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

THE CONFLAGRATION
Powen was rewarded with fifty thousand Rupees for this,
his nefarious act of treachery !
As soon as the news of his death reached England, the
relieved Englishmen felt that “ the most formidable enemy
of the British in Northern India was no more ! ” ³ In
person, the Moulvie was tall, lean and muscular, with
large deep-set eyes, beetle brows, a high aquiline nose, and
lantern jaws. The life of this brave Mahomedan shows
that a rational faith in the doctrines of Islam is in no
way inconsistent with, or antagonistic to, a deep and all-
powerful love of the Indian soil ; and that the true believer
in Islam will feel it a pride to belong to, and a privilege
to die for, his mother-country ! Even the English histo-
rian Malleson, in no way inclined to assess rightly—far
less to exaggerate—the virtues of the Revolutionist
leaders, is carried off by his inner feelings and, forgetting
for the moment that he is an Englishman, remarks :
“ The Moulvie was a very remarkable man . . . . Of his
capacity as a military leader many proofs were given dur-
ing the revolt, but none more decisive than those recorded
in this chapter. No other man could boast that he had
twice foiled Sir Colin Campbell in the field ! . . . . Thus died
the Moulvie Ahmad’alláh (sic) of Fyzabad. If a patriot
is a man who plots and fights for the independence,
wrongfully destroyed, of his native country, then most
certainly the Moulvie was a true patriot. He had not
stained his sword by assassination ; he had connived at
no murders ; he had fought manfully, honourably, and
stubbornly in the field against the strangers who had seiz-
ed his country ; and his memory is entitled to the respect
of the brave and true-hearted of all nations.”⁴
3. Holmes’s History of the Indian Mutiny, page 539.
4. Malleson’s Indian Mutiny, Vol. IV, page 381.
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