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

THE VOLCANO
She was extremely popular at the Court of that place and
gained the affection and devoted loyalty of all her subjects,
as the later part of this history will show.
In 1851, the Peshwa Bajirao II died. Let not a single
tear be shed for his death ! For, after losing his own
kingdom in 1818, this blot in the escutcheon of the
Peshwas spent his time in helping to ruin the kingdoms
of other kings ! He saved considerably on the pension of
eight lakhs of Rupees allowed to him by the Company's
Government, and invested it in the notes of the Company.
Later, when the English went to war with Afghanistan,
he helped them with a loan of fifty lakhs out of his
savings. Soon after, the English went to war with the
Sikh nation of the Panjab. And all were in hopes, and
the English in fears, that the Mahratta at Brahmavarta
would make common cause with the Sikh Misals against
the English power. When almost the whole of India was
fighting against Aurangzeb, Shri Guru Govind Singh, after
a defeat in the Panjab, had come into the Maharashtra,
it is said, to enter into an active alliance with the Mah-
rattas. Now it seemed that the Mahrattas would go into
Northern India on a similar mission, and perform the
unfulfilled promises of the alliance. But Baji spoiled the
sport at the eleventh hour. This Baji—this Peshwa of
Shivaji and his descendants—spent money out of his own
pocket and sent one thousand infantry and one thousand
cavalry to the assistance of the English ! This
Bajirao had not troops to protect his own Shanwar
Wada, but he could spare troops enough to help the enemy
to desecrate the house of Guru Govind Singh ! O un-
fortunate nation ! The Mahrattas should take the
kingdom of the Sikhs and the Sikhs should take the
kingdom of the Mahrattas—and all this for what ?
In order that the English might dance in joy over
the corpses of both. We have rather to thank the
God of Death that such a traitor—this Baji—died
before 1857.
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