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

SWADHARMA & SWARAJ
would have cropped up in some other form and produced
a Revolution just the same. Even if Oudh had not been
annexed, the principle of annexation would have mani-
fested itself in the destruction of some other kingdom.
The real causes of the French Revolution were not simply
the high prices of grain, the Bastille, the King's leaving
Paris, or the feasts. These might explain some incidents
of the Revolution but not the Revolution as a whole. The
kidnapping of Sita was only the incidental cause of the
fight between Rama and Ravana. The real causes were
deeper and more inward.
What, then, were the real causes and motives of this
Revolution? What were they that they could make
thousands of heroes unsheath their swords and flash them
on the battlefield? What were they that they had the
power to brighten up pale and rusty crowns and raise
from the dust abased flags? What were they that for
them men by the thousand willingly poured their blood
year after year? What were they that Moulvies preached
them, learned Brahmins blessed them, that for their success
prayers went up to Heaven from the mosques of Delhi
and the temples of Benares?
These great principles were Swadharma and Swaraj.
In the thundering roar of ‘Din, Din,’ which rose to
protect religion, when there were evident signs of a cun-
ning, dangerous, and destructive attack on religion dearer
than life, and in the terrific blows dealt at the chain of
slavery with the holy desire of acquiring Swaraj, when it
was evident that chains of political slavery had been put
round them and their God-given liberty wrested away by
subtle tricks—in these two, lies the root-principle of the
Revolutionary War. In what other history is the
principle of love of one's religion and love of one's country
manifested more nobly than in ours? However much
foreign and partial historians might have tried to paint
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