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

record. So many political prisoners came forward to help me in that strenuous task, and
the jail authorities permitted them to assist me in it.
One difficulty arose at the start to interfere with that work. The Arya Samajists
resolved that they would mark themselves in the census-forms as 'Arya' instead of as
'Hindu.' This was in consequence of their past misunderstanding about Hindus and
Hinduism. And the Sikhs followed the Arya Samajists for the same reason. The obstinacy
of both was bound to affect the census record of the Hindu community as a whole.
I need not discuss here the comprehensive term 'Hindu' as it covers our whole
history and culture from the remote past to the recent present. I have written about it in a
separate book called 'Hinduism' in Marathi and the issue is settled for the Arya Samajists
by the writings of leaders like Lala Lajpatrai, Swami Shraddha-nand and Bhai
Parmanand. The comprehensive movement of Hindu Sangathan has given a quietus to-
day to this wrangle between Hindus, Sanatanists, Aryasamajists and Sikhs. Suffice it to
say here that the definition of Hinduism and Hindus which I had arrived at in England to
prevent further divisions in our society, and to consolidate the Hindus as one
community of the people of India, was my beaconlight in the disputes over the question
in the prison. I taught in the Andamans political as well as non-political prisoners to
prevent disintegration, and to integrate the mass on a higher level of synthesis and
understanding. My definition of a Hindu is simply this: A man who recognises our
country as the land of his birth and religion is a Hindu. And I impressed it upon all whom
I welcomed as true Hindus, namely, the Arya Samajists, the Sikhs and the Jains. The
book containing the exposition of this definition is in the market to-day. And there the
reader who wants to know its fuller treatment, may find it. The definition as stated by me
in Sanskrit in my work on 'Hinduism' is:
"From the ocean to the Indus the whole land of Bharata Is my fatherland, is my
sacred country And that makes me a Hindu."
That is the definition of a Hindu which I have given in my book on Hinduism. All
thoughtful men and all members of the Hindu Mahasabha, in all its branches, have
accepted it. In the Andamans it was put forth but recently, and it took so much of my
energy and power of persuasion then to convince people of the truth and the utility of that
definition. I had to argue with every man whom I met there to bring it home to him. One
instance, however exaggerated it may be, I must give here to show how sectarianism is
apt to destroy our essential unity as, Hindus. The Sikhs have among them various sects
like Akali, Sahaiadhari and Keshadhari. In the census movement that I have already
mentioned the Keshadharis insisted that in the forms supplied to them they would mark
themselves as Keshadharis and not as Sikhs. I pointed out to them how it was detrimental
to the interest of the community as a whole that, though belonging to it, they should fill
the form as Keshadharis. The tendency was bound to divide and destroy the community
inch by inch, when what we needed most in India, both politically and socially, was not