one small glass window, barred with iron bars, for light and air. There was electric light kept to examine the inmates at night. It was not meant for the use of the prisoners, as it was not strong enough to enable one to read. When I went and stood very near it, I could read only a large-type book. It is put out at eight, but is again put on five or six times during the night, to enable the warders to look over the prisoners, through the watch-holes.
After eleven the Deputy-Governor came and I made these requests to him: for my books, for permission to write a letter to my wife who was ill, and for a small bench to sit on. For the first, he said, he would consider, for the second, I might write, and for the third, no. Afterwards I wrote out my letter in Gujarati and gave it to be posted. He endorsed on it, that I should write it in English. I said, my wife did not know English, and my letters were a great source of a comfort to her, and that I had nothing special to write in them. Still I did not get the permission, and I declined to write in English. My books were given to me in the evening.
My mid-day meal I had to take standing in my cell with closed doors. At three, I asked leave for a bath. The warder said, "All right, but you had better go there after undressing yourself." (The place was 125 feet distant from my cell). I said, if there was no special object in my doing so, I would put my clothes on the curtain there and take my bath. He allowed it, but said, "Do not delay." Even before I had cleaned my body, he shouted out, "Gandhi, have you done?" I said, "I would do so in a minute." I could rarely see the face of an Indian. In the evening I got a blanket and a coir mat to sleep on but neither pillow nor plank. Even
