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

SECRET ORGANISATION
ments, it was arranged that on festive occasions one regi-
ment should invite another to a feast and, on this pretext,
united gatherings were carried on successfully. Meetings
of select Sepoys were held in the houses of the Subahdars.
Though all political and religious wrongs were explained
and commented on to the lowest Sepoy in the army,
though every Sepoy knew about, and was anxious for, a
fight with the English, still the knowledge of how to rise,
when to rise, and who were the leaders of the various
groups was not imparted to all. The work of deciding
all these things was left to the officers, and every one was
made to swear either by the water of the Ganges, or by
the leaf of Tulsi, or by the Koran, that each one would
do what the regiment should undertake to do. When one
regiment was thus bound together, the chief committee
of that regiment began negotiations with the chief com-
mittee of another regiment ; each swore faithfulness to
the other and they worked together. The mutual oath of
the regiments, like the mutual oaths of the Sepoys were
determined and decisive. Every regiment was a unit in
the higher organisation. The English afterwards gathered
a good deal of material to determine what this organisa-
tion was, and Mr. Wilson gives the following information
about the society, in the Government report : " From the
available evidence I am quite convinced that the 31st of
May, 1857, had been decided on as the date for simul-
taneous rising. Every regiment had a committee of three
members ; and this committee used to do everything con-
nected with the Mutiny. The Sepoys had no idea what
decisions were arrived at. The mutual agreements bet-
ween the various regiments simply amounted to agreeing
to do what the other regiments would do. The committee
had to decide on all important schemes, to do all the
correspondence, and several other things. All came to the
one important decision that the Sepoys should rise on the
31st. As it was a Sunday, they would be able to find a
large number of European officers in church. All Euro-
pean officers, along with these, were to be murdered. Then
Published by Asian Educational Services, New Delhi, 2014.
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