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

THE CONFLAGRATION
the youthful Raja of Nowpara. As soon as the English
government came in, we gave him one thousand villages
and, setting aside all other claimants, we appointed his
mother as his guardian. But from the first, her army has
been fighting us at Lucknow. The Raja of Dhura, too,
gained enormously by the changes. But his own men
attacked Captain Hursey, captured his wife, and sent
her to prison in Lucknow.
"Ashraf Baksh Khan, the Talukdar persecuted by his
late master, was made at once sole owner of all his pro-
perty. But, from the beginning, his hatred of us has been
most keen. These and other similar examples go to show
very clearly that not mere personal loss, due to our rule,
has been responsible for the rising of the Zemindars and
Rajas against us."⁶
And so the English historian, Holmes, frankly admits that
several of the Rajas and Zemindars who had begun and
maintained the War of Independence were inspired by a
nobler idea than mere personal gain. "There were numer-
ous Rajas and petty chiefs who, without any substantial
grievance to brood over, were always fretting against the
restraints of the Government, the very existence of which
was always reminding them of the fact that they belonged
to a conquered nation.... Among all these millions, there
was no real loyalty towards the alien government which
had been forced to impose itself upon them. In trying
to estimate the conduct of the people of India during the
mutiny, it is important to bear in mind that it would have
been unnatural for them to feel towards an alien govern-
ment like ours, the loyalty that can only co-exist with
patriotism. Those of them who regarded our rule bene-
ficial helped us or, at least, left us free to help ourselves.
But there was not one of them who would not have turned
6. Lord Canning's Reply to the letter of Sir James Outram.
(Re-translated from the Marathi translation in the original).
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