a cry and gathered together a number of persons, and, sending for the petty officer, asked him to search the boy himself. If the petty officer desisted, I warned him, I would take the matter to the Superintendent. He had to search the boy, when he found on his person the quantity of tobacco palmed off to him by the petty Mussulman warder. All this noise brought Mirza Khan on the spot. He questioned the lad as to who had offered tobacco to him, and he gave him the name of that warder. Mirza Khan kept me in the lock-up and took the boy to Mr. Barrie for further disposal. On fuller enquiry into the matter I found that nothing had happened. I asked Mr. Barrie about it in the evening when he replied that he was the man to do anything that was to be done in that business, and I had no right to interfere in it. He added that I was only a prisoner like the rest of them, and could only say anything about myself; and, that, if I were to dabble in matters that did not personally affect me, I was liable to punishment for such interference. Two days after, the Superintendent came on his usual rounds, when I called out to him with the usual cry— "A petition please." The Superintendent was a man who used to be put out by any complaint lodged to him on any other day than he had fixed for it during the week. He at once went at me furiously, saying that I had no business to speak about others, and that I should speak only for myself. I answered straight to him: I am bent upon submitting the petition for the boy, do what you will with it. The political prisoners are reported to you by the ordinary warders on the charge of merely speaking to one another. Their notes are intercepted by them without any let or hindrance; as such I had the right to complain to you on a matter which I regard as the most serious, namely, bribing a boy in order to convert him from one faith to another." These hot words of mine had their effect on the Superintendent whose duty it was to listen to every complaint we made to him. He came up to the door of my room, and asked me what the matter was, I said to him, "I caught the Mussulman warder giving tobacco to the Brahmin lad. I had a search made upon his

person. I drew the attention of Mr. Barrie to it. And yet no step was taken by him against the warder in question." The Superintendent was confused and angry. He asked Mr. Barrie petulantly what the matter was. He called for the Mussulman warder. In the mean- while, Mr. Barrie winked at Mirza Khan, and the latter came forward and deposed, "Sire, the complainant had himself put the tobacco on the person of the lad in order to bring the Mussulman warder into scrape." The Superintendent questioned the boy, who was honest enough to depose that I had not done it. The Superintendent understood how it was. When Mirza Khan tried to interpose, he silenced him with a stern rebuke and said to me, "What have you got to say upon the conversion generally?" I told him in brief, "If any man in this prison desired to read the Bible or study the Koran, I had no objection to it. He should get the permission of the superior officer for that purpose, and if he then felt honestly the urge within him to change from one religion to another, I would not interfere. But for such a conversion, either in the prison or in the settlement, he must have the sanction of the authorities concerned. And the authorities before giving such a sanction must convince themselves by proper investigation that there was nothing in the act like bribery or coercion by one party of another. And in the case of a minor no conversion should at all be permitted. This about the settlement generally. In the prison, conversion had to be banned entirely. The Superintendent assured me that about conversion in the Andamans, it was the Chief Commissioner who would decide, and he would speak to him. As for the prison itself, the matter stood as follows. If any one were to change his religion of his own accord, he cannot prevent it. He will not, however, permit any one to effect forcible conversion. Mr. Barrie hotly interposed at this point with the remark that even to prevent that kind of conversion would be a hard task for the authorities, for they had pledged themselves to the policy of non-interference. I said to Mr. Barrie, "I am also fighting for religious liberty, that is, for no forcible conversion of any man by any other man in this prison. A free and willing conversion stands on a different footing altogether from conversion by coercion and bribery. The bulk of the warders, petty officers and jamadars in this prison being Muslims by faith, they can buttress up their action by any means they like. While the Hindus, on the other hand, have to go unheard. For instance, if I were found talking with a fellow-prisoner, he and I are at once punished for it. Hence Mr. Barrie's non-interference reduces itself in plain terms to this: That his Muslim henchmen will be free to do what they like, while their Hindu victims will not be free to complain against them." On this Mr. Barrie argued, "There are Hindu warders and tindals enough here, why do they not instruct the prisoners under them in their own tenets?" "Well," I said promptly, "that was because you, Mr. Barrie, were not lost in love with them, as you are with the Muslim warders. You are partial to the latter, and severe on the former. And if this instruction in tenets was to be the ruling order of the prison, then the whole prison will turn into a mosque and a temple with endless controversies between the two about the truth of these opposing tenets. Further, according to the rules of this jail, not even a tindal or a warder was to exchange a single word with the prisoner except on business. Prison discipline demands, for this reason as well, no encouragement to talks on rival religions inside this building." The Superintendent clinched the argument by a remark, the truth of which came home to me. He confronted me straight and asked, "Why don't you, Hindus, convert Muslims to the Hindu faith? Why do you ever shout at others?"

