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

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