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

informed me to catch them in the act, and then he would certainly resist it, and bring
them severely to book for it.
The Superintendent left, and Mr. Barrie and Mirza Khan were very much angered.
For in my conversation with him I had to expose many of their machinations. To ask me
to catch them in the act was, in Mr. Barrie's opinion, an encroachment upon his rights and
the violation of his orders. Among the Mohomedan prisoners every one was gnashing his
teeth at me. For to them Hindus were a negligible quantity. And the complaint was
against their so-called individual privilege of a Mussulman to convert a Hindu. They had
never heard such a thing in their lives. Barrie decided to teach me a lesson and ordered
Mirza Khan and the angry Mussulman warders to tutor the boy to declare that he was
embracing. Islam of his own accord. Next day he was brought to our block, though his
cell was in another block, and Mirza Khan gave him food along with the Muslim
prisoners in our block. He went away after showering indecent abuse upon me without
uttering my name. The Hindu lad was for the whole day called by his Muslim name. This
was done to humiliate me by showing how helpless I was before them. I had, of course,
to quietly pocket that insult. Next morning a Mussulman warder was giving two or three
annas worth of tobacco to the Brahmin boy when I saw him; and I drew the attention of
the Hindu warder to that act. He went down on his knees before me and requested that he
should be spared the step of catching the Mussulman warder in the act of •bribery, as
that would mean Mirza Khan's grudge against him. I then raised a cry and gathered
together a number of persons, and, sending for the petty officer, asked him to search the
boy himself. If the petty officer desisted, I warned him, I would take the matter to the
Superintendent. He had to search the boy, when he found on his person the quantity of
tobacco palmed off to him by the petty Mussulman warder. All this noise brought
Mirza Khan on the spot. He questioned the lad as to who had offered tobacco to him,
and he gave him the name of that warder. Mirza Khan kept me in the lock-up and took
the boy to Mr. Barrie for further disposal. On fuller enquiry into the matter I found that
nothing had happened. I asked Mr. Barrie about it in the evening when he replied that
he was the man to do anything that was to be done in that business, and I had no right to
interfere in it. He added that I was only a prisoner like the rest of them, and could only
say anything about myself; and, that, if I were to dabble in matters that did not personally
affect me, I was liable to punishment for such interference. Two days after, the
Superintendent came on his usual rounds, when I called out to him with the usual cry—
"A petition please." The Superintendent was a man who used to be put out by any
complaint lodged to him on any other day than he had fixed for it during the week. He at
once went at me furiously, saying that I had no business to speak about others, and that I
should speak only for myself. I answered straight to him: I am bent upon submitting the
petition for the boy, do what you will with it. The political prisoners are reported to you
by the ordinary warders on the charge of merely speaking to one another. Their notes
are intercepted by them without any let or hindrance; as such I had the right to complain
to you on a matter which I regard as the most serious, namely, bribing a boy in order to
convert him from one faith to another." These hot words of mine had their effect on the
Superintendent whose duty it was to listen to every complaint we made to him. He came
up to the door of my room, and asked me what the matter was, I said to him, "I caught the
Mussulman warder giving tobacco to the Brahmin lad. I had a search made upon his

person. I drew the attention of Mr. Barrie to it. And yet no step was taken by him against
the warder in question." The Superintendent was confused and angry. He asked Mr.
Barrie petulantly what the matter was. He called for the Mussulman warder. In the mean-
while, Mr. Barrie winked at Mirza Khan, and the latter came forward and deposed, "Sire,
the complainant had himself put the tobacco on the person of the lad in order to bring the
Mussulman warder into scrape." The Superintendent questioned the boy, who was honest
enough to depose that I had not done it. The Superintendent understood how it was.
When Mirza Khan tried to interpose, he silenced him with a stern rebuke and said to me,
"What have you got to say upon the conversion generally?" I told him in brief, "If any
man in this prison desired to read the Bible or study the Koran, I had no objection to it.
He should get the permission of the superior officer for that purpose, and if he then felt
honestly the urge within him to change from one religion to another, I would not
interfere. But for such a conversion, either in the prison or in the settlement, he must have
the sanction of the authorities concerned. And the authorities before giving such a
sanction must convince themselves by proper investigation that there was nothing in the
act like bribery or coercion by one party of another. And in the case of a minor no
conversion should at all be permitted. This about the settlement generally. In the prison,
conversion had to be banned entirely. The Superintendent assured me that about
conversion in the Andamans, it was the Chief Commissioner who would decide, and he
would speak to him. As for the prison itself, the matter stood as follows. If any one were
to change his religion of his own accord, he cannot prevent it. He will not, however,
permit any one to effect forcible conversion. Mr. Barrie hotly interposed at this point with
the remark that even to prevent that kind of conversion would be a hard task for the
authorities, for they had pledged themselves to the policy of non-interference. I said to
Mr. Barrie, "I am also fighting for religious liberty, that is, for no forcible conversion of
any man by any other man in this prison. A free and willing conversion stands on a
different footing altogether from conversion by coercion and bribery. The bulk of the
warders, petty officers and jamadars in this prison being Muslims by faith, they can
buttress up their action by any means they like. While the Hindus, on the other hand,
have to go unheard. For instance, if I were found talking with a fellow-prisoner, he and I
are at once punished for it. Hence Mr. Barrie's non-interference reduces itself in plain
terms to this: That his Muslim henchmen will be free to do what they like, while their
Hindu victims will not be free to complain against them." On this Mr. Barrie argued,
"There are Hindu warders and tindals enough here, why do they not instruct the prisoners
under them in their own tenets?" "Well," I said promptly, "that was because you, Mr.
Barrie, were not lost in love with them, as you are with the Muslim warders. You are
partial to the latter, and severe on the former. And if this instruction in tenets was to be
the ruling order of the prison, then the whole prison will turn into a mosque and a temple
with endless controversies between the two about the truth of these opposing tenets.
Further, according to the rules of this jail, not even a tindal or a warder was to exchange
a single word with the prisoner except on business. Prison discipline demands, for this
reason as well, no encouragement to talks on rival religions inside this building." The
Superintendent clinched the argument by a remark, the truth of which came home to me.
He confronted me straight and asked, "Why don't you, Hindus, convert Muslims to the
Hindu faith? Why do you ever shout at others?"

This was no doubt a valid charge and it went home. I had to make a reply and I
said, "Hinduism does not believe in conversion because it swears by the liberal doctrine,
'to each man his own faith'. Religion is not a matter of changing colour so that we may
wear one religion one day, and a different one on the day following. But when it has to
face today cults and powers wedded to spread their religion by sword or out of worldly
considerations, Hinduism will not be wise to adhere to its liberal doctrine, for then the
doctrine will either fail or be misrepresented, We have in past history instances of
reconversion by purification even in Hinduism. The Arya Samaj of India has been
practising "Shuddhi" in modern days. Swami Vivekananda and his noble disciple Sister
Nivedita are recent instances in point. He converted her from Christianity to Hinduism
and changed her original name of Miss Margaret Noble into the Hindu name of Nivedita
and accepted her as disciple and worker in his mission of Ramkrishna Paramahansa. We
have her books in the library here and you may judge for yourself. Hinduism has
forbidden conversion so far, not because it has doubts of its own worth, but because it
feels sincerely that man can attain salvation through the gateway of every religion in the
world, only if he remains true to it in life. It further maintains that Religion is one though
religions are many in this world. Hinduism does not regard religion as a means of social
cohesion, consolidation and power. I regard this attitude as a blunder in the world of
today. But I cannot shut my eyes to the great principle which has inspired that attitude.
And I must say that it is a noble principle and the most liberal attitude imaginable."

