Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/856

 766 JAIL LIFE IN INDIA

the lives of Motilal Nehru and C. R. Das in their palatial rooms surrounded by numerous willing attendants and by every comfort and convenience that money can buy and when I think of what is in store for them inside the cold unattractive prison \valls where they will have to listen to the clanking of the prisoner's chains in the place of the sweet music of their drawing rooms. But I steel my heart with the thought that it is the sacrifice of just such heroes that will usher in Swaraj. The noblest of South Africans, Canadians Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans have had to undergo much greater sacrifices than we have mapped out for ourselves.

A MODEL PRISONER.*

��Should non-co-operators shout Bande Mataram inside jail against jail discipline which may excite ordinary prisoners to violence, should non co-operators go on hunger strike for the improvement of food or other conveniences, should they strike work inside jails on hartal days and other days? Are non-co-operators entitled to break rules of jail discipline unless they affect their conscience ? Such is the text of a telegram I received from a non-co operator friend in Calcutta. From another part of India when a friend, again a non -co-operator, heard of the indiscipline of non-co-operator prisoners, he asked me to write on the necessity of observing jail discipline. As against this I know prisoners who are scrupulously observing in a becoming spirit all the discipline imposed upon them.

It is necessary, when thousands are going to jail, lo understand exactly the position a non-co-operator
 * Young India, Dec. 29, 1921. %

�� �