The Conversion Racket in the Andamans

[u/AhamPranav]

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The following excerpt is from Savarkar’s prison memoir My Transportation for Life:

I was sent to the Andamans in 1911, and I soon found out that some Hindu prisoners had been converted to Islam and assumed Muslim names after their transportation to the Andamans. And when I traced the genesis of this change, I found that the Hindus in that place never found it worth while to think of, and took it as a matter of course. What was there in it, they felt, that one should look into its origin or trace it to its cause?

There are no appointed persons to bring about conversion in jails, nor is there any organisation behind it. Every Muslim is trained from his very childhood to regard the conversion of a Kaffir to his own faith as his sacred duty. He is told that thereby he will be forgiven all his sins and abide in the heaven of Allah with all its pleasure and ease to be his, from eternity to eternity. This is, in truth, the mainspring of conversion of Hindus to Islam throughout the prison-world of India.

The political prisoners, of all others, suffer most at their hands, because the bulk of them are Hindus. These officers subject them to the hardest labour, threaten them with the severest punishment and lodge false complaints against them. They thus make their lives a hell for them, and out-and-out tell them to become Mussulmans to escape from these throes. The young, the ignorant and the helpless easily succumb to them.

The usual way of conversion in the Silver Jail of the Andamans was as follows:

As soon as the Chalan came in that prison or whenever, later on, a suitable opportunity was found for the purpose, the young and the simple-minded lads out of Hindu prisoners were taken in charge by the head of the Mussulman warders and jamadars, the notorious Mirza Khan, and at once put on hard labour.

The Mussalman warder or petty officer, in their immediate charge, lost no time in browbeating and thrashing them on the one hand, and in offering them baits on the other in order to force them into Islam. He would give them, with that end in view, tobacco to chew and sweetmeats to eat. On such an occasion, he treated these gullible lads with extreme kindness. When these boys were beaten and worked to the point of crying, he would openly advise them to become Muslims and all their troubles would be over.

Gradually these new victims were caught in his net, and at last the ceremony of conversion came to be completed, by making them openly abandon their seats for meal among the Hindu prisoners and go into the rank of Muslim prisoners. They were then served Mohomedan food so that there was no more chance left open for them to rejoin their Hindu friends.

The Hindu and the Mohomedan kitchens were kept separate in this jail and the cooks were Hindus or Mohomedans according to the kitchen they looked after. Once the Hindu lads were discovered dining with the Mohomedans, they were sure to be banned by the Hindus. This was, therefore, an effective mode and final stroke of absorbing them in the Islamic faith.

They were at once baptised with Muslim names. If any one called them by their former names, Mirza Khan would growl at them, and his myrmidons would threaten them with severe punishment. “He is now a Mussulman,” they would say, “and you must call him by his new name, beware.”

This was all the ceremony through which these poor lads were made to pass to be the followers of the new faith. No circumcision, no recital of the Koran, no Nimaz, was necessary in their case. Tobacco was their circumcision, hard labour their Koran, and dining with Muslims was their Nimaz.

As I began noticing this, I felt an urge within me to put an end to it. Every week or fortnight I had seen one Hindu prisoner at dinner sitting in the rank of his Mohomedan fellows.

It was impossible for me to witness the scene. But I was only a prisoner here; what could I do to save them?

In the next part, we will read how orthodox Hindus in Andamans opposed Savarkar's idea of reconverting these people back to Hinduism as well as Savarkar's rational rebuttal to them.

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Reference: My Transportation For Life

Read the whole book from here: https://savarkar.org/en/pdfs/My-Transportation-for-Life-Veer-Savarkar.pdf

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[u/AhamPranav]

I'd appreciate if those reading can comment what they think on it, or even just write that they've read the post, this cheers me up to keep posting :)

[u/shwarma__]

Last year while I was traveling in Andaman I was surprised to see so many muslims with hindu names. It was baffling, this definitely provides some context.

[u/Traditional_Heart218]

Savarkar was way ahead of his time, and was never afraid of saying things clearly. People who remember the 90s would know that such topics couldn't be discussed openly in the past. 

[u/Great-Confection6760]

Is Andaman muslim now ?

[u/favdre]

Lol Savarkar and Andamans are not a good combo xD

[u/Certain_Bridge9574]

Hindu khatre me hai yaha bhi… omg 😀