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

For, as soon as war began in Europe, all the people in the Andamans, as in India,
felt an excitement and a thrill passing through them. The excitement in the Andamans
was not due to any interest in politics, or any anxiety for the future of their country,
as it was due to expectation that it would mean their freedom from the prison. It was
selfish desire that was its cause. Hence the future of the war had become a matter of
personal rest to them. Even the most ignorant among them knew stories of old
Emperors and Rajas when their King-doms were overthrown, and the prisoners had won
their freedom. And these stories from the legendary or the historical past had become
today the gossip of the entire colony. And from these instances in the past, they drew
conclusions to suit their own wishes in the present, A certain king was killed and his
kingdom was won by another. And from this instance they inferred that ii the Emperor of
Germany was made captive, the war would come to an end; and if England was defeated,
all the prisoners would be at once set free. On the floating wave of self-delusion, the
prisoners sailed their ship of hope from day-to-day.
When the warders passed their cells at night on their usual rounds, lantern in
hand, the prisoners would anxiously ask for news of war. And the self-sufficient ignorant
warder would tell them anything that came to his lips as its innermost news. Drawing
upon the talks in the town, the warder would paint before their eyes a scene of the British
Monarch standing on the top of a hill and watching his own army. He wears the crown on
his head, and a sword dangles at his side. What if the German Emperor suddenly shot him
with an arrow? But he would not do so. For, was he not the son-in-law of the English
King? His wife, the Empress, would come in, and stop her husband from it, will she not?
Some such guesses and fantasies they would weave from their minds and discuss them
with hilarity among themselves. It was funny to hear them talking thus. The warder in
these chats with his prisoners hardly knew how time had flown, how three hours had
sped, and his patrolling was at an end. The prisoner did not feel the arduousness of the
labour on Kolu, while he was wrapt in such conversation. For the jolliest of them, feeling
the heaviness of the handle they were pushing along the rut, regaled themselves with the
exclamation, "Friend Kolu, turn and turn. It is only for a few days now that we shall be
working on you. None will turn you, then, round and round. Then rest and rust." One
would set the tune and the rest would make the chorus, "Yes, dear Kolu, turn; for we are
to be with you for a few days now." In that frenzied mood, they would turn the wheel
faster and faster, and often did the work of an hour in half the time. This was true not
only of prisoners on hard labour, but also of petty officers and jemadars ordered to watch
on them. They themselves were prisoners on twenty to twenty-five years' term of
Imprisonment. Tindals and petty officers used somehow to finish their duty as
supervisors—three to four hours at the most—and spent the rest of the day mourning
their lot But since the outbreak of the war, they brought some news from the world
without, and kept on discussing it wild the veteran convicts and drew a pleasant picture of
Instant freedom by the overthrow of British Rule in India as the result of the conquest of
Great Britain by Germany. They tattered the news to pieces, even as the Kolu would
crush the coconut pieces into oil by turning round and round on them. While he was
wrapt in this talk, another petty officer came up and then the former realised that his time
was over and he must leave the scene. "Three hours gone, how quickly time passes, the
hour has sounded. I must leave. I knew not how it had gone",—such was the mutual

greeting between the relieving and the retiring petty officer in those days. They had
forgotten their task of persecuting the poor prisoners; the hard discipline of the prison had
relaxed; the petty officer and the prisoners had developed the spirit of comradeship, and
the tie was the common news about the war and its idle forecasts. Otherwise they used to
quarrel as soon as they saw one master for another; they would growl like dogs; they
began abusing each other; and there used to be resentment and discontent all round. The
war had changed this : there was eagerness and curiosity on the one side, and the willing
loquacity on the other. Whatever be the news for the day, the only end to it was, "Well,
only a few days now, and we are free." That was the form of leave-taking between the
petty officer and his ward.
I resolved to take full advantage of this eagerness for war news among the
prisoners, though I knew that it had no deeper root in their heart than the selfish longing
to be free. But the awakening should not be allowed to spend itself on nothing. I desired
to plant in their hearts love for their country and interest in the politics with which her
future was so intimately bound up. Every one approached me for news. Even the
Mussulmans, who bore me a grudge on account of the Shuddhi movement, were
reconciled to me by this common need. And they listened to me with patience and
devotion. As for the political prisoners who had allied themselves with Mr. Barrie, they
gave them news about the war after the pattern of their master. But myself and others
along with me, told them frankly what we knew about it. And this bait of daily and
faithful news had caught; it made them learn to read and write as I guided them.
Among the millions and millions of India's teeming population, the whole world
was divided into two or three States. If one happened to be a Hindu, the boundaries of the
world did not stretch for him beyond England on the one side and Kabul on the other. All
his knowledge of Geography and politics did not go beyond this range. He was surprised
to learn that there were other kingdoms in the world besides these. He knew them not
even by their names. The Britisher and the Afghan—Ungrez and the Amir—these were
his familiar figures. If one were a Mussulman, he would add to them the name of Turkey.
So that, for days together after the war had started, they believed that it was a war
between England and Turkey —between the King of England and the Sultan of Turkey.
They never thought that there could be any other kingdom on this habitable globe. They
were familiar with Mussulmans on the one hand and Britishers on the other. Taking
advantage of the war, I asked them to repeat the names of all countries in the world, to
understand the map of the world, and the maps of several countries along with it, before I
agreed to give them any news. With a piece of brick I used to draw these outline maps on
the whitewashed walls of the prison-rooms and explain them to the prisoners. My
political colleagues helped me considerably in that work. Those who would never learn
geography for anything in the world, became its apt pupils for the sake of the news that
they wanted from me. Germany, France, Austria, Russia, Egypt, Belgium and Servia
became to them as familiar names as England, Afghanistan and Turkey. I had made them
repeat the names and had pointed out their location on the maps I drew for them. And I
explained to them the news of war in the light of Geography that they had thus studied.
To the cleverer ones among them, I explained the constitution of these countries. They

