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

invariably that they were feigning! And the reason given was-they were shirkers. The
most hardened of convicts in this prison knew drugs that would make them vomit, pass
motions, and even to burn with high fever. And they would use them cleverly when they
desired a transfer from the prison-bed to the hospital-cot; no doubt about their feigning in
order to avoid work. But if the prisoners preferred 103 to 104 degrees of high temperature
to their work on the oil mall, then the fault was not of the prisoner but of the inhuman
torture that was such work. And to such racking toil was a political prisoner yoked as
soon as he had crossed into the prison ! And worse stall, if he really fell ill as the effect
of his work, he was sent mercilessly back to it with the reason that he was only feigning
it. To such kind of soul- racking labour was my elder brother yoked. And he was the first
to be yoked to it, because he belonged to the first batch of political prisoners transported
to the Andamans.
An experiment to tame him
My brother was suffering from hemicrany as a chronic complaint even while he
was free. The hardships of prison-life, physical and mental, with the added work of the
grinding mill, had not subdued him, but had made him fierce and fearless. Not a word
had escaped his lips about his fellow-prisoners, no piece of Information could thus be
wrung out of him, and he never prayed for any leniency from the authorities. That was
why Mr. Barrie was persistent in his efforts to 'convert' him, though he had no scruples to
treat all political prisoners as if they were animals in his menagerie. In this plight and as a
result of Mr. Barrie's coaxings, one day the hemicrany came down upon him with a
vengeance. As the day went up with my brother's work round the grinding mall, his
headache also pursued him with an increasing pain. He could not bear the heat of the sun,
and yet the sweating work had to be carried on, for the Jamadar was ever behind him
shouting "Crush, crush, grand on at the oil- mill, don't relax; for I know nothing but to get
the work done. Go on." Overborne by this, my brother petitioned to the Superintendent
on his rounds that he was suffering from a severe attack of hemicrany. The
Superintendent said that it was not his business to attend to him, and the doctor should be
sent for. The doctor was an Indian and would say, when he did not find the patient
suffering from fever, that there was nothing wrong with him. He directed that the patient
should be referred to the jailor. The thermometer, of course, did not register fever. And
there was no other test there to detect hemicrany. Hence it must be feigning, especially so
with a political prisoner like Ganesh Savarkar.
I alone can say who is ill
The doctor realised the untruth of his statement. But he was more afraid of Mr.
Barrie than of lying. For he knew that the former would constantly goad him in these
words:-"Doctor, you know but too well that you are a Hindu and these political prisoners
are Hindus. There is no knowing when they will let you down. If any one sees you
talking to them without my permission, he may report you to the authorities. So, please,