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

minute sub-divisions and disintegration but fusion and integration. This weighed with
them somewhat, and all my Sikh workers succeeded in effecting a compromise. The
Sikhs were to make a representation to the authorities and fill in the census-form as
Hindus though within brackets they were to show themselves as Sikhs. This was a fair
compromise. For their prison-warrants had followed the same procedure. First the
prisoner's name, then his sect, then his particular caste, like the Jat and the Mahajabi—
that was the order in which they were noted in their warrants. The mention of caste made
them Hindus without distinction, whatever may be their sect and name. Every Sikh
possessed his prisoner's sheet. And not one of them had claimed in it that he was not a jat
and was only a Sikh. And the nomenclatures 'Jats' and "Sodhis" were clearly Hindu
nomenclatures because they belonged to Hindu castes. And these had no objection,
besides, to dine along with other Hindus. This procedure helped a great deal to spread
and popularize my definition of Hindu and Hinduism throughout the community of
Hindu prisoners in our settlement. Even the officers interested themselves in the
discussion and gave it a serious consideration.
At last when all forms were received in our office and were duly classified and
tabulated, we found to our satisfaction that men of all castes and sects in Hindu society in
which the Sikhs were also included had noted themselves by no other nomenclature but
that of the simple Hindu. We had to spend days and days in the careful inspection of the
prisoners' original warrants. These revealed to us many funny things. An originally
depressed class man had changed his caste so many times in these warrants as he passed
from prison to prison that ultimately he came out in them as a Brahmin. The Bhangi had
effected the gradual change with a distinct motive. As a Brahmin he had a good chance of
being selected for the cooking department of the prison. That a Bhangi should rise by this
process to be a Brahmin was curious enough. But what was more surprising and insulting
in the revelation of the records, was the fact that so many Hindus came out ultimately as
Muslims in them; and it was due to the fact that thereby they had set themselves free
from all the horrors and tortures of the prison-life. There was evident in them fraudulence
and coercion all along the pages. I drew the attention of my friends to that fact, and
showed what a change the Shuddhi movement had effected in their condition within but
two years. In the final copy of the report, we had counted all as Hindus who were
originally Hindus, including in them re-converts from Islam to Hinduism. It showed us
clearly the triumph of the Shuddhi movement and the stopping of all efforts to convert
Hindus to Islam. We could note from it the number of Hindus so converted as also of
those taken back to Hinduism. And we could also count those who yet remained to be
reconverted.
If the agitation in the Andamans had not done all this, but had only awakened the
conscience of the Hindus to the possibility that a Mussulman can also be converted to
Hinduism, I would have achieved a great deal. For up to that time the question that was
always put to us was, "A Hindu can become a Mussulman, no doubt; but how can a
Mussulman be admitted into Hinduism?" Hundreds of Hindus had asked me that question
and sincerely believed that there was no answer for it. But none put such a conundrum
before us any longer. For the Shuddhi movement had shown that it could be clone, and