This was no doubt a valid charge and it went home. I had to make a reply and I said, "Hinduism does not believe in conversion because it swears by the liberal doctrine, 'to each man his own faith'. Religion is not a matter of changing colour so that we may wear one religion one day, and a different one on the day following. But when it has to face today cults and powers wedded to spread their religion by sword or out of worldly considerations, Hinduism will not be wise to adhere to its liberal doctrine, for then the doctrine will either fail or be misrepresented, We have in past history instances of reconversion by purification even in Hinduism. The Arya Samaj of India has been practising "Shuddhi" in modern days. Swami Vivekananda and his noble disciple Sister Nivedita are recent instances in point. He converted her from Christianity to Hinduism and changed her original name of Miss Margaret Noble into the Hindu name of Nivedita and accepted her as disciple and worker in his mission of Ramkrishna Paramahansa. We have her books in the library here and you may judge for yourself. Hinduism has forbidden conversion so far, not because it has doubts of its own worth, but because it feels sincerely that man can attain salvation through the gateway of every religion in the world, only if he remains true to it in life. It further maintains that Religion is one though religions are many in this world. Hinduism does not regard religion as a means of social cohesion, consolidation and power. I regard this attitude as a blunder in the world of today. But I cannot shut my eyes to the great principle which has inspired that attitude. And I must say that it is a noble principle and the most liberal attitude imaginable."

The Superintendent was a man of culture, and, as far as lay in him, he ever tried to be fair to all. I have referred to this trait in him before, and I shall have occasion to men- tion it again. He listened to my explanation with perfect composure, and seemed to be impressed by it. He became at once serious and replied in a calm tone, "I will think over the matter; for the present I order that the Brahmin boy has to sit with the Hindus for his morning and evening meal, and that he shall not partake it of the Muslims. And if any Mussulman were to tempt him or offer him his own food, let that man remember that he shall not go scot-free." He addressed the latter straight to Mirza Khan by fixing his eyes straight upon him. Mirza Khan trembled in his shoes, and made a low bow to him. The Superintendent left the prison.

The threat was all right, and it no doubt went home. But the real difficulty came in after. The Superintendent may order that the boy shall take his meals with us alone. But how were the Hindu prisoners to be made to admit him to sit in a line with them? Had he not dined, if only for a day or two, with the Mohomedans? We had defeated the Mohomedans, but how were we to win over the Hindus? That was the crux of the matter. Mr. Barrie had seen through it and kept quiet on the first day. For the Superintendent himself had lectured to him on that business. I sent message after message to my Hindu brethren that they should now agree, and admit the boy in their line. But there was suppressed opposition to it throughout the rank and file. In the Andamans all Hindus dined together irrespective of their caste distinctions. They sat in the same line, and the Mussulmans alone were seated in a row separate from them. I, therefore, expostulated with them that here was an opportunity, the first of its kind in this prison, to rescue a foolish Hindu lad, from the grip of the wicked Mirza Khan who had never before winced

