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

THE ERUPTION
will soon be undeceived. When the Rajput-born Gulab
Singh of Kashmir heard that these helpless Sepoys who
were ready to jump into the jaws of Death to save the
honour of their Hindu religion were coming towards him,
he prohibited them from entering his country! Nay
more, after giving orders that any of these Hindus found
in his territory should be instantly killed, he very proudly
let the English Durbar know of his valiant deeds! Now,
Sepoys, either you change your religion and surrender
to slavery or embrace death! Of these, Martyrs, you
have done well in choosing death! The English were so
cruelly slaughtering them wherever they found them that
the permanent scaffolds on the maidans began to rot by
the flow of constant streams of Hindu blood! Still the
English were not satisfied. Scaffolds—permanent scaffolds
—were tired of performing executions, and, then, the
mouths of guns were opened. And of the 55th regiment
which had not spilt a single drop of English blood, every
one of the men who had not been hanged was blown from
the mouth of the gun! A thousand Hindus were, thus,
slaughtered in no time. But, even at this last moment,
(says Kaye a little ashamed at this terrible bloodshed),
“Brave and sullen they went to their doom, asking only
to die like soldiers at the cannon’s mouth, not as dogs
in the noose of the gibbet.”
As regards the massacre of these brave people, in a manner
which would bring shame upon even savages, English
historians generally say that, though this was undoubtedly
cruel, “the severity of the hour would be the humanity of
all time!” The cruelty was desired in the interests of
humanity! English historians, remember this your own
sentence, “The severity of the hour would be the humani-
ty of all time!” As you now know the meaning of this
sentence, you will also remember it exactly on a future
occasion. It is well that you perpetrate this cruelty for
the sake of humanity, but do not forget that the Hindu
Nana is there at Cawnpore!
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