To allow the existance 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 dependence 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 becoming all-perfect. There must not be imperfection in ma 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 Chhatrasala 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 destruction of religion not only in India but all over the world. For, that 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 has 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 consider the Bible more sacred than the Vedas and the Koran, 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 Directors of the East India Company, Mr. Mangles, said in the House of Commons, in 1857 :-
“Providence has entrusted the extensive empire of Hindusthan 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 fire grand work of making all India Christian.”
Macaulay, in 1936 - when schools in which English education 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 I Bengal.24
24 “It is my firm belief that, if our plan of educatio is followed up, there would not be a single
idolator in Bengal 30 years hence !” - Macaulay’s letter to his mother, Oct.12, 1836. Rev. Kennedy
wrote at the time, “Whatever misfortunes come on us, as long as our Empire in India continues, so
long as our Empire in India continues, 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
The mind of the Feringhi was filed 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, constantly heaped shameful abuse on the two religions whenever they got a change.
The constant insistence by the East Indian Company to make India Christian was due to a very obvious reason. Once the religions of 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 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 perpetual 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.
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
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 preseverance, we continue our efforts, then I do not doubt that by the
grace of God, we shall be successful in the end!”
Maharajas 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, instead of fresh gifts of money being showered on Temples and Musjids as when where 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 protection 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,” and 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 introduce 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 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 religious and through their adherents. When a foreign administration 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 has no authority at all, - then, indeed there was not the least difference between the tyranny of Aurangzeb 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 role 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.
And this idea the Christian missionaries began to strengthen themselves. In their street preachings at various places, they used to say openly that India would soon be Christainised. 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 and afraid that they would lose their property by conversion, a law shall be 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 Government to the commonest missionary of the towns, had reached such a pitch that the white superior in Government 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 a greater danger was in store for their religion under the British Raj. The English missionaries tried to allay the terrible unrest by an attempt to christianise the sepoys, the chief strength of the people of India, believing that the disaffection of the ordinary people would be no danger to them at all. That the low cunning of this trick was plainly understood by the people will be seen unmistakably from the proclamations of the “Multineers”. That the complaints and grievances mentioned in these proclamations are literally
true can be collected even from the reluctant confessions of the English historians themselves. Except in the time of actual warfare, all days were days of leisure to the Sepoys. How were these days of leisure utilised by colonels and captains and other officers in the English army ? Why, in cosistantly poisoning the ears of the Sepoys with talks on Christianity! Do you think even this preaching was conducted in simple and decorous language? Not at all. Abuse, unrestrained filthy abuse, was heaped on the name of Rama Chandra, the sacred name, the mere mention of which makes the heart of every Hindu fill with love and with devotion, and on the name of Mahomed, the very mention of whose name fills all Moslems with reverence and awe. The Koran and the Vedas were openly defiled and images were desecrated! If any Sepoy retaliated on these fiendish Feringhis and returned abuse for abuse, the poor Sepoy’s roti and ghee would be taken away by the authority of the missionary colonels. Why, very soon things came to such a pass that living in the English barracks meant the sacrifice of one’s religion. For, if any Sepoy accepted the Christian religion he was praised loudly and treated honourably; and this Sepoy was promoted in the ranks and his salary increased, in the face of the superior merits of the other Sepoys ! A soldier renegade giving up his religion became a Hawaldar and a Hawaldar, untrue to his religion, was promoted to be a Subahdar Major! 25 Seeing that the Sepoys in the army were poor, ignorant, and short-sighted; feeling that when the military was christianised, the christianising of the people was once a question of time; considering the question every way, the English had come to the conclusion that the chief attack must be delivered on the Sepoy in the army. And in accordance with this opinion, from many directions, secret and open attacks on the Hindu and Moslem faiths had already begun to be delivered. Not only that, but some commanders and colonels did not hesitate even to declare publicly, through newspapers, that they had entered the army with the express purpose and object of destroying the religion of the Sepoy.
25 Causes of the Mutiny by a Bengali Hindu. The Commander of the Bengal Infantry himself writes in the Government Report that he had been continuing uninterruptedly for 28 years the policy of christianising the military and that it was a part of military duty to save the souls of heathens from Satan! Who could dare to say that the fears of the Sepoy were unreasonable as to the impossibility of preserving their religion in the face of the attempts to undermine it, continued day and night by these padre heroes who stumped the country with port-folios of military orders on the one hand, and the Bible in the other ? Everywhere there was a strong conviction that the Government had determined to destroy the religions of the country and make Christianity the paramount religion of the land.
An Englishman, to show how the hatred of the Feringhi was raging tumultuously in the hearts of both Hindus and Mahomedans, says :- “A Moulvie of my acquaintance, living outwardly on terms of intimacy with me, was on his death-bed. I was with him at the time and I asked him what was his last wish before he died. He looked very disconsolate and gloomy at this question. On being asked why he looked so gloomy, he said, ‘Truly, I assure you that I repent exceedingly that I did not kill even two Feringhis in my life!’ On another occasion a resectable and learned Hindu said boldly, ‘We wish you to be gone and our native rule to be established, that we may continue in the ways of our fathers!’ “26
While this tumult of disaffection was raging everywhere Dalhousie himself made a further attack on the Hindu religion. Even English historians who consider it their duty to support all the actions of the Government find it impossible to support this enormity. When the civilised Christian hero, Dalhousie, came forward to trample under foot the noble custom of adoption, one of the tenderest, most noble, loving, and sacred commandments of the Hindu Dharma Shastras and endeared to the people of all ages all over India, all India from one end to the other was shocked. The
26 Rev Kennedy, M.A.
magazine required only a lighted match to explode with violence and this act of Dalhousie supplied it. To add fuel to this raging fire, orders were issued to the Indian sepoys that they should use the new cartridges ! Soon after the promulgation of the order for using new cartridges for the new rifles, factories were opened for the manufacture of these cartridges in various places. A certain kind of fat had to be used for the greasing of these cartridges so that they might be smooth and well-lubricated, and orders soon followed that the sepoys should bite off this greasy portion with their teeth instead of tearing it away with hands as formerly. Immediately afterwards schools were even opened that the sepoys might learn how to use these rifles and also how to bite the cartridges with their teeth, and the Government reports from various quarters stated that the sepoys were immensely pleased with the long range of these new rifles.
