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

THE VOLCANO
our glorious land in dark colours, so long as the name of
Chitore has not been erased from the pages of our history,
so long as the names of Pratâpâditya and Guru Govind
Singh are there, so long the principles of Swadharma and
Swaraj will be embedded in the bone and marrow of all
the sons of Hindusthan ! They might be darkened for a
time by the mist of slavery—even the sun has its clouds
—but very soon the strong light of these self-same
principles pierces through the mist and chases it away.
Never before were there such a number of causes for the
universal spreading of these traditional and noble princi-
ples as there were in 1857. These particular reasons
revived most wonderfully the slightly unconscious feelings
of Hindusthan, and the people began to prepare for the
fight for Swadharma and Swaraj. In his Proclamation of
the establishment of Swaraj, the Emperor of Delhi says,
‘ Oh, you sons of Hindusthan, if we make up our mind we
can destroy the enemy in no time ! We will destroy the
enemy and will release from dread our religion and our
country, dearer to us than life itself ’ ² What is holier in
in this world than such a Revolutionary War, a war for
the noble principles propounded in this sentence, ‘ release
from dead our religion and our country, dearer to us than
life itself ’ ? The seed of the Revolution of 1857 is in this
holy and inspiring idea, clear and explicit, propounded
from the throne of Delhi, THE PROTECTION OF RELIGION
AND COUNTRY. In the Proclamation issued at Bareilly, he
says “ Hindus and Mahomedans of India ! Arise ! Breth-
ren, arise ! Of all the gifts of God, the most gracious is
that of Swaraj. Will the oppressive Demon who has
robbed us of it by deceit be able to keep it away from us
for ever ? Can such an act against the will of God stand
for ever ? No, no. The English have committed so many
atrocities that the cup of their sins is already full. To add
to it, they have got now the wicked desire to destroy our
holy religion ! Are you going to remain idle even now ?
2. Leckey’s Fictions Exposed and Urdu works.
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