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

violence which was no definition but its perversion! And what shall we say of truth but
that it was downright falsehood, a cant, a sham and a bunkum! I discussed the movement
and its everyday incidents and exposed its hollowness before hundreds of my listeners in
spite of their strong prejudice in its favour and, therefore, of their bitter opposition to me.
I calmly bore it all, and gradually convinced them of its useless hair-splitting and its
unreality and hollowness all round. It was bound to do more harm than good to the
country and could never bring in Swaraj in one year as it was pledged to do. That I was
speaking to them the barest truth was brought home to me by many an incident that
followed. I may mention here only one of these.
Two terrorists and political convicts, whose names I may not mention, had just
been sent to the Andamans. They had warrants issued against them as involved in the
riots in Punjab, but they had gone underground and the police had no clue about them.
For six months they moved freely in the country carrying on their usual work, but no
trace was found about them. And like Babu Guru Datta Singh they could have gone on
for years defying the C.I.D., to catch them. But they went and saw Gandhiji, the leader of
the Non-cooperation movement, and as ill-luck would have it, narrated to him the story of
their life. The great leader was in rage and denounced them. He said, "It is sheer
cowardice to be in hiding and to evade warrants against them. Go instantly and deliver
yourselves in the hands of the Magistrate. I cannot countenance such untruthful conduct."
They asked him plainly if that action was not cooperation with Government. They said to
him, "We are making the law inoperative, we are practising civil disobedience in the right
way. As we are carrying on our work, you cannot say of us that we are in hiding and
elude the law out of fear. To act as you would have us act is to help the Government and
help the law to have its own course." Before they had finished the argument, Gandhiji
reprimanded, "That will not do, I order you to appear before the Magistrate and surrender
yourselves. Do it instantly." Poor men! They returned to the North at their own expense
and appeared before the Delhi Magistrate. After arrest and trial they now find themselves
on life-sentence in the Andaman jail.
And now they censured Gandhiji and had repented for their ever having
committed the blunder of seeing him. I plainly told them that he alone was not to blame
in that affair. Those who had the weakness to obey him implicitly, were as much to blame
and deserved as much censure as he. Why did they listen to him, why did they not
exercise their reason, and think, and act for themselves?
I add only two sentences to this disquisition without referring in detail to other
incidents and episodes to give the reader a picture of my notions at that time and of my
line of work then. Summing up the discussion, I said, "We revolutionaries ought always
to remember one thing and guide ourselves by one principle. That politics worth the
name is neither cooperation nor non-cooperation. It is responsive cooperation, and
morally it can be no other. If we win a step by cooperation, then let us cooperate with the
opposition. If we feel certain that cooperation is useless, then let us resort to non-
cooperation. Sometime non-cooperation has to be non-violent. At another time, it cannot