for anything he did in the world. Mirza Khan was out to use him and convert him. And the Hindus must now show their mettle to save him. If they were to forego their right on that occasion, Mr. Barrie was sure to make a capital out of it. He will send a counter- report to the Superintendent and make him look small for deciding in their favour. Mirza Khan will then dance upon their chests and be more impudent and overbearing than ever before. He was crest-fallen today; but will strut like a cock tomorrow. So I argued with them endlessly but they would not make a definite answer. I and two others literally folded our hands to them, and personally appealed to them. At last, one or two of them were stricken with shame. And almost all agreed that the boy should sit at the extreme end of the line, and myself and two others be seated close to him. And, further, this was to be accomplished by eluding the lynx-eyed Mirza Khan. What a trouble it was to all of us! But it had to be done at any cost. At last the boy began gradually to sit with us for dinner and the Hindus who agreed with us also reconciled themselves to it. Mr. Barrie had lost the game. Yet insidi- ously the Muslims went on with their work, for there was no fiat to the contrary from the Superintendent upon the policy as a whole. But there was a difference in position, and that was an important difference. The Mohome-dans had ceased to bully and to brow-beat the Hindus on this particular matter. They behaved with caution. But that had deepened their hatred for us. Mr. Barrie kept going on with his incitement work in favour of conversion. The news went round the whole of the Andamans that I had put an effective check upon the machinations of Mussulman warders in this prison to bring about forcible conversion of Hindu boys to Islam. Some of our prisoners were from Northern India; they had heard Arya Samajists and they started helping us. Before my going to the Andamans, some enthusiasts had already opened a branch of the Arya Samaj in that settlement. But they were unable so far to do any organised work there for the propagation of the Arya Samaj doctrines or to do any kind of Shuddhi movement. They had not even a notion of what could be done in this direction and in that place. They were gratified to learn of our efforts and began to help us. Later on some of them took the most enthusiastic part in the propagation of Shuddhi tenets. Some independent officers also joined us in that work. A prisoner who had imbibed the principles of the Arya Samaj in his own country and who was for some time working on the settlement was sent back to the Silver Jail just at that time. He was himself a goonda and defied the Muslim goondas in our jail. He had served his sentence of transportation in the jail, was sent out to settle in the Andamans when again he entered on a terrible career of crime, and was, on that account, sent back to this prison. He was a terror, all over the place, to the Mussulman goondas. He was a seasoned jail-bird, expert in every form of crime from ordinary theft to breaking open prisons, smuggling narcotics like opium, street brawls and similar anti-social crimes. The Mussulman dared not look at Hindu boys whom he had once taken under his wings. For whosoever harassed those whom he had regarded as his protegees and friends, came in

for a severe thrashing from him in defiance of all prison regulations. And he effaced the man completely by exposing some of his secrets. And, curious as it was of note, he had a fanatical faith in Hinduism, as his Muslim rivals had a fanatical faith in Islam. That had lent a sharp edge to his attack on them. He was gratified to behold the frustration and disgrace of his Muslim opponents as the result of our Shuddhi movement, and he promised to give us his utmost help in that agitation. I was now resolved not to take things meekly. For we had to deal, every day of our lives, with persons who were typically wicked and low-minded. It was impossible for us to cope with them in their abuses thievish tendencies, beating and in their mean and devilish actions. Their ways were not our ways and I decided henceforward to carry out the principle of setting a thief to catch a thief, of confronting a scoundrel with a scoundrel and an insolent man with insolence incarnate. I set this Hindu goonda his first task to save a Hindu youth of twenty-five back to Hinduism. The young man always expressed his desire to be reconverted to Hinduism. I put this man on him to accomplish the task. . I remembered the words of the Superintendent who had admonished me for mere talk and had exhorted me to convert Muslims to Hinduism. As soon as I caught hold of this man, I had made up my mind to begin the work, and to take that youth back to Hinduism. The prisoner I had chosen for that work took it so seriously, that he succeeded before long in preparing the man's mind for reconversion, as also of a younger person who was an intimate of that youth. He never bothered who knew it; he began his work openly. He was, as I have said, a seasoned jail-bird, but, not being a political prisoner, he was appointed a 'Mukadam' in charge of ten persons. I was myself in solitary confinement. I, therefore, advised him to carry out the purification and reconversion within the precincts of his factory. This was the first experiment in Shuddhi in the jail of the Andamans. On Sunday while Mirza Khan and the Muslim warders under him were busy attending to the prisoners washing their clothes on the reservoir, my man, the Hindu Mukadam, quietly took the two persons aside—the young convert of 25 and the boy who was his friend—he made them bathe, put on fresh clothes; and he brought them round to declare that they had made up their minds to return to Hinduism. These two made the declaration before three Hindus. The Mukadam made them eat leaves of the sacred Tulsi plant, recited to them some slokas from the Bhagvatgita, and he read to them a chapter from the Ramayana of Tulsidas. And the purification ceremony was done. He then distributed as "prasad" the "shira" he had specially prepared for the occasion. Before Mirza Khan could realise what had happened, every one had repaired to his room as if nothing was the matter. The two persons, thenceforward, gave up doing Nimaz, and all of us began calling them by Hindu names. When the Mussulmans still hailed them as converts, they never answered them. They began to read the Ramayana of Tulsidas and sat with us for dinner. This reconversion and Shuddhi created a great sensation in the Andamans. For a few days after the incident, Mr. Barrie and his creatures said nothing about it. He knew

