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

OUDH
freeing their country. Private enmity, differences of
religion and caste and rank were all forgotten.
Every one felt in his heart that he was jumping
into the battlefield for a war of justice. It was
the masses who re-established Wajid Ali Shah on the
throne of Oudh in ten days. What a statesmanlike answer
this to Dalhousie's contention that he deposed Wajid Ali
Shah for the good of the people ! At the end of the first
week of June, there was scarcely a village in the whole
Oudh province that had not given such a statesmanlike
reply to Dalhousie, by tearing to pieces the English flag !
After giving a true picture of this state of things, the
famous historical researcher, Forrest, says in his preface,
"Thus in the course of ten days, the English administra-
tion in Oudh vanished like a dream and left not a wreck
behind. The troops mutinied, the people threw off their
allegiance. But there was no revenge, no cruelty. The
brave and turbulent population, with a few exceptions,
treated the fugitives of the ruling race with marked kind-
ness, and the high courtesy and chivalry of the people of
Oudh was conspicuous in their dealings with their fallen
masters who, in the days of their power, had, from the
best (?) of motives, inflicted on many of them a grave
wrong."⁵ If the experienced and able English officers had
not been thus spared by the heroic nobility of the people
of Oudh, Oudh could not have been reconquered merely
by the English novices ! For, as we shall see later on these
were English officers and were returned with the new
forces sent by the English and wreaked terrible vengeance
on the Revolutionary leaders and followers who had,
through misplaced generosity saved their lives as
shown above !
About the 10th of June, the whole province of Oudh be-
came independent and all the Sepoys and volunteers
5. Forrest's State Papers, Vol. II, page 37.
257
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