Ch.V ]
 

Adding Fuel to Fire
 

other mean trick of the same nature to make the paper sub¬
stituted for the lubricating mixture smooth? If once uncons¬
ciously they were defiled with cows' and pigs' meat thrust in
their mouths, then the missionary colonels and padre commanders
would say, '^ Look here, you have now been christianised!"
If, on the one hand, the military superiors tried to soothe the
indignation and anger of the sepoys by false denials and
lowly retractations, on the other hand, they provoked them
still more by distributing on the parades thousands of big
pamphlets full of abuse of Rama and Mahomed to spite their
religions. The beginning of the agitation against the cartridges
was started early in January and, before the month had ended,
the Government had to yield on yet another point—a fresh
regulation allowed the soldiers to use the fat they themselves
prepared. Further, Birch, at the same time, by means of another
Government memorandum, assured all tlae sepoys that not a
single objectionable cartridge had been sent into the army!
The Prince of Lies could not have been more versatile! Twenty-
two thousand and five-hundred cartridges from the Umballa
depot alone and fourteen thousand from the Sialkot depot had
been already sent in 1856! In the rifie classes in various places,
even at that very moment, practice in the use of these cartridges
was being given! In the Gurkha Eegiments, the cartridges
were being openly introduced! And military authorities used to
threaten the sepoys that they would be physically forced to
use the cartridges. Why, in one or two places, when the
sepoys were obstinate in their refusal to use these cartridges,
whole regiments were punished severely.

So, the sepoys determined that, whether they had to use these
cartridges or not, they would not rest quiet until they had
destroyed this political slavery and this dependence which was
at the root of all this trouble. What religion can a slave have ?
The first step towards Dharma is to be a free man of a free
country.

Bise, then, 0 Hindusthan, rise! " Die for Dharmg,; while
dying, kill all your enemies and win back Swarajya; while
killing, kill well." Murmuring such sentiments to himself, every
sepoy in India began to sharpen his sword for the fight for
Swadharma and Swarajya!