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

THE VOLCANO
Jhansi declared, “ Give up my Jhansi ?—I will not ! Let
him try to take who dares !!” “ Mêri Jhansi döongi
nahin ! !” 10
40

CHAPTER IV
AYODHYA
WE have no hesitation in saying that Lord
Dalhousie is one of those Indian administrators
who are accused of more sins of administration
than they are really guilty of. Officers like
Dalhousie are nothing more than mouthpieces
of tyranny. They merely execute the commands
of the 'Home' authorities. To refer all responsibility for
tyrannous misdeeds committed in India to such mouth-
pieces would be as unjust as it is irrational. Dalhousie was
purely a creature of the circumstances in which he was
placed. The major portion of the responsibility, for good
as well as for evil, therefore, rests on those who created
41

THE VOLCANO
the situation. As long as the general policy is dictated
from 'Home', those whose duty is merely to execute it can
act no more honestly than Dalhousie did. It would cer-
tainly be unjust to hold Dalhousie responsible for all those
combined acts and deeds which had to flow directly from
the situation created for him by his masters in England
and his assistants in India. Dalhousie merely reaped that
harvest of political robbery the seeds of which had been
sedulously sown for a hundred years by his predecessors.
The intrigues born of political avarice had been sown long
before and Dalhousie's regime was the season in which
they bore fruit. But for this heritage of iniquitous power
behind him, how many kingdoms could Dalhousie have
annexed ? It was chiefly because generations of his pre-
decessors had prepared the way for him by slowly under-
mining the foundations of the different kingdoms of India
that Dalhousie was enabled, by the mere stroke of his pen,
to annex so many of them.
It was in 1764 that the relations between the Company
and the ruler of Oudh were first established. Since
then, the servants of the Company had been steadily try-
ing to usurp the fertile land of Ayodhya. Having first
compelled the Nabob of Oudh to keep English regiments
in his pay for 'protecting' him, they obtained from him
in return Rs. 16 lakhs (£160,000) per annum as the pay
for these regiments. By such forced protection and volun-
tary compulsion, the treasury of the Nabob was rapidly
emptied ; and then the English suggested to the Nabob
(it was a veiled command) that a replacing of all the
native army of the Nabob by English regiments would be
a valuable step towards the effectual 'protection' of the
principality. A treasury which could not afford to
pay even the pay of the "subsidised troops" could certain-
ly not pay the salaries of the "additional" troops forced
on the Nabob, and the English thoroughly knew this
fact. Indeed, the additional demand was made because
the English knew this fact. At last it was forced (most
42

AYODHYA
unwillingly !) upon the notice of the Company that, if
the Nabob had an empty treasury, he had at least a tract
of territory and, so, with the sole object of looking after
the welfare and well-being of the Nabob, the Company
deprived him, at once and for ever, of a territory yielding
a net revenue of about two crores of Rupees (£2,000,000)
and forced him to accept the services of this extensive
army of English soldiers. This territory was the land of
Rohilkhand and the Doab.
After robbing all this land from the territory of Oudh,
the English signed an agreement that, as the Nabob had
surrendered all and every right over this tract of land, the
rest of the territory belonging to the Nabob should remain
hereditarily in the family of the Nabob. Another article
in the treaty provided that the Nabob should not oppress
his subjects. After this treaty which was concluded in
1801, the Nabob was made to advance to the Company,
whenever they wanted financial aid, crores of Rupees. The
whole kingdom of Oudh was in the hands of the Com-
pany's army officers, the treasury became empty by forced
loans and contributions, and it was impossible for the
Nabob to administer his territory independently or to
introduce internal reforms. But the philanthropic Com-
pany kept on urging upon him, pointing to the articles in
the treaty of 1801, to alter his administration so as to
make his subjects happy and contented. How was it pos-
sible for the Nabob to do so? The Company thwarted
all his efforts to reform the finances. Those old laws in the
kingdom which ensured the happiness of the people were
abolished by the Company and new ones were introduced.
The subjects suffered so much in consequence of these new
laws that even the Company had to acknowledge its mis-
take and did do so ten years after. Thus, while on the
one hand the Company unlawfully interfered in the inter-
nal administration of the kingdom, on the other hand it
insisted that the subjects of the Nabob should have
no complaints. They first made him empty his treasury
Published by Asian Educational Services, New Delhi, 2014.
43