The Superintendent was a man of culture, and, as far as lay in him, he ever tried to
be fair to all. I have referred to this trait in him before, and I shall have occasion to men-
tion it again. He listened to my explanation with perfect composure, and seemed to be
impressed by it. He became at once serious and replied in a calm tone, "I will think over
the matter; for the present I order that the Brahmin boy has to sit with the Hindus for his
morning and evening meal, and that he shall not partake it of the Muslims. And if any
Mussulman were to tempt him or offer him his own food, let that man remember that he
shall not go scot-free." He addressed the latter straight to Mirza Khan by fixing his eyes
straight upon him. Mirza Khan trembled in his shoes, and made a low bow to him. The
Superintendent left the prison.

The threat was all right, and it no doubt went home. But the real difficulty came in
after. The Superintendent may order that the boy shall take his meals with us alone. But
how were the Hindu prisoners to be made to admit him to sit in a line with them? Had he
not dined, if only for a day or two, with the Mohomedans? We had defeated the
Mohomedans, but how were we to win over the Hindus? That was the crux of the matter.
Mr. Barrie had seen through it and kept quiet on the first day. For the Superintendent
himself had lectured to him on that business. I sent message after message to my Hindu
brethren that they should now agree, and admit the boy in their line. But there was
suppressed opposition to it throughout the rank and file. In the Andamans all Hindus
dined together irrespective of their caste distinctions. They sat in the same line, and the
Mussulmans alone were seated in a row separate from them. I, therefore, expostulated
with them that here was an opportunity, the first of its kind in this prison, to rescue a
foolish Hindu lad, from the grip of the wicked Mirza Khan who had never before winced

for anything he did in the world. Mirza Khan was out to use him and convert him. And
the Hindus must now show their mettle to save him. If they were to forego their right on
that occasion, Mr. Barrie was sure to make a capital out of it. He will send a counter-
report to the Superintendent and make him look small for deciding in their favour. Mirza
Khan will then dance upon their chests and be more impudent and overbearing than ever
before. He was crest-fallen today; but will strut like a cock tomorrow. So I argued with
them endlessly but they would not make a definite answer. I and two others literally
folded our hands to them, and personally appealed to them. At last, one or two of them
were stricken with shame. And almost all agreed that the boy should sit at the extreme
end of the line, and myself and two others be seated close to him. And, further, this was
to be accomplished by eluding the lynx-eyed Mirza Khan. What a trouble it was to all of
us! But it had to be done at any cost.
At last the boy began gradually to sit with us for dinner and the Hindus who
agreed with us also reconciled themselves to it. Mr. Barrie had lost the game. Yet insidi-
ously the Muslims went on with their work, for there was no fiat to the contrary from the
Superintendent upon the policy as a whole. But there was a difference in position, and
that was an important difference. The Mohome-dans had ceased to bully and to brow-beat
the Hindus on this particular matter. They behaved with caution. But that had deepened
their hatred for us. Mr. Barrie kept going on with his incitement work in favour of
conversion.
The news went round the whole of the Andamans that I had put an effective check
upon the machinations of Mussulman warders in this prison to bring about forcible
conversion of Hindu boys to Islam. Some of our prisoners were from Northern India;
they had heard Arya Samajists and they started helping us. Before my going to the
Andamans, some enthusiasts had already opened a branch of the Arya Samaj in that
settlement. But they were unable so far to do any organised work there for the
propagation of the Arya Samaj doctrines or to do any kind of Shuddhi movement. They
had not even a notion of what could be done in this direction and in that place. They were
gratified to learn of our efforts and began to help us. Later on some of them took the most
enthusiastic part in the propagation of Shuddhi tenets. Some independent officers also
joined us in that work.
A prisoner who had imbibed the principles of the Arya Samaj in his own country
and who was for some time working on the settlement was sent back to the Silver Jail just
at that time. He was himself a goonda and defied the Muslim goondas in our jail. He had
served his sentence of transportation in the jail, was sent out to settle in the Andamans
when again he entered on a terrible career of crime, and was, on that account, sent back to
this prison. He was a terror, all over the place, to the Mussulman goondas. He was a
seasoned jail-bird, expert in every form of crime from ordinary theft to breaking open
prisons, smuggling narcotics like opium, street brawls and similar anti-social crimes. The
Mussulman dared not look at Hindu boys whom he had once taken under his wings. For
whosoever harassed those whom he had regarded as his protegees and friends, came in

for a severe thrashing from him in defiance of all prison regulations. And he effaced the
man completely by exposing some of his secrets. And, curious as it was of note, he had a
fanatical faith in Hinduism, as his Muslim rivals had a fanatical faith in Islam. That had
lent a sharp edge to his attack on them. He was gratified to behold the frustration and
disgrace of his Muslim opponents as the result of our Shuddhi movement, and he
promised to give us his utmost help in that agitation. I was now resolved not to take
things meekly. For we had to deal, every day of our lives, with persons who were
typically wicked and low-minded. It was impossible for us to cope with them in their
abuses thievish tendencies, beating and in their mean and devilish actions. Their ways
were not our ways and I decided henceforward to carry out the principle of setting a thief
to catch a thief, of confronting a scoundrel with a scoundrel and an insolent man with
insolence incarnate. I set this Hindu goonda his first task to save a Hindu youth of
twenty-five back to Hinduism. The young man always expressed his desire to be
reconverted to Hinduism. I put this man on him to accomplish the task. .
I remembered the words of the Superintendent who had admonished me for mere
talk and had exhorted me to convert Muslims to Hinduism. As soon as I caught hold of
this man, I had made up my mind to begin the work, and to take that youth back to
Hinduism. The prisoner I had chosen for that work took it so seriously, that he succeeded
before long in preparing the man's mind for reconversion, as also of a younger person
who was an intimate of that youth. He never bothered who knew it; he began his work
openly. He was, as I have said, a seasoned jail-bird, but, not being a political prisoner, he
was appointed a 'Mukadam' in charge of ten persons. I was myself in solitary
confinement. I, therefore, advised him to carry out the purification and reconversion
within the precincts of his factory. This was the first experiment in Shuddhi in the jail of
the Andamans.
On Sunday while Mirza Khan and the Muslim warders under him were busy
attending to the prisoners washing their clothes on the reservoir, my man, the Hindu
Mukadam, quietly took the two persons aside—the young convert of 25 and the boy who
was his friend—he made them bathe, put on fresh clothes; and he brought them round to
declare that they had made up their minds to return to Hinduism. These two made the
declaration before three Hindus. The Mukadam made them eat leaves of the sacred Tulsi
plant, recited to them some slokas from the Bhagvatgita, and he read to them a chapter
from the Ramayana of Tulsidas. And the purification ceremony was done. He then
distributed as "prasad" the "shira" he had specially prepared for the occasion. Before
Mirza Khan could realise what had happened, every one had repaired to his room as if
nothing was the matter. The two persons, thenceforward, gave up doing Nimaz, and all of
us began calling them by Hindu names. When the Mussulmans still hailed them as
converts, they never answered them. They began to read the Ramayana of Tulsidas and
sat with us for dinner.
This reconversion and Shuddhi created a great sensation in the Andamans. For a
few days after the incident, Mr. Barrie and his creatures said nothing about it. He knew

