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

offering to him, he was punished for the sin of omission, and if they subscribed to his
wishes they came in for harsh treatment because they were kafirs. Now the position had
gone to a Hindu—one who was the most condemned in their eyes for movements like
Shuddhi which were gall and wormwood to them. This bespectacled man was now to
boss it over them! Why should they not be alarmed and tremble in their shoes? Every
single tindal began to approach me from now onwards with bated breath and in
whispering humbleness. And these were the persons who had no scruples whatever to
thrash the prisoners enslaved to them ! Nay, they had vied with each other in punishing
and persecuting them. And they now began to say to me on bended knee and with
folded hands, "Bada Babu, save us."
Salute; to say Ram Ram is an offence!
I have deliberately referred to the fact that the Mussulman petty officers and
tindals approached me with 'folded hands'. Thereby hangs a tale. When I went to the
Andamans, I found the Hindu greeting the Mussulman with a salam, and the Hindus
greeted each other in a similar fashion. The Mussulman however never hailed the
Hindu with 'Ram Ram'. A Maratha warder told me one day that when he had politely
said 'Ram Ram' to Mirza Khan, the latter gave him a severe reproof. Said Mirza Khan to
the Maratha warder, "Oh, Kafir, do not utter the name of Rama within my hearing. Say
always 'salam'. Thereupon I made up my mind never to address a Mussulman with a
'salam' so long as he did not accost me with the name of Rama. If a Mussulman greeted
with the name of Rama,—and there were many Mussulmans from Maharashtra, who, till
then, had no objection to utter that word —I would salute him ten times with the word
'salam'. But such fanatics as would neither hear nor utter that word, and compelled the
Hindus to say 'salam' to them, I was determined to resist and I persuaded other Hindu
prisoners to do accordingly. Of course this led to petty quarrels at the start, but many a
resolute prisoner on our side invariably returned the Muslim's 'salam' with the Hindu's
'Rama Rama'. The Mussulmans had been, therefore, fully aware, when I became a
foreman, what I expected of them, that I was particularly proud of the Hindu way of
greeting and of the words used along with that greeting like 'Rama Rama', 'Namaskar',
'Bande Mataram', so on and so forth. The Mussulmans full of tremor at my appointment
as the head of the oil-depot were anxious to conciliate me at any cost. Hence they
approached me with a greeting that was so long an anathema to them. They folded their
hands before me and said 'namaskar' to me. For my part I had never insisted that they
should not salute me with a 'salam'. It was their right to say 'salam' as it was the right of
the Hindus to greet them with 'namaskar' and 'Ram Ram'. If the Mussulmans would utter
'Ram Ram', I would, of course, return the compliment with a 'salam'.
They also tried their usual methods to humour me, in order that no harm should
come to them through me. Prisoners, tindals and other persons in the jail were used as
agents for that purpose. I wanted to put an end to such dishonest practices once for all. So
I went to the oil factory and called all of them to meet me. In plain words I addressed
them as follows :—"Give up the fear that I will give you the slightest trouble because you