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

AYODHYA
Oudh. This new Nabob determined from the first to des-
troy the poisonous white worm which was killing the life
out of the state, and with that object began reforms in the
army which was the life of the kingdom. This youthful
prince introduced strict regulations as to the discipline
of the Sepoys and even personally supervised their drill.
All the regiments had to undergo the drill every morning
before the Nabob, who used to dress in the uniform of
the commander-in-chief of the troops. He issued strict
orders that every regiment that was late in presenting
itself on the parade ground should be liable to a fine of
Rs. 2000 (£200) and he, at the same time, bound him-
self to pay the same amount as fine if he himself failed
in this duty.²
The Company, of course, could not bear to see the
Nabob develop his strength. The British Resident, there-
fore, in a short time forced the Nabob to give up these
military activities and at the same time suggested that,
if he so desired to increase the strength of the army, the
Company was quite willing to increase the “ subsidiary ”
force ; the only condition they would impose being that
the Nabob should, every year, pay a further additional
sum towards its expenses and upkeep. The hotblooded
Nabob was quite indignant. But he was forced to give
up his darling scheme of military reform and was reduced
to complete inactivity. Yet, the benevolent East India
Company went on arguing that the Nabob should render
his administration happy to his subjects.
But now, the Nabob need not even think as to how to
render his rule happy. For Lord Dalhousie has arrived
in India with the express and benevolent object of taking
upon himself (as representative of the E. I. Coy.) all the
responsibility for the good administration of all the inde-
pendent states of India. With his keen political insight,
2. Native Narratives of the Mutiny by Metcalfe, pp. 32-33.
45

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Lord Dalhousie soon realised that the treaty of 1837 was,
as a matter of fact, a great blunder. For in the annulment of
the old treaty was lost a very strong and a very hypercriti-
cal reason for the annexation of the independent princi-
pality of Oudh. The article in the treaty of 1801, demand-
ing that the Nabob should rule for the happiness of his
subjects, was an incontrovertible argument for annexing
Oudh at the sweet will of the Company. How could this
mistake of 1837 be repaired ? Why, by simply denying
the fact that the treaty was ever entered into. Without any
indirect methods, the Nabob was informed that no such
treaty as the one of 1837 was ever entered into. A short
time after the treaty of 1837, the English, as it would
appear, remembered the treaty perfectly well. Indeed in
1847, Lord Hartington had publicly and unmistakably
acknowledged this treaty. Col. Sleeman in 1851 had fur-
ther testified to the treaty. Nay, in that very year 1853,
not only was mention made of this treaty, but it was
actually appended to the list of the existing treaties in the
Company's records for that year !³ So the English
denied, aye, altogether, that there was ever any such
treaty ;—the very existence of a treaty which they had
acknowledged just a minute before was denied by them
even before the pen which had written the acknowledg-
ment had been laid down ! And thus, Wajid Ali Shah
was informed that the Company would consider it neces-
sary to take over the administration of his kingdom if he
did not introduce the happy regime !
But it must not be forgotten that all these important
issues had been decided on long before Dalhousie even
reached the shores of Hindusthan. All his predecessors,
moved by unholy designs, had prepared the way to swal-
low this province, and their endeavours, characterised by
low cunning, had almost succeeded. To Dalhousie was
reserved the last act of consummation, the last stroke of
3. Dalhousie's Administration, Vol. II, p. 367.
46

