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

by some member of the secret societies, of which there were many in those days. A mine
may spring up beneath my feet, and, who knows, I may disappear on a sudden. These and
other reasons of safety had decided the authorities to take me to the station all by myself,
in a car, and along a different route. They did not want to repeat the mistake that they had
committed at Marseilles.
Whenever I was thus taken form one place to another in a special car and under a
special guard, my fellow-prisoners thought highly of me. They used to say, “Why, he is a
king; they take him out in a car; why should he tramp with us along the road?” others
said, “Evidently Government is afraid of him. Otherwise they would not have given him
a car to go in”. my effort to run away from the steamer-boat at Marseilles did do me some
good after all! It procured me a car to enjoy a long drive. It created in the mind of these
prisoners a sort of reverence for me. And, further, right or wrong, the more the authorities
tried to belittle me, the greater the respect they showed to me.
We came to the station and I was shoved one a separate compartment. The other
end of my had-cuffs was tied to the hand of the Officer who was charged to carry me.
Poor man, he had to be a prisoner like myself for the time-being. There were shackles on
my feet as well. Not only did I wear hand-cuffs, but my two hands were tied together by a
chain between them. I could not tuck up my dhoti, the Officer had to do it for me. If I had
to go to the lavatory, he had, perforce, to accompany me, as he and I were holding
together by a common chain. So also about sleep. Such wretched experience and dirty life
I had to pass through during my journeys, to and fro, from one place to another.
Although they had quietly put me in a separate compartment, people had noted
my transit all night. They approached my compartment with eager expectation and as
ruthlessly, they were turned out from that place. They were not only Indians but counted
some Europeans among the number. These could come close to me, open the shutters of
my compartment and addressed me in polite or rude words as they liked, and leave. There
was no restriction or forbidding in their case. The train started, but at every station, where
it stopped in the journey, I found the shutters of my window put down. Since the time I
had left England, I was never allowed to travel in any compartment with windows up.
But the Officer with me in this compartment had, as if by prearrangement, kept the
window shutters up so that the European visitors should have a full look of me. A large
crowd of them had come near my compartment. Some of these men had lifted up their
women-folk on their shoulders that might see me clearly. One beckoned on to me to stand
up. “There is he; that is Savarkar”, went up the cry form all sides as I stoop up. The
European ladies and gentlemen on the station platform, of course, did not come so near
me as I could talk to them. Four or five of them did come close enough. But I did not
exchange a word with them. I did not enquire who they were. They were all polite to me;
only rarely, I met with insolence from them. And if nay one of them was rude to me, I
paid him back in the same coin. I simply cold-shouldered him, and so he melted away.

Those Hot Plains
The windows of my compartment were always kept shut. Across the bars in
another compartment was huddled up the party bound for the Andaman islands. They
were all in an uproar on that side. Those were hot summer days. The heat of the Sun
overhead was like that of a burning furnace. A marriage party going in that train would
have found the journey unbearable. I was only a prisoner sent to transportation for life.
How then must have I felt it? the plains all about us were exuding hot vapour, and
correspondingly it was steaming hot in the train. And both vied, as it were, with the
dreariness and burning heat of the heart within. My soul and body were oppressed by
both. In this state of mind and body I found the train running at full speed through the
Mogul territory on its way to Madras. In desperateness, I recalled to my mind the treck of
prisoners in Russia marched in exile to the bleak regions of Siberia. Their miseries made
me cry, “You have not yet experienced a fraction of them. This is not a mere matter of
words. As thou sowest so shalt thou reap. And he alone will reap who had dared to sow”.
The train was leaping across village after village, town after town, through
gardens and forests, across the rivers and over the valleys, along the mountains, up hill
and down dale like an maddened tigress carrying in its mouth the prey which was no
other than myself. The train was delivering me to the Andamans with the rapidity of a
lightening. Will it bring me back to my own country with the same speed? Will it bring
me back at all? How can it bring me back and when? Vain imaginings these and obstinate
questionings! But the mind that hopes against hope cannot escape them. In far off Siberia,
many a prisoner dies with the name of dear Russia on his burning lips. So may I die far
away from dear India, and in the Andamans breathing the last word-my motherland!
The train arrived at Madras. I was taken down from my compartment and was
kept under guard apart from my fellow prisoners in the train. An Officer had
accompanied the train right through the journey. Between every two stations he would
come to my compartment, talk to the Officer in it, have a look at me and go back. I
thought he was to leave us now as we had reached Madras. He approached me now and
wished me good-bye. He seemed to be overcome with feeling as he said, “ I do hope, my
friend, you will be let off in the coming coronation ceremony at Delhi.” That was to be
on December. I answered, “Thanks for your good wishes. My wounds are so raw that
nothing can heal them. It would be folly for me to bank upon this hope.” The officer
assured me t the contrary as of he was in the know of things. “Believe me; you will be
free before long; good-bye. Nothing will efface from my mind the impression of this your
dignified courage.” Other Officers also took leave of me in the same manner. Having
heard all sorts of report about my behaviour at Marseilles, they had conjectured that, in
the journey, I would prove a horrible nuisance to them, I would hate the Englishman as a
devil, I would burn with rage against him. They took me naturally enough for a ruffian, a
braggart and an indecent fellow-a veritable miscreant in short. But I gave them no trouble
whatsoever. And they could pass me on safely to the Officers in Madras. At long last!