that if he were to complain about it to the Superintendent, we may rake up the whole past
against them. Moreover the Mussulmans had hopes that the whole show would end soon,
and the Hindus themselves would oppose me.
And it did turn out as they had predicted. For, one of the Hindu tindals gave vent
to the suppressed feeling of resentment for my action among the Hindu prisoners and
punished me by not allowing me to touch their water As they always feared political
prisoners they did not take their protest further and did not ventilate it too much though
they did not give up harassing me. They constantly twitted me, by openly hailing me as
'Bhangi-Babu.
I must say, however, that much as they insulted me and continued their pin-
pricking me, the party of 'Bhangi Babus' began to grow in number and to gather in
strength so that, at last, the leader of these tindals was himself compelled to join it. And
in two or three years' time this Thakur' himself became the most enthusiastic champion of
Shuddhi, and reconversion to Hinduism, and he gave us his strong support in pursuing the
campaign. The appellation 'Bhangi-Babu' was bestowed upon me as a title to signify one
who had no scruples to dine with a Mussulman who was reconverted to Hinduism.
I did not convey the story of this Shuddhi to the ears of the Superintendent. For if
Mr. Barrie would permit us to carry on our propaganda of Hinduism in the prison, and
did not obstruct us as he had not obstructed the Mussulmans, there was no point in
informing the Superintendent about the event in question. For I did not like to pick an
unnecessary quarrel with Mr. Barrie. Mr. Barrie was, indeed, indifferent to the future of
Islam or Hinduism. He favoured the Muslim warders and jamadars because they had
proved ready instruments in his hands to harass and torture the prisoners, and, especially
the Hindu prisoners, and to keep a strict watch over us as political prisoners. If he were
now to oppose openly the Shuddhi movement, he knew but too, well, that we shall not
fail to report him to the Superintendent, and, as the latter had been on our side, he was not
sure that he would not get a scolding from him for such interference. For all these
reasons, Mr. Barrie did not say a word about our latest activities to the Superintendent.
And I had kept the movement going on. Just at this time, some three or four
prisoners from Ceylon had come to our prison on the charge of rioting and similar violent
action. They were sent on transportation for life. They became friends with us, and they
were duly registered as members of our organisation. One of them had been already a
convert to Christianity. We talked to him about the matter once or twice, and requested
him to be converted back to Hinduism. Two out of three, who were more competent,
soon got work as writers outside the prison. We assured the Ceylonese Christian that we
would try our best to secure a similar job for him too. This practical offer induced him to
become a Hindu. And by our ready method of purification we soon made him a Hindu.
In the Silver Jail, occasionally, a clergyman paid a visit to offer prayer for those who
were Christians. He came to us just after we had converted a sheep from his flock. The

Ceylonese Christian told him frankly that he was no more a Christian and the news
astounded him. He carried the matter to the Superintendent and the latter started an
enquiry. And our activities became a subject of discussion among the authorities. It must
be said to the credit of the officers that they showed no temper over the matter. The
investigation was conducted in a judicial frame of mind.
Just before this incident, report reached my ears that the Mussulmans had plotted
to catch a Bengali prisoner into their net. He was a young boy and an addict to 'ganja'
and, in the intoxication, had stabbed a person. He was 18 years old and was sentenced for
that purpose. As soon as he was admitted into the jail, Mirza Khan took a fancy for him
and managed to keep him under his Mussulman warders. Having felt that they had
assimilated him completely with them, they made up their mind to convert him to Islam.
So soon as I got the news I set upon him a young Hindu prisoner to dissuade him from
that course. This young man was a gooncla of goondas in the Andamans. Having served
his sentence for ten years in this prison, he always had about him plenty of money. He
always carried from ten to twelve guineas in the pouch of his throat. Four times he bad
run from the settlement to be in hiding in the dark jungles of the Andamans. Though he
was a dare-devil and had committed horrible deeds to survive in the adverse conditions of
prison-life, he was not a man' of wicked heart. He was a man inclined to virtue and with
deep faith in God. He was loyal to his friends. He was prepared to run any risk to save a
friend. We decided that this Hindu should stay just where they had kept that boy and, at
the proper time, expose the whole plot. Although the political prisoners were forbidden to
move from one place to another without the permission of Mr. Barrie, the task of
transferring ordinary prisoners was assigned to a Munshi. The Hindu prisoner in question
tipped the Munshi to the tune of two rupees and got himself changed to a room adjoining
the room of this young boy. Within eight days of his stay in that room the boy became his
intimate friend. The elder man talked to him seriously on religion, country and caste, and
completely got him under his influence. As a result, the boy unfolded to him the whole
story of their dealings with him and their future plans to capture him for Islam. The boy
further added that he hated Mirza Khan bitterly, but could not resist him and his like
openly for fear they would persecute him all the more for such resistance. It was for his
older friend to protect and save him from them. The Hindu friend had made up his mind
about the matter and consulted me about it. With my consent and approval, he finally
decided that he was to lie low till the last day, and to catch them in the very act of
conversion. One Sunday, the Muslim tindal in charge of the block, and, who had taken
the lead in the boy's conversion to Islam, approached the boy and asked him to wait
outside his room, when others were properly locked up in their respective cells.
Thereafter, some five or ten of them involved in the plot seated themselves beside the
reservoir and opened a packet of sweets (Jilebi) from which they were to ask the boy to
partake with them. Everything was ready for the ceremony—water, jilebi and men who
were to partake them from one pot and one packet. The boy was brought down, he was
made to recite 'Kalma', and he was told the occasion and the importance of their coming
together that day. He was plainly warned, that, if that day, he declined or hesitated to be a
convert to Islam, he would lose all the facilities they had given him so far, he would be
regarded as ungrateful wretch, and no further mercy would be shown to him. He would
be subdued by the hardest labour that would fall to his lot thereafter. While the threat and