knew no other word before than the King. Hence they interpreted the news in the light of
that term. The King of France had to fall back; the king of America angry—that was the
terminology they employed. And when any one of us told them that there was no king of
France or America, their question was, "Who fought the war then." Their idea of warfare
they had derived from what little they knew of legendary lore, from the stories they had
heard from the Mahabharata for instance. The war or the battle was to them nothing
better than a combat or a duel between two rival princes. The King of Russia was weak,
he was not strong of thews and sinews; the King of Germany was a giant in strength and
hence he Would crack the King of Russia like a betel-nut. That their surmise and hope.
So whenever they wanted to weigh and balance victory and defeat between the parties,
they measured their strength by the personal prowess of their kings. How does the King
of Belgium or any other king fight? That was the typical question they asked. Is he a line
rider? Does he know horsemanship? The manner in which they described the Kaiser of
Germany was very amusing. He was, they told us, a finely built man, almost possessing
the physical strength and form of our Bhima. He shattered with the blows of his fisticuff
the gates of fortresses. Once he held the King of France by his neck like a cat and hurled
him down. Who was taller—the Czar of Russia or the Emperor of Germany?—I
remember clearly one prisoner putting the question to me. I told him that the Russians,
as a rule, were taller and broader than the Germans. And his face showed bewilderment,
for he doubtful, how, in these circumstances, Germany could heat Russia? I wanted to
drive this notion about the king from the mind of my listeners. I wanted them to grasp
what was the State and the politics of the State. What was the Republican form of the
State, and what a constitutional monarchy? I told them broadly how the people were
governed; who made laws for them; who declared war or peace; and who made treaties.
I further explained to them, in the simplest terms possible, what was a representative
government and a legislature, and the relation between them, and a monarch or a
president of a Republic. I further told them the difference between the monarch and the
president and how France and America were Republican States. I enjoined upon them to
remember these facts well before I would give them the news that they wanted. Within
one year, most of them gave correct answers on these points. They could understand
the difference between international and national politics, and the relation between the
two, as also the geographical importance of these states dotted all over the world. And
the more they knew, the more I gave them to know. And during these years they showed
extreme eagerness to know everything about the war. For the knowledge of geography,
maps, and politics had made the news so vivid and interesting to them. They became so
enamoured of it, that before long, they would themselves locate the news on the map and
ask me to enlighten them upon it. The temptation for news made them procure from
outside newspapers for themselves and read them. This work I did for them during the
duration of the war.
While I was busy teaching them the geography of the world and widening their
knowledge of it, I was particular to teach them more about the geography and the map of
India, of its political conditions, and its situation in the world around us. The prisoners
felt at first a strange fascination for Germany. They had lisped the word English too often
to like it. For he, the prisoner felt, never treated him well, and Germany, he concluded, if
it beat England, was sure to set him free. Hence he did not like any one denouncing

Germany. So when I explained to my political friends as well as to other prisoners the
possible consequences of Germany's conquest of India, I made it clear to them that it was
a mistake to suppose that Germany would not harass and persecute India, and that it
would be no advantage to us to change one master for another.' It was up to us to be
ready to play our cards well during the fluctuations of the war, and it would not do for us
to be counting on the victory of Germany to win freedom for ourselves. This fact they
found too unpalatable to digest. And then I would narrate to them the story of the potter
and his donkey. One potter fell, and another mounted the seat. What was it to the
miserable donkey, he remained a donkey all the same. So it was no good speculating on
the victory of Germany. It was foolish to think that it would make any difference in our
status. 1 then explained to them what must be done by us to reap the fullest advantage
for India from this great world war, and what was the advantage that we were likely
to reap from it. I convinced the prisoners that if Germany became the ruler of India she
would ride rough-shod over us. But when I said that Turkey or Afghanisthan would mete
out the same treatment to us, the Mussulman section would demur to that statement.
For the Sultan of Turkey was a god to them. How many stories and legends had grown
round his as the Kalipha in their sacred writings ! They were taught in their cradle to
worship the name of that Sultan with feelings of sanctity and reverence. That personage
was to invade India and I said that his rule will bring no good to India. What a
blasphemy to say so. That the rule of the Sultan over India would be a foreign rule was a
proposition beyond their understanding. If a moulvi prisoner in our jail who knew
something of history were told of the invasion of the Arabs over Persia; of Persians over
the Pathans; of Pathans over Pathans; and of all these together over the Mussulmans of
India; and if one further enumerated to him the horrors they had perpetrated over their
coreligionists in India, he would still maintain that the invasion of India by Turkey and
the establishment of the Sultan's power in India could not but be a blessing to her. The
fanaticism of the Mussulman disqualified him to think nationally and to be a patriot of
India, and if this was helped by the ignorance of the world history, then he was bound to
think fanatically. Every Mussulman knew the name of the King-Emperor of India. But
the Kaiser was a strange name to him. He used to hear every day strange stories of him,
and to convey them from mouth to mouth. They wondered how the Kaiser had become so
mighty, and discussed the matter between themselves. At last they came to the conclusion
that the fact was due to his alliance with Sultan of Turkey who was the anointed of the
lord and sacred to them.
The Sultan is to rule India, now Hindus, see to it, that you turn Mussulmans
The war began after the Shuddhi movement. With the participation of Turkey in
that war, the Mussulmans, disabled by the Shuddhi movement, got the name of the Sultan
as a fresh weapon in their hands to make a renewed effort 'to convert Hindus to their
faith. And they began to talk openly to the Hindu prisoners as follows: "Germany was
sure to beat England and conquer India. The Sultan of Turkey would personally crown
the German Kaiser as the Emperor of India, and the Muslims will be a power in India. As
such Mussulmans would get high positions and big jobs in the Indian Empire. Those,
who would not be Muslims then, were going to be severely punished."

