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

you, and talk about it, discuss it with every Sikh whom you meet here and in India, I feel
sure that within five years you will witness a great change in them, and they will all range
themselves on our side. I have no doubt about it." This was said somewhere between
1908 and 1009.
I remember the meeting and the conversation when I saw the Sikh prisoners
pouring into the jail of the Andamans. And I said to my friends, "They have come as I
told they would."
Now remained the Nepalese to be one with us. If the Gurkha along with the Sikhs
were absorbed in the camp of Hindu Sanghatan, all Hindus would be one and would
present a solid front to the rest of India.
These feelings would well up within me according to the changing phases of
thought through which I was passing at the moment. After the batch of Sikh convicts,
came in batches of political prisoners in the Punjab sentenced in conspiracy case in
different parts of the province. Several batches of soldiers were transported to this place
for refusing to go to Rangoon, Singapore, Basra and other fronts; and there were among
them convicts in revolutionary conspiracies. Their advent in this prison surcharged the
atmosphere with shades and differences of live political opinion. About a hundred and
fifty political prisoners had gathered in this prison as convicts for different kinds of
offences. There were those who had mutineed at Singapore; others who had proceeded to
Rangoon via Siam to spread sedition in the army and raise a rebellion; others again who
were involved in Benares Conspiracy Case; there were some from Bengal charged and
sentenced for political dacoity; and all sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. It is
impossible here to give a full story of all their adventures, their daring exploits, their
secret movements, and their mysterious plans. We cannot even mention their names in
this edition. We have to leave that task for the future.
Among these recent arrivals, there was only one man whom I had known
personally and he was Professor Permanand, However, I had referred to all of them in my
previous talks with the prisoners, so that when they came in this prison, there was a
complete change in their political outlook. They heard from these recent arrivals about
their ideals, about their self-sacrifice; they heard stories of those who had been sent to the
gallows, or had died fighting; of their plots and conspiracies; they heard descriptions of
battlefronts in France, and of the war as it was being fought. This first-hand information
had worked such a revolution in their thoughts and behaviour. We had already
endeavoured to educate them in these high matters and to make them capable of thinking
about them and of playing their part in the political life of their country. But personal
contact with these new men had helped considerably to widen their interest and deepen
that knowledge.