that if he were to complain about it to the Superintendent, we may rake up the whole past against them. Moreover the Mussulmans had hopes that the whole show would end soon, and the Hindus themselves would oppose me. And it did turn out as they had predicted. For, one of the Hindu tindals gave vent to the suppressed feeling of resentment for my action among the Hindu prisoners and punished me by not allowing me to touch their water As they always feared political prisoners they did not take their protest further and did not ventilate it too much though they did not give up harassing me. They constantly twitted me, by openly hailing me as 'Bhangi-Babu. I must say, however, that much as they insulted me and continued their pin- pricking me, the party of 'Bhangi Babus' began to grow in number and to gather in strength so that, at last, the leader of these tindals was himself compelled to join it. And in two or three years' time this Thakur' himself became the most enthusiastic champion of Shuddhi, and reconversion to Hinduism, and he gave us his strong support in pursuing the campaign. The appellation 'Bhangi-Babu' was bestowed upon me as a title to signify one who had no scruples to dine with a Mussulman who was reconverted to Hinduism. I did not convey the story of this Shuddhi to the ears of the Superintendent. For if Mr. Barrie would permit us to carry on our propaganda of Hinduism in the prison, and did not obstruct us as he had not obstructed the Mussulmans, there was no point in informing the Superintendent about the event in question. For I did not like to pick an unnecessary quarrel with Mr. Barrie. Mr. Barrie was, indeed, indifferent to the future of Islam or Hinduism. He favoured the Muslim warders and jamadars because they had proved ready instruments in his hands to harass and torture the prisoners, and, especially the Hindu prisoners, and to keep a strict watch over us as political prisoners. If he were now to oppose openly the Shuddhi movement, he knew but too, well, that we shall not fail to report him to the Superintendent, and, as the latter had been on our side, he was not sure that he would not get a scolding from him for such interference. For all these reasons, Mr. Barrie did not say a word about our latest activities to the Superintendent. And I had kept the movement going on. Just at this time, some three or four prisoners from Ceylon had come to our prison on the charge of rioting and similar violent action. They were sent on transportation for life. They became friends with us, and they were duly registered as members of our organisation. One of them had been already a convert to Christianity. We talked to him about the matter once or twice, and requested him to be converted back to Hinduism. Two out of three, who were more competent, soon got work as writers outside the prison. We assured the Ceylonese Christian that we would try our best to secure a similar job for him too. This practical offer induced him to become a Hindu. And by our ready method of purification we soon made him a Hindu. In the Silver Jail, occasionally, a clergyman paid a visit to offer prayer for those who were Christians. He came to us just after we had converted a sheep from his flock. The