When they brought the report of this open talk to me I used to ask them what was
the man who talked thus. They said that it had been printed in a Urdu Paper which was
available in the bazar. With wry and long faces the poor prisoners would come to me to
know if there was any truth in it. "Was it a fact, Bada Babu, that the Sultan of Turkey was
to be the ruler of India and that he was going to grant amnesty to all the Muslim prisoners
in India?" So they would ask me often, and add that on this ground they were being
exhorted to convert themselves into Mussulmans. I lost no time in exposing the
hollowness of these stories, and in showing up those who had helped to spread them all
over the colony. So, slowly but surely, the prisoners had learnt a great deal about Turkey
and had measured her at its proper worth. Whenever the Mussulman Moulvi prisoners
bragged of Turkey, they flung into their faces what they had learnt from me. They quoted
sentence after sentence from my talks to them on the subject and silenced them. "Your
Sultan is no tiger but is the tiger's skin stuffed with saw-dust. A small State like that of
Bulgaria beat him hollow; Servia compelled him to bite the dust; Greece succeeded in
throwing off his yoke. During the last ten years, poor man is being twisted round and
round and finds his throne tottering. This Sultan of lathe and straw was to invade India;
one blow from England was enough to finish him. What if Germany adopts him? What
value has that in the hierarchy of nations? If he was, indeed, so powerful, why did he not
go against England so long? To say of this man of shreds and patches that he has made
Germany mighty and will bring her victory ! Where is the Kaiser of Germany and where
the Sultan of Turkey? Where is the Royal elephant of the Gods, and where the sorry nag
of a beggar!" The Hindu prisoners used to strip them of their self-conceit by flinging
these words at them.
I used to instruct the more literate among us by comparing the strength of
Germany with that of the Sultan of Turkey. I used to give them facts and figures about
the army, the air-force, and the dread-noughts of the Germans, and make the whole
position clear to them from statistics and tables. I told the Mussulmans that they should
not mislead themselves. Whatever victory Turkey would achieve, would be due, I told
them, to its reinforcement by Germany. German arms .and ammunitions, German
instruction in the strategy of warfare and German generalship constituted the real might
of Turkey. I gave Hum all the information on the subject as I got it from true sources.
Whatever news came to my hands from time to time, I explained it fully to them. We
used to study and discuss these things in our weekly and peripatetic meetings and
lectures about which I have mentioned in a former chapter. I then lectured to them on
Turkey and the activities of the new party led by Enver Pasha. it was known as the party
of Young Turkey many of whose members had taken their education in France and
Germany. I had bestowed due praise on the efforts of leaders like Enver Baig to revive
Turkey and put a new spirit in her. I had also told how it would benefit India if Turkey
were to join her forces with Germany in its war with England. I explained it to them
according to my view-point then, and I expressed my full sympathy with the Turkish
movement. But I would not tolerate exaggeration and empty bragging. Hence the
Mussulmans were always gnashing their teeth at me.

I had to expose them often by humour and laughter. Once, for a whole week, the
Mussulmans at Port Blair and in this prison spread the rumour that the German Kaiser
had embraced Mohomedanism. The Sultan had plainly told the Kaiser that he should
expect no military assistance from him till he had converted himself to Islam. "I stay with
you on the battlefield only on that condition; otherwise I withdraw with my whole army.
I go back to my country." That was the ultimatum, so went the rumour, that the Sultan
had given to the Kaiser. The Kaiser was alarmed and he became a Mussulman ! This fib
they uttered before the Hindu prisoners in order to spite them. "Was there any truth in
this?" they went about asking. At last, one of the enthusiasts in our camp who was an
Arya Samajist said to me that this bubble had to be pricked. I told him, "My dear friend,
how can we prove or disprove it? You know that a lie must be met by a lie; a canard can
only be exploded by a canard; and I will tell you how to do it. To-morrow as soon as you
come back to the prison from your work, go on proclaiming with as much emphasis as
you can that the 'Kaiser' had become an "Arya". The Mussulman Arya Samajists in the
Andamans pronounce the word 'Arya' with a long 'a'. Whenever you see Muslim
prisoners in conference and chatting together, go and gather together and say out 'The
Kaiser has become an 'Arya'. And if they asked for the proof, fire off that you had read it
in the Bazaar in a Hindi Paper."
The Kaiser becomes an Arya Samajist
And it was done. The news went round the prison the following evening that the
Kaiser had become an Arya Samajist. The Mussulmans lay low and sought to discover
what it was all about. They found out at last that the news was brought into the prison by
a Hindu warder. On the third day, they met him in a block where they were to do
common duty for the night, and the Hindu warder, without waiting to be questioned by
his colleagues, announced to Hindu prisoners that the German Kaiser had turned an Arya
Samajist. The Mussulmans became fidgety over it, and questioned him what proof he had
about the story. The Hindu warder asked them promptly what proof they had to say that
he had become a Mussulman. They said that they had read the news in an Urdu Paper, to
which the Hindu retorted that he had read it in a Hindi Paper. They asked him to produce
the Hindi Paper and the Hindu asked them to get the Urdu Paper. The Mussulmans, so
discomfited, began to shout that 'Arya' was the religion of the Kaffirs. Nothing daunted,
the Hindu replied that Islam was the religion of the Heathens. So it had nearly come to
blows, but there it stopped.
The report of the quarrel was next day taken to the jamadar. He was also one of
those who had believed and declared that the Kaiser was converted to Islam. But what
was the poor man to do when every time that they said that the Kaiser had become a
Mussulman, the Hindus were ready with the retort that he had become an Arya Samajist.
Ultimately the Mussulmans ceased talking about it, and the rumour was effectively
scotched.

The fact of Turkey entering the war on the side of Germany against England, fired
the imagination of the Muslims; and man, woman and child began to dream of Muslim
Raj in India. And when occasionally they came to hear that the Amir of Afghanisthan had
made a common cause with the Germans and the Turks, their enthusiasm knew no
bounds. The Pathans were so enraptured by the prospect that their tongues began to wag
like the croaking of frogs in a pool of water before the advent of the monsoon. If one
Pathan raised one rumour, another multiplied it tenfold, and so long as Enver Pasha was
in the field, he was reported to have decimated thousands of British regiments or taken
the city of Basra. About the Amir of Afghanisthan, the reports were still more extra-
vagant. It was not enough for him to cross the Indus, but he must knock to-day at the door
of Lahore, and march another day on Sirhind. The petty officers, moving in and out of
prison, brought in fantastic news that produced a convulsion among the prisoners. One
told us that the Amir had taken the city of Lahore. Another reported that Kaiser had
seized London. And, when asked for confirmation, they both excused themselves by
pointing to this Munshi or that who had given them the news, or by saying that they had
read it in an Urdu newspaper.
But behind the ridiculous behaviour of the Pathans there was one quality which I
never failed to impress upon those who simply laughed at them. I always asked my Hindu
brethren not to forget how enthused they were, to a man, over the prospect of Muslim Raj
in India, or over the invasion of India by a Muslim power. This pride of race and religion
was a virtue worthy of emulation-, and it was this pride that would instantly translate
itself into action at the right moment and with the right opportunity. The Hindus lacked
this pride, this fervour, this unity of action, and, therefore, they had suffered.
This was a matter of compliment for the Pathans but was full of menace to the
Hindus, and the Hindus must be ever vigilant about it. Eternal vigilance was the price of
liberty. Also they had to bear it well in mind that the Mussulman imbibed this religious
fervour and this spirit of Pan-Islamism with his mother's milk. In every Muslim
household he was taught from his childhood to love his religion and to stand by the
Muslim Raj. What had the Hindus to show in comparison with this fervour, with this
ardent, burning passion? Not one in ten thousand Hindus knew or cared to know what
was Hindusthan, what was Hindu power, Hindu Raj, or the meaning of the term Hindu.
What then of a common bond of sympathy among them? The Pathans had, at the
moment, only one place to call their own and that was Kabul. But they swear by it at all
times, while they eat, drink and sleep. The Hindus have a place which is their own, but
very few know of it, and know that the place goes by the name of Nepal. Crores of them
cannot tell if the Nepalese is a Hindu or a Muslim. And the educated classes among them
think and are found to declare that Nepal is no part of Hindusthan and that it was a
different country altogether, more akin to China, Persia and Afghanisthan and as foreign
as Servia. I have seen some of them holding an argument with me on the subject.
Whenever in my talks with the prisoners in the Andamans, I maintained that
Nepal, being a Hindu Kingdom, can be made a good nucleus of Hindu Sangathan, they

