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

THE STORY OF THIS HISTORY

leaders of the A. N. B. Revolutionary Party decided to bring
out the second English edition of this book. Lala Hardayalji
organised the American branch of the A. N. B. and started
his well-known newspaper "The Gadar"—(Rebellion) in
America. Not only was the second English edition of this
Indian War of Independence of 1857 published this time for
regular sale to replenish the party funds; but translations of
this History were published regularly in Urdu, Hindi and
Punjabi languages secretly through the 'Gadar.' It aroused
the Sepoys in the Army, as the "Gadar" reached several
camps in India and especially the large number of the Sikh
agriculturists settled in America. Soon after that, the First
World War broke out. How the Indian revolutionists in India
and outside joined hands with the Germans against England,
how large amounts of arms and ammunitions were smuggled
into India, how the 'Komagatamaru' succeeded in landing
revolutionary forces in India, how the Emden bombarded
Indian ports, how mutinies broke out in Indian regiments
stationed at Hong Kong, Singapore, and Burma under the
leadership of Gadar party and how this attempt by the Indian
revolutionaries to invade India to liberate her was at last
frustrated owing to the defeat of the Germans, is now a matter
of history. Nevertheless, this revolutionary campaign proved
to be a veritable rehearsal of the recent Military Invasion at-
tempted on a mightier scale by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose
with the I. N. A. Throughout this later revolutionary move-
ment, it became evident from the trials of hundreds of leaders
and followers that this history of the first Indian War of
Independence of 1857 proved to be a perennial source of
inspiration, and even provided a detailed sketch of the pro-
gramme of action. The demand for its copies was so great
that they used to be sold and resold, in cases, for such fabulous
prices as 300 Rupees each. Thousands of the arrested revo-
lutionaries were found in possession of them, and possession
of a copy of this book was taken to be a proof by itself of
the complicity of the possessor in the revolutionary activities.

xv

THE STORY OF THIS HISTORY
“ The Original Marathi Book is Dead!—Long live the Book!! ”
After the arrest of Veer Savarkar the manuscript of the
original Marathi book was handed over to Madam Cama in
Paris. She kept it in her safe in the Bank of France with a view
to placing it beyond the reach of the Agents of the British
Intelligence Department. But the invasion of France by the
Germans threw the Government of France itself into a hopeless
disorder. Madam Cama too, passed away. Consequently,
when a searching enquiry was made regarding the whereabouts
of the book no trace of the manuscript could be found. The
great Marathi tome was lost—no hope of its recovery was left.
Marathi literature had thus suffered an irreparable loss.
The Third Known English Edition of the History
As we are noting down only those editions of which we
have definite knowledge, leaving out of count those of which
rumour alone informs us, the next English edition we must
take cognizance of, is that which, after the re-emergence of
the revolutionary party on an all India basis, was printed
and published in two parts, of course secretly, under Veer
Bhagatsing’s lead. It was sold widely at high prices and the
proceeds went to swell the party funds. The few copies, almost
religiously preserved even at the risk of prosecution and per-
secution, which can be rarely found even today, belong, in the
main, to this edition. The conspiracy cases which followed
the arrest of Veer Bhagatsing and his leading comrades reveal-
ed the fact that copies of this book were found in searches
in the possession of almost all the accused and that this History
animated them to face martyrdom and guided them to chalk
out the revolutionary programme—to organise an armed revolt
to liberate our motherland !
The Indian National Army organised by Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose and the Fifth English Edition
The well-ascertained fifth edition came to light in the days
xvi

