द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

154 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE
Majesty's Prison Commissioners in England, to visit Burma
and advise them on prison-reform there. But with all
his enthusiasm Lieut.-Col. Tarapore could not achieve much
because of his reactionary environment. I remember that a
very important piece of reform which he had once attempted
had to be given up because of opposition in other quarters.
To the ordinary Burman, accustomed to smoking tobacco
from a very early age, tobacco is more important than food.
As tobacco was banned in Burmese prisons, the prisoners
'would commit innumerable jail-offences in trying to smuggle
it from outside. The Inspector-General of Prisons rightly
thought that if tobacco were given to the prisoners in a legal
way, there would be a drop in the number of prison-offences
and the illegal traffic would also be stopped to a large extent.
He, therefore, introduced a rule that as a reward for good
behaviour prisoners would be given a certain quantity of
tobacco every day. Though 'the reform was not sufficiently
far-reaching, it was an improvement on the existing state of
things. The experiment was tried for a year but at the end
of that period, most of the Prison Superintendents reported
against the experiment and the Finance Department also
raised difficulty about funds. The reform had consequently
to be dropped. Towards the end of our stay in Burma,
another important reform was attempted by him. Prisoners
were taken out of prison and employed for road-making.
They were accommodated in camps, were allowed more
freedom than in prison and were also given a certain allowance
in addition to their food. I do not know what the ultimate
result of the experiment was, but about the time that I left
Burma, difficulty was being experienced in finding suitable
officers for running these camps. In our talks with him, the
Inspector-General used to complain that he did not have
officials possessing the necessary education and character
who could forget their prison-environment and treat the
prisoners as human beings.
During my stay in Burma I was able to make a study of
criminal psychology and of the problems of prison-reform.
In supplying us with necessary literature, the Inspector-
General was of great assistance. The prison population in the