showed their doubt about it, and presumed to imagine that Nepal was, like Tibet,
inhabited by primitive people, and was an insignificantly small country of foreigners. I
was hard put to it to convince them by argument that the truth was far otherwise.
As I conveyed the news of war, from day to day, to my fellow-prisoners, plain
and unvarnished, as it came to me, the partisans of Turkey, our friends—the Mussulmans
often showed me their bitterest hatred. And for the same reason, when I presented the
English side of the war faithfully, Mr. Barrie and the Superintendent were equally put out
with me. The Superintendent at the time was a jingo imperialist, and he looked upon my
work as an act of wickedness. He watched me with a severe eye enemy of his country.
Just at the time the Andamans felt the first shock of the war; the report had come that a
German submarine was plying in its waters, and officers had been arranging the defence
of Port Blair against the attack of the enemy. The prisoners in the jail were all put upon
the work of preparing tarpaulins and similar material to shield the British regiments from
the sudden onslaught. The officers became still more adverse to me in that crisis. For, in
order to prepare gunny-bags, the prisoners had to be put on the task of picking oakum
work live or six times as much as they had done before. They had each to pick ten pounds
of oakum every day, where before they picked only two pounds of it. The prisoners were
put to that hard work under pain of severe thrashing. The political prisoners were few in
number —only those on transportation for life. All the rest were sent out to India after
our third strike. The political prisoners were themselves appointed by Mr. Barrie to
supervise the work, and to exact it from the prisoners. If we proved helpful to the
authorities in exacting work from the prisoners, there was every chance of our being
relieved of all work and of being appointed warders. Barrie saw this and delegated the
task to us. He told us "Do nothing, but see to it that these youngsters give us their full
day's work." And this device of Mr. Barrie proved a success. Unfortunately, the prisoners
given in my charge, I discovered, could give no more than three pounds a day each, of
picked oakum. And they complained that they were not bound to give more work as the
present war was not theirs and India had nothing to do with it. "Take from us, of course,
our normal quota of two pounds a day. We are bound to give it. But to compel us to turn
out ten pounds because of the war, is a task that we are not going to put up with." What
answer could I give them on this? I myself thought that they were in the right. None dare
thrash the prisoners under my charge. The prisoners knew it full well. Therefore, they
would do their normal quota and something more, and stopped there. In the evening Mr.
Barrie found out that my section had done much less than ten pounds for every prisoner,
but had done much more than his share of two pounds a day. Mr. Barrie, therefore, began
his barking. He stripped the Tindal of his belt and made things hot for me. In the night the
Mussulman petty officers reported' to him that I was preaching sedition to my section of
prisoners. Next day the Superintendent deposed me from my new office, and, by way of
punishment, put me on picking oakum. I put on my strip of suspender and began the
work. At the end of the day I could hardly do one pound with the utmost of my labour.
When it was found that I did just as much work as I could, and would not receive any
help to fill my quota from other prisoners in my section, the other prisoners also ceased
overworking themselves. I was, therefore, segregated from them and put again in my cell
on the top-floor of block number seven. I was asked there to resume my task of picking
oakum.

The tindal, who had complained to Mr. Barrie about my preaching sedition to the
section in my charge, had himself sworn against the Government before me by the name
of God. Other tale-tellers had done the same. But I did not report against them. They
attributed to me all sorts of offences and continued inventing stories about me, because
they were sure that I was not the man to betray them. It became easy for them, by these
means, to curry favour with the authorities of the jail to feather their own nests.
It was at this time, as I have already mentioned the fact in the Chapter on Shuddhi
movement, that the Musulman warders and petty officers were set on to harass me for
hours together by indecent abuse within the hearing of those who had come to look up to
me with reverence and affection. They were given full freedom to talk about me in foul
language all over the prison, and they continued to pester me all along.
But then incidents happened one after another which encouraged me to carry on
my work even in the depressing atmosphere of my prison-life.
The submarine Emden and the havoc it worked
The first event which diverted the attention of the Officers at Port Blair from us,
and consequently brought us some relief from the troubles described above, was the
advent of the Emden in the sea around the Andamans. Soon came the report that the
Emden had bombarded Madras. The authorities tried to keep it a dead secret, but this
made wilder rumours spread all over the settle-it. Never in the whole history of these
islands had the officers found themselves so militarily unprepared and in such panicky
atmosphere, There was hurry and bustle all over the place to rally the armed forces to
protect the islands from similar attack. Next to the prison they set up an arsenal and an
ammunition depot. Trenches were dug out all round the prison-wall and British soldiers
were posted in them to guard the prison. A regiment of British soldiers was ordered out
from Calcutta. The officers were detailed to guard the shore day and night. Within a few
days British warships or men-of-war were sailing on the seas around the Andamans.
French submarines and Russian Dreadnoughts touched at Port Blair and passed on. The
naval officers on board these warships visited the jail from time to time. The Captain of a
Russian submarine, on his visit to the jail, had a long talk with me. He said to me that
Europe still remembered that I was a prisoner in the Andamans. The visits of these
officers and their occasional talk were not without their consolation to me in the solitude
of my cell.
These movements made it clear to us that in the strategy of the war in Europe the
enemy had marked out these islands as a point of attack in the Eastern waters. Recalling
to my mind the activities of the Abhinav Bharat Mandal and the other Indian
revolutionary societies in the West, I had guessed that if at all war were to break out in
Europe between Germany and England, these islands were bound to be the point of attack