They said to themselves, and heaved a sigh of relief. They found me a fine fellow, and
taking off their hats and wishing me, they departed.
I was now in Madras where its Collector, Mr. Ashe, was done to death by a man
of the Abhinav Bharat Society. And the Officers suspected that it had some connection
with the Central Association of that name in Europe of which I happened to be the
leading figure. I had, therefore, expected that they would directly or indirectly sound me
upon the incident. When I was arrested in England and was being brought back to India, I
had not the slightest notion that the vice-president of the Abhinav Bharat, Mr. Aiyer,
whose premature death since, we were all mourning as a great loss to the country, had
proceeded to India. He had reached Pondicherry from Europe bearing all the rigours of
the journey, when warrants were hanging over his head and the police were on his track
all along the coast. He had eluded them all by assuming various disguises and offering
excuses and making pretences as time and occasion had suggested themselves to him. At
Pondicherry he took charge of a branch of the Abhinava Bharata, and had compassed the
end of Collector Ashe through the instrument of the Shakta Brahmin. Such was the
suspicion of the secret police against Mr. Aiyer. And I learnt this seven or eight years
after my incarceration, in the Andamans, having then read the secret report about him.
But while I was proceeding to Andamans I had no knowledge whatever of the return of
Mr. Aiyer to India. I had, no doubt, information about this murder and I had also
suspicion in my mind that some one from the Abhinava Bharat Mandal had done the
deed. Presuming that I may know nothing about it and yet seeking to worm out some
information from me, if he could about the Mandal, especially of its branch in Madras, an
Indian Officer dressed in an up-to-date European style saw me while I was in that city. A
steamer called Maharaja was anchored in the port to take us to the Andamans. All the
prisoners were conveyed on board the ship, in a boat full-packed with them. I alone was
left behind on the port. The Officers, including this Indian, presently arrived in a special
boat to convey me on the steamer. I got into the boat. It was a rule with me to talk to none
in these circumstances. For I was a prisoner and if I began talking, any one could put a
stop to it. The Indian Officer opened conversation with me on several ordinary topics
and, on a sudden, showed anxiety to know from me the history of my Society in England
and its present state. I told him that it was for him to enlighten me upon it. How can I
know anything about it from any person in India? “That is true enough” he interposed in
order to encourage me. “And what poor plots they are after all? They could not count
even four members to support them.” Smilingly I retorted “It was then for you to swell
the number.” “Nonsense, we in Madras are level-headed fellows. We are not wild and
senseless like young men on your side. If any one were to preach sedition or revolution
here, he will not get a single person to follow him.” He kept on talking in this strain just
to make me blurt out, by way of protest, the names of well-known revolutionaries in
Madras. He was looking at me from time to time if I was about to fall n to his trap. After
a time he himself said “What is your experience in this matter?” I retorted “You ought to
know it better than myself.” “I feel”, he continued, “that everything in Madras is quiet.” I
smiled and replied, “Yes, are you quite sure about it?” He caught the meaning of my
remark. The other Officers smiled significantly, and interposed. “He knows all about the
Ashe business. Only he is trying to pump you out, as you are trying to pump him.”

The boat touched the steamer Maharaja which had come from the Andamans. I
was lifted up, with handcuffs on, the ladder of the steamer and taken on the deck. While I
was climbing up, a whole crowd had gathered around to watch the scene. All the
passengers on board the ship, all Officers, all men in the boats around her, and other
spectators, had come out to see me. They saw me entering the steamer. They rivetted
their eyes on me, as we witness a corpse being tied on the bier. With eager eyes and bare-
faced shame they kept on gazing.
Yes, climbing into that steamer to be transported for life was like putting a live
man in his own coffin. Hundreds and thousands must have gone to the Andaman Islands
during these years, and not ten in a thousand had returned alive to India! Young men of
18, as soon as they put their step on that steamer, became old and the shadow of death
was visible on their faces when a man is put upon the bier, his relatives conclude that he
had left the world for ever, and, overcome with bereavement, watch the corpse with
vacant eyes. Even so, the spectators watched us a we climbed into that steamer, and felt
that we were dead to motherland we were leaving behind. The people, watching the
scene, fixed their eyes upon me with the same feeling in their hearts. I was dead to the
outside world- that feeling was writ large on their faces. Really, I was being put on my
funeral bier. The only difference was that I felt what has happening to me while my
corpse would have felt nothing. Thousands looking at me in this plight were simply
indifferent and altogether cold. They were looking at me as they would have seen any
corpse passing along the road. “Poor man, he is dead and gone!” says the passer-by and
forgets him the next moment. It was a pain to me to see them gaping at me- my fellow-
countrymen that they were-more that that the consciousness that my transportation was to
mean a death-in-life for me, could give me. If but a single one out of these my
compatriots was to tell me, “Go, my brother, go, I and others like me swear that we shall
make India free and fulfil your vow”, I would have felt my funeral bier as soft as a bed
strewn with flowers.

End of Chapter IV

CHAPTER V
The Black Sea
They took me on the ladder and put me in the ground floor of that steamer. A
portion with strong iron bars was set apart in that place, no better than a long and narrow
cage to accommodate twenty or thirty of us, in which were to be huddled prisoners on
transportation at least fifty in number. We were no better there than cattle huddled up on
board the steamer. I saw in that iron cage all the prisoners-the chalan-the whole of it,
from Thanaarrayed and standing cheek by jowl in the file. They were cribbed and
cabined into a space too small to hold them, As I saw them I wondered whether I was to
be put in the of that partitioned same place with them, when the door of room opened to
welcome me, that crowd and in rank and file.
Yes, I found my place in In England, I had suffered from bronchitis, and it had
left its traces which always made my breathing hard in a narrow and congested room. I
also had some pain in the chest due to such hard breathing. So I pointed out to a
European Officer, who accompanied us, that it would be dangerous to lock me up in such
a place. He conveyed the information to the doctor in charge of the steamer. The doctor
asked me to stay there for a while, and, then, he would let me know about it. If anything
went wrong, he assured me, he would certainly arrange for me elsewhere. In the
meanwhile, he selected for me a spot in a far off corner of the same apartment, and
ordered me to spread my bedding on that spot. How this special favour to me worked out
in the end I shall narrate as I go on.
A gentleman came up to me, while this was going on, and broached the topic of
my escape at Marseilles and my arrest thereafter. In my turn, I spoke to him frankly on
the subject. Thereafter, he said, "We have deliberately come here to see you. May God
grant that you return safe and back to your motherland. That is all our prayer to Him, and
a very sincere wish, we assure you." And the European gentleman and other Officers left
the steamer bidding me good-bye and showing me reverence by taking off their hats
There was only one person among them who seemed to be displeased by their behaviour
to a miscreant and convict like me He despised me altogether as unworthy of this
courtesy. He looked at me full of scorn, and went away without wishing me.
The Steamer Starts
The siren sounded, the funnel roared it was a rude shock to us. The boat rolled
and began to move. The partition in which we were pigeon-holed had, high up, two or
three window-like holes fixed with glass. Hanging on to them, some unfortunate