THE STORY OF THIS HISTORY
when the last and the most determined effort was made to
organize an army on the largest scale, yet recorded, to invade
India to free her from the British bondage, by Rash Bihari
Bose, the President of the Hindu Maha Sabha branch in Japan,
and which army was later on commanded by Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose. Unimpeachable evidence recorded by patriots
and warriors who took an actual part in the invasion shows
that this ‘History’ was read and re-read in their camps and
was looked upon as a veritable text-book for the soldiers and
officers in the army. A stray copy of a Tamil edition was
also ransacked. Its tattered pages were glued and the volume
was rebound and circulated in the army. But it is not known
when or by whom the Tamil translation was made and
published.
The Sixth English Edition to Challenge the Ban on the Book
While throughout the last thirty or forty years the revo-
lutionists were thus bringing out secretly, edition after edition
of this history, an open public agitation was also going on in
India demanding the raising of the Governmental ban not only
on this history but on several other books written by Veer
Savarkar. Public meetings and protests made by literary socie-
ties went unheeded by the British Government in England as
well as in India. Even when the so called National ministries
formed by the Congressites came to power some ten years ago,
they too did not raise the ban on Savarkarite literature as
perhaps, it not only did not countenance but positively de-
nounced the vagaries of the half-witted and even immoral
doctrine of absolute non-violence to which the Congressites
swore only verbal allegiance. But when the recent World War
II was over and the present Congressite ministries came into
power, the public demand for the raising of this ban
grew so unruly that some enthusiastic patriots threaten-
ed to challenge and break the ban. They raised funds
and secretly printed a new English edition in Bombay with a
view to selling it openly and publicly courting arrests. They
xvii

THE STORY OF THIS HISTORY
even informed the Congressite ministers of their intention.
The Ban Raised at Last after some Forty Years of Proscription
When matters came to this pass and as the Government
too was inclined to reconsider the question, the ban on
Savarkarite literature as a whole, which continued to be pros-
cribed for some forty years in the past, was raised by the
Congressite ministry at long last, upon which sane act they
deserve to be congratulated.
“ The Book became the Bible of the Indian Revolutionists ”
It will be evident from the story as recited above that the
book continued to be regarded as a veritable Bible by the In-
dian Revolutionists ever since the armed struggle for Indian
Independence initiated by the Abhi Nava Bharat bands down
to recent times when full-fledged armies marched to the battle-
fields under Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Directly and in-
directly the book has influenced, animated and guided at least
two generations in India in their struggles to free the Mother-
land. That is why the Nation itself made it a point of honour
to keep the book alive as a national asset in defiance of the
violent efforts of the foreign government to suppress and kill
it. Its survival despite of it all is almost miraculous.
Miraculous too is the survival of its illustrious author who,
in spite of untold sufferings and sacrifices, trials, tribulations
and transportations, has been spared by Providence to witness
the triumphant march of the Revolutionary principles and pro-
grammes which he as .a SEER preached and as a WARRIOR
fought to carry out.
The Book Pays our National Debt to the Memory of
the Warriors of 1857
We cannot do better than to quote Shrijut Subbarao, the
gifted editor of the ‘Gosthi’ to illustrate the above truth :
xviii

THE STORY OF THIS HISTORY
“The British Raj in India has treated Savarkar’s book
as most dangerous for their existence here. So it has been
banned. But it has been read by millions of our countrymen
including my humble self. In trying to elevate the events of
1857, which interested Historians and Administrators had not
hesitated to call for decades as an ‘Indian Mutiny’, to its
right pose of ‘Indian War of Independence’. All be it a
foiled attempt at that! It is not a work of a Patriotic Al-
chemist turning base mutineering into noble revolutionary
action. Even in these days what would the Mahatmic school
have called the efforts of Subhas Bose’s Azad-Hind-Fouj if
Savarkar’s alchemy had not intervened? True. Both the 1857
and 1943 ‘Wars’ have ended in failure for our country. But
the motive behind—was it mere Mutineering or War for Inde
pendence? If Savarkar had not intervened between 1857 and
1943, I am sure that the recent efforts of the Indian National
Army would have been again dubbed as an Ignoble Mutiny
effectively crushed by the valiant British-cum-Congress arms
and armlessness. But thanks to Savarkar’s book Indian sense
of a “Mutiny” has been itself revolutionised. Not even Lord
Wavell, I suppose, can now call Bose’s efforts as a Mutiny.
The chief credit for the change of values must go to Savarkar
—and to him alone. But the greatest value of Savarkar’s Book
lies in its gift to the Nation of that Torch of Freedom in whose
light an humble I and a thousand other Indians have our dear
daughters named after Laxmibai, the Rani of Jhansi. Even
Netaji Bose in a fateful hour had to form an army corps named
after Rani of Jhansi. But for Savarkar’s discovery of that
valiant heroine, Rani of Jhansi should have been a long-for-
gotten ‘Mutineer’ of the nineteenth century.”
—Free Hindusthan, Special, 28th May, 1946
This history has literally resurrected from continuing to
be entombed in oblivion the spirits of the bravest of the leaders,
warriors and martyrs who fell fighting in 1857, and taught
us to pay our admiring and loyal tribute to Nana Sahib, Bala
B xix

