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

would talk in the following words, "You think it a waste of your energy; what better work
can you do for your country, what more important work can you accomplish while you
are here? He who would assure me of such work, I shall relieve him at once of this
drudgery. But to waste one's time in idle brooding or in useless discussion is worse than
this drudgery. For this, at least, means to raise the fallen by teaching them to read and
write; it is to infuse into them the right sense of looking at things; it is to imbue them with
the spirit of service and mutual help. Is it not service of the country, the hardest it may
be, but sterling service all the same? Remember again, that we pass resolutions to
establish schools of primary education, free and compulsory all over the country. Some
men must come forward to teach in these schools. Some must dedicate their lives for
this work. Why then, not do that thankless task ourselves? Are we only meant for
drawing fat salaries and filling top-jobs and passing on drudgery and hard work to others?
Is this not unfair? Is it just for us who call ourselves servants of the people? Real and
faithful national work must begin with the uplift of the down-fallen and the down-
trodden. Great missionaries in the West dedicate their learning to the spread of
education among prisoners and in the jails of their own countries. In Russia thousands
of revolutionaries have spent their lives in going from village to village
and educating the masses, their unfortunate and ignorant brethren. Why then should
we grudge to do it here? By our teaching we are not only making them learn to spell
their rudiments; but we are opening the windows of their soul upon the world, and
making them understand their best interests in life. In contact with us, they come to know
of their country, of their nation, and of their people. They imbibe right notions about
them from us. When we tell them stories of great men from our history of the past, light
shines in their eyes. Are they the really fallen ones? Then what are we? We were not
born emancipated. If we have improved and are 'twice-born' now, they also can improve
and take their rank with us. Hence, so long as we cannot do better work than this, that
long we must do this, for that is real national service, however laborious, disappointing
and nerve-racking it may be. To educate the fallen into seeing right and feeling right, to
give them as much of literary, intellectual, moral and national education as it is in our
power to give them is a duty we must do as long as we are in this prison."
As we kept on working with this faith, gradually there arose from among these
outcasts of society men so generous, so selfless, so pure in life and conduct, so strong of
purpose, so tenacious of will, that their zeal in the national cause put to shame some of
the best workers among us. And before the former self-praise became a fatuity and a
shame.
We started a library
Having provided reading books and writing material for ordinary prisoners in the
jail, I set myself to the task of founding a decent library for the use of the political
prisoners themselves. We called upon all of them to put their own collection of books
together. Seeing the circular, Mr. Barrie, as usual, strongly opposed the move. He rea-
lised that we were bent upon carrying it out, and communicated to the Superintendent