AYODHYA
policy, and this absorbed all his attention. It would have
been out of the question to “ conquer ” Oudh by sending
an expedition into the territory as was done in the case
of the Panjab or Brahmadesh (Burma), for as yet not a
single man in the Oudh territory was for the English.
The charge that the Nabob did not carry out the friendly
intentions he professed was also out of the question, for
had not the Nabob helped the English on all occasions,
when help was needed ? And had not the Nabob freely
supplied the English with money from his pocket ? Had
he not supplied the English even with provisions, when
they were pressed hard in many of their campaigns ?
Nor could there be any excuse, as in the case of Nag-
pur, that the Nabob had no direct heir ; the palace was
full of the Nabob’s legitimate children. Nor was there
trouble about adoption as in the case of Jhansi, for the
present king was the legitimate son of the late king and
had, further, sat on the throne for years. In short the
Nabob of Oudh had not committed any of the above
“ crimes ” which cost other princes their kingdoms. But
though the Nabob had thus avoided every other “ crime ”,
still the demented fool had committed one unpardonable
crime ! What crime could cry louder than this, that the
land of Oudh was very fertile, teeming with crops and rich
in every way ? Even the dry language of the Blue Book
has broken forth into poetic eloquence when describing
the beautiful and rich land of Oudh !
The Blue Book says :—“ In this beautiful land, every-
where within twenty feet, and in some places even within
ten feet, of the surface, there is a plentiful supply of
water. This splendid tract is most charming, nodding
with whole forests of tall and towering bamboo trees,
cooled by the shade of mango trees and green with rich
and verdant crops. The deep shade of the tamarind, the
fragrance of the orange trees, the rich hue of the fig
trees, and the sweet all-pervading scent of the pollen of
47

THE VOLCANO
flowers lend an additional glory to a scene naturally
beautiful ! ”
That no wise Englishman should hesitate to pull down
a Nabob who was guilty of such an enormity as
possessing such a beautiful tract of territory all for him-
self, Dalhousie realised but too well and so, in the year
1856, the fiat went forth that Oudh was to be annexed.
And what was the reason alleged ? Of course this, that
the Nabob was not reforming his administration.
But, England couldst thou justify thy rule over India
for a day, if thou acknowledgedst the plea of unrest
and maladministration as sufficient ? There is the vice
of opium-eating in China, absolute rule in Afghanisthan,
why, under thy very nose Russia has reached a climax of
lawlessness and tyranny ; yet couldst thou dare for that
reason to drag the Chinese Emperor and the Amir and
the Tsar from their thrones and annex their kingdoms ?
How couldst thou acquire the right of gagging the mouth
of your neighbour and binding his hands and feet and
taking possession of his house, because, forsooth, he kept
his things not quite in proper order ? Even the treaty of
1801 did not give the Company the right of annexing
Oudh, under any circumstances. And was not that very
absence of good administration, at which the Company
pretended so much indignation, a thing brought about by
their own agency ? Arnold, the biographer of Dalhousie
and the historian of his regime, asserts that the Nabob of
Oudh was guilty of many a crime besides that ! In the
first place, he used to give presents of shawls to his ser-
vants of either sex ; further that he had a fireworks display
on the 11th of May ; why, more—one morning he urged
Shah Begum and Taj Begum to a dinner ! What more
horrible crime could he commit ? All thanks to the Eng-
lish who bore patiently such gross acts on the part of the
Nabob as taking medicinal drugs in the mornings, and
desisted from dethroning him ! But the patience of the
48