THE STORY OF THIS HISTORY
Rao, Kumar Singh, Mangal Pande, Ahmad Shah, the Queen
of Jhansi, Senapati Tatia Topé and hosts of our warriors. The
names could never have been on the lips of millions today but
for the researches of Veer Savarkar guided by a gifted intuition
and on a par with such excavations as at Mohenjodaro.
It cannot but be a source of satisfaction to Veer Savar-
karji that the expectations he cherished about this History,
when he wrote it in his youth, should have been realised before
his eyes. But we are afraid that his satisfaction in this case
must be only partial. For he never could conceive that the
'Rising of 1857' was an event complete by itself. He looked
upon the war of 1857 as but a campaign in the war of Inde-
pendence in its entirety. He did not, therefore, mean the book
to serve as merely the annals of the past but also as a source
of inspiration and guidance to the Future. Consequently he
must be expecting this History to continue to discharge its
mission yet further till the end in view is accomplished. This
end is clearly marked out by Veer Savarkar himself as the
following passage will show.
The special tribunal, which tried him in 1910 for waging
war against the King (of course of England!) and sentenced
him to transportation for life and forfeiture of his property,
quotes in its judgment as an overwhelming proof of his 'guilt'
the following statement issued by Savarkar in 1908 from
London:
"The war begun on the 10th of May 1857 is not over on
the 10th of May 1908, nor can it ever cease till a 10th of May
to come sees the destiny accomplished and our Motherland
stands free!"
G. M. JOSHI
Bombay : 10th January, 1947
xx

THE ORIGINAL PUBLISHER'S PREFACE
This book on the history of 1857 was originally written
in an Indian vernacular. But owing to the unique nature of
the book which, for the first time ever since the great War
was fought, proves from the English writers themselves that
the rising of the Indian people in 1857 was in no way an
insignificant chapter in, or a tale unworthy of, a great peo-
ple's history, pressing requests were made from many quarters
to translate the work into the English language, so that, by
translations into the other vernaculars, the whole of the Indian
nation might be enabled to read the history of the ever memor-
able War of 1857. Realising the reasonableness and impor-
tance of these requests and with the kind permission of the
author the publishers undertook the translation of the original
into the English language. With the patriotic co-operation of
many of their countrymen, they are able to-day to place this
work in the hands of Indian readers.
The work of translating an Oriental work into a western
tongue has ever been a task of immense difficulty, even when
the translator has all the facilities which leisure and training
could afford. But when the translation had to be done by
divers hands and within a very short time, it was clearly fore-
seen by the publishers that the translation would be defective
and unidiomatic. But the main point before the publishers
was not to teach the Indian people how to make an elegant
translation nor to show them how to write correct English
—points to which they were supremely indifferent—but to let
them know how their nation fought for its Independence and
how their ancestors died “for the ashes of their fathers and
xxi

THE ORIGINAL PUBLISHER'S PREFACE
the temples of their Gods." So, the publishers decided to run
the risk of publishing the book as soon as it could explain
the facts it had to tell, though none could be more conscious
of the faults of the language than they themselves. Fifty
years have passed and yet those who died for the honour of
their soil and race are looked upon as madmen and villains
by the world abroad ; while their own kith and kin for whom
they shed their blood, are ashamed even to own them ! To
allow this state of public opinion, born of stupid ignorance,
and purposely and systematically kept up by a band of
interested hirelings, to continue any longer, would have been
a national sin. So, the publishers have not waited till the
language of this translation could be rendered elegant. Which
would be more shameful—to let hideous calumny hover over
and smother down the spirit of martyrdom, or to let some
mistake creep into a book admittedly translated into a foreign
tongue ? The first, at the best, was a crime, and the second
at the worst a venial literary offence. Therefore, the publi-
shers owe no apology to, nor would one be asked for by, the
Indian readers for whose special benefit, the work is published.
But, to those sympathetic foreign readers who might be
inclined to read this book, we owe an apology for the faults
of the language and crave their indulgence for the same.
THE PUBLISHERS
LONDON, May 10, 1909
xxii

