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

when they poured out before him the quantity of oil they had crushed from the substance;
and they went back to their cells with tears in their eyes and groaning with pain. I see
their weeping faces vividly even to this day!
The 'Kolu' work at night
In spite of this, if any day none of them could finish the quota allotted to them for
the day, Mr. Barrie would come upon the scene, when they were all sitting down for their
expected evening meal, and announce to the assembly that there would be no grab for
them, as they had not done the work; and none would get anything to eat till he had
finished his quota. Imagine a prisoner rising with the day; beginning his work at six;
tolling at it till eleven; and continuing it without rest till 5 o'clock in the evening; with the
morning meal half-finished and hurriedly gulped down or hardly eaten at all; and you will
realise the cruelty and injustice of this punishment, if you can at all picture it to yourself.
For it beggared description. Some forty or fifty persons could not go through their work
with all their will to finish it. But Mr. Barrie would not realise the hardship and the
harshness of the imposition He would bring his chair in the shawl, sit upon it, and would
see the slackers, as he imagined these fifty helpless creatures to be, going on with their
work far into the night. The rest of the prison was, of course, closed for work at night,
and no one dared report against Mr. Barrie that this part of the Chawl was being treated at
night to this grinding piece of work. If any one dared he was sure to be falsely charged
for some offence and put to trouble. Everywhere was the stillness of night; but here the
mill creaked on till 8 or 9 P. M. In the meanwhile, Mr. Barrie dozed in his chair; woke up
at intervals, his mouth full of abuse, and cursing the labourers that they had not yet
finished their day's work." Woe be to them", he would exclaim, "punish them now; do not
reserve it for the morrow; cane them, Jamadar, within an inch of their lives; the
scoundrels are idlers they are slackers, no mercy on them." And presently he would doze
again and snore.
Pretext of ailment
None was spared, among political prisoners, from the rack of that Inhuman toil.
Most of them were unaccustomed to any kind of physical labour; the best part of them
were college youths; some had not turned sixteen or seventeen; they were tender in age
and body. But they were forced, for months on end, to do this grinding work-Kolu. Their
tortures knew no bounds. Among them many had fallen ill, and preferred death to this
work. As they became worse, they were declared to be feigning illness. If their bodies
burned with high fever, they were shut in their own cells and were never taken for
treatment to the prisoner hospital, for they were all "honourable men"- political prisoners
! The thief, the dacoit, the cut-throat had his bed in the prison hospital but not the poor
political prisoner! That was the ethics of prison-life at Port Blair ! Fever, motion,
vomiting were obvious diseases. But not so, head-ache, heart-ache, stomach-ache and
heavy breathing! If political prisoners showed such symptoms, then the diagnosis was