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

rudiments. Perhaps, this was their very disqualification for clerkship within the prison-
door.
Though picking oakum was a task hard enough, its tedium was relieved by the
company of prisoners working in the same crawl. An educated man desires company and
association with his equals and, therefore, this mode of working was a solace to him. One
or two of these prisoners were ailing and milk was provided for them. It was given to the
Pathan warder as an offering to God. And the God -the Pathan-on that account was less
cruel to them. All these factors made prison-life for political prisoners less endurable than
it is today. My elder brother was in the same chawl.
Months passed on in this manner when a high official from Calcutta came to the
Andamans to Inspect the prison. When he saw the political prisoners picking oakum in
the same tenement and in one another's company, he was, of course, put out by it He
passed severe strictures upon local officers for ordering things in this manner These men,
he said, were not ordinary criminals-the thieves, the robbers, the murderers, the dacoits
and others of that fry. They were entirely submissive and, therefore, praise- worthy men.
But political prisoners! They are the worst prisoners in the world and they must be treated
in this prison in a way that will break their spirit and completely demoralise them This
high policy the official from Calcutta had Impressed thoroughly on the mind of the rude,
matter-of-fact, soldierly Officers prison-life for today.
The Oil-Mill
And everything changed since that time in this prison. A new era had begun. The
political prisoners were split up, and put in different crawls, and one in each cell of that
shawl If their talk with another excited the slightest suspicion, handcuffs were put on
them, and they were subjected to all kinds of punishment. On the tank for a bath or in a
row for their meal, if they merely signed to one another to Inquire after health, the
sentence for that infringement was to keep a man standing with handcuffs on, for seven
days. And to crown it all, the sentence of picking oakum was substituted by work round
the grinding oil mall. Yes, they had determined to break our spirit and to demoralise us.
So they gave us that hard work to do for two months continuously, then one month on
picking oakum, again the grinding work on the mall. We were to be yoked like animals to
the handle that turned the wheel. Hardly out of bed, we were ordered to wear a strap of
cloth, were shut up in our cells and made to turn the wheel of the oil-mill Coconut pieces
were put in the empty and hollow space to be crushed by the wheel passing over them,
and its turning became heavier as the space was fuller. Twenty turns of the wheel were
enough to drain away the strength of the strongest cooly and the worst, brawny badmash.
No dacoit past twenty was put on that work. But the poor political prisoner was fit to do it
at any age. And the doctor in charge ever certified that he could do it! It was the medical
science of the Andamans that had upheld the doctor ! So the poor creature had to go half
the round of the wheel by pushing the handle with his hands, and the other half was