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

THE ERUPTION
disgusted not only with Englishmen but with everything
they had done, that they could not bear to see anything
connected with the English before their eyes! They
drove away Zemindars appointed by the English—good or
bad—and put the old hereditary Zemindars instead. In
one week disappeared, completely, English methods of
taxation, their prisons, and their courts of ‘ justice ’ ! The
telegraph lines were cut off ; the railway lines were dug
up ; behind every hillock and every bush were hidden
villagers thirsting for English blood and money ; and most
of all, in village boundaries, warders were parading so that
the English should get not only no provisions but not
even any information! In these circumstances, the
misery of the English knew no bounds! And still, the
city of Benares had been frustrated in its attempt at
freedom, and the Sepoys who rose had marched to Oudh!
When the attempt of the 4th of June at Benares failed
and wholesale arrests followed, an important fact came to
light.⁶ Only from such incidental events it is possible to
understand how the machinery of the Secret Organisation
had been worked. Three of the most active agitators and
a millionaire banker were arrested at Benares. When
their houses were searched, some very violent letters
written in cipher and received from the chief centre of
the Revolutionary organisation, fell into the hands of the
Government. The most important of these letters came
from “a head leader.” Their substance was as follows :—
“The Benares citizens should rise at once. Kill Gubbins,
Lind, and other Englishmen. The money for this work
will be given by the banker....” When the house of this
banker was searched, a store of 200 swords and
rifles was discovered!
6. “No sooner had it been known in the districts that there had
been an insurrection at Benares, than the whole country rose like
one man. Communications were cut off with the neighbouring
stations and it appeared as if the Ryots and the Zemindars were
about to attempt the execution of the project which the Sepoys
failed to accomplish in Benares.”—Red Pamphlet, page 91.
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