Page 92 - AGRANI SAMKALP SILVER JUBILEE SOUVENIR

AGRANI SAMKALP SILVER JUBILEE SOUVENIR

the prison existence. As a first step they were to refuse work authorities in India. There was prisoner by the name of Hotilal
that involved hard labor. This was the first strike in the history who was a man from Northern India and spoke Hindi as his
of the silver jail but the very act was regarded as impossibility mother tongue.He was widely travelled including Russia,
under the stern regime of the jail superintendent Mr. Barrie. China and Japan. Though confined to the solitary cell, he
Educating the Inmates : was able to smuggle out a letter which reached the hands of
Most of the political prisoners of that time were not more Surendra Nath Banerjee, the famous freedom fighter and
than twenty five years old and education of most of them editor of “The Bengali”. This letter got published in “The
was defective and incomplete. They had read nothing of Bengali”. Finally the letter became a subject of questions
History, Politics or Economics. Savarkar decided to awaken and replies on the floor of Imperial Legislative Council.
in them a desire for study and learning. He was successful in Chalan, The First Source of Information:
imbibing them courage to face and endure. He enrolled them They devised means after means and succeeded in getting
and other prisoners as members of “Abhinav Bharat” where news , however scanty of the outside world. Chalan was
they took the solemn oath to be true to the cause and to serve another important source of the information. Every month
it ever with their lives, Savarkar began the teaching work at the convicts transported to the Andamans and taken to the
the jail inmates by giving them talks on History of India from silver Jail. Around 50 prisoners arrived every month. Every
its early beginnings in the Vedas, heroic deeds of the past, one tried to get some news of his village or town from the
about the outstanding personalities and the epoch makers. prisoners belonging to his own part of the country. He got to
He also told them about the heroes like Napoleon, Mazinni, know something about his family or relatives. The title
and Garibaldi . Also the elements of economics, politics and “Mulkhi” was given to the new inmates as it meant from
theory of government were taught. With the pointed thorn one's native place in India. When a Mahar from Maharashtra
of the cordage plant walls were used as writing tablets. Thorn began to speak Marathi, the hearth of a Marathi Brahmin
the writing instrument and wall was the paper to write on. went out to him spontaneously and he felt that the Mahar
Books like spencer's First Principles; Mill's work on political was his brother and fellowman. Whenever a Chalan arrived
economy were scribbled by Savarkar. But the whitewashing the old birds enquired about their kith and kin and most
of the walls every year would remove the writings of the importantly the prisoners always sought information about
wall. However the obstacles to learning were great . Even the political condition of their motherland.
some prisoners were averse to learning. Despite the hardships Foreign Mail :
Savarkar continued with his work. The newspaper scrapings imported into the jail
Correspondence with India : sometimes brought striking news. One such news was Sir
Letters: Valentine Chirol's article on India and Indian revolutionaries
A prisoner in the Andamans was permitted to write only in an issue of the “London Times”. Another gave full report
one letter home during the year. The letter had to be as brief of the Congress Presidential address. Another one was on
as possible. It had to be an open letter censored by the jailor Tuticorin trials. The dumping ground of this foreign mail
and then by Colonial Officer. Not a single word was to be was the lavatory or sitting rooms of Officer's Bungalows .
mentioned in the letter against the jail authorities. No The political prisoners bribed the scavengers in charge to
reference of ill treatment or persecution in this jail. All collect and give them the newspapers.
petitions to the Indian government from the inmates had to The Jail Library :
pass through the Colonial Officer , the Commissioner who With the support of the Jail Superintendent who was a
threw them away or out rightly rejected the complaints against man of liberal progressive views, a library was set up in the
the administration. The five functionaries of the silver jail silver jail. Every Sunday a political prisoner could go to the
were the sole masters of the situation and not a word was library and get such books issued to him as he wanted for his
sent out from this prison about the real position here. reading during the week. The library gave opportunity to the
The political prisoners were the worst sufferers and the political prisoners to read books on a variety of subjects. By
only way to keep body and life together and release ordering books from home, books were procured in Bengali,
themselves from the persecution and tyranny of officials of Punjabi, Hindi and Sanskrit, thereby increasing the strength
the jail was to bring the facts to the ears of the highest of the library. Magazines like “Modern Review” and

90