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

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