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

THE CONFLAGRATION
have indeed surpassed Nadir Shah ! ” ⁵ General Outram
was of opinion that Delhi should be burnt !
The English army, both European and Indian, engaged
at the siege of Delhi, was about ten thousand men. Of
those, about four thousand fell on the field, killed and
wounded. Such a terrible death-roll is not found even
in a struggle like the Crimean war ! Though it is im-
possible to form a reliable estimate of the losses of the
Revolutionaries from English accounts, they must have
been about five to six thousand.⁶
In this manner this historical town, inspired by the noble
sentiments of Swadharma and Swaraj, fought with a
powerful enemy like the English for a hundred and
thirty-four days and nights. On the whole, the fight was
one befitting a high and exalted principle ! From the
day on which Delhi threw away the Feringhi flag from
her walls and proclaimed the establishment of Swaraj,
from the day on which Delhi smashed the chains of
slavery and established freedom, from the day on which
Delhi first pronounced the formula of unity for the vast
and extended continent of Hindusthan under a national
banner, from that day onward, to the day on which
English swords drank Swadeshi blood in the palace of
Bahadur Shah, this town had done not a few deeds of
noble and unselfish heroism befitting the holy war of
freedom ! Without a leader, without good organisation,
having to fight a well-trained enemy like the English,
and having to oppose Swadeshi swords no less brave,—
why, braver than the Feringhi ones—ready to pronounce
upon their compatriots—in spite of all these disadvant-
ages, the Revolutionaries fought a splendid fight. But
disunion and want of organisation—the result of the lack
5. Life of Lawrence, Vol. II, page 262.
6. Rotton says : “The casualties of the mutineers were often
manifested beyond all due bounds.”—Page 175.
344