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

160 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE
permission and for funds to perform the ceremony. Since
similar facilities were given to Christian prisoners in Indian
prisons, the Superintendent gave us the necessary facilities,
in anticipation of Government sanction. The Government,
however, not only refrained from giving sanction but censured
the Superintendent, Major Findlay, for acting on his own
responsibility. Thereupon we informed the Government
that they should reconsider their decision, otherwise we
would be forced to go on hunger-strike. The reply being in
the negative, we commenced hunger-strike in February 1926.
All our correspondence with the outside world was at once
stopped. Nevertheless, three days after the hunger-strike
began, the Calcutta paper, Forward, published the news of our
hunger-strike and also the ultimatum we had sent to Govern-
ment. About the same time Forward published extracts
from the report of the Indian Jail Committee of 1919-21.
Before this Committee a high official of the Prison Depart-
ment, Lieut-Col. Mulvany, had given evidence to say that
he had been forced by his superior officer, the Inspector-
General of Prisons of Bengal, to withdraw the health reports
he had sent of some state-prisoners in his jail and to send in
false reports instead. These disclosures raised a storm of
indignation among the public. In the Indian Legislative
Assembly which was then sitting in Delhi, Mr. T. C. Goswami
a Swarajist member, moved the adjournment of the House
over the hunger-strike in Mandalay Jail and referred to the
evidence of Lieut.-Col. Mulvany to the effect that false
reports about the state prisoners are manufactured by the
Prison Department. The Home Member found himself in
an uncomfortable position and promised to redress the
grievances of the state prisoners on hunger-strike. No sooner
was the debate over than a searching inquiry was instituted
with a view to finding out how Forward got the necessary
material for publication. However, the Government issued
orders without delay that they would sanction the money
that had been spent by us and that in future they would
provide facilities and funds for our religious requirements.
So after fifteen days' starvation, having won our point, we
ended the strike.