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

THE VOLCANO
in various places in Northern India and regular com-
munication had been established between them. Rango
Bapuji was trying hard to create nuclei of this organisa-
tion in the Deccan. The palace at Brahmavarta was the
focus of the activities at Cawnpore ; the same function
was performed for Delhi by the Dewan-i-Khas of that
premier city. The great and saintly Ahmad Shah had
woven fine and cleverly the webs of Jehâd—the War of
Independence—through every corner of Lucknow and
Agra. Kumar Singh, the hero of Jagadishpur, had taken
the leadership of his province and, in consultation with
Nana, had been busy gathering materials for war. The
seeds of the Jehâd had taken such root in Patna that the
whole city was a regular haunt of the Revolutionary party.
Moulvies, Pundits, Zemindars, farmers, merchants, vakils,
students, of all castes and creeds, were ready to give up
their lives for the sake of Swadesh and Swadharma. A
very prominent leader of this secret organisation was a
book-seller ! Near Calcutta, the Nabob of Oudh and his
Vizier, Ali Nakkhi Khan, had seduced all the Sepoys and
were ready for the occasion. The Mahomedan population
of Hyderabad began to call secret meetings. The coils of
the Revolution began to wind themselves round the Dur-
bar of Kolhapur. The states of Patwardhan, and the
father-in-law of Nana, at Sangli, were ready to fight—
with their followers—under the banner of the united
nation, in the coming war. Why, right in Madras, in the
beginning of the year 1857, the following Proclamation
began to appear from the walls of the city : “ Country-
men and faithful adherents of your religion, rise, rise ye,
one and all, to drive out the Feringhi Kaffirs ! They have
trampled under foot the very elements of justice, they have
robbed us of Swaraj ; determined are they to reduce to
dust our country. There is only one remedy, now, to free
stayed sometime—and almost certainly at Delhi, at Meerut, at
Patna, and at Calcutta where the ex-King of Oudh and a large
following were residing.”—Vol. V, p. 292.
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