prisoners were casting their wistful glances at the receding harbour and fortification The
wall of the fortification became invisible when one of them burst out, "O, brethren, our
home we have left, left have we our home " He was so overpowered by that thought that
lie Instantly sank to the ground. His wall sent two prisoners from Satara-peasants they
were-into an outburst of tears. "No hope, now of seeing our country again, not the least
hope!" they added. To them the retort came, "Do not weep my brothers, we are doomed
for transportation, and no amount of weeping can save us " It came from the most
hardened criminals among the party, who had already served their term in the Andamans
once and were going back to it again. They consoled others like dispassionate
philosophers standing in their midst.
One of them suddenly turned round, and pointing his finger at me, exclaimed,
"behold him, he is a barrister, Officers take off their hats to him. What is our grief before
him? Brothers, let us not think of ourselves, let us think of him " at this they gradually
gathered around me.
Every one put me the same question, though they all knew it: "What, Sir, is your
term of penal servitude?" I gave to them the iron plate with the figure writ large upon it. I
had been tired of repeating the figure `fifty' over and over again. When the full realization
of this fact had come home to them, those, who were sentenced, among them, to fifteen
years' transportation, gathered courage and felt considerably relieved in mind Looking at
me they learnt to forget their own grief.
The Dirt On The Steamer
The evening came. It was blazing hot and the crowd was unbearable. The party of
fifty who were my Immediate neighbours on the ship, came from the dirtiest class of
Indian population. Hindus, Muslims, thieves, dacoits, - they were all Inured to filth,
cruelty and crime. Some of them were striven with foul diseases, some knew not what it
was to brush their teeth, and all had piled their beddings one upon the other, and lay by
each other without an Inch of space between them In this crowd I made my bed and lay
upon it. My feet touched their heads, and their feet came up near my mouth. If I turned on
the other side I found that mouth had nearly touched mouth. I lay on my back. Right in
front of me I saw a big cask almost half-cut and open. It was placed a little apart from the
thick of the crowd, with a little open space near it. The space on my side of the partition
and in the corner that accommodated me, was not so full of prisoners as that on the other
it was a little roomier and hence I was put there. But a horrible stank greeted my nostrils
from that direction. And I had to stop my nose to avoid it. A neighbour pointed at the
cask in the front. And I discovered that they used it all during the night as a chamber-pot
and commode. One of them was actually seated upon it at the time to ease himself. And
he was almost about to leave it in shame. I signed him not to do so "The claims of the
body cannot be put off. There was no shame in answering the call of nature. In a moment,
I may follow you. Do it freely. We cannot help it. We cannot afford to feel ashamed in

this wretched condition. I can smell, you think; do you think you have no nose? Why,
then, should I feel the stank more than you?" At this, the hardened one among them came
up to me and said "Sir, we are used to this. I am one who has been, once to the island
across and I know this practice too well. But you do not come over on the other side
where there not much dirt. And I take your place here." My heart melted when I heard
him say this. His generous offer was a wonder to me. I said, "O, my God, even in the
hearts of the most sinful ones, thou mayest thy abode, turning it into a shrine of worship
and prayer. Thou turnest what is dirty and untouchable into the holiest of the holy -the
sacred basil-pot it becomes, when it was no more than a sink of filth and crime.”
I thanked him for the offer and said "I could get a little breeze, a draft of fresh air
from this side and so the doctor had put me here. I could recline near the bars and stretch
myself a little more comfortably than the rest of you The Officer had no idea, perhaps, of
this cask right under my nose. But I consider this even as a concession to me. So you
need not worry. Why should I put you In the midst of dirt by exchanging my place with
yours? I also must Inure myself to this kind of life " the night came and I beheld a file of
them going one after another to that cask. Filth and stank had reached their peak of
nausea and disgust. I shut my eyes and pretended to be fast asleep so that they may have
no compunction on my account. Within me I said, "Alas! This was veritable hell on earth
and I had to pass through it." But reason admonished, "True enough, but It all depends
upon our thanking don’t you know that this place was assigned to you as a favour; then,
why should you grumble? Why would you not reconcile yourself to it? May be, God
desires by putting you here, that you should overcome your pride, your self-conceit, your
separateness from the rest, your sense of superiority. The best of sages, saints, seers and
yogis refrain from the `sadhana' which has come In your way to conquer and burn into
dust the pride of caste, gotra, race, class and character and merge themselves into the
universe and be one with its Creator. Why not use it to the full then? Do you not know
the story of Trilinga Swami? He was arraigned before a Magistrate on the charge of
obscene conduct. In the course of the trial, the Magistrate observed, "These call
themselves Advaitis? Why do they eat food and not cowdung?" The Swami laughed,
answered the call of nature right In front of the Magistrate, and before any one could stop
him, ate his own excreta"
Ramkrishna Paramahansa
The story goes of Ramkrishna Paramahansa which enforces the same moral. He
had exhausted all the sadhanas of experience of unity with the Divine. One sadhana alone
remained, and that was the hardest to practice. In order to practice it he went to Calcutta
and in the vicinity of the town where all the sewers of the town deposit its excreta. He
turned it up and down with his own hands He put five blades of straw into the dirt and
sucked the besmeared blades with his own mouth! You only smell it by the nose whale
the prisoners are seated on the cask to use it as their commode and you try to run away
from the cask because the stink is too much for your nostrils. But whale you seek to run
away from it, how can you escape from the one which you carry on your person wherever

you go? You may hide it underneath your garment but as the saint has put it, "The more
you hide it, the more it is exposed, and the more it fills the atmosphere with its foul
smell." Ramdas is stall clearer on the point when he says, "You may eat the choicest
meal. It is bound to be reduced to part pieces and part vomit. Drink the water of the pure
and holy Ganges. It cannot help Itself from turning into urine." And the process is
common to man-be he prance or pauper. None can wash out the dirt in his own stomach.
If this be the fact true for all time, then you must put up with the stink and filth outside of
you as you bear it within and of your own body. If one is no nuisance to you, the other
must be borne as no nuisance. If eating is the need of the body, purging is as much its
indispensable need And both the processes are equally beneficial to the human system.
Why the world is like this, why the body and its senses feel happy in certain function and
despise others as degrading to them, is more than man can either understand and explain.
Only nature whirls created us can explain and justify This antagonism is beyond human
intelligence to grasp Perhaps it is nature's play and nature enjoys it. Or nature is helpless
to do other than it has done!
Such conflicts between reason and sentiment, such battle between their opposing
forces on the theatre of my mind was a comedy to enjoy. Henceforward I felt nothing of
the close contiguity of dirt I have mentioned. I went to sleep at past midnight. The hour, I
believe, was one o'clock at night and I had sound sleep during rest of the tame. While on
board that steamer I never more showed my Inconvenience and discomfort. The placidity
of my temper was a surprise to fellow-prisoners. One or two of them even passed
strictures upon ,my behaviour. They said that their suspicion of me as a dirty man of an
extremely low caste was more than justified by my recent conduct. This they said behind
me and only among themselves.
The Attitude of The Europeans
The travellers and some of the Indian officers on board the ship desired to express
their feeling of reverence for me by doing me service of one kind or another. They often
used to pay me a casual visit. Some of the European soldiers treated me very politely. I
was given some English newspapers to read as also some magazines. We got on with
nothing else to eat but fried grams and peas. But the officers Insisted that I should have
something better. I did not know what special things I should ask for and it was difficult
for them to make an exception in my case. As a result some philanthropic merchants on
board that steamer arranged a dinner for all of us with the permission of the Captain. It
consisted of rice, fish and pickles and several other preparations. The whole of the prison-
world in that steamer welcomed It with joy after two days of practical fasting and I was
the cause of it. They were duly grateful to me for it They were all taken, for half-an-hour
during the day along with me, on the deck of the ship to have a whiff of fresh air, and we
were all treated during that time much better and with greater ease than in the prison-hold
below. Naturally the prisoners expressed their gratitude to me in the following words.
They said, "It is our good fortune, Sir, that we have your company in this voyage.

