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

THE CHAIN OF CAUSES
Dalhousie was given the significant title of a 'founder';
it is impossible to find a more suitable word to describe
his character. With the result of a hundred years of
wicked English policy behind him, obstinate by nature,
possessed of boundless self-confidence, his flesh and blood
permeated by the glory and pride of an unjust Empire,
this bold, if not clever, man landed on the shores of our
land saying openly, "I will level the land of Hindusthan."
As soon as Dalhousie landed, he saw at once that so long
as Ranjit Singh's lions lived in the Panjab, it was
impossible to achieve the object dear to his heart of
levelling Hindusthan. He, therefore, determined to throw
somehow or other the lion of the Panjab in the cage of
Slavery. But the Panjab lion had no ordinary claws.
Seeing his cave threatened, he rushed out of the lair at
Chillianwalla and, with a terrible stroke of his paw,
mauled the enemy and made him bleed. But, alas ! While
the lion was standing at the mouth of the cave at Chillian-
walla, a traitor broke open the back-wall at Guzerat and
the lion was surprised and captured. Soon the cave of
the lion became his cage ! Ranjit's Queen, Chand Kuvar,
died rotting in London ! And the lion's cub, Dhulip
Singh, ate the beggar's bread at the hands of the
Feringhi enemy !
After the annexation of the Panjab, Lord Dalhousie
wrote in his despatch, the proud sentence that the extent
of the British Empire was now continuous from the
Himalayas to Cape Comorin. But now that the British
frontiers had been pushed to the Himalayas on the north
and to the seas on the south, it was inevitable that he
should have an ambition to create an eastern and a west-
ern frontier suitable to these northern and southern ones.
Then why delay ? Send a 'peace' mission to Burma
and the work is done. This peace mission so tightly
embraced the peace of Burma that its ribs were broken
and it expired ! This very loving task was soon over and
17
2