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

([London :  s.n.,  1909])

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Pt. II ]
 

Shahid Mangal Panday
 

[ Ch.I
 

CHAPTER I

SHAHID MANOAL PANDAY
 

Of all the marvellous incidents connected with the Revolution
of 1857, the most marvellous was the secrecy with which the
vast movement was organised. The clever English administrators
had so little information about the source of the movement,
even after the tremendous revolutionary upheaval all over Hin¬
dusthan, that, even a year after open mutiny had broken out, most
of them still persisted innocently in the belief that it was due
to the greased cartridges! English historians are now beginning
to understand that the cartridges were only an incident and
they themselves now admit that it was the holy passion of
love of country and religion that inspired the heroes of the
war of 1857. *    We cannot sufiiciently admire the skill of the
 

I
 

1 Malleson says: " In this lesser sense, then, and in this only, did the
cartridges produce the mutiny. They were instruments used by the con¬
spirators, and those conspirators were successful in their use of the in¬
struments only because, in the manner I have endeavoured to point out,
the mind of the Sepoys and of certain sections of the population had
been prepared to believe every act testifying bad faith on the part of their
foreign masters."

Medley says: "But, in fact, the greased cartridge was merely the match
that exploded the mine whicli had, owing to a variety of causes, been for
a long time preparing."

" Mr. Disraeli dismissed the greasing of the cartridges with the remark
that nobody believed that to have been the real cause of the outbreak."—
Charles Ball's Indian Mutiny, Vol. I, page 629.

One author goes further and says : " That the fear about the cartridges was
mere pretext with many is shown beyond all question. They have not
hesitated to use freely when fighting against us the cartridges which, they
declared, would, if used, have destroyed their caste."

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