Post Card
PLACE 1c.
STAMP
HERE
THIS SIDE FOR MESSAGE THIS SIDE FOR ADDRESS ONLY
In Memory of the Martyrs of the
Indian War of Independence of 1857
Martyrs, you have gone from us, but your spirits
are spurring us on to fulfil the mission of the lib-
erty of Mother India.
You seeming failure in the first struggle will
certainly urge us on to success. You taught us
how to give life for liberty. We respond to the
call of duty imposed on us by your blood sacrifice.
You have shown us that insincerity, treachery,
want of worthy leaders, want of concerted action
and unwillingness to sacrifice personal ambition on
the altar of service to the Mother Country caused
your failure.
You did not shed your blood in vain. We vow
to follow in the footsteps of Rani of Jhansi, the
Goddess of Liberty, that we will fight in every
possible way for India's liberty, even at the cost
of life. May 10, 1910
Facsimile of a
picture post-card
issued on May 10,
1910, in memory of
the "martyrs of the
Indian War of Inde-
pendence, 1857."
The picture on
the left, shown as
that of Rani Laksh-
mibai of Jhansi is,
in fact, not her pict-
ure, but that of
Sultan Jehan Begum
of Bhopal. This
was among the pic-
tures that were,
till then, being
represented abroad
as the Rani's, and
hence the mistake.
LAKSHMI BAI
The Rani of Jhansi and leader in the Indian War of Indepen-
dence of 1857
The book on "The Indian War of Independence of 1857" can
be secured by application to Mrs. B. R. Cama, 25 Rue de Pont-
thieu, Paris, France, or F. H. Publication Committee, 749 Third
Ave., New York Cloth $2 00 Paper $1 50

This image appears to be a blank page (or flyleaf) and contains no visible or readable text to transcribe.

AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION
Fifty years having passed by, the circumstances having
changed, and the prominent actors on both sides being no more,
the account of the War of 1857 has crossed the limits of
current politics and can be relegated to the realms of history.
When, therefore, taking the searching attitude of an his-
torian, I began to scan that instructive and magnificent spec-
tacle, I found to my great surprise the brilliance of a War of
Independence shining in “the mutiny of 1857.” The spirits
of the dead seemed hallowed by martyrdom, and out of the
heap of ashes appeared forth sparks of a fiery inspiration. I
thought that my countrymen will be most agreeably disap-
pointed, even as I was, at this deep-buried spectacle in one of
the most neglected corners of our history, if I could but show
this to them by the light of research. So, I tried to do the
same and am able to-day to present to my Indian readers
this startling but faithful picture of the great events of 1857.
The nation that has no consciousness of its past has no
future. Equally true it is that a nation must develop its
capacity not only of claiming a past but also of knowing how
to use it for the furtherance of its future. The nation ought
to be the master and not the slave of its own history. For,
it is absolutely unwise to try to do certain things now irres-
pective of special considerations, simply because they had been
once acted in the past. The feeling of hatred against the
Mahomedans was just and necessary in the times of Shivaji
—but, such a feeling would be unjust and foolish if nursed
xxiii

AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION
now, simply because it was the dominant feeling of the
Hindus then.
As almost all the authorities on which this work is based
are English authors, for whom it must have been impossible
to paint the account of the other side as elaborately and as
faithfully as they have done their own, it is perfectly possible
that many a scene, other than what this book contains, might
have been left unstated, and many a scene described in this
book might be found to have been wrongly described. But
if some patriotic historian would go to northern India and try
to collect the traditions from the very mouths of those who
witnessed and perhaps took a leading part in the War, the
opportunity of knowing the exact account of this can still
be caught, though unfortunately it will be impossible to do
so before very long. When, within a decade or two, the whole
generation of those who took part in that war shall have passed
away never to return, not only would it be impossible to have
the pleasure of seeing the actors themselves, but the history
of their actions will have to be left permanently incomplete.
Will any patriotic historian undertake to prevent this while
it is not yet too late ?
Even the slightest references and the most minute details
in this book can be as much substantiated by authoritative works
as the important events and the main currents of the history.
Before laying down this pen, the only desire I want to
express is that such a patriotic and yet faithful, a more de-
tailed and yet coherent, history of 1857 may come forward
in the nearest future from an Indian pen, so that this my
humble writing may soon be forgotten !
THE AUTHOR
xxiv

