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

THE ERUPTION
speeches. He took great pains in organising a Durbar at
Lucknow and in giving various honours, titles, and re-
wards, in order to make the people forget their late Swaraj.
He was not unwise enough to rest content merely with
applying pacificatory means, but also began to think out
various plans for opposing a possible popular rising.
For, though Sir Henry Lawrence was a better officer than
his predecessors, the people in Oudh were heartily dis-
gusted with English rule as such, whether good or bad.
Their ambition could be satisfied with nothing less than
the restoration of Swaraj and the reinstallation of Wajid
Ali Shah on the throne. They had no other desire but to
break the English chains and make Hindusthan free again.
Their religion was yesterday the religion of the free. But
yesterday, it was the religion of the state and the king.
Today, it had fallen to a secondary and a servile place.
These were their chief complaints, and the remedy was
not good rule by the English but the end of all English
rule. Powerful Hindu chiefs, like Man Singh, and leaders
of Mahomedans, like Moulvie Ahmad Shah, resolved to
sacrifice their all in this war for freedom and the Hindu
and Islamic religions. Thousands of Moulvies and Pundits
began to wander all over Oudh, preaching sacred war,
openly and secretly. The army took the oath ; the police
took the oath ; the Zemindars took the oath ; almost the
whole populace joined in a vast conspiracy to fight the
English, and the fire of popular agitation spread every-
where. It has been already told how sparks of this agita-
tion would come forth, now and then, unintentionally.
Moulvie Ahmad Shah himself was convicted of sedition
and was given the death sentence which was later com-
muted. The 7th regiment was disarmed. Sir Henry Law-
rence held a great Durbar on the 12th of May, in order to
keep control over the Sepoys as far as possible. He then
delivered there an eloquent oration in Hindusthanee. He
fully dilated upon the importance of loyalty, the insults
offered by Ranjit Singh to the Mahomedan religion,
Aurangzeb's insults to Hinduism, and the protection ac-
Published by Asian Educational Services, New Delhi, 2014.
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