One day, a Brahmin Sepoy belonging to the village of Dum- Dum, very near Calcutta, was going to the military barracks with his Lota full of water. At that instant, a scavenger came and asked to drink from the Lota. The Brahmin replied that his Lota would be rendered unclean by his touch. The scavenger replied, “Enough of caste pride now ! Do you not know that soon you would bite with your teeth the flesh of the cow and the fat of the pig ? The new cartridges are being expressly greased with these materials for this purpose! “ when he heard this, the Brahmin ran wild with excitement towards the camp, as if the very devil was in him; and in a few minutes, the sepoys became excites – a crown of mad men! – and horrible whisperings were in the air. Suspicions arose that the Feringhis had arranged a cunning plot to defile their religions by greasing the cartridges with cows’ blood and pigs’ fat. The Sirkar replied that, far from such a plot being devised by them, the very story that the cartridges were greased with cows’ blood and pigs’ fat was absolutely without foundation!
Who was it then that spoke the lie ? Was it the Sirkar or the sepoys ? If the cartridges were really greased with cows’ blood and pigs’ fat, was it the result of mere ignorance or of conscious purpose on the part of the Government? That the English did not know with what material the
cartridges were greased cannot be held for a moment. For in 1853, when these cartridges were introduced for the first time and when “native” sepoys from Cawnpore, Rangoon, Fort William and other places, not suspecting that unclean things had been used in their manufacture, has bitten off these cartridges with full confidence in their superiors, even then the English authorities knew with what the cartridges were greased. In December 1853, Col.Tucker has mentioned this fact very clearly in the Government reports.27 Why, even the Commander-in-Chief knew the fact and, in spite of this, the very things prohibited by the two religions were used and even factories for their manufacture were opened right in India! After ascertaining well this fact from the low caste Indians working in those factories, the sepoys of Barrackpore spread this news all over India. Even lightning travels not so quick! Within a fortnight, not a Hindu or a Mahomedan but was talking of cartridges and nothing but cartridges, wherever he was. And the stronger this public indignation grew, the stronger and more frequent grew the assertions on the part of the authorities, from the Governor-General down to the lowest white soldier, that the story of the cartridges was a mere fabrication.
These statements of the Feringhi Government were not only absolutely false, but they were put forward deliberately with the knowledge that they were false. The fact that the very Commander-in-Chief was aware of four years before, was now being openly denied by the Government. That in the factory at Dum-Dum cartridges were not greased with cows’ and pigs’ fat, that the ignorant and superstitious sepoys had started this wholly unfounded rumour- such were the assertions of the English historians until a very recent date. But now, there does not seem to be the slightest doubt that the Government was well aware of this fact. The contractor who had undertaken to supply the fat for the cartridges had, in clear words, made a distinct agreement in his contract deed, drawn at that very time, to supply
27 Kaye’s Indian Mutiny, Vol.I, p.380
cows’ fat. The agreement was that the cartridges should be greased with the fat of the cow, the Sacred Mother, buying the same at the rate of two pence (two annas) per pound. And the sepoys should bite these cartridges with their teeth! When this cunning scheme was exposed, the Feringhi Government immediately issued orders that, thereafter, whatever fat was to be used for the cartridges should be only from sheep or goats, and that cows’ and pigs’ fat should never be used. If these orders mean anything they mean that so far the cartridges were being greased with cows’ and pigs’ fat. It was necessary for them to issue this new regulation because they knew this fact. From the Government documents published by Forrest it is clear beyond a doubt that, in the fat used for the cartridges, cows’ and pigs’ fat was mixed, and that this fact was known to the highest english autorities in the land.28 And when the sepoys refused to bite these cartridges, the Feringhi military authorities used to swear that this was altogether false. Not only that, but they were threatened with severe punishment if they refused to obey the military orders through their silly prejudices. But when, regardless of these threats, it appeared that the sepoys were going to dare everything for the protection of their Dharma, then the Sirkar quietly retreated back and yielded on one point, allowing the sepoys to use a certain paper instead of fat. But what guarantee was there that a Government which could stoop to the meanness of using pigs’ and cows’ fat would not use some other mean trick of the same nature to make the paper substituted for the lubricating mixture smooth? If once unconsciously they were defiled with cows’ and pigs’ meat thrust in their mouths, then the missionary colonels and padre commanders
28 Says Yake : “There is no question that beef fat was used in the composition of this
tallow.” (Vol.I,p.381). Says Lord Roberts: “The recent researches of Mr.Forrest in the
records of the Government of India prove that the lubricating mixture used in preparing
the cartridges was actually composed of the objectionable ingredients, cows’ fat and lard
and the incredible disregard of the soldiers’ religious prejudices was displayed in the
manufacture of these cartridges.” - Forty Years in India, p.431.
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 the 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 rifle classes in various places, even at that very moment, practice in the use of these cartridges was being given! In the Gurkha Regiments, 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.
Rise, then, O Hindusthan, rise! Even as Shri Ramdas exhorted “Die for Dharma; 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 Sradharma and Swarajya!