LIST OF IMPORTANT BOOKS CONSULTED
ARNOLD, SIR EDWIN, K.C.I.E.—The Marquis of Dalhousie's
Administration of British India.
BALL, CHARLES—The History of the Indian Mutiny.
COOPLAND, MRS.—A Lady's Escape from Gwalior.
DUFF, DR. ALEXANDER—The Indian Rebellion : Its Causes and
Results in a series of Letters.
EYRE, SIR VINCENT—Letters and Despatches.
FORBES-MITCHELL, WILLIAM—Reminiscences of the Great
Mutiny, 1857-59.
FORGETT—Real Danger in India.
FORREST, GEORGE WILLIAM—State Papers (Several Series).
GRANT, SIR JAMES HOPE—Incidents in the Sepoy War, 1857-58.
(Compiled from the private journals of Sir Hope Grant
....together with explanatory chapters by H. Knollys).
GUBBINS, MARTIN RICHARD—An Account of the Mutinies in
Oudh and of the Siege of the Lucknow Residency.
HOLLOWAY—Essays on the Indian Mutiny.
HOLMES—History of the Indian Mutiny.
JACOB, SIR GEORGE LE GRAND—Western India before and
during the Mutinies : pictures drawn from life.
KAYE, SIR JOHN WILLIAM—A History of the Sepoy War in
India, 3 vols.
KAYE AND MALLESON—History of the Indian Mutiny, 6 vols.
KHAN, MU'IN AL-DIN HASAN—Two Native Narratives.
LECKEY, EDWARD—Fictions Connected with the Indian Out-
break of 1857 Exposed.
LOWE, THOMAS, M.R.C.S.—Central India during the Rebellion
of 1857.
XXV

LIST OF IMPORTANT BOOKS CONSULTED
MALLESON, G. B.—Red Pamphlet.
MARTIN, WILLIAM—Why is the English Rule Odious to the
Natives of India?
MEAD, HENRY—The Sepoy Revolt: Its Causes and Conse-
quences.
MEDLEY, JULIUS GEORGE—A Year's Campaigning in India
from March 1857 to March 1858.
METCALFE—Native Narratives.
ROBERTS, LORD—Forty-one Years in India.
RUSSELL, SIR WM. HOWARD—My Diary in India in the Year
1858-59. 2 vols.
SHEPHERD—Personal Narrative of Cawnpore.
SYLVESTER—Recollections.
TAYLER, WILLIAM—The Patna Crisis.
TAYLOR, MEADOWS—The Story of My Life.
THOMSON, MOWBRAY—The Story of Cawnpore.
TREVELYAN, SIR GEORGE OTTO—Cawnpore.
WHITE—Complete History of the Great Sepoy War.
WILSON—The Defence of Lucknow.
State Papers and several other books.
ANON—History of the Siege of Delhi, by an Officer who
served there.
ANON—Military Narrative.
ANON—Narrative of the Indian Revolt, etc. Reprinted from
the “ Illustrated Times.”
शिपायांचें बंड—विनायक कोंडदेव ओक ( मराठी )
शिपाई युद्धेर इतिहास—( बंगाली )
झांशीच्या राणीचें चरित्र—पारसनीस
गोडसे यांचा ‘ माझा प्रवास ’—वैद्यांनीं प्रकाशिलेलें
xxvi

The Indian
War of
Independence
1857

This page is blank and contains no text.

PART I
The Volcano.
CHAPTER I
SWADHARMA & SWARAJ
IT is a simple truism patent even to the unedu-
cated that the most tiny house cannot be built
without a foundation strong enough to support
its weight. When writers who profess to write
the history of the Revolution that was enacted
in India in 1857 ignore this common sense
principle and do not try to discuss the real causes that
led to it and impudently maintain that the vast edifice of
the Revolution was built on a blade of straw, they must
either be fools or, what is more probable, knaves. Any-
way, it is certain that they are unfit for the holy work of
the historian.
1

