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

Annie Besant on Theosophy and her theosophical magazines, were all our stock-in-trade
Of these books, they could get to read only on Sundays The warder carried them from
door to door like vegetables in a net-like bag, and distributed them to the prisoners. In the
evening he took the books back again. Every day a prisoner got one book to read from his
own collection between the hours of four and six in the evening. It had also to be returned
to the warder at a fixed time. The prisoner was prevented from reading anything during
the working hours. And he could not read at night because it was complete dark then.
Again, the strict regulation of the prison forbade one political prisoner from transferring
the book that he was reading to his next door neighbour Mr. Barrie had laid down the law
that each was to read his own book, and no exchange of books was to be tolerated An
ordinary Illiterate prisoner could not finish a small book during a week. But to ask a
political prisoner to confine himself to one small book during the week was the height of
tyranny. If any one broke the law so laid down, the warder and the Jamadar had the
opportunity of their life to show him up. He was dragged to Mr. Barrie, tried by him, and
the book, snatched from his hands, was evidence enough to punish him. The Jamadar
exulted in the detection of this offence and Mr. Barrie was proud of his servant's masterly
vigilance
"This fellow gave and that fellow received it!"
That was the howl they raised and the Superintendent was in extreme anger. The
trial was enacted and those, guilty of the offence, were sentenced to be manacled for four
continuous days. To read a book not his own for a few hours of the day got him the
punishment of standing up for four days with the chains on his hands fastened to the
ceiling above his head! The sentence was passed upon them no doubt to help them
meditate on the sayings of Ramkrishna Paramahansa which he or they had read in the
book so purloined! Mr. Barrie was their greatest enemy in that respect The great 'pandit'
opened that the reading of books had turned the heads of these youths About a certain
gentleman he had said to me distinctly that it was the reading of books on theosophy that
had made him mad. He, of course, referred to the political prisoner who had defied all the
prison orders about dining, resting and working on the 'Kolu'. He objected to books of
Ramkrishna Paramahansa and to books on Theosophy as hair-brained trash. May be, but
what of books on politics, the hard- headed stuff that they were? No, he would allow
them neither. He was a learned man, indeed, for he had not progressed beyond his fifth
form. And he was to decide what books the prisoners were to read or not to read Mr.
Barrie opened a book, turned over its few pages; if it was not intelligible to him, he at
once condemned it as "nonsense and trash"; a rigmarole he called it and threw away. On
the other hand, a book may approve Itself to him by its jejuneness and poor stuff; but if it
contained a word like 'nation' or country, it was at once put under lock and key by Mr.
Barrie, segregated like plague germ. declared untouchable like high treason. Mr. Barrie
used to say, "We cannot allow our prisoners to read this dangerous stuff, for these, with
their frequent allusions to countries and nations, had turned these men into violent
agitators". What of books on theosophy and Yoga? His answer was, he would not let
them in; but the Superintendent had allowed them and he had to submit.