AYODHYA
English could endure no more ! For, one day the Nawab
was present when some stallions were let on the mares
for breeding purposes.
It is a wonder that malicious as the English historians
were, trying hard to noise far and wide the incapacity
of the Nabob for good administration, by such silly,
trifling accusations, they should have taken the trouble
to come to Hindusthan to witness such occurrences as
these. Even in their own country, throughout the various
royal palaces, they could have gathered enough material
of worse nature ; and in that case, their time would cer-
tainly have been more profitably employed in annexing
and confiscating the estates of their own princes and lords,
in order to put an end to violations and outrages of a far
more nefarious kind !
As soon as the British Resident received the order that
the Nabob should be informed of the decision of
Dalhousie—a lasting stain on his regime—the Resident
went to the Nabob's palace and began to insist that the
Nabob should sign a document stating that he was per-
fectly willing to give over his dominions to the Company.
The Nabob read the document and flatly refused to sign.
To make the Nabob sign this document, the Resident
began attempts to bribe the Ranee and the Vizier and the
threat was also given that a refusal by the Nabob to sign
the document would result in even his pension being
stopped. The Nabob was overwhelmed with grief at this
and began even to weep. But it was of no use. Seeing at
the end of three days that the refusal was still persisted
in, the British army, insolently setting aside the Nabob's
authority, entered Lucknow and took forcible possession
of the whole Ryâsat, including his palace. The Zenanas
were looted, the Begums were insulted, the Nabob was
hurled from the throne, palaces were turned into stables
for the soldiers of the English and thus began a happy
beginning of the good administration of the so-far-badly-
49
4

THE VOLCANO
managed Kingdom of Oudh.
Though the ruling prince of Oudh was a Mahomedan,
most of the big land-owners under him were Hindus.
Jahgirs and Talukdari rights had continued from father
to son in the families of these Zemindars for generations.
Hundreds of villages were administered under the single
authority of each of these proprietors. They possessed
forts and had small armies under them to protect these
Jahgirs. No wonder, then, that these Zemindars very soon
incurred the displeasure of the Company. With a view
to reduce all to the same level of poverty, the sordid roller
of the Company’s land revenue administration began to
devastate the land. The Talukdars were deprived of their
numerous villages wholesale, their lands were confiscated,
their forts were demolished, and all over the land of Ayo-
dhya one long wail of suffering rent the air ! The Amir
of yesterday became a Fakir to-day. The descendants of
ancient and noble families were driven from village to
village at the behest of a raw white youth of yesterday ;
insults were everywhere given ; whole families were reduc-
ed to dust.⁴
The English claimed that they were doing these things
for the poor agriculturists and villagers. Tyrannous
land-owners oppressed the Ryot ; hence, these pro-
tectors of the Ryot were introducing new methods to
deliver the Ryot from the cruel grip of the landowner.
How many Ryots and how many villages were deceived
by these false pretensions will soon be witnessed on the
4. Kaye says with reference to the Zemindar :—The chances
against him were many and great, for he had divers ordeals to pass
through and he seldom survived them all. When the claims of a
great Talukdar could not be altogether ignored, it was declared that
he was a rogue or a fool .... They gave him a bad name and they
straightway went to ruin him .... It was at once a cruel wrong
and a grave error to sweep it away as though it were an encum-
brance and an usurpation.
50

AYODHYA
battle-fields of Ayodhya. Faithful villagers, attached to
their masters, used to visit these homeless Zemindars and
Talukdars, robbed and driven from door to door, and used
to pay them faithful homage in the profuse flow of sincere
tears. Thus, there was terrible suffering—right from the
Nabob of Oudh to the villagers ; not a place but witnessed
wholesale looting, even burning, misery, oppression, and
tyranny, and did not hurl terrible curses and vowed
vengeance ; not a homestead but looked desolate, terribly
desolate ! Such was the beneficent administration that
was substituted in Oudh for the misgovernment of
the Nabob !
The world-wide difference between Swarajya and foreign
rule was, thus, brought painfully to the notice of
all Oudh. All their previous history stood before them
vividly. They realised full well now that even death was
preferable to living in slavery. How long to look on, while
the Swadesh was reduced to dust and Swarajya was no
more ? They hated intensely these insults and this shame-
ful condition.
At this very time, the roller of the Inam Commission
was working in other provinces in order to destroy the
stamina of Zemindars and Vatandars in those provinces
and reduce them to the level of those classes in Oudh.
Those lands and those Jahgirs which had been won by
the Sanad of the Sword were being abolished wholesale,
because they could not show documentary evidence of
Sanads of paper. That the work of the Inam Commission
was terrible may, to some extent, be realised from this
single fact that nearly 35000 big Jahgirs and extensive
Inams were inquired into by the Inam Commission and
of these, within the space of ten years, three-fifths were
usurped ! By this means, all over India, property of every
kind was rendered insecure. Thrones of princes, Vatans
of Sardars, lands of Zemindars, Talukas of Talukdars,
houses of citizens, the lands dedicated to the temples, the
51