'What a piece of good luck it has proved to be!" To which I would reply, "Well then, it
was right, after all, that I was sentenced to transportation for life. You, at least, welcome
it, it seems."
Day and night I used to enter into conversation with them And the one thing I
treed to impress upon them was that they should even thank of their country. And It was
their duty to work for its freedom, and so on and so forth. When any one spoke to me, full
of passion and sincerity, that it grieved his heart to find me in this pitiable condition,
my answer to him always was, "Then you must be ready to fight. India must be fully
armed to fight and wm her freedom, whatever be the cost of that struggle, whatever the
ordeal she has to pass through to reach the goal. Then not only I but ship after ship laden
with her cargo of prisoners shall be crossing the seas to go to the Andamans. You should
realise this beforehand, for whoever reaps has to sow, and whoever sows has to reap "
From the ordinary sailor to the highest Officer of the ship, from the prisoner right up to
the soldier I had become an instrument of political discussion all round. Some of them
heard things that they had never heard before What had never suggested Itself to them
upto that time did suggest Itself to them now And convection came to them on matters of
which they were never convinced previously.
Barrie Baba
Another Important matter which harassed my mind during the voyage and did not
give it rest, was to know the kind of treatment meted out to the prisoners during their
term of imprisonment in the Andamans That was the one question I put to everyone
whom I met on the boat, the one question I pursued all along the route. The party of
soldiers accompanying the prisoners was one prime source of that information. They
were, as it were, the archpriests of that temple, and its authorized version. Whenever one
uttered the name-transportation for life --the first response that came from that quarter
was the word-Barrie Baba. The one happened to be the synonym for the other. When
even the worst of the prisoners showed the slightest spirit of rowdyism or indulged in
noisy mutual recrimination, the soldiers rebuked them with the exclamation, "Wait, you
seem to be too proud of your devilry But remember that once you face Berrie Baba all
this will at once disappear. You will shake and shiver before him like aspen leaves." As I
felt that this mysterious personage and myself were soon to be life- long Intimates, I was
curious to know who and what Barrie Baba was But I decided that it was no use
questioning the sepoys about him. About the Andamans, they assured me that, within six
months of my stay in that place, I would get my release from hard labour in the prison-
house, and be detailed for some work in the office Itself An Intelligent and educated man
like me, they further added, might even be put in charge of a whole district in that place,
had a good chance there, during ten years, to make his pile, have a home for himself and
to pass the rest of his life in happiness and peace. That was their constant refrain as they
talked to me on that subject Am I being taken to the Andamans, I asked myself, to be
rewarded for my revolutionary activities in India? It was well then that I was caught at
Marseilles ! If life in the Andamans is as they depict it, it will not be harder than the days

of batter exile I had to pass in Europe wandering from place to place, and begging from
door to door for refuge and shelter. May be, what they tell me is true. But will it fall to
my lot to share it? No, that cannot be for me It was no better than a mirage in my case I
knew what had happened to my brother, and to others who were the first batch of
political prisoners to be transported to that place. Shall I ever meet them? And what of
my elder brother? Shall there be any chance of my seeing him? Who knows?
None could say anything definitely about it. I was told, however, that he was
there in that prison. And I was probably taken to be confined in the same place. Of that,
at least, there was no doubt in their minds.
Today, they are all saying it, our steamer will touch the port of the Andaman
Islands The hour was six In the morning, when the prisoners were brought up on the deck
in serried ranks. The laskars and other servants on the ship were busy cleaning the
steamer. The sun came up and the temperature went up along with it. It was burning hot
on the deck. With the nearer approach to the Island, the transportation sentence wore a
gloomier aspect. It had come so near to us, and the prisoners seemed scared by the
thought. The thoughts of helplessness, separation, and grief, that were held in abeyance
during the voyage, rose up rebelliously in my mind, like big fishes in the ocean that are
tossed up on its surface in stormy weather. They created a storm In my heart. The shadow
of transportation had completely darkened my soul.
The sea is calm like a lake, and the boat glades smoothly on its bosom, like
children, in colder climates, skating on the winter snow. The sun is looking down on the
earth with his fixed and glaring eye. It seems he is dazed by the triumph of man over the
elements, as wetness this steaming boat sailing defiantly over the element beneath An
ocean-a vast, endless expanse of water--"The deep calling unto the deep " The boat- what
a puny thing it is before his tenable might and his broad bosom-almost "a cockle-shell" as
it were. But a small room in her, known as the captain's cabin, dominates the whole
scene. The man in that cabin with his helm and rudder, handles the sea like a tamed
elephant. His compass and needle help him to ride the sea as the trident helps the rider to
master and drive the elephant. What a conquest is this of mind over matter! One day the
very sun will be equally amazed to wetness man's victory over himself, and gaze at this
very earth for that triumph. Man shall have then conquered his devilish Instincts and the
brute and the tiger In him shall be no more. Those who suffer and those who make them
suffer, shall have been an ugly dream of the past, and man shall live with man as a
brother, tied to one another by the common bond of love. All other bonds shall snap, and
freedom and goodwill prevail in the world of man A glorious day will dawn on the
kingdom of man. And the sun will look down upon the earth from his place high in the
heavens as now, but with a heart full of rejoicing for the millennium that had arrived
Freedom will reign supreme then but for its allegiance to love On that day alone shall
have fructified the endeavours, the sacrifices, the supreme struggles, and the high and
unquenched hopes, of all the martyrs of the Earth And `nunc dimitis' will be the song
sung on earth in honour of their souls Happy the man who saw this promised land In the

