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

THE ERUPTION
Raghunath who shines as the brilliant star of liberty in
the galaxy of the heroes of Hindusthan. Pandurang Rao
Topé was a Deshasth Brahmin and was the head of the
charity department, under the late Bajirao Peshwa at
Brahmavarta. In the verandah, Nana Sahib, the Jhansi
Ranee, and Tatia Topé played the games of their child-
hood ! Nana Sahib and Tatia Topé were intimate friends
from childhood. In childhood, these two were trained in
the same school, fitted to perform the heroic deeds which
they did in the great event of their later life. They had
read the Ramayana and the Mahabharata together ; they
had read together the accounts of the war-like deeds of
the Mahrattas, and their young hearts had throbbed to-
gether at the noble inspiration which the stories of Hindu
heroism awoke.
Towards the end of April, Nana Sahib and Azimullah
Khan had travelled through all the chief towns in
Northern India to give the necessary unity to the work
of the secret organisation. They were now waiting for
the appointed time. Suddenly on the 15th of May, the
news of the rising at Meerut and the subsequent freedom
of Delhi came to Cawnpore. At this news of the prema-
ture rising, there was not the least apparent agitation in
the palace of Brahmavarta. In a Revolutionary organisa-
tion are bound up together thousands of separate parts ;
it is unavoidable that some should move too quickly and
others too slowly, some at the appointed signal and others
at the sudden impulse of the moment. The palace at Brah-
mavarta at once understood the situation and decided to
turn the Meerut rising to advantage. But, to take such
an advantage, which was the better course? To follow
Delhi at once or wait till the first week of June according
to the original plan? Of these two alternatives, the latter
seemed preferable and, accordingly, the machinery at
Brahmavarta continued to work secretly.
Cawnpore was, for a long time, an important military
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