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

BENARES AND ALLAHABAD
had little to eat ; indeed, I could not have fed a dog with
my yesterday's breakfast ! " So writes an officer from
Allahabad ! This heat and this starvation brought on
cholera in the English camp. To add to the troubles,
English soldiers regularly started getting drunk ! All
discipline was gone. These drunkards began to disobey
Neill's orders to such an extent that he wrote to Canning
that he had decided to hang a few of them ! The English
army, beset with these numerous difficulties, was chained
to Allahabad city. Though urgent messages requesting
help were coming frequently from the English of Cawnpore,
a dashing warrior like General Neill, had to see the first
of July dawn in Allahabad itself !
It is important to note that General Neill and his fusiliers
had been brought from Madras. If, at this time, there
had been even a slight tremor of a Revolution towards
Madras, the English would have been unable to bear the
strain even for a day. For, though the resolute Indians
of Allahabad had all but succeeded in the cleverly organis-
ed plan of shutting up English soldiers in the forts, the
English had no real reason to be disheartened. For
Madras, Bombay, Rajputana, the Panjab, Nepal, and
other parts were still lying like dead weights hampering
the national movement. When some of these parts did
begin to move, they fell on their own countrymen, like
demons. Were not thousands of Sikh Sepoys ready to
help the English in Benares itself ? However, whatever
the others might do, the Brahmin priests and Mullahs of
Prayag, Talukdars and peasants, teachers and students,
shopkeepers and customers—in spite of various difficulties,
in spite of the want of a great military leader who could
lead them to battle, in spite of defeat, discouragement,
and anarchy—showed a confirmed and inveterate hatred
of slavery. Of the great sacrifices, including the sacrifice
of life itself, made by these noble patriots for the
lofty ideals of Swaraj and freedom, History will
ever be proud !
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