in the movement of the war from the West to the East. Mr. Barrie and other officers of
the jail tried their level best to keep us in the dark about the movements of the troops
along our shores. But I had divined, in spite of the secrecy maintained by them, that the
Emden was hovering about the place to level its attack on the Andamans. News filtered
in, that it was seen approaching our shores and that it had created a consternation all over
the settlement. The harbour of Port Blair was not of such value to her. Why then did the
submarine ply in these waters? I felt it was to bombard the Silver Jail and to set all of us
free. I can say freely now how a doctor friend had managed to send me a message in the
Andamans that the Abhinav Bharat and other revolutionary societies in Europe had
contacted the Kaiser and arranged that a submarine should come over here to bombard
the place and release us. It was then to rush into Burma and help to create a violent
revolution in India by all arms and ammunition necessary for that task. The ordinary
prisoners were full of high hopes. They changed the slogan of "a free days now" into the
password of "today or tomorrow." "Brother, today or tomorrow we shall be free", that
was a mode of greeting that had become common among them.
On a sudden, one would come panting and report to us that the German submarine
had come and was sighted by the officers. They had turned their binoculars in her
direction and were busy spying her movements. The Europeans on the island had left
their bungalows and were running truly enough helter-skelter. The German sub-marine
and the German navy had, for some time, become care to the handful of British soldiers
posted to guard these islands. And they feared that in the event of such a is, the prisoners
themselves would turn against the European settlers. And this feeling was not altogether
landless, for the number of soldiers and the amount of arms and ammunitions in that
place were not sufficient to guard the place against an ordinary riot. The Andamans no
more than a drop in the ocean. What then would be their plight if a German Dreadnought
or a German sub-marine were to bombard the place in such a helpless position? But
brought up in the traditions of a great Empire, the Britishers held together and had
decided to guard the place at all cost. They did not yield themselves to panic but made
full preparations to hold the foe at bay. That the flying visit of a submarine should create
a panic among the wives and children of the Europeans on that island no surprise to me.
The surprise of it was that a handful of them should maintain their hold over us for four
con-nous and trying years of the war, and in the midst of thousands of prisoners and other
people on the island who regarded them as their enemies and whose faith in their was
completely shaken by the catastrophe. Not a coconut plant was allowed to be uprooted
from its soil, not a prisoner escaped from his daily quota of two pounds of oakum, or the
portion of woven strand that was his usual labour. The same regulations, the same
discipline, the same round of labour, the same order in the prison and the outside, went
on with the regularity of the clock-work.
This nature of an Englishman, this tenacity of will, this pugnacity of temper, the
Peshwas had failed to discern in the decline of their power. And today, as then, the
population of Hindusthan is ignorant of it as ever. It is this trait in us that filled me with
dismay. In the thick of the war rumours floated on to us that that day London had fallen;
and that the German Dreadnoughts were bound to attack and take the Andamans

overnight. The prisoners were dead sure about the authenticity of the news. They had, of
course, no answer to give when we questioned them on the point. They would tell us that
they had got it from this/that or another source. Some said it came to them from the
waiter or the cook of a particular officer. Another said that it was the head-cook of the
Chief Commissioner who had given the news to him. He had himself seen the Chief
Commissioner break open the post and reading the letter had dropped down in the chair,
and dashed his hat on the table. Mr. Barrie was seen in tears, and his little daughter had
thrust her head into the knees, and was lost in fear.
Such were the bits of news purveyed to us by the prisoners, and such were the
proofs that they produced to support them. I was reminded by them of the alarming and
false news in the days of the last Peshwa, Bajirao II. What reporters were those on whom
the Peshwa depended! One correspondent reported to him of the big victory won by
Yeshwantrao Holkar over the English and in support of the news the wise-acre stressed
the fact(?) that the political resident at Garpir, while reading a communique, had flung his
hat on the floor! The same evidence and the same inference still obsessed the mind of the
people of India even today. The Britisher has not gone and wears his hat fast on his head.
We are the fools for all that.
Indeed during the last hundred and fifty years of British Rule in India, there has
been no change whatever in these traits of British character. They are born politicians,
strong-willed administrators and tough fighters. And we have not changed either. We
have remained the same gullible people, incapable of appreciating British character and
ignorant of the ways and means to effectively confront them. The Britishers have not
forgotten much during the last hundred and fifty years. And we have not learnt very much
from them. The word-for-word report conveyed to me of the sahib dashing his hat on the
ground, spontaneously made me retort "Fools! the sahib was no Indian to do it. He was
an Englishman and no coward. You would find one in a thousand Britishers whom you
could < all a coward. The rest would not budge an inch. They light to the last and win.
Behold how among a thousand lambs like you, five of them live like lions, brave, fearless
and stern. A sahib to dash his hat on the ground for fear! Nay the weather was warm and
he did it, Barrie's daughter to thrust her head between the knees because she was
frightened! No, she must be sleepy because she played too much, and was dozing. How
do you know that the news of the submarine had scared her?"
Though it was foolish to be elated by the news, true or false, of British reverses and to
exclaim, "0, brother, we are free, today or tomorrow," it was no less shortsighted to
affirm that, while kingdoms and empires were tumbling down in the earthquake of war,
the god in India Mould stand firm on its pedestal, and the shock of the war could never
make him totter and fall. My information of movements abroad, the hovering of the
German submarine about the Andamans, and the intensive British preparations to defend
them, made me conclude that it was equally foolish to say that nothing would come out
of it, that we must ever remain weak, and rot and weep for ever in this jail. I still believed
that the Emden was plying in these Waters according to plan, and the plan was no other

than to get us free. Once or twice I felt that the event was imminent. For the Emden,
moving around, had almost hemmed us in. The wireless messages sent by the Chief
Commissioner to Calcutta for monetary help were duly intercepted released by the
Emden, and when the ship laden with money was on her way to the Andamans, the
submarine caught her and looted the treasure. The Andamans felt keenly the shortage of
food-stuffs once or twice; for the ships could not ply the water, for months together, from
Rangoon, Calcutta and Madras to this place. In this situation none could say definitely
how long we could hold out, and when we would be compelled to surrender to the
enemy. And then?
Not to be provided against this contingency would have been a reckless attitude of
mind. For, then, we would be missing an opportunity of a life-time. So we began thinking
out what we were to do if we were suddenly caught in this deluge, if the German
submarine bombarded the Andamans and captured it, and if, in consequence, the
prisoners of the Silver Jail were all forthwith let loose....
The plans of the submarine were clear to my mind as I knew the movements of
the Indian revolutionaries abroad. In that light I made the position clear to my political
colleagues as well as to other prisoners in my confidence. And I prepared a line of action
to meet such an emergency. I communicated it to all of them, that they might be ready for
the day and be not caught napping. "Do not believe like fools that the Britishers can be so
easily overthrown", I told them. But restricting ourselves to the Andamans, and in case
the Emden succeeds in capturing and turning it into a centre for a possible revolution in
India, we must be prepared to defend ourselves and do our duty to our country. We are
not to be misled by foolish hope or useless despair. Whatever we decide upon, we must
decide by wise and selfless attitude of mind. It was my effort, during these trying days of
doubt and hope to awaken in the prisoners the sense of caution, alertness and duty.
The publication of the Rowlatt Committee's Report, in subsequent years, had
made it evident that the Emden had such designs in approaching the shores of the
Andamans, and that my forecast was not altogether without foundation. The account of
revolutionary activities in India outside, given in that Report, and their connection with
Germany, makes it plain enough that, at least, during the first year of war, their plans
were definitely to capture the Andamans and release us. And I know that these were not
idle speculations but had nearly succeeded in the Emden's prowling activities about these
shores. The European officers on these islands, in their later reports, confirmed our fears
of such possible happenings.
I have already narrated in the early pages of this work, how, after the capture of
Emden, the Government was definitely in the know of these matters and how they set up
the defence of this prison as a military fortress. A turncoat among us had at once carried
to the ears of Mr. Barrie a report that negotiations were going on for the German
aeroplane to swoop down upon the prison and take Savarkar out and away from this

