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

THE ERUPTION
the land. And it was by their united strength and unsel-
fish fight that English power collapsed and was grounded
into dust, for some time at least.⁴
How little Calcutta and England understood the nature of
this terrible earthquake! In the opinion of the Govern-
ment, there was perfect peace before the Meerut rising.
Even when Meerut rose and the Proclamation of freedom
was issued from Delhi, Calcutta could not understand the
real meaning of the eruption. Seeing that no wave of
the rising appeared between the 10th and 31st of May,
Calcutta was confirmed in its idea that there was no serious
trouble in Hindusthan. On the 25th of May, the Home
Secretary proclaimed openly: "There is perfect peace with-
in a radius of six hundred miles from Calcutta. The mo-
mentary and isolated danger is passed. And it is strongly
hoped that, in a few days, perfect peace and safety
will reign."
The "few days" passed; the 31st of May dawned. "Peace
and safety" reigned everywhere! Around the Lucknow
Residency, in the Cawnpore Maidan, in the Jogan
Bagh at Jhansi, in the bazaars of Allahabad, on the Ghats
of Benares, everywhere "peace and safety" reigned!
Telegraph wires cut to pieces, railways and iron bridges
smashed and mixed into dust, English corpses floating in
4. Wherever the chiefs of the native states hesitated to join
the revolution, the people of the states became uncontrollable and
tried to throw off the yoke even of their own chief, if he would not
join the nation’s war. Seeing this extraordinary upheaval of the
populace, Malleson says: "Here, too, as at Gwalior, as at Indore,
it was plainly shown that, when the fanaticism of the oriental peo-
ple is thoroughly roused, not even their king, their Raja—their
father, as all consider him, their God, as some delight to style him
—not even their Raja can bend them against their convictions."
The Sepoys of the Rajas of Jaipur and Jodhpur refused point blank
to raise their hands against their countrymen who were fighting
for the nation, even when asked by their Raja to do so. Malleson's
Indian Mutiny, Vol. III, p. 172
268