THE VOLCANO
In all great religious and political revolutions, it is
almost impossible to connect together links apparently
inconsistent, without thoroughly understanding the
principles which are at their root. On seeing a great work
of machinery composed of innumerable screws and wheels
doing work of tremendous magnitude if we do not under-
stand how the power is produced, we may feel bewilder-
ing astonishment, but never the inner pleasure due to
knowledge. When writers describe such stirring events
as the French Revolution or the religious revolution of
Holland, the very splendour and magnitude of the crises
they paint, often, dazzle and confuse their mind's eye and
they rarely gather sufficient coolness and courage to go
deep into the underlying principles. But without an ex-
position of the hidden causes and the mysterious forces
that worked beneath, the essence of a revolution can never
be made plain. And therefore it is that history attaches
more importance to the exposition of principles than to
mere narrative.
While searching after principles, historians often com-
mit another mistake. For every act, there are various
causes, direct and indirect, general and particular, acci-
dental and necessary. In their proper classification lies
the true skill of the historian. In this process of classi-
fication many historians get mixed up and make the acci-
dental into a necessary cause. These make themselves as
ridiculous as the judge in the story who, in a case of
arson, put all the responsibility on the match instead of
the man who struck it. The real importance of any event
can never be understood by this confusion of causes. Not
merely that, but mankind begins positively to curse the
memory of men who are represented as having started,
with a light heart and private selfish motives, a Revolution
in the course of which countless lives are lost and im-
mense expanses of country devastated. And therefore, in
writing the history of any event in general, and of revo-
lutionary movements in particular, a writer cannot give a
2

SWADHARMA & SWARAJ
true idea of them by means of simple description, or even
by tracing them backwards to accidental causes. An up-
right and impartial historian must try to discover the
foundations on which the revolutionary structure was
erected. He must try to discover and discuss funda-
mental causes.
Mazzini, in a critical article on Carlyle's French
Revolution, has said that every revolution must have had
a fundamental principle. Revolution is a complete re-
arrangement in the life of historic man. A revolutionary
movement cannot be based on a flimsy and momentary
grievance. It is always due to some all-moving principle
for which hundreds and thousands of men fight, before
which thrones totter, crowns are destroyed and created,
existing ideals are shattered and new ideals break forth,
and for the sake of which vast masses of people think
lightly of shedding sacred human blood. The moving
spirits of revolutions are deemed holy or unholy in pro-
portion as the principle underlying them is beneficial or
wicked. As in private life, so also in history, the deeds
of an individual or a nation are judged by the character
of the motive. If we forget this test, we cannot appreciate
the vast difference between the empire-building wars of
Alexander the Great and Italy's fight for liberty under
Garibaldi. Just as to decide about the merits of these two
different events one has to consider the prime motive of
the chief actors in those wars, so also to write a full history
of a revolution means necessarily the tracing of all the
events of that revolution back to their source,—the motive,
the innermost desire of those who brought it about. This
is the telescope which will show clearly the lights and
shadows obscured by the blurred presentation of partial
and prejudiced historians. When a beginning is made in
this manner, order appears in the apparent chaos of in-
consistent facts, crooked lines become straight, and straight
lines appear crooked, light appears where darkness is, and
darkness spreads over light, what appeared ugly becomes
3

THE VOLCANO
fair and what looked beautiful is seen to be deformed.
And expectedly, or unexpectedly, but in a clear form, the
Revolution comes into the light of real history.
The history of the tremendous Revolution that was
enacted in India in the year 1857 has never been written
in this scientific spirit by any author, Indian or foreign.
And hence there are current throughout the world most
extraordinary, misleading, and unjust ideas about that
Revolutionary War. English authors have committed, in
this respect, all the faults noted above. Some of them
have not made any attempt beyond merely describing the
events, but most of them have written the history in a
wicked and partial spirit. Their prejudiced eye could not
or would not see the root principle of that Revolution. Is
it possible, can any sane man maintain, that that all-
embracing Revolution could have taken place without a
principle to move it? Could that vast tidal wave from
Peshawar to Calcutta have risen in flood without a fixed
intention of drowning something by means of its force?
Could it be possible that the sieges of Delhi, the mas-
sacres of Cawnpore, the banner of the Empire, heroes
dying for it, could it ever be possible that such noble and
inspiring deeds have happened without a noble and ins-
piring end? Even a small village market does not take
place without an end, a motive ; how, then, can we believe
that that great market opened and closed without any
purpose—the great market whose shops were on every
battle field from Peshawar to Calcutta, where kingdoms
and empires were being exchanged, and where the only
current coin was blood? No, no. The market was neither
opened nor closed without a purpose. English historians
have always ignored this point, not because it is difficult
to ascertain it, but because it is against their interests to
admit the truth.
Even more deceptive than this indifference, and one
which changes or distorts the whole spirit of the Revolu-
4