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

proceeding against him. You have hammered him so much that he has vomitted blood,
and this was borne out by all the prisoners here; and it was a fact that he could not deny.
"Next day when the Superintendent came to inspect the prison, a deputation of
political prisoners waited on him and demanded full investigation in the matter, and the
punishment of Mr. Barrie as the abettor of the deed. But the Superintendent threatened
those who had rescued Khan Singh. And that was the genesis of the fourth general strike
in Silver Jail.
Just at the time news came from India that the Secretary of State for India; Mr.
Edwin Montagu, was proceeding to India in connection with the new reforms. I felt that
the visit of Mr. Montagu to India was an opportune moment to give publicity to the real
state of things about the political prisoners in the Andamans, and strike was the only
weapon by which we could draw India's attention to us. The immediate cause of the
general strike was, no doubt, the cruel persecution of poor Bhan Singh by Mr. Barrie.
Some of the political prisoners were of opinion that the lead in the strike should
be taken by the older members among us, that is by those who had spent more years in
that prison. It was also for them to formulate demands on behalf of us all. But I explained
to them how the purpose of the strike might be defeated by such steps and how our cause
was likely to suffer by it. If I were openly to lead them, Mr. Barrie and the authorities
over him would get the opportunity they needed to take off all the concessions which had
come to me and old political prisoners according to jail rules, and put me back in solitary
confinement. And the essential publicity of the strike by correspondence, personal
messages and similar other methods will suffer, and the means of getting news from India
through newspapers and other sources would come to an end. If I were isolated from
them, it would be impossible to organize a unified plan of action, to hold the strikers
together against all machinations to divide them, and to attend to similar work of
cohesion and moral pressure. Again, upto that time we seniors had borne the brunt of the
struggle which had undermined our health. And now to be again put in chains and
solitary confinement, to go back to bad food and expose ourselves to caning, was to
expect too much from us, for it was to risk our very life, and that sacrifice on our part was
not due to an occasional resistance like strike. To risk one's life for such a petty object
was to kill the national movement itself; and if I was to plunge in the strike I must not
withdraw from it, whatever the cost be of such a strike. Hence it was for the young and
the energetic among us to shoulder the burden, and these hundred and odd persons must
by turns keep up the agitation and all the activities connected with it. The last and the
most important reason for my abstaining from it was that I would have forfeited thereby
my right of sending a letter to India. It was a rule that a letter was allowed to be sent
annually by one whose record during the year was clear of any punish; punishment. If I
were punished or went on strike, my right would go along with it, and to be deprived of
my right was not only to harm the strike, but, more important than that, to lose the chance
of working for the freedom of the political prisoners themselves.