१८५७ का स्वातन्त्र्य समर (वीर विनायक दामोदर सावरकर - अंग्रेजों द्वारा छपने से पूर्व प्रतिबन्धित महाग्रन्थ)

THE VOLCANO
respectable and learned Hindu said boldly, ' We wish you
to be gone and our native rule to be established, that we
may continue in the ways of our fathers ! ' " ³
While this tumult of disaffection was raging everywhere
Dalhousie himself made a further attack on the
Hindu religion. Even English historians who consider it
their duty to support all the actions of the Government
find it impossible to support this enormity. When the
civilised Christian hero, Dalhousie, came forward to
trample under foot the noble custom of adoption, one of
the tenderest, most noble, loving, and sacred command-
ments of the Hindu Dharma Shastras and endeared to the
people of all ages all over India, all India from one end
to the other was shocked. The magazine required only a
lighted match to explode with violence and this act of
Dalhousie supplied it.
To add fuel to this raging fire, orders were issued to
the Indian sepoys that they should use the new cart-
ridges ! Soon after the promulgation of the order for
using new cartridges for the new rifles, factories were
opened for the manufacture of these cartridges in various
places. A certain kind of fat had to be used for the
greasing of these cartridges so that they might be smooth
and well-lubricated, and orders soon followed that the
sepoys should bite off this greasy portion with their teeth
instead of tearing it away with hands as formerly.
Immediately afterwards schools were even opened that the
sepoys might learn how to use these rifles and also how
to bite the cartridges with their teeth, and the Govern-
ment reports from various quarters stated that the sepoys
were immensely pleased with the long range of these
new rifles.
One day, a Brahmin Sepoy belonging to the village
3. Rev. Kennedy, M.A.
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