THE VOLCANO
fields of agriculturists—all these were, in this terrible con-
flagration, burned to ashes. Even life was rendered
insecure. No one could be sure that the few morsels of
food which he was allowed to-day would be spared to him
to-morrow. The contrast between Swarajya and foreign
government, independence and slavery, stood naked in all
its horrible aspects before the people.
Thus did the English administer benevolently in this
extraordinary way these vast dominions of our Indian
princes which had been so far badly administered !
52

CHAPTER V
ADDING FUEL TO FIRE
TO allow the existence of a slavery under which
such unjust acts of oppression (as have been
mentioned in the last chapter) and hundreds of
other unmentionable crimes (which have been
left unmentioned, being, indeed, too numerous
to mention) are committed and encouraged
and to bow the head in submission to the perpetrators
thereof, is not this the very destruction of Religion ?
What religion is there which has not condemned depend-
ence and slavery ? The ultimate goal of true religion is
likeness unto the nature of the Supreme Being that moves
everything, of Him who made all beings capable of
53

THE VOLCANO
becoming all-perfect. There must not be imperfection in
man if he is to be like the All-Perfect. But how can there
be anything but imperfection in a country where there is
slavery ? God is the essence of justice, and slavery is
absence of justice. God is the essence of freedom ; slavery
is absence of freedom. Hence, where there is God there
cannot be slavery, and where there is slavery there cannot
be God or Godliness. Where there is no place for God,
there can be no religion. In short, true religion cannot
exist where slavery, the nursery of injustice, is rampant.
Slavery is the straight road to Hell and true religion is a
means of attaining Heaven. To walk in the path leading
towards Heaven, the shackles of slavery must be broken.
This was the practical philosophy which Sri Samartha
Ramdas gave to Shivaji and Sri Pran Nath taught Chhat-
trasala, and this advice to win Swaraj for the sake of
religion, by fighting and dying for it, began to echo in the
hearts of the people trodden under slavery, in 1857, two
hundred years after it was originally given.
Those, who had thrust this slavery—unnatural, born
of injustice,—on Hindusthan, had already begun the des-
truction of religion not only in India but all over the world.
For, what religion is there which has not condemned
injustice ? But not satisfied with the tacit insult of the
religion of India, from the very day he set foot on the
Indian soil up to the terrible battles of 1857, the Feringhi
had been making steady and unceasing attempts to
trample the Hindu religion and the Moslem faith. The
head of the whole English nation was turned at the
immeasurable success which had attended the attempt to
Christianise (?) the indigenous ignorant races of Africa
and America, and they had strong hopes that in India too,
in a few days, the Cross would be everywhere triumphant.
That the English fully believed that Hindusthanis would
be ashamed of their religion when they saw the light of
western civilisation and give it up, that they would con-
sider the Bible more sacred than the Vedas and the Koran,
54