the initiation were going on together in a sequestered spot near the reservoir, a European
Officer suddenly appeared on the scene, and saw with his own eyes the plight of the boy
before them. Our Hindu friend was with the officer to witness the deed.
Early in the morning, while the Muslim tindals were engaged in their business, he
had quietly slipped out of his cell. Nobody hindered him on the way, as the other warders
were beholden to him for the tips and other favours he had occasionally passed on to
them. As soon as he had left his own block behind, he directed his steps to the office and
informed the officer on the spot that he was catching a thief red-handed, and the officer
should accompany him. The officer at once got up and went with him, to ascertain for
himself the truth of the report. As I had known the exact time of the ceremony, they were
all caught in the very act, with all the material they had brought together for the proposed
conversion. The Musulmans, the young lad who was to be their prey, the pot of water, the
packet of sweets, and last of all, the Kalma, the Nimaz and everything else, the officer
saw in the process of the initiation ceremony. The Hindu prisoner had timed his arrival so
well that none could escape, and all should be caught in the very net they had spread for
their intended victim.
The Mussulman tindal collapsed on the spot. His former acts were enough to
condemn him. For he was the man who had made himself familiar with the boy, had
smuggled the sweets into the prison, and had gathered together the Mussulmans for the
initiation ceremony. And now he was caught in the act of conversion itself. So that the
cup of his iniquities had filled to the brim. The elder Hindu prisoner told the officer the
whole story as he had known it. The Muslim tindal was charged with the offence and a
suit was launched against him. Even Mr. Barrie dared not to defend him. The lad, in his
evidence before the court, put the whole case, as it had happened to him, to the
Superintendent in charge. The Superintendent was fully convinced that what we had told
him all along about conversion in this prison was not at all a fib. The Mussulmans sought
to implicate me in the trial by deposing that the Hindus were doing the same by the
Mussulmans in that jail, like the preaching and propaganda of their faith and conversion
of Muslims to Hinduism. I was called, therefore, to put in my defence. I, of course, closed
with it as an opportunity to explain to the Superintendent, once again, the whole position
on the issue in question, I reminded the Superintendent of his retort to me that I was
always complaining against the Mussulmans but was doing nothing myself in favour of
Hinduism, that I was not converting Mussulmans to Hinduism as they were converting
Hindus to Islam.
The challenge implied that the Muslims were not weakminded enough to embrace
another faith whereas the Hindus had not even the power in them to retain the adherents
in their own faith. How can they convert the Muslims when they cannot keep their own?
But it was a mistaken view of the whole position. If the Hindus mean it, they can absorb
others in their own faith and I had proved it by my Shuddhi movement in this prison.
Both the Muslim prisoners and the Superintendent, I averred, must have realised the fact
by what they had seen. Formerly in this prison, the Hindu prisoners had complained that

the Muslims forced them into conversion. Now the Muslim prisoners have begun to shout
that they are worse sufferers in that respect. If the Superintendent desired to put an end to
this mess, I concluded, the only means for it was to stop conversion altogether by
ordering that the authorities will not sanction it, and that the mere dining together or the
change of names shall not be accepted as the test of conversion.
Consulting the Commissioner, the Superintendent soon issued an order to the
jailor that he shall not countenance conversion. The prison was not the place, it declared,
for conversion in any form or shape, either by common dinner or by mere change of
names. They were not even to think or discuss about the matter. This put an end to the
Mussulman petty officers or their underlings in this prison trying by every means to
gather Hindus into their fold. The Hindus had never been keen on it, and had not started
the propaganda with that aim in view. So that within the jurisdiction of the prison, at
least, the fanaticism of the Muslims to convert Hindus had come to an end. It had been
definitely checkmated and "Othello's occupation was gone,"
I had another wonderful experience in this affair. It was that I could touch the
heart of the so-called goonda and rouse his social sense and patriotism more quickly than
of the so-called decent-minded people in Hindu society. The other educated people
showed little courage to plunge in this struggle and work with the sacrifice and the spirit
of service evinced by these fallen and sinful creatures. And the reason for it was plain
enough. The goonda is by habit a dare-devil and he is tenacious in the line he chalks out
for himself. I think that his tenacity and devilry are but perversions of courage and will
which are signs of manliness and virtue. These qualities of the heart are running to waste
in the goonda, but they could be used, as I found out in the Shuddhi movement, to noble
ends if the incentive to them came from love of one's own religion, and pride for one's
own culture—in short, of love of one's own country and community. It was I who had
given them the objective to work for, but gradually, as they had proceeded in that work,
they began to love that work for its own sake; their instinctive daring gave them the spur
to devote themselves to the cause with pride and selflessness all their own. No further
incentive was needed to goad them on in that work. What a change it had made in their
lives ! Some of them began reading Tulsidas's Ramayana, and they did it regularly.
Others took to learning and self-education. Others, again, gave their money for the
Shuddhi movement. Those who had been typical hoarders gave liberally to the cause. A
Hindu boy—a new arrival in the prison—could be safely put in their charge. These boys
got all that they needed from these workers. Hence no longer could the Muslim warders
tempt them, hoodwink them, or take them under their wings.
The more the Hindu prisoners came to be impregnated with love and pride for
their own faith, the more did the Mussulmans began to chafe against them. And as Mr.
Barrie was ever ready to instigate them, we had to suffer much from them. It was not a
mere physical suffering but mental torture as well as torture to the soul. How much I
suffered from them, I cannot adequately describe. Sometime showers of indecent abuse
was poured over my head from their quarters. Mr. Barrie had detailed some of them to

harass me thus throughout the day. These were the worst of their kind and had a free run
of all the wards in that prison. They stood for hours together before my room or my
chawl, and flung at me their choicest epithets of abuse. And the officers stood nearby to
enjoy them, and giggle in laughter. I was no match for them in this contest. And even if I
could improvise similar abusive language, it would not heal the bruises on my soul, and it
could inflict no pain on them. For such vulgarity was their usual pastime. I had however
to bear it with patience. My cause was, however, taken up by the Hindu goondas, and
they succeeded in silencing them. For in that jargon of abuse and vulgarism, these had
proved their masters. They did not compalin against the Mussulman Goondas, for they
knew that Mr. Barrie would not entertain any complaint against them. But one Hindu
warder devised a more effective plan to damn them. He secreted in the bedding of a
Mussulman warder, knives, tobacco, money and other articles which he was not allowed
to keep with him. And one day when the Superintendent came on an inspection tour, he
quietly placed the bedding with its contents before him. In consequence the Muslim
warder was dismissed from office, discharged from his duty, punished and sent out on
hard work outside the prison. There he was caned for some dispute with the Hindu
prisoners. They dealt in a similar fashion with other members of the gang with the help of
the political prisoners in the jail, catching them somehow upon the hip and beating them
at their own game. In course of time the whole gang was completely routed and there was
an end to all our troubles. The Muslim goonda infuriated by our Shuddhi movement, had
at last come to his senses.

