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

THE VOLCANO
very things prohibited by the two religions were used and
even factories for their manufacture were opened right in
India ! After ascertaining well this fact from the low
caste Indians working in those factories, the sepoys of
Barrackpore spread this news all over India. Even light-
ning travels not so quick ! Within a fortnight, not a Hindu
or a Mahomedan but was talking of cartridges and no-
thing but cartridges, wherever he was. And the stronger
this public indignation grew, the stronger and more
frequent grew the assertions on the part of the autho-
rities, from the Governor-General down to the lowest
white soldier, that the story of the cartridges was a
mere fabrication.
These statements of the Feringhi Government were not
only absolutely false, but they were put forward deli-
berately with the knowledge that they were false. The
fact that the very Commander-in-Chief was aware of
four years before, was now being openly denied by the
Government. That in the factory at Dum-Dum cartridges
were not greased with cows' and pigs' fat, that the igno-
rant and superstitious sepoys had started this wholly un-
founded rumour—such were the assertions of the English
historians until a very recent date. But now, there does
not seem to be the slightest doubt that the Government
was well aware of this fact. The contractor who had
undertaken to supply the fat for the cartridges had, in clear
words, made a distinct agreement in his contract deed,
drawn at that very time, to supply cows' fat. The agree-
ment was that the cartridges should be greased with the
fat of the cow, the Sacred Mother, buying the same at the
rate of twopence (two annas) per pound. And the sepoys
should bite these cartridges with their teeth ! When this
cunning scheme was exposed, the Feringhi Government
immediately issued orders that, thereafter, whatever fat
was to be used for the cartridges should . be only from
sheep or goats, and that cows' and pigs' fat should never
be used. If these orders mean anything they mean that
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