Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/251

Rh and assisted us in keeping the compound clean. Scrupulous care was exercised in inspecting the area and privies, and this saved the inmates from disease. Every one will admit that the Government was at fault in incarcerating such a large number in so narrow a space. If the room was insufficient, it was incumbent on the Government not to send so many there, and if the struggle had been prolonged, it would not have been possible for the Government to commit any more to this prison.

READING

I have already mentioned that the Governor had allowed us the use of a table, with pen, ink, etc. We had the free run of the prison library also. I had taken from there the works of Carlyle and the Bible. From the Chinese Interpreter, who used to come there, I had borrowed the Kuran-e-Sharif translated into English, speeches of Huxley, Carlyle's Lives of Burns, Johnson, and Scott, and Bacon's Essays. Of my own I had taken the Bhagavad-Gita, with Manilal Nathubhai's Annotations, several Tamil works, an Urdu Book from the Moulvi Sahib the writings of Tolstoy, Ruskin and Socrates. Many of these I read or re-read in the jail. I used to study Tamil regularly. In the morning I used to read the Gita and at noon, mostly the Koran. In the evening I taught the Bible to Mr Foretoon, who was a Chinese Christian. He wanted to learn English, and I taught it to him through the Bible.

If I had been permitted to spend out my full period I would have been able to complete my translations of a book each of Carlyle and Ruskin. I believe that as I was fully occupied in the study of the above works, I