The Shuddhi movement outside the prison

As the political prisoners, trained in the organisation that I have already described in
previous pages, went out in increasing numbers in the settlement of the Andamans, they
carried with them the torch of Shuddhi to the locality in which they were called upon to
do their normal daily Work. And the movement gathered in strength and volume
as these mixed and moved among the people. This agitation, all round, deepened the
people's love for Hinduism, and their resentment for those who had persecuted the
Hindus or tried to convert them to their own faith. The suffering and the awakening
contributed greatly to the fusion of the people, and to minimise, if not altogether abolish,
the distinctions among them, as Hindus, of province, caste and custom, and to their
consolidation in these parts as one society. Let there come news of some one converted,
and the whole community of the Hindu primers in that settlement was alive to the need of
retaining him;. In this manner even the Hindus who had embraced Islam eight
or ten years before I had reached the place, were, by this Shuddhi movement, reconverted
to Hinduism. These dined freely with their Hindu brethren and without any objection by
the Hindus themselves. I may give here only one instance to point the moral and to adorn
the tale. There was an old man of fifty by name Tulshi. This fellow was a veteran in
all kinds of vices. He was a first class thief and a first class gambler. Realising that in
the Andamans the Mussulman was in power everywhere, and hating the taboos in
Hinduism on food and drink, he had embraced Islam. But when he knew by our
Shuddhi movement that one did not cease to be a Hindu by food and drink with his
fellows of any caste or creed, or religion, and when public opinion of the community

concerned had veered round to the view, Tulshi found it impossible to continue as a
Mussulman, and felt only that he must be a Hindu as before. He was so steeped in his
borrowed habits that he had even forgotten his old Hindu name, and one had to remind
him of it. Every one took him for a Muslim and he wrote and signed a Muslim. But the
stir and excitement of the Hindu r e v i v a l around him awakened his deep-seated love
for own faith, and made him throw off his borrowed garments. Continuing to be a
Mussulman for a period of fifteen years, he reverted at the age of fifty to his own
religion, We christened him Tulshi, and as Tulshi he is now known throughout the
island. Every day he reads his Ramayana, and wears as a mark of Hinduism, the usual
'tilak' on his forehead, and they do not forbid this reconverted Hindu from dining in a row
with them. As this difficulty disappeared, it became easier for us to retain those whom we
had reconverted and correspondingly more difficult for the Muslims to convert Hindus to
their faith.
If a Muslim or a Christian does not lose his caste by taking his food with a Hindu,
why should a Hindu alone lose his caste and religion by dining in the company of
Christians and Muslims or eating the food that they set? Was it because the Hindu had
lost his power of digestion? How did it happen I wonder. A Hindu must now eat and
drink with the Mussulman and the Christian, and digesting his food, survive as a Hindu.
The whole world has been feasting on you and you are the only people starving ! We
must now learn, 0, my brothers, to feed on the food of the whole world and yet remain
staunch Hindus. That is the only way of our salvation ! That constitutes the salvaging of
Hindu culture, Hindu religion and Hindu civilisation. I have been preaching this all along
and in different contexts. I have sought to impress this one truth on the mind of my co-
religionists. I may quote only one instance to illustrate my argument.
There come to the Andamans, as it is a coaling station, steamers laden with coal.
Coal is stored up in the harbour to provide passing ships and steamers the coal that they
need occasionally for their voyage to and fro. Once when a ship with the cargo of coal in
her happened to be at anchor in that port, thousands of prisoners were put on the labour
from day-break to empty the coal and to stock it in the appointed ware-houses. The
prisoners could get no food during the day as they were so busy with the work. So usually
they were given four handfuls of gram each, as a substitute for their morning meal. They
worked like this from early morn till three in the afternoon when alone they were sent
back to the settlement to have meal. Sacks full of gram were ordered for the purpose on
the day of such work. Hindus and Muslims did not take from the same sack but
separately. On that particular day, the Hindu prisoners, dead tired with their work, their
bodies full of perspiration, and their faces and hands besmeared with coal dust, returned
to the spot where these things were being served to them. It was 12 noon and they were
very hungry. And what did they find? They found that the Muslim prisoners who had
preceded them had already opened the sacks reserved for Hindus and had been making a
full meal out of them ! These Hindu prisoners belonged to the Thakur caste in
Hindusthan, who would not eat the food touched by the Mussulmans. Here were sacks
full of grams and parched rice. But they would not touch a particle because the
Mohomedans had touched them. The officer in charge of them all was a Mohomedan.

And when he saw the Hindu prisoners so starving themselves he burst into a fit of
laughter. He did not attend to them, he made no arrangement for their food, and the
Mohomedan goondas had their full feast and fun out of it. For they ate their own ration
all right, and finished that which the Hindus would not touch. So these had to toil and
starve for the whole day without a particle out of the sacks meant for them. The same
thing happened to them on the following day. The Muslims had touched two sacks of
gram reserved for the Hindus, and the Hindus had to go without food in consequence.
The European officers did not bother to know what was happening near them. They
would not care and pitied the starving Hindus for such ludicrous nonsense and folly.
I knew the incident in the evening of the first day. I rebuked them severely, such
of them as were the inmates of my prison, for this foolish and suicidal custom. "Look
here," I told them, "how this way of yours is going to harm you. Suppose, you Thakurs
prepare 'Jilabi' one day; and the whole of it is touched by the Muslims; they eat it all and
you go without it. Another day, you bring Pedhas and a Christian touches them. You
throw them and the Christians feast upon them. Where is this going to take you in the
end. This foolish notion of purity and impurity, of pollution by touch, has landed the
Hindus into misery and starvation. They remain poor because they would not cross the
seas; they would eat from nobody and eat with nobody, and they starve in the midst of
plenty. They don't do business and others steal a march over them and exploit them. It is
no sin to let others carry your riches away from your own country; to let others devour
your food. It is no sin or pollution to let others fatten on you. But if you eat your own
food touched by others it is a great sin. Do not eat another man's food, I grant it. But do
not allow any one else to eat your food; that is merit and not sin. Simple touch does not
desecrate it. And the eating of food so desecrated is no sin before man and God. Do not
be so foolish, so asinine. If the gram and the parched rice handled by the Muslims
became muslim-tainted food, then why should not your touch make their food Hindu
food and purified food for you? Go, you fools, tomorrow when your work is done, rush,
some of you, to the sacks reserved for Muslims, and devour the gram in them. If they cry
and complain, say to them that your touch had polluted them because it had turned the
grains into Kafirs! Our grains do not get polluted by the touch of the Muslims, remember
it well, and their ration is certainly polluted by our touch, don't forget it. So eat both and
don't starve. Your sin, if it is any sin, be upon my head, I assure you. Why, on earth, do
you let yourselves starve?"
As I thus brought them round by harsh and plain-speaking words, some hundred
and fifty of them agreed to do as I had bidden them to do. On the third day, these men,
without waiting for their fellows, ran straight to the bags of grain reserved for the Muslim
prisoners, and began to feed full upon them. The Muslim, of course, were angered by this
act. The Hindus reminded them of what they had themselves done on two previous days.
"You felt then, that you had polluted the thing and we would not touch it. Now we touch
the bags and they are ours, and we eat the contents as food of the Hindus." T his talk the
European officer overheard, and could not help laughing over it. He did not punish the
Hindu prisoners. On the other hand, he congratulated them for doing away with the
foolish notion which had kept them from that food for two days before. When others saw