distance; happier he, who strove to bring it nearer; and happiest he, who has the fortune
to enter it Would that I be one of that shining company! At least, some share of It will
surely fall to me. What a glorious future that will be!
The Present
But the present? What is your state today? Dream, an empty dream, a foolish
dream-"the golden morrow" that you so delusively paint on "the midnight sky of sorrow "
Ages have rolled on since the Vedic Rishis had painted the golden scene. Man has ever
been its dupe It offers us a gleam of light in the dark, the horrible night of the present
Behold the sea, mighty, unfathomable, incomprehensible! A veritable giant in strength
and power. And this little boat glides softly dancing on its bosom. But the sea lets her do
it, that is all. He watches her play-the play of this gnat on his body. In a moment he may
chafe and grow angry, and shake his giant body! A slap from him and she is finished So
is the bold inventiveness of man If this mighty power rises and overspreads the land in a
deluge, its single wave and spray are enough to shatter the boat to pieces, its Atlantean
waves can swallow continents, and none shall know thereafter what was Asia and where
was Europe! How puny is man! And of the race of this creature I am today the weakest
and the most contemptible specimen. I am here squatting, In a corner, in the midst of the
outlaws and the outcast of the world-the meanest and the self-condemned specimens of
humanity on earth. I have to sit in a row with them, unseen, unwept and unsung.
Manacled, gyved, bound on wrist and feet, here I am among them. So mean that the
scavengers of the place are filled with pity; so abject that the hewers of wood and drawers
of water could shout at me, "O, prisoner, get away from this place, sit there." And I am
compelled to obey them'!
The sea was calm, snoring like a giant. The boat was slowing down like the pulse
of a dying man. The sun overhead was burning like a furnace. The weather was
unbearably warm. We were very close to the Andamans. The travellers and officers
behaved with me now as perfect strangers. They were reticent and curt. They kept
themselves at a distance. The shadow of transportation had extended itself to cover and
darken my countenance.
End of Chapter V

CHAPTER VI
The Andamans
The group of islands, including the Andamans and the Nicobars, constitute a link
not only with the past history of India but also with her development in the world of
tomorrow As such no Indian can afford to be Ignorant about this group of islands. India
of today is bound to have cultural contacts with other parts of the world ; and the
Andamans are a part of it that she is bound to influence.
This group of islands is six hundred miles distant from the city of Calcutta, and
spreads like a long range in the Bay of Bengal It is not an unbroken range of land The
islands are dotted and scattered along the entire area of the Bay Interspersed with the
waders of the sea flowing between them. Of this group the Andamans constitute the
largest range. In the map you will notice the group divided into three parts-the northern,
the southern, and the middle or the centre. It has the shape of an elongated circle-of an
ovum or an egg Hence its name-the Andamans. Some have traced the origin of that name
to Hanuman, the monkey-god of the Ramayana .But there is no reason to believe in its
authenticity The North- Andamans is 51 miles in length; the middle portion is 59 males;
and the southern part of it is 49 miles The island of Rutland has the length of 11 miles.
The whole is known as the Greater Andaman. At the top of its southern territory there is a
portion of land known as the lesser Andaman with an area of 30 by 17 miler. This last is a
long stretch of dense forest which remains unpolarised to this day. The forest is so dense
that the rays of the Sun cannot penetrate it during the best part of the day. It rises sheer
from the sea-beach into a height of mountain- wall that protects it on the rear, and has in
the mid-area dark, thick jungles yet untrodden by the feet of civilised man. The forest
officers of the place have, however succeeded, at tremendous cost and labour, in making
a survey of this portion and marked the spots and the trees in it which they are now to
Indicate on the chart of these islands. The highest mountain peak in this range is three
thousand feet above the sea level ; and the point is known as Sandal Mount. There are no
big rivers crossing the forest ; only streams and rivulets trickle down from the mountain
into the valley below.
The hot-bed of Malaria
As the place is full of jungles, rainfall there is continuous throughout the year
Even in autumn it rams a drizzle. But, in between, the sun glares fiercely over- head. In
the part of the forest, where spaces of the jungle happen to be cleared for cultivation and
residence and gardens of coconut trees are found planted, the climate and the seasons
have changed to conform to the tropical parts of our own country. The main seasons,
however, are the summer season and the rainy season, with winter only peeping in to

disappear. The sea not only engirdles the Island group on all sides of it, but rushes
between the range so as to cover and divide it into several portions of two islands each.
The islands have greater length than breadth, and are thus full of creeks and marshy
places. The dry leaves of the jungle trees accumulate in these watery marshes They lie
upon them in thick layers and become breeding places for malaria, all over the area In
addition to malarial mosquitoes, the Jungle is full of a variety of flies which make the
spot a nuisance to its stray Inhabitants. The flies hum and spread over the place in thick
swarms, and cover it with their regular network. The big ones stand up on their wiry and
long legs and swing in the air to the humming tune. They appear to the onlooker, as they
swing, like a black long line, and one wonders whether it is one big fly or a continuous
row of them.

Leeches and Serpents

Besides the flies that are carriers of malaria all over the region, there is a pest of
leeches that are found in this part, here, there and everywhere. In mud, on leaves, and
underneath the layers of dry leaves, they lie in thick masses, as they are also found
hanging on trees, clinging to their branches and stuck to their foliage. In the hot sun they
go into their hiding; with rain drizzling, they emerge on the top. The smell of human flesh
is a joy to them, and they fall from trees and leaves like a shower of continual raindrops.
They stick to the soles of your feet; they stack fast to your calves and thighs; and they
suck blood from wherever they glue themselves. The hardened bad mashes, the most
unashamed criminals, who defy the worst punishment in jail, quake and shiver when they
are sent out into this forest to cut and clear the jungle. It is the fear of the leeches that
makes them quail. When they return from their work at sunset, one finds their bodies
bathed in blood For leeches have pierced them ; and through the holes that they have
bored into their bodies, jets of blood are found flowing. And there are not one or two of
these that invade them thus. They come in swarms. While one catches them in handfuls
and throws them off his body, leeches drop down upon him in a heap from trees above
his head, or crawl up his feet from the earth below him. From all sides they stick to his
body like limpets and suck his blood all right.

