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

THE FIGHT IN DELHI
rather it was the declaration that the longstanding war
between the Hindu and the Mahomedan had ended, that
tyranny had ceased, and that the people of the soil were
once more free to choose their own monarch. For, Baha-
dur Shah was raised by the free voice of the people, both
Hindus and Mahomedans, civil and military, to be their
Emperor and the head of the War of Independence.
Therefore, on the 11th of May, this old venerable Bahadur
Shah was not the old Mogul succeeding to the throne of
Akbar or Aurangzeb—for that throne had already been
smashed to pieces by the hammer of the Mahrattas—but
he was freely chosen monarch of a people battling for
freedom against a foreign intruder. Let, then, Hindus
and Mahomedans send forth their hearty, conscientious,
and most loyal homage to this elected or freely accepted
Emperor of their native soil on the 11th of May, 1857 !
And from far and near, the loyal homage did come to the
Delhi monarch, from many Rajas, many regiments, and
many of the chief cities of Hindusthan. The different
regiments that had risen at different places in the Panjab,
Ayodhya, Neemuch, Rohilkhand, and many other places,
marched on to Delhi with their flags and banners, and
tendered their services to the venerable Bahadur Shah
as the accepted head of the Revolution. Many regiments
again brought whatever treasuries they had looted from
the possession of the English Government on their way
to Delhi and faithfully handed them over to the treasury
of the Emperor. A proclamation was at once issued, ad-
dressed to the whole of Hindusthan, declaring that the
foreign domination and the rule of the Feringhis had come
to an end and that the whole nation was free and liberated.
It exhorted the people to rise to a man to complete this
Revolution so promising in its beginning, and warned them
that the sole motive that should dominate them in this
fight should be a self-denying, spiritual fervour and a cons-
ciousness of a divine duty. “Let it be known that the
only inducement we can hold forth is that of Dharma
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