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

THE ORIGINAL PUBLISHER'S PREFACE
the temples of their Gods." So, the publishers decided to run
the risk of publishing the book as soon as it could explain
the facts it had to tell, though none could be more conscious
of the faults of the language than they themselves. Fifty
years have passed and yet those who died for the honour of
their soil and race are looked upon as madmen and villains
by the world abroad ; while their own kith and kin for whom
they shed their blood, are ashamed even to own them ! To
allow this state of public opinion, born of stupid ignorance,
and purposely and systematically kept up by a band of
interested hirelings, to continue any longer, would have been
a national sin. So, the publishers have not waited till the
language of this translation could be rendered elegant. Which
would be more shameful—to let hideous calumny hover over
and smother down the spirit of martyrdom, or to let some
mistake creep into a book admittedly translated into a foreign
tongue ? The first, at the best, was a crime, and the second
at the worst a venial literary offence. Therefore, the publi-
shers owe no apology to, nor would one be asked for by, the
Indian readers for whose special benefit, the work is published.
But, to those sympathetic foreign readers who might be
inclined to read this book, we owe an apology for the faults
of the language and crave their indulgence for the same.
THE PUBLISHERS
LONDON, May 10, 1909
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