Dreams of Youth 65
strike. The ostensible reason was the refusal of the government to sanc-
tion funds for the observance of Durga puja, the annual worship of the
mother goddess, in October of the previous year. A sympathetic jail
superintendent, Major Findlay, had granted permission for this reli-
gious festival in anticipation of approval by higher authorities, since
Christian prisoners in India were typically allotted modest resources
for their religious observances. But the government refused and up-
braided Findlay for showing such indulgence. The po lit i cal prisoners
denounced this refusal as “an unwarranted interference” with their
right to religious freedom that militated against the spirit of Queen
Victoria’s proclamation of 1858 and was “a violation of God’s law.”^38
They did not relent until the government conceded their point in prin-
ciple and allotted an annual sum of thirty rupees per prisoner for the
exercise of their religious rights. Subhas later confided to Sarat that the
whole story of their decision to go on a hunger strike could not be told
until their release, but that it had been taken after “mature delibera-
tion.”^39 It is hard not to surmise that the spe cific issue at hand was less
im por tant than the determination to bring pressure to bear on those
who held them in detention. Even though the authorities tried to stop
all communication by the prisoners with the wider world, the news of
their fast was reported in the Forward within three days of their having
started it and caused an uproar in India.
The end of the hunger strike, on March 4, 1926, returned life to
“normal” for the prisoners, but with some guarantee of better treat-
ment. On the Ides of March, a storm—this time an act of nature—
broke over Mandalay Jail. As Subhas described it, “the dust like a mov-
ing canopy completely shrouded us.”
Papers began to fly, lanterns were smitten down and sundry articles
began to take wings. But the wrath of Heaven did not last long and the
“twice- blest” drops of mercy soon began to fall from above. Philoso-
phers say that God’s mercy shines even in darkness.... So, to complete
the harmony of the situation the electric current conveniently failed
and we were enveloped in what Milton would describe as “Cimmerian
darkness.” The lurid flashes of lightning served only to make the “dark-
ness visible” (I am again using a Miltonic expression, for is not saintly