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

THE VOLCANO
of 1857 also would not have taken place. Though a cen-
tury had rolled by, the memory of that day was fresh in
the heart of Hindusthan. In proof of this, witness the
terrible scene on the 23rd day of June 1857, in Northern
India. In the vast country from the Panjab up to Calcutta,
wherever there was an open field, thousands of Revolu-
tionaries were fighting the English simultaneously in
different places, from morning till evening, after openly
challenging them saying : "To-day we are going to
avenge Plassey!"
When, on the battlefield of Plassey, India had sworn
to fight a war of freedom, England was, as it were, anxi-
ous to hasten the day of its fulfilment as much as pos-
sible. For, Englishmen did not rest with sowing the seeds
of the Revolutionary War at Plassey, but they made
enormous efforts to encourage the growth of the plant
all over India. Warren Hastings tended the plant in
Benares, Rohilkhand, and Bengal. Wellesley did the
same in the fertile fields of Mysore, Assai, Poona, Satara,
and Northern India. This was not done without strong
efforts, for the ground had to be ploughed not with ordi-
nary ploughs but with swords and guns! What would
ordinary ploughs avail against Shanwar Palace, the
heights of Sahyadri, the forts of Agra, and the throne of
Delhi? When these rocky portions had been broken and
crushed, the smaller pieces left out by mistake were also
next broken. The smaller princes fell under the strokes
of English perfidy, oppression, and tyranny.
The English did not even feed well or pat on the back
the brutes by whose strength they effected all these
conquests. For a hundred years, they had been oppressing
and maltreating the sepoys in their army. When the
soldiers of the Mahrattas or the Nizam won important
victories, they used to get Jahgirs and rewards. But the
Company gave nothing but 'sweet words' of praise. The
sepoys, whose swords won India for the English, were so
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