This jungle contains a species of serpents only less hurtful than the leeches. But
their bite is fatal to the life of man. This species is one foot in length and an inch or more
in thickness. They are so venomous, that a man bitten by them is struck down with
paralysis, and the pangs that they give are simply unbearable. The ordinary variety of
serpents is not to be found here. There is, here and there, a kind known as the viper which
is extremely poisonous, and there is an occasional specimen of the python Uninhabited
by man, the species has grown into an enormous number. That they devour one another,
is the only control upon their abnormal growth. Tigers, lions, bears and other carnivorous
animals are not here. Now and then you come across a wild boar. There are no Indian
birds in this jungle. The British Government has tried recently to import and naturalise in
these parts the cuckoo, the parrot, the peacock, the squirrel, the baj and the maina. It has
even introduced here the ubiquitous crow. They have brought here the deer, the dog, the

jackal, and other tamed animals Hence, today, the jungle resounds with the sound of
Indian birds and beasts.
The wonders of the sea, in this part of the world, are as boundless as those of the
jungle. Conches, shells and hailstones, of variegated shapes and colours, convoluted and
lined, strew its sandy beach in overwhelming proportion. The Creator here . proves
himself a wonderful artist and painter. His handiwork is simply marvellous. Who can
describe its beauty and grandeur? The shells and conches are arrayed within and without
with lanes of shaded colour that excel the beauty of the rainbow. If a human artist were to
transfer to his canvass a fraction of this glorious display in line and colour, he would
make himself immortal He will furnish forth a specimen of art worthy to find its place in
any museum of the world. Nature, as it were, is behaving like a prodigal in lavishing her
plenty, in minerals, stones, reptiles and other creatures, on the foreshore of this belt of sea
round the islands. The procession of an emperor goes along the road of a busy thorough-
fare, and leaves the whole path behind him strewn with flowers of gold and pearl, which
his admirers shower upon him in the passage. So do the conches, shells and hailstones lie
here like sprays of colour thrown off the brush of a master artist. Fishes, crocodiles,
alligators and sea snakes rise and fall on the sea-shore with the ebb and tide of its rolling
billows Of how many shapes are they indeed ! Some with a sword-like pointed tail, ready
to cut our feet and flesh with its lash , others with the mouth of a horse; others, again,
with tails that flash with the charge of electricity; others having human faces;-an endless
variety of them which only a few travellers in these regions have enumerated and
described in their works. Many and varied are these creatures to be seen rolling on the
sea-beach, or sorting on its waves in the vicinity of these islands.
Andaman and Hindustan
A reference to this works of Marco Polo range of Islands is found in the and
Nicolo, as also in the earlier writings of Arabian and European travellers. But India must
have had contact with them far earner than this. There are allusions in India's ancient
history to sea- voyages from Magadha kingdom in the north to Ceylon in the south.
Similarly the Andhras, the Tamils and other peoples in the south had carried invasion into
the heart of Burma, Siam, Pegu and Java, as we know from their ancient history. The
conclusion cannot, therefore, be escaped that the Indian travellers of those days had some
personal knowledge of these Islands. The specific mention of their names is found in the
annals of the Pandya kings, and in the description of a naval war in the 11th century A.D.
The sea-faring monarch of this dynasty invaded and conquered Pegu; and while returning
home with his naval forces, he landed on the Andaman and the Nicobar, islands to plant
his flag and establish his rule over these regions. This account finds its mention in the
contemporary records of that monarch's rule. However, we do not find in these Islands
today any traces or landmarks of these visitors either as travellers or conquerors. An
Officer had told me, while I was in the prison of that place, that excavations in these parts
had discovered relics of ancient palaces. I cannot vouch for the authenticity of that report,
and I have had no time since then to investigate personally into that question. So much,

however, is beyond dispute that Indians knew something of these islands and that they
ruled and stayed on them for some time in their past history.
The condition of these islands
However that may be, it made no change whatever in the life of the aborigines of
that place. As the natural condition of these islands shows no traces of the agricultural
and other cultivation of the soil by its early colonists, so the life of its natives reveals no
effect of the cultural influence of India upon it, either in the field of religion or in
intellectual and moral life.
The Andamans is a small island engirdled by the sea. It demanded a long and
continued influence of India to reclaim it for civilisation and progress, from its wild and
savage environment. The wilderness of nature and the wildness of man could only be
conquered by permanent impression in that soil of civilised life, with all the
accompaniments necessary for the stabilisation of such a life. As soon as the contact and
Influence are withdrawn, the island relapses into its state of barbarism. And this law
holds not only for the natives of the soil, but also for others who have to dwell there, for
some reason or another, for a good long time. In the Great War of 1914-18, steamers
could not ply between India and the Andamans for four months at a stretch; and
provisions of all kinds were entirely cut off during the period. The result was that the
inhabitants of this island had to go without clothing; had to feed on flesh for want of
cereals and rice; and agriculture perished for want of necessary implements and seeds.
The suspension of civilised life took the island back to fifty years. Imagine then how the
Hindu colonists of that island, in its remote past must have suffered a set- back for want
of any communication with the outside world. In those days, crossing the seas was
regarded as a sacrilege. No wonder if the civilised Hindus themselves had turned into
savages during the period that they had dwelt among them, in order to civilise them.
Having lost all touch with their own countrymen, they must have either withered away, or
been absorbed in the people with whom they had come to stay.
The aborigines in the Andamans today resemble in life and habits similar
aboriginal tribes in other parts of the world. The groups of islands round Java contain
savages who look like monkeys. One or two savages from the Nicobars, brought here as
prisoners, had a three-inches- long bone, at the lower end of the spinal cord. They found
it impossible to sit comfortably in a chair. The doctor of the place drew my attention to
them. That bone had no hair on it and no tuft of hair at the end of it. Their faces and chins
exactly resembled those of the monkey. Such savages, with the tall and appearance of a
monkey, are occasionally to be seen even in the Andamans. The only difference between
them and their originals is the latter's want of speech and the former's use of some kind
of language. The tribe of savages in the Andamans, known as Javra, have men and
women from four to four and a half feet tall. They have a coal-black complexion, hard,
short hair standing on their skulls, which they tie in tufts on the top of their heads, like the