place. As if to checkmate this fictitious move, Mr., Barrie planted a fully armed posse of
soldiers on a platform in the centre of our prison. This was in addition to the regiment of
British soldiers specially detailed to be on patrolling duty all over the prison. This order
continued for many months after the cessation of the war in Europe. After the incident of
the Emden, I was subjected to the strictest surveillance. And that gave the traitors among
us a chance to raise all sorts of rumours against me, and to convey them to the jailor and
the Superintendent above him. They were busy propitiating these tin-gods in any manner
they liked.

When a regiment of British soldiers came to be planted in the island, this mood of
our friends had found a special outlet to vent itself against us. The Tommies had no
means of amusement and recreation in the barren and sordid atmosphere of this prison.
Our friends were kind enough to furnish the entertainment. They invented all sorts of
stories about me and about my former revolutionary activities; about my machinations in
this prison; and about my secret connections with Germany. Full of fervour and -spice
they told the stories to the soldiers in order to entertain them. What those stories were,
how the soldiers were regaled by them, what the officers said about me in their serious
discussions over the possible movements of the Emden,—full of the real and imaginary
in them—all this finds its proper place in what the famous "Ditcher" of the 'Capital' of
Calcutta wrote of these events later on in his weekly notes for that paper. I may mention
more about it as I pass on.

It was not so easy there to control us, and especially the political prisoners! The
officers and the authorities must have imagined that our transportation to the jail in the
Andamans was our death-in-life, the end of all our activities, our burial in the grave-yard
of the Andamans from which no resurrection was possible. And, therefore, they need no
more think of us and be anxious over us. But the world had not forgotten though we lay
buried here. On the other hand, they thought and spoke and wrote about the Andamans in
the world without, because of the political prisoners confined in that island. And the jail
had been turned into a living fortress, strongly armed and keenly guarded, and the seas
were protected by dreadnoughts and submarines, for fear of our escape from it, in order
to keep us safe within.

That our compatriots in India should so remember us, so cherish our memory,
when we lay as prisoners in the Andamans and dead to the world without, filled our
hearts with gratitude to them. And even in that dark dungeon of a prison-house, in the
conditions of utter despair and horrid physical and mental torture, this living memory
about us gave us hope and courage which I feel it my duty to record in these pages. Every
day we were in fear that a fresh charge of sedition and high treason might be trumped up
against us as the result of a systematic campaign of misrepresentation going on against us
during these days of war. And who misrepresented us and carried tales against us? Our
own men, the renegades among us, who had allied themselves with Mr. Barrie to save
their own skins!

But even in this daily suspense and anxiety, we felt gratified that the war had
made the Indian question an issue of international importance. This world-earthquake
was sure to fructify our hopes about India; that the desert of India would smile again like
paradise—thoughts like these elated us; but a reaction also came that the war may end in
turning the whole world into a desert with India included in it.
We swung like a pendulum between smiles and tears; and yet did not fail to rise
above the darkness of despair and peep at the dawn that was sure to follow it. To end
with the words of the poet, we ever "painted on the midnight sky of sorrow, the golden
morrow."
End of Chapter III

CHAPTER IV (1914-1918)
Political prisoners again flood the Andamans !
While these manoeuverings of the German submarine in the waters of the
Andamans were in progress to attack the islands, I happened to receive a press-cutting
from a friend which contained the heading "Mutiny at Meerut". This cutting was thrown
into my cell by a political prisoner employed as a writer in the office below.
About the month of May last, a plot was discovered in India to start a revolution
with an army at Meerut rising in mutiny against the Government. Several arrests were
made. Some were tried and sent to the gallows. As I read the headline, a thrill went
through my heart and all over the body.
In 1857, in the same town of Meerut, and about the month of May, Indian
regiments had broken into open revolt against their masters. That also was a spark of fire
thrown up from the furnace of revolution that was preparing all over the country. What
was to be the end of this recent mutiny at Meerut, I wondered. Was it a spark of a general
revolution?
If it were confined to Meerut alone, the Government would not make such a
mountain of it; it would not so broadcast it all over the country. What a difference it
indicated, all the same, between India ten years ago and India now ! Discontents,
petitions, appeals, protests, censures, conspiracies, and riots, action and reaction,
revolvers, bombs, fights, and the revolt of an army—the widespread rumours about it !
What a change had the whirligig of time introduced in India in these ten years!
Since the War of Independence in 1857, the word mutiny had been expunged
from the political vocabulary of India. The idea had faded out of her political sky. In the
conflagration of the European War of 1914, it had risen phoenix-like to inflame that sky,
and the daring of the people had risen to its highest point in that thermometer.
On that day and during the week, the mutiny at Meerut had become the absorbing
topic of discussion for all of us in that prison. Then came in its wake the news of
conspiracy and revolt in Lahore and Punjab. Within a few days thereafter, the soldiers
who had refused to go t>n the front and regiments of them, were being deported as
prisoners to the Andamans; and we had first-hand proof of the agitation going on in India.

Our last strike had ended in the beginning of 1914. And, thereafter, we alone,
some few on transportation for life, were detained here while all other political prisoners
were sent back to India. Of that I have already written. But in the turmoil and confusion
of this war, who was to follow that rule? All politicals convicted for conspiracies and
revolutionary movements on the eve of the Great War were being sent for incarceration,
batch after batch, to this jail, and this change had become convenient for us to secure the
latest reliable news of agitation all over the country, and of war in Europe.

