Savarkar, Vinayak Damodar, The Indian War of Independence of 1857

([London :  s.n.,  1909])

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  Page VII  



Author's Introduction
 

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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 historian,
I began to scan that instructive and magnificent spectacle, I
found to my great surprise the brilliance of a War of Inde¬
pendence 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 disappointed, 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 capa¬
city 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 irrespective
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
  Page VII