ADDING FUEL TO FIRE
and that they would be gathered together in the fold of
the Church, leaving their Temples and Musjids,—is fully
and unmistakably seen from the literature of that time
and from the writings and speeches of Englishmen of the
first half of the last century. The chairman of the Direc-
tors of the East India Company, Mr. Mangles, said in the
House of Commons, in 1857 :—
“ Providence has entrusted the extensive empire of Hindu-
sthan to England in order that the banner of Christ
should wave triumphant from one end of India to the
other. Everyone must exert all his strength that there
may be no dilatoriness on any account in continuing in
the country the grand work of making all India Christian.”
Macaulay, in 1836—when schools in which English edu-
cation was to be given were first opened in Bengal,
had expressed a hope amounting almost to a conviction
that, in thirty years, there would be no idol-worshipper
left in Bengal.¹
The mind of the Feringhi was filled with such contempt
and such hatred for the Hindu and Moslem faiths—
the two principal religions of India—that very prominent
writers, forgetting even ordinary conventionalities, con-
stantly heaped shameful abuse on the two religions when-
ever they got a chance.
The constant insistence by the East Indian Company to
make India Christian was due to a very obvious reason.
Once the religions in India died, the national feeling of the
people would also die ; individuality would die and it is
infinitely more easy to rule a nation whose individuality
is dead than to rule one which has a clearly marked

1. “ It is my firm belief that, if our plan of education is fol-
   lowed up, there would not be a single idolator in Bengal 30 years
   hence !”—Macaulay's letter to his mother, Oct. 12, 1836.
   55

THE VOLCANO
individuality. Thus, the question was one of diplomacy
rather than of religion, and the reason why England did
not lift the sword for the solution of the problem was also
to be found in diplomacy. England had learnt many
lessons from the history of Aurangzeb. Both the strength
and weakness of the policy of that monarch had been
carefully studied by the English. Learning the wisdom
of Aurangzeb, that the destruction of the religion of a
conquered race makes the problem of retaining it in per-
petual slavery much easier, the English had avoided his
folly of open persecution for religion. Hence the stolid
and continuous efforts of the English to make India
Christian by indirect means only and not openly.
Rev. Kennedy wrote at the time, “Whatever misfortunes
come on us, as long as our Empire in India con-
tinues, so long let us not forget that our chief work
is the propagation of Christianity in the land. Until
Hindusthan, from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas,
embraces the religion of Christ and until it condemns the
Hindu and the Moslem religions, our efforts must continue
persistently. For this work, we must make all the efforts
we can and use all the power and all the authority in our
hands ; and continuous and unceasing efforts must be kept
on until India becomes a magnificent nation, the bulwark
of Christianity in the East ! If, with such uninterrupted
perseverance, we continue our efforts, then I do not doubt
that, by the grace of God, we shall be successful in
the end ! ”
No wonder, then, that every citizen of India—seeing that
English authorities and missionaries were using such
language openly—began to feel that, under the English
Raj, everyone would eventually be forced to be Christian.
With the disappearance of Swaraj, the Rajas and Maha-
rajahs, who made rich gifts of Inams and Jahgirs to
Temples and Musjids, were also disappearing. In this
powerless state,—instead of new inams being granted,
56

ADDING FUEL TO FIRE
instead of fresh gifts of money being showered on Temples
and Musjids as when there was Swaraj—even those Inams
and the money remaining yet in their hands were being
taken away forcibly from the temples and mosques. And
there is no wonder that, seeing that there was no protec-
tion for their religions, the Hindus and the Moslems alike
were pained and grieved. Nor is it to be wondered at that
the blood of both the Hindus and the Mahomedans boiled
with rage at being openly described in official and private
documents as "heathens," a peculiarly abusive epithet.
And yet, there was every indication that the Feringhis,
who cared more for the increase of commerce than of the
Christian religion and were the devotees more of Mammon
than of Christ—the Prince of Poverty, would therefore
desist from attacking the religious prejudices of the people
by open violence.
As if with the express purpose of proving the falsity
of such an idea, the English in the insolence born of
unbridled power very soon began an open and violent
interference with the religions of Hindusthan. Even while
efforts were being made to pass in Calcutta the law for
the abolition of suttee, public opinion in India began to
suspect deeper designs on the part of the Government.
Even before this law for the abolition of suttee had
passed through the Councils of Calcutta, the prisoners
were prevented from observing their religions. A few
days more saw the passing of the Widow Remarriage Act,
in the face of the loud protests of the Hindus. No sooner
had this law been passed than Lord Canning expressed
his opinion that the law for the abolition of polygamy was
to be brought into the Legislative Council, and he exerted
himself to pass it as speedily as possible through the
council. The question we have to answer here is not
whether the law which the Company was going to intro-
duce was good or bad. What we want, in this place, to
say is that neither Hindus nor Mahomedans could be
certain as to where the attack on their religious customs
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57