Ceylonese Christian told him frankly that he was no more a Christian and the news astounded him. He carried the matter to the Superintendent and the latter started an enquiry. And our activities became a subject of discussion among the authorities. It must be said to the credit of the officers that they showed no temper over the matter. The investigation was conducted in a judicial frame of mind. Just before this incident, report reached my ears that the Mussulmans had plotted to catch a Bengali prisoner into their net. He was a young boy and an addict to 'ganja' and, in the intoxication, had stabbed a person. He was 18 years old and was sentenced for that purpose. As soon as he was admitted into the jail, Mirza Khan took a fancy for him and managed to keep him under his Mussulman warders. Having felt that they had assimilated him completely with them, they made up their mind to convert him to Islam. So soon as I got the news I set upon him a young Hindu prisoner to dissuade him from that course. This young man was a gooncla of goondas in the Andamans. Having served his sentence for ten years in this prison, he always had about him plenty of money. He always carried from ten to twelve guineas in the pouch of his throat. Four times he bad run from the settlement to be in hiding in the dark jungles of the Andamans. Though he was a dare-devil and had committed horrible deeds to survive in the adverse conditions of prison-life, he was not a man' of wicked heart. He was a man inclined to virtue and with deep faith in God. He was loyal to his friends. He was prepared to run any risk to save a friend. We decided that this Hindu should stay just where they had kept that boy and, at the proper time, expose the whole plot. Although the political prisoners were forbidden to move from one place to another without the permission of Mr. Barrie, the task of transferring ordinary prisoners was assigned to a Munshi. The Hindu prisoner in question tipped the Munshi to the tune of two rupees and got himself changed to a room adjoining the room of this young boy. Within eight days of his stay in that room the boy became his intimate friend. The elder man talked to him seriously on religion, country and caste, and completely got him under his influence. As a result, the boy unfolded to him the whole story of their dealings with him and their future plans to capture him for Islam. The boy further added that he hated Mirza Khan bitterly, but could not resist him and his like openly for fear they would persecute him all the more for such resistance. It was for his older friend to protect and save him from them. The Hindu friend had made up his mind about the matter and consulted me about it. With my consent and approval, he finally decided that he was to lie low till the last day, and to catch them in the very act of conversion. One Sunday, the Muslim tindal in charge of the block, and, who had taken the lead in the boy's conversion to Islam, approached the boy and asked him to wait outside his room, when others were properly locked up in their respective cells. Thereafter, some five or ten of them involved in the plot seated themselves beside the reservoir and opened a packet of sweets (Jilebi) from which they were to ask the boy to partake with them. Everything was ready for the ceremony—water, jilebi and men who were to partake them from one pot and one packet. The boy was brought down, he was made to recite 'Kalma', and he was told the occasion and the importance of their coming together that day. He was plainly warned, that, if that day, he declined or hesitated to be a convert to Islam, he would lose all the facilities they had given him so far, he would be regarded as ungrateful wretch, and no further mercy would be shown to him. He would be subdued by the hardest labour that would fall to his lot thereafter. While the threat and

the initiation were going on together in a sequestered spot near the reservoir, a European Officer suddenly appeared on the scene, and saw with his own eyes the plight of the boy before them. Our Hindu friend was with the officer to witness the deed. Early in the morning, while the Muslim tindals were engaged in their business, he had quietly slipped out of his cell. Nobody hindered him on the way, as the other warders were beholden to him for the tips and other favours he had occasionally passed on to them. As soon as he had left his own block behind, he directed his steps to the office and informed the officer on the spot that he was catching a thief red-handed, and the officer should accompany him. The officer at once got up and went with him, to ascertain for himself the truth of the report. As I had known the exact time of the ceremony, they were all caught in the very act, with all the material they had brought together for the proposed conversion. The Musulmans, the young lad who was to be their prey, the pot of water, the packet of sweets, and last of all, the Kalma, the Nimaz and everything else, the officer saw in the process of the initiation ceremony. The Hindu prisoner had timed his arrival so well that none could escape, and all should be caught in the very net they had spread for their intended victim. The Mussulman tindal collapsed on the spot. His former acts were enough to condemn him. For he was the man who had made himself familiar with the boy, had smuggled the sweets into the prison, and had gathered together the Mussulmans for the initiation ceremony. And now he was caught in the act of conversion itself. So that the cup of his iniquities had filled to the brim. The elder Hindu prisoner told the officer the whole story as he had known it. The Muslim tindal was charged with the offence and a suit was launched against him. Even Mr. Barrie dared not to defend him. The lad, in his evidence before the court, put the whole case, as it had happened to him, to the Superintendent in charge. The Superintendent was fully convinced that what we had told him all along about conversion in this prison was not at all a fib. The Mussulmans sought to implicate me in the trial by deposing that the Hindus were doing the same by the Mussulmans in that jail, like the preaching and propaganda of their faith and conversion of Muslims to Hinduism. I was called, therefore, to put in my defence. I, of course, closed with it as an opportunity to explain to the Superintendent, once again, the whole position on the issue in question, I reminded the Superintendent of his retort to me that I was always complaining against the Mussulmans but was doing nothing myself in favour of Hinduism, that I was not converting Mussulmans to Hinduism as they were converting Hindus to Islam. The challenge implied that the Muslims were not weakminded enough to embrace another faith whereas the Hindus had not even the power in them to retain the adherents in their own faith. How can they convert the Muslims when they cannot keep their own? But it was a mistaken view of the whole position. If the Hindus mean it, they can absorb others in their own faith and I had proved it by my Shuddhi movement in this prison. Both the Muslim prisoners and the Superintendent, I averred, must have realised the fact by what they had seen. Formerly in this prison, the Hindu prisoners had complained that