how well they had fed themselves, they also began to have their share in that feast. From
the following days, the Muslims never dared open the bags reserved for the Hindus, for
they knew that it would no longer serve them to play that dirty trick.
I thus succeeded largely to drive away from their minds the silly notions about
food, and drink, sleeping and sitting, which, in the name of pollution and non-pollution,
had done so much harm to the Hindu society. As a result the Hindu way of life became as
convenient for us in prison as was the Christian and the Muslim way to its followers. Life
became easier and we, as-Hindus, were enabled to face our hardships with better courage
and greater fearlessness. This had one other effect as well. Many a Hindu in this prison,
who had gone over to Islam disgusted with these taboos, was converted back to Hinduism
by this change of outlook on life and religion. And many a Hindu who was inclined to
that faith naturally remained in his own religion. Occasionally I succeeded in converting
a Christian to Hindu faith. Let me mention in this connection the story of a Telangi
Brahmin warder. This prisoner was forty years old. He had come from Telangan. He was
a Christian by descent. His parents, or grand-parents, a generation ago, had accepted
Christianity. I saw him reading Ramayana in his native tongue and since then I began to
take interest in him. I kept an eye on him and began to know more of him. He had also
learnt English and knew it tolerably well. I promised him the post of a Munshi if he
would improve his English and teach it to other prisoners in the jail. That offer made him
come to me to learn English. Of course he had to meet me for that purpose warily. Soon
he became my staunch follower. I told him about our country, its history and its national
leaders, and how it was the duty of every one of us to work for her.* This drew him more
closely to me and he expressed his earnest wish that he should be taken back into
Hinduism. He was a man of strong will, and, though I tried to dissuade him from it, he
would not listen to me. At last I agreed to perform the Shuddhi and convert him back to
Hinduism. So he became a Hindu and also adopted a Hindu name. He wrote to
Government that, in the register of prisoners, his name should be entered as a Hindu.
When the priest came, he did not attend his prayers as a Christian. Mr. Barrie was very
angry with him and threatened that he would take him off from the duty of a warder. But
the Superintendent paid no heed to Mr. Barrie. After his conversion, the Brahmin went to
the Hindu temple on holidays like Dussera and Divali taking special permission for that
purpose. He wore a tilak on his forehead and began the study of Vivekanand's writings.
He read stories of great valour from Indian history, and contributed regularly to our
organisation the monthly sum of four annas out of his slender purse of twelve annas a
month.
From the prison the Shuddhi movement began to spread outwards among the free
inhabitants of the Andamans. There was in it an independent Hindu world of merchants,
tradesmen, soldiers and children of prisoners who had settled in that land. There were in
the Andamans Hindu temples built by these permanent settlers; and these were not so far
open to the outcastes. It was difficult to get converts to Hinduism admitted into them.
But, in the process of time, that custom fell into abeyance and on big holidays they were
open to all who called themselves Hindus or were Hindus by conversion. These entered

the temples without restriction; participated in the recital of the Ramayana, took darshan
of the idol, and were admitted to public dinners.
With all this progress in the Shuddhi movement we had clashes with the Muslims,
from time to time, which sometimes resulted in open riots. Just about 1920, a shameless
and insolent goonda among Muslim prisoners had kept a Gujarathi boy as his paramour,
and, in due course, this relationship between the two would have led to the boy's
conversion to Islam and the corresponding funeral of Hinduism in his soul. My brother
came to know about it and managed to detach the boy from his goonda friend. At my
instance, the Hindu Munshi transferred him from that ward to a room in another, near the
room of a trusted Hindu prisoner. Enraged by this transfer, the Mohomedan goonda came
up to my brother when he had just finished his bath and was wiping his face with a towel,
and attacked him. He gave a severe blow on his nose which made him faint on the spot.
Blood began to stream down from his nose and he fell senseless on the ground. The
prisoners around him came running up to him from all sides and at last caught the
goonda. What did Mr. Barrie do to him? He openly complimented the goonda on his
brave action. And he said to others, "How fine it would be if some one was to handle
Savarkar in a similar fashion." But one who was not cowed down under the shadow of
death, was not to be put down by the curses of a man like Mr. Barrie. Savarkar's
movement suffered no set-back by this threat, but the goonda was soon brought to book
for his nasty act. He was caned twice for similar other offences, and was finally put into
solitary confinement in a room near my own. He then became meek as a lamb. He then
confessed that it was Mr. Barrie who had set him on to attack my brother. Otherwise he
would not have done it; he dared not do it. How much of truth there was in that story
either he or Mr. Barrie alone could say.
I had to undergo personally so many hardships in these matters that I felt, at
times, that I should stop all these movements and mind my own lot in this prison, a lot
that was already so hapless, helpless and hard to bear. Yet the urge within would not let
me rest on my oars; it would not let me do nothing for those around me. To be doing
something for the uplift and education of my countrymen had been the breath of my
nostrils; to give up the struggle was simply not to exist. Yet I felt, betimes, that to suffer
thus personally in jail, was in itself a sort of expiation and service for my motherland, and
I should desist from anything outside the sphere of such service and such expiation. Let
others take up the burden from me, and let. each one of them share it and carry on. But I
saw before me a Hindu prisoner caught in the meshes of this mood of pessimism did not
last long, for whenever Mussulman intrigue or any prisoner mercilessly handled by the
jail authorities, I could not repress the overpowering impulse in me to plunge into the fray
and help these helpless creatures out. I thought the injury and insult to them as personal
injury and insult. And further that I could not take it lying down. I used to control my
surging emotion by meditation. I am inclined to believe that, when a man feels keenly the
insult of his community, nation and religion, and his helplessness to retaliate; when his
position is no better than that of a tiger in the cage; some such expression as the Sant
Ramdas uttered in similar circumstances, cannot help escaping his lips. Ramdas
admonished himself as follows :—

"The self is already torn to pieces; let the burden of the world be the self for you;
wake up my soul and be ready for repeated sacrifice."
I meditated upon these verses of Ramdas to restore to my tortured mind the poise
it needed so badly. For, my mind was inflamed by what I had to bear of the daily insult to
my religion and nation in this prison.
My temperament was averse from the kind of detachment which would allow me
to abstain from pursuing any activities for the resuscitation of Hinduism, for doing away
with the foolish customs which had dragged her into the mire. I had to inspire the Hindus
with a new faith and with a spirit of nationalism calculated to restore Hinduism to its high
status. No doubt it was an uphill task, for, in its pursuit, I had to face the opposition not
only of the officers and their Mussulman henchmen but ridicule and contumely of men
belonging to my own religion. And this exposed me to terrible mental worry physical
exertion and irrational opposition from the people themselves.
Within a short time, I had won for the cause the active co-operation of some of
the political and ordinary prisoners in this jail. I am not permitted to give their names
here as I do not know if they will like it, and if it is safe for them as well. At the proper
time, I will mention them, for I must not fail to pay the debt of gratitude I owe to them.
Among the political prisoners from the Punjab, there were many who proved themselves
bold and resolute in the defence of their own religion and culture, in the promotion of
education and in the cause of Shuddhi and conversion. It did not matter to them, in the
least, who the person was to whom they imparted instruction, whom they saved from
conversion, or whom they converted to Hinduism. He may be the lowest of the low, the
very dregs of society; it was enough for them that he was a Hindu or he was willing to be
converted to Hinduism. But till I had thoroughly instructed these willing workers in the
principles of 'Suddhi' and 'Sangathan', I could not but bear the whole burden myself. The
only persons who came forward to help me were some from the ordinary prisoners in this
jail.
In this self-imposed task of mine, I had to face the same kind of disputes, quarrels
and fights between Hindus and Muslims in the several districts of these islands, as I had
to face them in the jail itself in our earlier struggle for Shuddhi and conversion. I have
described some of the latter in my narrative earlier. Let me give an instance or two of
such fights outside the jail. In the district of 'Hardu', the quarrel between the two parties
was taken up to the officers when they told us that they would not officially recognise
conversion or reconversion within their own jurisdiction, which meant that a man's
religion shall continue the same that he had at the time of entering the Andaman Islands.
This ruling gave a blow to the Muslims who had converted Hindus to their faith after the
latter had stepped into the Andamans. Their change of religion and change of names had
gone for nothing, and they were not liable to be sued in a Court of Law by their Muslim

