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FRAGMENTS OF A PRISONER'S DIARY
spiritual nature of the Indian people, teaches him to hold himself responsible not only for the social conditions that have driven him to crime, but even for the legal injustice palpably done to him.
I know many a man serving long terms of imprisonment for crimes they did not commit. Yet, they are totally devoid of any moral indignation or even resentment. If the facts of social iniquity and legal injustice are pointed out to them, with a religious fervour, they touch their forehead. It is all unalterably predetermined ; no use complaining against it. Indeed, it is sinful to do so. They are reconciled to the hard lot, accepting it as divine dispensation. Such supine resignation to injustice is not a token of spirituality. It is moral degeneration; and this shameful psychological state of the Indian masses is our cultural heritage. Is it anything to be proud about?
Here we find religion standing naked as an instrument not only of traditional and timehonoured social oppression, but even of crass legal injustice. Religiosity has broken the backbone of the Indian people. It has crushed the spirit of revolt, which is the lever of human progress. Resignation, the characteristic feature of the Indian people, leads to stagnation which is living death. Thousands of victims of social iniquity, and highhandedness of the minions of law and order, finding solace in the religious superstition of fate or karma--that is the depressing sight to be seen in 236
