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

THE VOLCANO
to satisfy their exorbitant demands ; and when, to satisfy
their further demands which they insisted on being satis-
fied at once, the Nabob taxed his subjects, down comes
the Company on the Nabob’s poor devoted head and
charges him with maladministration, because, forsooth, the
subjects complained against the new taxes. The Nabob’s
administration was thus paralysed, but, at the same time, if
by any chance the people, with one voice, rose against the
injustice and attempted to get a reform of the constitution,
English bayonets and swords of the “ subsidised ” troops
were ever ready to smother the united voice of the nation.
And still, the Company persisted in requiring that there
should be no complaints in the kingdom ! Thus, while
on the one hand they rendered it more and more impos-
sible either for the Nabob or the people to reform the
administration in any way, on the other hand their strict
and persistent demands for a better administration grew
steadily louder and louder ! “ As a matter of fact, the true
and effectual way for the introduction of an administra-
tion which would render the people happy would have
been to call the British Resident back and to give the
Nabob a free hand in the administration of his dominion.
Thus, the whole guilt of the unrest in his territory rests on
the head of the Company.” ¹ Such is the clear and un-
mistakable evidence of Lord Hastings. But in spite of
this, the Company threatened that, if the Nabob did not
render his administration conducive to the happiness of
his subjects, the Company would consider it a violation
of the treaty of 1801.
This treaty of 1801 was cancelled and the Nabob entered
into a fresh agreement in 1837. This treaty im-
paired the authority of the Nabob considerably, but he
signed the new agreement simply with the intention of
rescuing himself from the cunning treaty of 1801. In the
year 1847, Wajid Ali Shah succeeded to the throne of

1. Charles Ball’s Indian Mutiny, Vol. I, p. 152.
   44