Negroes of Africa, They have no hair on their chin and upper laps; they, move about stark
naked; and wear not a rag upon their person. They besmear their bodies with red earth,
like some Sadhus in India, and thus satisfy their lack of clothing. The women-folk, the
most ostentatious of them, wear as a piece of additional ornament, a leaf round their
waist. The Javras live a kind of austere and simple life of which the ascetic, scorning
every kind of pleasure in this world as sin, yet only may dream to realise. They are
primitives, remote from any temptation natural to civilised and human existence. They
know no match- boxes, no clothes, no bullock-carts, much less, therefore, do they know
vicious habits of railways, ocean-liners, aeroplanes and malls. They know no chairs to sit
on, and no shoes to wear; no house to live in and no art of agriculture either. They do not
cook their food and use no machine, neither the Charakha, nor the spanning wheel.
Civilisation and its accompaniments, which are considered by a certain school of
devotees as the enemy of plain living and high thanking and a danger to mankind, the
Javras know not and desire not. They are not only strangers to it, but they dislike it. The
simplest and the most ascetic among us have, at least, the need of a loin-cloth round their
body. But the Javra not only does not wear it, but is not even tempted to wear it. Are
they, therefore, contented and happy? By no means. They cultivate no soil, hold no
plough and use no bank notes. But for a fish in a creek, or a little space in it that he may
call his own, he will fight like any other human being, he will jealously guard it; and be
full of anxiety lest he might lose it. Not even the Kaiser of Germany, or the Czar of
Russia will, as jealously, guard his possessions, as the Javra will guard his own. The
Javra has to struggle for his edibles every day of his life,-which are roots underground,
fruits on the top of trees, fish in the waters, and flesh of the hunted animal on earth. He
works and fights for it as hard as a civilised man fights hard for his dally subsistence. He
has to hunt and angle, pluck and dig, as much as we have to plough the soil, sow the seed,
and reap the corn. He has to depend upon chance more than we have to depend on it, for
his daily subsistence.
A hail-shower of arrows
There is another tribe in these parts as savage as the Javras. The men of this tribe
are taller than the Javras, and, in some respects, more progressive than they. Perhaps, this
tribe is a cross-breed between the early colonists and the aborigines of the place. The
Javras are monogamous and know the use of the bow and arrow to perfection. The bow
they use is six feet in length. They are fine shots with the bow. With the help of this
weapon they have still maintained their freedom. Of course, they cannot hold their own
against the rifle and the aeroplane. Even then, they are stall free, and the Englishman has
fabled to conquer them. The Javras come out from the forest, lie in ambush, and attack
Government camps or the policeman's cabins, or stray prisoners. They are, of course,
driven back to their haunts in the dark recesses of the forest, but the Government forces
do not pursue them further, for it is so very dangerous to do so. It is not so easy to beat
and conquer a brave people like the Javras, to stand the hail-shower of their arrows, as it
is to conquer and subdue a province of India. That question is not urgent at the present
moment; and the Javras roam about unmolested in these jungles. They settle in batches,
in the empty spaces of their jungles, and they lead a life as their ancestors had lived it

centuries ago. They go about naked; they hunt after wild boars; they eat raw flesh; they
worship ghosts and dead bodies; and they enjoy the life that they live. If one were to
denounce them to their face that they are barbarious, the eldest of the tribe will not
scruple to flay the person alive on the spot, and consume his flesh as his choicest morsel
of food.
Cannibals
For the Javras are stall cannibals. Daring European travellers have penetrated into
these parts, have made friends with the Javras, and left behind them interesting records of
their dialect and their manners and customs. Some of the prisoners in the Andamans have
succeeded in making themselves intimate with these cannibals, and have enjoyed
hospitality at their hands. They have returned alive to tell us about them. The story is
conclusive on one point and in favour of the Javras. They never kill those who surrender
themselves to them. However, they regard British Officers and civilised men as their
natural enemies, and, coming out of their jungles to pry, they kill them if they catch them.
They eat man raw, or roast him by hanging his body on the fire, and thus devour him.
They start out for hunting with the dawn of day. Every one carries his bow and arrow
across his shoulders. The women go out for fishing and catching small game. The tribe
usually settles under one roof. The big game belongs to all. They share it all in common.
The fault and the honey each one keeps for himself. At sunset they light fire and keep the
big game hanging on it. The roasted part is cut into pieces and all make a common meal
on it. Occasionally, after the meal, they Indulge in a common dance males and females
mingle and dance together They appoint a king to rule them and they hold him in high
reverence. After the dance, pell-mell and stark naked, they sleep in a circle around the
fire that they kindle at sunset.
Some runaways from our prison tell us that when they treated the Javras to some
preparation of vegetables which was the product of their own cultivation, the latter were
wonderstruck by it. When any one dies among them, his dead body is kept hanging on a
tree for some days. Then they pelt it with stones and drop it down. Nobody knows how
they dispose it off subsequently. Nothing is yet known about their religious beliefs and
practices. Yet, they fear dead bodies; are afraid of ghosts, and fear is the prime clement in
their faith and worship. Beyond that stage they seem to know nothing of God and
Religion. One of their tribes, many years back, had gone over to the British and had
sought their shelter and protection. The members of that tribe have incurred the hatred of
the aborigines as much as any civilised man Though the Javras pass their lives in
seclusion, and in isolation from the rest of the world, country liquor and foreign brandy
have begun, slowly but surely, to penetrate their hearths and homes.

Their Occupation
The Javras that made friends with the British Officers in the Andamans, have
learnt some kind of trade and business as a result of their contact with the outside world.
They gather beautiful conches and shells and other stones on the seashore, and bring
them to English Officers in their cabins. They also sell these articles in exchange for glass
toys and trinkets, sugar and tobacco. They stay for a while in the adjoining shawls built
for that purpose, and again return and disappear in the dark regions of the dense forest
that is their home Occasionally, they also sell honey. The Government collects all these
things from them for export to foreign countries. The conches polished and set in silver or
gold fetch a fancy price in the markets of Europe. These Javras, as a result of their
contact with the Europeans, are domesticated enough to put a piece of cloth round their
loans. And their women cover their parts with a single big leaf or with a garland of leaves
round their waists. Their contact with the settlers has produced a generation which is the
hybrid of two races. The Javra women are found to cohabit with soldiers and other
Europeans in the settlement and their children show a distinct mark of this fusion in their
white complexion and European features. The Hindus in that settlement have also taken
to wife the Javra women, and the children born of that union are fairer in complexion
than their parents. These children, when they grow into young men and women, are given
a sort of education which finds employment for them in Government service. A woman
or two have turned nurses, and become governesses. In private families. The wife of the
Chief Commissioner of the Andamans had for her companion in the family, one of the
trained Javra women.
The modern history of the Andamans begins somewhere from 1766 A.D. Prior to
that date, convicts from India were sent to Singapore, Penang, Malacca and Tenasserim
islands to serve their term of transportation. Engineer Colebrooke and Captain Blair were
the two Englishmen who, in 1766, treed to turn the Andamans into a regular settlement
Before that time many a British boat foundered and was stranded on the shore of these
islands. We can stall read the horrible accounts of these mishaps. When Captain Blair
selected this spot for settlement, its climate and temperature were altogether detrimental
to the health of settlers in that place. The first convicts brought to settle there perished
almost to a man. Port Blair, the present harbour of the Andaman islands, derives its name
from its early founder, no other than captain Blair himself. The captives in the Indian
Mutiny of 1857-58, soldiers to be counted in their thousands, were also sentenced and
despatched to this place to serve their term of imprisonment. And this was the beginning
of settlement in the Andamans. When I was in the prison of the Andamans, an old man
who was one of the surviving convicts of the place and captives in the Indian Mutiny,
sent me a message of congratulation for my incarceration in this prison for an attempt to
overthrow the Raj similar to the one they had planned in their day. I heard, later on, that
the old convict had been released after serving sixty years of transportation, on the
occasion of a durbar or some similar celebration. The settlement began with
Imprisonment, in this place, of soldiers involved in the Indian Mutiny of 1857. And here I
am today to end it as a convict in the conspiracy case of 1907-08 What a strange
coincidence this! Some persons involved in the conspiracy and revolt of Wasudev

