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

THE CONFLAGRATION
“ It is my ardent wish to see that the Feringhi is driven
out of Hindusthan by all means and at any cost. It is
my ardent wish that the whole of Hindusthan should be
free. But the Revolutionary War that has been waged
for this purpose cannot be crowned with success unless a
man capable of sustaining the whole burden of the move-
ment, who can organise and concentrate the different forces
of the nation and will unify the whole people in himself,
comes forward to guide this rising. I have no desire left
in me of ruling over India, after the expulsion of the Eng-
lish, to my own personal aggrandisement. If all of you
native Rajas are ready to unsheath your sword to drive
away the enemy, then, I am willing to resign my Imperial
powers and authority in the hands of any confederacy of
the native princes who are chosen to exercise it.”⁴
This is the letter written by the leader of Indian Maho-
medans, the Emperor of Delhi to the Hindu kings in
India ! This unique and typical letter shows how the
noble words—Swatantrya, Swaraj, Swadesh, and Swa-
dharma—were thoroughly understood in Hindusthan.
Seeing the religious instincts of Hindus and Mahomedans
thus completely united together in patriotic harmony,
Charles Ball says, “ Such unexpected, surprising, and ex-
traordinary transformation is rarely to be seen in the
history of the world ! ”
But this extraordinary transformation had been completely
effected only in one province of the vast land of Hindu-
sthan, and the immediate result of the Proclamation was
not a perfect success. Though it is in the main, and in
this sense, true that, before the walls of Delhi, a fight was
going on between freedom and slavery, in another and in
an important sense, we can say that there never was a
true fight there between Indians and Feringhis as such.
The author of the famous work The Siege of Delhi, says,
4. The autograph letter:—Native Narrative by Metcalfe, p. 226.
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