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

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?"