friends for return to their own religion and to their own names as Hindus. Much less did
they fear for it the displeasure or anger of the officials concerned.
The change in these circumstances compelled the Muslim converts to look up
their original names and caste in the prisoners' register. I had also to search up in the
register the real names of those boy-prisoners who had been reported in their personal
tickets, without any let or hindrance, as belonging to Muslim faith. I had noted the
Mussulman clerk of the jail writing out tickets under such false names and religion. I,
therefore, decided to scan the entire register of prisoners in the Andamans and prepare the
census of Hindus among them. I had to search up for that purpose all the papers giving a
full and faithful record of these prisoners, such papers as they had particularly brought
with them from their respective prisons in India for purposes of entry into the Island and
the prison of the Andamans. For then alone I could make out who were Hindus and who
were Mussulmans, and who had been turned into Mussulmans by conversion and who
were again reconverted from Islam to Hindu faith. I could trace those who were passed
off as Muslims on false tickets issued to them by the clever Munshi of that jail. But how
and where and from whom I was to procure these papers dating back, in many cases, to
several years?

A Golden Opportunity

Fortunately enough, chance favoured me miraculously in my projected work. In
the last census of the Andamans, following the census in India, the bulk of the work was
done through the prisoners themselves. And many of these men happened to be my
trusted friends. In that census the authorities had entrusted to me the task of preparing the
whole record and allowed me to sit in the office for that work. That story I shall narrate in
its own place later on, I make a mention of it here in connection with the Shuddhi
movement.
The last census in India was taken during the days of the acute differences among
the Hindus in all parts of the country. And the Andamans were not without its
repercussions of those differences. When we began the census work in the Andamans, it
was my ambition to make it an accurate and full record of its population according to
caste, creed, race and colour. I had made up my mind to remove from it all the
discrepancies and errors of the past, and all the misrepresentations in it about conversion
and reconversion. I wanted to give a true and complete picture in that census of the
existing Hindu population in the settlement of the Andamans. I and my coworkers on that
task sent messages to that effect throughout the districts of the settlement. The most
important part of the work had to be done in our own office. The census-forms, properly
filled in, had to come to this central place. We had to compare them with the
corresponding original records of all the prisoners in that island. We had to check them as
regards name, village, religion, and caste from their original warrants kept in the jail-

record. So many political prisoners came forward to help me in that strenuous task, and
the jail authorities permitted them to assist me in it.
One difficulty arose at the start to interfere with that work. The Arya Samajists
resolved that they would mark themselves in the census-forms as 'Arya' instead of as
'Hindu.' This was in consequence of their past misunderstanding about Hindus and
Hinduism. And the Sikhs followed the Arya Samajists for the same reason. The obstinacy
of both was bound to affect the census record of the Hindu community as a whole.
I need not discuss here the comprehensive term 'Hindu' as it covers our whole
history and culture from the remote past to the recent present. I have written about it in a
separate book called 'Hinduism' in Marathi and the issue is settled for the Arya Samajists
by the writings of leaders like Lala Lajpatrai, Swami Shraddha-nand and Bhai
Parmanand. The comprehensive movement of Hindu Sangathan has given a quietus to-
day to this wrangle between Hindus, Sanatanists, Aryasamajists and Sikhs. Suffice it to
say here that the definition of Hinduism and Hindus which I had arrived at in England to
prevent further divisions in our society, and to consolidate the Hindus as one
community of the people of India, was my beaconlight in the disputes over the question
in the prison. I taught in the Andamans political as well as non-political prisoners to
prevent disintegration, and to integrate the mass on a higher level of synthesis and
understanding. My definition of a Hindu is simply this: A man who recognises our
country as the land of his birth and religion is a Hindu. And I impressed it upon all whom
I welcomed as true Hindus, namely, the Arya Samajists, the Sikhs and the Jains. The
book containing the exposition of this definition is in the market to-day. And there the
reader who wants to know its fuller treatment, may find it. The definition as stated by me
in Sanskrit in my work on 'Hinduism' is:
"From the ocean to the Indus the whole land of Bharata Is my fatherland, is my
sacred country And that makes me a Hindu."
That is the definition of a Hindu which I have given in my book on Hinduism. All
thoughtful men and all members of the Hindu Mahasabha, in all its branches, have
accepted it. In the Andamans it was put forth but recently, and it took so much of my
energy and power of persuasion then to convince people of the truth and the utility of that
definition. I had to argue with every man whom I met there to bring it home to him. One
instance, however exaggerated it may be, I must give here to show how sectarianism is
apt to destroy our essential unity as, Hindus. The Sikhs have among them various sects
like Akali, Sahaiadhari and Keshadhari. In the census movement that I have already
mentioned the Keshadharis insisted that in the forms supplied to them they would mark
themselves as Keshadharis and not as Sikhs. I pointed out to them how it was detrimental
to the interest of the community as a whole that, though belonging to it, they should fill
the form as Keshadharis. The tendency was bound to divide and destroy the community
inch by inch, when what we needed most in India, both politically and socially, was not

minute sub-divisions and disintegration but fusion and integration. This weighed with
them somewhat, and all my Sikh workers succeeded in effecting a compromise. The
Sikhs were to make a representation to the authorities and fill in the census-form as
Hindus though within brackets they were to show themselves as Sikhs. This was a fair
compromise. For their prison-warrants had followed the same procedure. First the
prisoner's name, then his sect, then his particular caste, like the Jat and the Mahajabi—
that was the order in which they were noted in their warrants. The mention of caste made
them Hindus without distinction, whatever may be their sect and name. Every Sikh
possessed his prisoner's sheet. And not one of them had claimed in it that he was not a jat
and was only a Sikh. And the nomenclatures 'Jats' and "Sodhis" were clearly Hindu
nomenclatures because they belonged to Hindu castes. And these had no objection,
besides, to dine along with other Hindus. This procedure helped a great deal to spread
and popularize my definition of Hindu and Hinduism throughout the community of
Hindu prisoners in our settlement. Even the officers interested themselves in the
discussion and gave it a serious consideration.
At last when all forms were received in our office and were duly classified and
tabulated, we found to our satisfaction that men of all castes and sects in Hindu society in
which the Sikhs were also included had noted themselves by no other nomenclature but
that of the simple Hindu. We had to spend days and days in the careful inspection of the
prisoners' original warrants. These revealed to us many funny things. An originally
depressed class man had changed his caste so many times in these warrants as he passed
from prison to prison that ultimately he came out in them as a Brahmin. The Bhangi had
effected the gradual change with a distinct motive. As a Brahmin he had a good chance of
being selected for the cooking department of the prison. That a Bhangi should rise by this
process to be a Brahmin was curious enough. But what was more surprising and insulting
in the revelation of the records, was the fact that so many Hindus came out ultimately as
Muslims in them; and it was due to the fact that thereby they had set themselves free
from all the horrors and tortures of the prison-life. There was evident in them fraudulence
and coercion all along the pages. I drew the attention of my friends to that fact, and
showed what a change the Shuddhi movement had effected in their condition within but
two years. In the final copy of the report, we had counted all as Hindus who were
originally Hindus, including in them re-converts from Islam to Hinduism. It showed us
clearly the triumph of the Shuddhi movement and the stopping of all efforts to convert
Hindus to Islam. We could note from it the number of Hindus so converted as also of
those taken back to Hinduism. And we could also count those who yet remained to be
reconverted.
If the agitation in the Andamans had not done all this, but had only awakened the
conscience of the Hindus to the possibility that a Mussulman can also be converted to
Hinduism, I would have achieved a great deal. For up to that time the question that was
always put to us was, "A Hindu can become a Mussulman, no doubt; but how can a
Mussulman be admitted into Hinduism?" Hundreds of Hindus had asked me that question
and sincerely believed that there was no answer for it. But none put such a conundrum
before us any longer. For the Shuddhi movement had shown that it could be clone, and