The German submarines had, for some time, blocked the passage in the seas of
the Andamans. They had captured and detained one or two merchant ships during the
period; as such there was no communication by sea between India and the Andamans,
and no prisoners from India could be sent to the prison in the Andamans. When these
submarines were destroyed by the warships of Japan, Russia and Great Britain, the sea
became a safe passage for traffic between India and the Andamans and the system of
sending Chalans from India to these islands was resumed as before.

And one day we found a party of political prisoners entering the Silver Jail. This
was the first batch of convicts in the Lahore Conspiracy Case and consisted, for the most
part, of Sikhs involved in the 'Gadar' trial.

On seeing them, I exclaimed, forgetting for a while their pitiable condition in the
jail, "Behold these Sikhs, they have come here at last as I had predicted."

When I was taking a leading part in the Indian revolutionary activities in England,
I had a discussion one day with my Sikh colleague, Sirdar Harnam Singh, on the subject
of national awakening among the Sikhs in India. There were at that time many Sikh
students taking their education in England. Punjab being the centre of recruitment for the
Indian army, it was easy for these young students on their return to India to spread the
cult of nationalism from hut to hut, and village to village throughout the Sikh Community
in the Punjab. I told my friend how to do it and drew up a scheme far that purpose. I
emphasised the need of such work as I regarded the Sikhs as part of the Hindu
community as a whole. My friend, Sirdar Harnam Singh, seemed to have no hopes about
it. He said that the Sikhs as a community were extremely clannish, they had no vision and
interest beyond their particular habitations in the Punjab. They had no national outlook,
and he doubted very much if they could ever be persuaded to think and feel as
nationalists. Their religious fervour on behalf of the Panth and the Sangha was a great
obstacle to their being converted to the view that they were Indians, and they were one
politically with the Hindus of India. I said to my friend, then, "Look here, you are a Sikh,
you come from a Sirdar family of moderate views in politics. You take your education in
England and you have become one of us, a nationalist, a revolutionary like myself, and
ready to sacrifice everything for your country. If a Sikh like you can in such a short time
be this, why not all other Sikhs? I have studied the history of the Sikhs closely and I
know what type of men you are. If you agree to work up the scheme, I have outlined for

you, and talk about it, discuss it with every Sikh whom you meet here and in India, I feel
sure that within five years you will witness a great change in them, and they will all range
themselves on our side. I have no doubt about it." This was said somewhere between
1908 and 1009.
I remember the meeting and the conversation when I saw the Sikh prisoners
pouring into the jail of the Andamans. And I said to my friends, "They have come as I
told they would."
Now remained the Nepalese to be one with us. If the Gurkha along with the Sikhs
were absorbed in the camp of Hindu Sanghatan, all Hindus would be one and would
present a solid front to the rest of India.
These feelings would well up within me according to the changing phases of
thought through which I was passing at the moment. After the batch of Sikh convicts,
came in batches of political prisoners in the Punjab sentenced in conspiracy case in
different parts of the province. Several batches of soldiers were transported to this place
for refusing to go to Rangoon, Singapore, Basra and other fronts; and there were among
them convicts in revolutionary conspiracies. Their advent in this prison surcharged the
atmosphere with shades and differences of live political opinion. About a hundred and
fifty political prisoners had gathered in this prison as convicts for different kinds of
offences. There were those who had mutineed at Singapore; others who had proceeded to
Rangoon via Siam to spread sedition in the army and raise a rebellion; others again who
were involved in Benares Conspiracy Case; there were some from Bengal charged and
sentenced for political dacoity; and all sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. It is
impossible here to give a full story of all their adventures, their daring exploits, their
secret movements, and their mysterious plans. We cannot even mention their names in
this edition. We have to leave that task for the future.
Among these recent arrivals, there was only one man whom I had known
personally and he was Professor Permanand, However, I had referred to all of them in my
previous talks with the prisoners, so that when they came in this prison, there was a
complete change in their political outlook. They heard from these recent arrivals about
their ideals, about their self-sacrifice; they heard stories of those who had been sent to the
gallows, or had died fighting; of their plots and conspiracies; they heard descriptions of
battlefronts in France, and of the war as it was being fought. This first-hand information
had worked such a revolution in their thoughts and behaviour. We had already
endeavoured to educate them in these high matters and to make them capable of thinking
about them and of playing their part in the political life of their country. But personal
contact with these new men had helped considerably to widen their interest and deepen
that knowledge.

Though I knew only Professor Permanand among them, most of them knew me.
They had read my contributions to the press; they had studied my books. Their reverence
for me made them eager to see me as soon as they had stepped into the prison. The prison
officials took all possible measures to keep them apart from me; but, considering their
strength of numbers, it was impossible for the authorities to detach them entirely from
me; and soon myself and they could establish perfect communication with one another.
They told me that newspaper 'Gadar' in America had published translations in Hindi,
Urdu and Punjabi, of my book on the Indian Mutiny of 1857. One of the prominent
leaders of the 'Gadar Movement' in America, Pandit Jagatram by name, who, in the
Lahore Conspiracy Case, refused to defend himself though the charge against him would
have brought upon him the sentence of death, and who confessed that he had done what
he was charged with, and further told me "I was once an easy-going man; one who loved
pleasure and knew nothing else of importance in life. I did not dabble at all in politics.
But one day, I happened to get your book on Indian Mutiny to read. I sat out for one
whole day and one whole night and finished the book. I set it aside, and, with it, I also set
aside my former mode of life. I took an oath that I will work for the freedom of my
country, and here I am today with you." Just in a vein of humour I said, "Well then, that
book of mine had obtained for you a ticket for the Andamans."
Another, who had served long in the Indian army and had earned much wealth in
business in the latter part of his life, an old Sikh gentleman, told me that it was the
reading of articles in the 'Gadar', that had converted him to revolutionary movement for
the freedom of India. He enlisted himself in that movement and gave all his fortune to it,
though anonymously. And, as a result, he had achieved transportation to the jail of the
Andamans. Speaking to me on the subject, he said, progressive people in China,, who
knew about India and her present struggle, always enquired 'Where is Mr. Savarkar? In
which prison is he locked up?' " And, then, the old gentleman had told them about my
hardships here and they expressed their bitter grief for my misery and suffering. When in
England, I used to write on India in the newspapers connected with the Chinese
revolutionary movement led by Dr. Sun-Yet-Sen. Some of them remembered me as late
as the years 1915 and 1916. And I had the consolation that my work had not all gone in
vain.
Referring to the Kolu, I am reminded of a story of its publicity in America. Its
publicity had induced some of the brave Sikhs, who had now come here as prisoners, to
join our movement in America. They told me, "A cartoon, showing you yoked to the oil-
mill, was published in one of our papers in America. I got the newspaper from a newsboy
hawking it about in the streets of America. As we saw the cartoon, we were deeply
pained by the sight and were full of tears. While men like you, we felt, were sacrificing
their all for their country, we were wasting our lives in spending lavishly on drink and
enjoying ourselves. And the thought made us ashamed of ourselves." This revulsion of
feeling made them take life seriously, join our movement, forego their wealth and suffer
as others had suffered for the independence of India. They left America, came back to
India and joined in conspiracies for the overthrow of the British Raj. And here they were