Balwant Phadke were also sent to serve their Imprisonment in the Andamans. One or two
of them happened to be discharged from this place about the time or some time after I
had reached the settlement. Some Hindu culprits involved in the Hindu-Muslim riots of
1893 had also been here, as I was told. The Manipur Conspiracy Case had contributed its
quota to this prison. And members of the Manipur Royal Family had been put on parole,
and lived their lives in a place on the settlement, set apart for that purpose. Such is the
story of these Islands since they were selected for the Imprisonment of political prisoners
or prisoners involved in similar trials. Hundreds of them, before me, had passed their
lives under hard labour in the jail of the Andaman island. But none had so far recorded
the story of their imprisonment as I am led to do it now. None had treed so far to stamp it
on the heart of India. It is, indeed, a peculiar conjunction of events that impels me to
narrate that tale. Thousands of Indians in that place have their claim for consideration,
sympathy and duty on the whole of India. They belong to no one province and owe
allegiance to Mother India alone, in spite of their difference in caste and creed, in party
and other persuasion. The fact is being realised today, however dimly, more than at any
time in India's previous history. It is principally the political prisoners of India who have
brought this home to the heart of her people.

Port Blair

Port Blair is the name of the harbour and the main island of this settlement. The
Andamans contain, by far and large, a collection of Burmese and Indian prisoners. As
such, during the last sixty or seventy years its population happens to be mainly composed
of Indians. In the Nicobar Islands, on the other hand, the Burmese and the Malayans form
their naturalised and settled population. These islands, therefore, are lost today to Indian
culture and to contact with Hindu Society The Andamans are having less and less of
Indian prisoners now. So there is every fear of their being cut off from contact with India,
and the settlement itself being denuded of its Indian population. I, therefore, thank it to be
my duty to write a few words here on this question in order to draw the attention of the
Indian public to a matter of such vital importance I take upon myself all the blame of
having neglected it before.

So soon as the number of Indian prisoners being sent to the Andamans had begun
to decline, the Officers of the place planned to divide the whole island into plots, and to
put out for sale, the right of Government plantation in coconut and betel-nut trees, to
intending purchasers. They intended by this ruse to purchase the whole settlement for
themselves and turn it out into a personal estate. As a result the best part of this land with
its gardens and plantations is gradually passing into the hands of European and Anglo-
Indian settlers on the island. There are almost no Indian merchants in the Andamans rich
enough to bid for the purchase of these estates. The merchants in India know nothing
about the deal. So the land is going cheap to the settlers mentioned above, with the result
that the islands, before long, will be completely lost to India. Such of the local merchants
as have purchased a few of these plots and plantations are without resource in proper men
from India to develop them, and to enrich themselves with the wealth they contain. A

golden opportunity for possessing these lands and developing them as fruitful economic
projects is being thus denied to India. The jungles also, out here, are being let out on
cheap rent for clearing and colonisation. And Christian missionaries and their societies
are taking full advantage of this facility. They have prepared a scheme to transplant
Santal and other tribes in India to the Andamans, convert them to Christianity, and settle
them in vast colonies on the jungles made available to them for clearing, cutting and
exploitation. No Indian or Hindu merchant ever thinks of utilising this opportunity. None
of them has even so much as paid attention to the immense possibilities of such a project.
Go and colonise
When the Andamans were an entirely prison settlement, others found it difficult
to open it for trade and business. But now this difficulty will not arise. Hence it is up to
the merchants in India to purchase land and plantations in that part of the world, and they
should not jail to turn this opportunity to advantage. Full information about it cannot be
given here for obvious reasons. They should write to the Chief Commissioner of
Andamans for the information they need. It is profitable by far to purchase acres of land
in the Andamans that are being sold for a song, than to enter into endless litigation for
over a span-worth of land in Indian courts. That is a policy of mass ignorance and
perversity, not unlike that of the frogs in the pond. They may exclaim, "Oh, we are
fighting for our ancestral property we have earned by our own efforts. The latter win the
blessing of their God and their country as well. God and the country smile on those who
earn by the sweat of their brow. The Indian legislatures discussed the problem of the
Andamans only so long as Indian prisoners were being deported to that place. But our
councilors seem to have forgotten the Andamans with the discontinuance of that practice.
It is regrettable that they should do so. For there are yet in the Andamans ten thousand
people who are Indians in blood and religion. Besides this, four generations of Indian
political prisoners have sacrificed their lives, and the ashes of some of these have mixed
with the soil of that country. The islands which have thus witnessed the hardships of so
many Indians cannot be considered as negligible. Apart from these patriotic and political
considerations, the soil is rich in rapid development in the shape of tea plantations, rubber
cultivation, the growth of sugarcane and gardens of coconut trees and betel-nut trees. And
it admits of still more intensive and wider cultivation and development. Shall India have
no share in this process? Should the foreign European settler be allowed to have the
monopoly of it? During the last fifty years, only small portion of these islands has been
brought under cultivation. Its vast jungles still remain to be cut, cleared and explored for
human habitation. The jungles are capable of giving us twice the yield that they.' But
these foolish and stay-at-home persons should remember that it is a foolish and idle boast
to swear by our ancestral inheritance; it is creditable to be proud of what are giving now.
It is up to the members of our central legislature to demand full information on the
existing condition and growth, and the future possibilities of these Islands, as also about
the future plans of the Government as regards their parceling out the cultivable soil for
sale. They must insist on knowing if there is behind these plans a policy of exploiting the
Islands for the exclusive use and permanent domination of foreign settlers on the soil, and
whether they will put the soil out for open sale and advertise it in India. It is also