we had done it. The food touched or prepared by the Muslims could be eaten by the
Hindu without tarring his stomach and making him lose his caste and religion. Hinduism
was not so anaemic as that; and the Hindus in the Andamans had realised the fact as they
had not done it before. This was a great achievement of the Shuddhi movement in that
part of the world. For there are in the so-called wise and liberty-loving Hindus of India
bigoted champions of Hinduism who, seriously enough, still seek to confound us by the
same conundrum. This awakening in the Andamans was not confined to the few but had
spread all over the place and the roots of the new feeling had gone deep down into the
soil of the Andamans; in illustration whereof I quote one or two incidents which
happened there after I had left the Andamans.
Before we started the Shuddhi movement and the Sangathan movement in the
Andamans, a Hindu woman who happened to marry a Mussulman had to become a
Mussulman. She dared not ask the Mussulman husband to be a Hindu and she could not
remain a Hindu after marrying the Mussulman. The Hindus, having very squeamish
notions of marriage as handed down by custom and tradition, no Hindu prisoner ever
offered himself to marry a Mussulman woman. On the other hand, the Mussulman was
ever ready to have a Hindu woman not only as his wife but even as his keep. He never let
go such an opportunity, for it was his faith that to spoil a kaffir woman in that way was
his sacred duty, for it added, in her children, to the number of Mussulmans in the world.
To him a woman was nothing but a breeding ground and an object of enjoyment. As the
Hindus in the Andamans began more and more to realise this state of things, they became
more and more vigilant not to let a Hindu woman pass into the fold of Islam. A woman of
the Thakur tribe had spoilt herself in matters of food and drink in the company of a
Mussulman. Later on she made up her mind to marry him. And she threatened to embrace
Islam and marry her Mussulman companion if the Hindus did not take her back purified,
and find for her a Hindu husband. The Mussulmans were only too willing to accept her.
In this critical situation a Hindu decided to marry her, just with the object of saving her
and her children for Hindu society. But against his fair offer of marriage to her, the
Muslims raised a cry that the woman was, for all practical purposes, a Mussulman, and
cannot marry a Hindu man. The Hindus had to report the matter to the officers against
this claim of the Mussulmans. A Hindu woman and a convert to Islam could marry a
Muslim; but though unmarried, she cannot be reconverted to Hinduism and cannot marry
a Hindu ! That was the position and the issue raised. This outrageous and absurd claim of
Muslims had its justification in the foolish and ante-dated custom and tradition of
Hinduism itself. This fact no Hindu can afford to forget. But in the Andamans the Hindus
in a body protested against the claim, and, as a result, the officers decided that as the
woman was a Hindu when she came in the Andamans, and change of religion was not
allowed during her continuance in the islands as a prisoner, she was a Hindu and free to
choose a Hindu husband. This silenced all opposition to her Shuddhi and to her
marriage in Hindu society. The Thakur woman was married to the man who had offered
to take her, and they remained Hindus thereafter.
I may mention here another instance in point. As a matter of fact, there are thousands of
Mussulmans who do not do their Nimaz even once during the day. But just to spite the

Hindu prisoners they insist on that practice in this prison—and these Mussulmans are the
worst dacoits and criminals of that place. If a party of prisoners were sent out for work on
the islands, the Muslim section in it did the Nimaz five to seven times during the day, for
that obtained respite from the officers in their day's work on grounds of religion, and the
Hindus were hard put to it to finish the day's allotted labour; while the Muslims safely
escaped all the rigour of it. It is very interesting to note on such an occasion what
apparent absorption in prayer these Muslim miscreants put on. They spend a good deal
of time in washing their hands and feet, they slowly clean and stroke their beard; they sit
long with eyes shut after the Nimaz is done; and they assume an air of quiescence and
deep contemplation. One may feel, as he looks at them, as if they had passed in all yogi
practices like "Pranayam", "Karma", "Japa" and "meditation", leading up to final
ecstasy or beatitude. There were only two items wanting in it to complete the show—
either a pot of milk or line of fishes in front of them, and hard labour in the prison itself
! For, in the first item, their attitude will be no better than that of a cat or crane watching
for its prey, and, in the second, that of the miscreants silent and lost in prayer to evade the
work before them.
They resorted to another trick in order to harass their Hindu brethren in prison and
to defy the prison regulation in the spirit of a goonda. That was to cry 'bang' early at day-
break. The term 'bang' meant a call to prayer from the top of a minaret to the faithful ones
in Islam. And it is to be uttered with the topmost note of one's voice. In the prison this
was definitely an intolerable nuisance, for, at that hour, all were fast asleep after the day's
exhausting work, and it was liable to censure and inter-diction by the authorities. The
man who, for years, opened the prison gate with the utmost reluctance and straightaway
lapsed into sleep at day time, had, sometimes, the frenzy in him to get up and utter this
piercing cry, and disturb the peace of the entire prison. Who can then say that it was all
well-meant, and not an action just to tease and harass the Hindu Section of the Jail?
Nimaz may be a solemn duty of every Muslim under the sun; but to cry 'bang' at an odd
hour and in prison is not enjoined, surely enough, by his religion. But to shield
themselves behind a religious sanction and be able, at the same time, to make themselves
a nuisance to others was a chance too tempting for them to forego. It was an intoxication
with 'bang' which they were not prepared to miss.
The Conch-blowing by the Hindus
The Mussulman prisoners were stricken with this frenzy in the prison-house of the
Andamans. Each one of them, from his respective cell, began one early morning to cry
'bang'. The whole prison was roused by this clamour. The Burmese and the Hindu
prisoners suffered the most by this uproar. The officers rebuked the Mussulmans for
creating the noise but they did not stop it. On the other hand, they maintained that it was a
religious act and they must perform it. The Burmese prisoners were hand-in-glove with
the Hindus in their Shuddhi and Sangathan movements. And the Mussulman could not
convert a single Burmese in the Andamans. For the Burmese do not regard inter-dining as
loss of caste and religion. They are the followers of Buddha and they feel that they are