THE VOLCANO
would stop, seeing that the English, in the exercise of
their authority for the passing of these laws, had begun
the dangerous habit of interfering by force with the
religious customs of the people. These laws may be good
or bad ; nor may it be necessary to attach to them the
slightest importance ; but this much is clear that any
changes in the social habits based upon religious texts can
be brought about only by the authority of those religions
and through their adherents. When a foreign administra-
tion professing an alien religion, after making promises
never to interfere with the religious beliefs of the people,
endeavours to change by force the hereditary customs,
the established religious beliefs of the people, on the
strength of a majority composed of men professing the
foreign religion in the council and on the strength of
despotic authority, and that, when the public opinion
clearly and unmistakably expressed, of the adherents
of those religions was opposed to such change, while,
in the Council, the men who belonged to these
religions had no authority at all,—then, indeed, there was
not the least difference between the tyranny of Aurang-
zeb and the tyranny of the Company's Raj. To-day law
regarding only suttee has been passed ; who could say
that, when this injustice was swallowed by the people,
what other laws the Company would not pass ? The
English hated idolatry as much as they did suttee.
To-day the law for the abolition of suttee was forced on
the people against their will ; who knows that, to-morrow,
a law for the prevention of idol-worship would not be
thrust on the people under the pretext of reform ? One
injustice begets another. To allow the continuance of this
system of interfering with religion by means of laws made
by aliens was to follow the lifting of the sword of
Aurangzeb. And when the English had begun to take
up the rôle of Aurangzeb, there was no other remedy
than that India must produce a Shivaji or a Guru
Govind. And such was the usual impression all
over India.
58

ADDING FUEL TO FIRE
And this idea the Christian missionaries began to streng-
then themselves. In their street preachings at various
places, they used to say openly that India would soon be
Christianised. The Sirkar had already begun to pass one
law after another to destroy the foundations of the Hindu
and Mahomedan religions. Railways had already been
constructed, and carriages had been built in such a way as
to offend the caste prejudices of the Hindus. The larger
mission schools were being helped with huge grants from
the Sirkar. Lord Canning himself distributed thousands of
Rupees to every mission, and from this fact it is clear that
the wish was strong in the heart of Lord Canning that all
India should be Christian. Why, if the would-be converts
are afraid that they would lose their property by conver-
sion, a law shall at once be passed to prevent this !
Hardly had the missionaries exhausted their sermons
and lectures, when news came that a law had been passed
that all the rights and privileges of converts to the property
of their unconverted relatives should remain intact even
after conversion. Another fact also came to light, that
huge salaries were to be paid to the bishops and even
archbishops from the Indian treasury. The insistence of
every Englishman, from the highest officer in the Govern-
ment to the commonest missionary of the towns, had
reached such a pitch that the white superior in Govern-
ment offices began to insist on all the “ black ” clerks
under him to become Christian ! While the officers were
ready to lay the axe at the root of India's religions, at the
expense of India's money, themselves living on the fat
of India—the Government did not move at all in the
matter. For, what was the Government but Lord Canning
and his councillors ? And, this Canning and this Council
had surpassed all other officers in their holy zeal for
conversion and were feeding the missionaries with lakhs
of Rupees—those missionaries who defiled the people and
heaped unrestrained abuse on their sacred religions. Under
such circumstances, the people were reasonably afraid that
59