now in the prison of the Andamans along with us, and sentenced like us to serve long
terms of imprisonment across the seas.
Many were the episodes they told me of their own experience about the matter, I
have narrated here only one or two of them. The last of these surprised me most though it
was a pleasant surprise. For whenever I turned the Kolu in the solitude of my room and
was done up by the exertion, I always used to console myself by the thought that I would
bear it all, if the knowledge of it to the world outside were only to pour oil into the flames
of discontent that I knew were spreading all over the country. But I was in despair about
it. For how was the story of my hardships to reach the ears of those who were so far away
from me? I have already referred to this mood and how I controlled it by the power of
thought! But when my Sikh friend told me the story, I said to myself, "Yes, I must bear it
all, for it is never lost, it produces its effects in due time. That is the only way that one
can put fat in the fire and make it burn. An agitation succeeds finally on the strength of
tenacity and patience of its sufferers. Here was the proof of it. Every drop of oil that fell
into the vat below, as I turned the wheel that ground down and crushed the dried coconut-
kernels in the rut and the well, was a spark that had kept blazing the sacred fire of dis-
content already aflame all over the country. Here was a clear evidence of that influence.
One of the Sikhs in the prison informed me that his copy of my prescribed book
on the Indian Mutiny of 1857, had gone into the hands of a friend in Brazil. The book
was so popular with Indians everywhere, that the copy in Brazil was sold for a sum of Rs.
150. In addition to this personal news, I got all the information I wanted of what had
happened in Siam, Canada, Singapore, America, Europe, Bengal and the Punjab as the
result of our secret movements and conspiracies in that part of the world, from the
mouths of leaders and followers who had taken an active part in them from the incident
of the Komagata Maru down to the violent uprising in the Punjab during the days of this
war. Part of it was known to the world, and part of it had yet remained in the dark. I had
planned to write a complete history of all these efforts and struggles in one connected
narrative beginning with 1909 and bringing it down to the close of the first Great War.
But I found it impossible to complete such a story in the prison at Andamans. And I had
slender hopes to write it ever for I had never expected then to be free and to enjoy
sufficient leisure and peace of mind to complete the task that I had proposed to myself.
My fellow-prisoners, the Sikhs, ever encouraged and always insisted that I should
undertake the work, when I would twit them that the task of the present generation was to
make history and the task of the following generation was to write it, which it may or it
may not do. After all writing history was a secondary business; making it was the prime
part.
As soon as the first batch of convicts in the Lahore Conspiracy Case in the Punjab
reached the Andamans, the jail authorities adopted all measures to keep it under strict
control. Profiting by past experience, however, the work on Kolu was given only to those
in the batch whom they found strong and able-bodied to do it. But we warned the
newcomers that it was but the thin end of the wedge, and that they would be wise to

refuse to do it from the very start. We know that the authorities dare not remain stub-born
with these forty to fifty prisoners, with by far a larger total of prisoners at that time in the
jail, than it was when we had resisted, struck work and finally won in banishing the Kolu
from our daily ration of hard labour. The authorities proposed as a result of this protest,
that they were to work on the Kolu for a week and no more. We suggested that the
prisoners should agree to the compromise and get on to work. All our earlier struggles on
behalf of political prisoners had thus proved of immense value to those who came after.
But now the quarrel turned on the work of picking oakum. Many of the convicts in this
batch were spirited young men, fire-eaters, most of them, and it was foolish to expect that
they would prostrate themselves on the very first day before the petty officers and the
jamadars put on supervising their work. When in the evening each one of them went to
the jamadar to hand over to him his day's quota of work, the tindal and the jamadar
ventured to behave very rudely with him, for which these got from him and from all the
reward they deserved. Of course the jamadar took the affair to the jailor, and as a result
the boldest and the most spirited of them, one Parmanand by name, was sent for by Mr.
Barrie for personal enquiry.

The convict beats Mr. Barrie

This young Parmanand was a different type altogether from Professor Permanand.
Later on he became one of the most shining men and teachers who had studied deeply
and read widely during the long years of self-education action in this prison, which, for
that reason, may be well compared to the University of Nalanda in Ancient India. They
had not only qualified themselves for that high position by mere erudition, but by their
spirit of sacrifice, by their sense of service and by their sterling character. Well, young
Parmanand was made to appear before Mr. Barrie; and Mr. Barrie, as was usual with him,
began by insulting young Parmanand. He first ordered him to stand erect. Parmanand had
stood before him as any ordinary decent man would stand. But Mr. Barrie would not be
satisfied and, in fury, addressed foul words to him, for abuses were his ingrained habit.
But the spirited young man was not accustomed to them. As soon as the young man had
heard these words, he brushed aside his warders on either side, rushed forward, and gave
a sharp slap in the face of Mr. Barrie right in the office where he was sitting to try the
young man. Seeing him coming like a tiger, Mr. Barrie shouted and tried to rise from the
chair, and the blow crashed on his, nay, the chair was upset and Mr. Barrie ran out crying,
"Catch him, catch him." Mr. Parmanand was overpowered, beaten all over the body with
stick and fisticuffs , till his lips, his face and back began to bleed. Mr. Barrie hurriedly
rang up the Superintendent. He reported that there was riot in the prison, and there was
consternation all over the colony. The cry went round that a bomb-thrower had thrashed
the warders and had beaten Mr. Barrie. The Superintendent arrived and ordered caning
for Parmanand. He was tied to the frame-work and given twenty stripes with the cane.
Every stroke made a deep cut in the body and blood spouted from the wound. His whole
body was a mass of lacerated flesh. The cane cut the flesh and pieces fell out with each
stroke of it. Yet Parmanand did not wince and uttered not a word. I have heard prisoners
bellowing under the inhuman punishment, —the most hardened criminals and the
goondas among them. But young Parmanand stood still. Mr. Barrie went on, "Beat him,