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

TEMPORARY PACIFICATION
After that, the Punjab was quiet on the whole, except for
one or two spasmodic efforts at rising. The Hindu as
well as the Mahomedan communities thoroughly sympa-
thised at heart with the Revolutionaries and were full of
hatred towards the British. But they did not care to
help either party actively. The Sikh princes and people,
on the contrary, did not wish well to the Revolutionaries
even at heart ; nor did they remain neutral ; nay, more,
they did not hesitate to side openly with the English and
shed the blood of their own countrymen on the field
of battle.
It can be proved from many events that happened that
the sympathies of the masses of Rajputana were on the
side of the Revolutionaries. In towns like Jaipur, Jodh-
pur, and Udaipur, the curses that were heaped upon
Indian soldiers fighting on the English side, the shouts
of joy that went up in the bazaars, when a Revolutionary
victory was announced, and the grief with which they
were filled when the news of their defeat came—all these
showed from day to day that the Rajput masses were
praying for victory to the Revolutionaries in the great
national war. As regards the princes of Rajputana, most
of them remained neutral and would not openly help
either side, until a decisive conflict had taken place. But
whenever they were forced to send some troops to help
the English, these troops openly disobeyed the orders of
their rulers and refused to fight against their brethren
on behalf of the Feringhis !
The United Provinces, Oudh, Rohilkhand, Behar, Bundel-
khand and Central India were the field of Kurukshetra
of the War of Independence of 1857. There was a slight
rising at Rangoon, and in Burma, in general, but alas !
it was a day after the fair, and was in vain !
After this bird’s-eye view of the region north of the Vindhya
mountains, let us now turn our eyes to the south. There,
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