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

THE CHAIN OF CAUSES
overthrowing the British Government, was dethroned, and
in his place Chhatrapati Appa Sahib was appointed by
the English Sirkar to succeed him.¹ Mr. Arnold, in his
book Dalhousie’s Administration, says “ It is not pleasant
to dwell, on the circumstances of the dethronement—so
discreditable they were.” After such shamelessly discre-
ditable dethronement, the English established on the Gadi
of Satara the brother, on account of the failure of legiti-
mate sons. By this, the English practically acknowledg-
ed the right of other relations—as is the invariable law
laid down by the Hindu Shastras—to succeed to the
throne. The only truth about this whole affair is that
Dalhousie, with the habitual treachery of his nation,
overrode this open acknowledgment knowingly and deli-
berately, because it was profitable to do so.
No one could under any pretext say that the English,
in any of the various treaties concluded with the various
Rajas, had refused to acknowledge the right of adopted
children to succeed to their adoptive parents’ thrones. In
1825, the Company, while acknowledging the right of the
adopted child of the Raja of Kota to succeed, openly
declared :—“ The Prince of Kota must be considered to
possess the right, in common with all other Hindus, of
adopting a son and successor in conformity with the rules
of the Shastras.” ²
Again, in 1837, when the Raja of Oorcha adopted a
successor, the English acknowledged him and promised :—

1. The first article in the treaty entered into by the Sirkar
   with the Chhatrapati, when he was placed on the throne of Satara,
   runs as follows :—“ The valiant English Government on its part
   agrees to give the country or territory specified, to the Government
   or State of His Highness the Maharaja Chhatrapati (the Raja of
   Satara); His Highness the Maharaja Chhatrapati and His Highness’s
   sons and heirs and successors are perpetually, that is from generation
   to generation, to reign in sovereignty over the said territory.”
2. Parliamentary Papers, 15th February, 1850, page 153.
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