WHAT effect had this spirit of freedom which inspired life in the dead or dying thrones of Delhi, Cawnpore, Lucknow, and Bareilly on the other states which were still, more or less, living? The mass of the people, in 1857, had thoroughly understood that, so long as foreign domination over Hindusthan remained, the living states were as useless as the dead ones were lifeless. The Revolution in 1857, inspired by the holiest and the highest ideal of freedom, was not fighting furiously for the sake of this king or that heir. Individuals - peasants or kings - may live or die, but the nation should not die, must not die. The ideal was the establishment of the country’s freedom by breaking the dreadful chains of slavery, and the universal war was sounded for the attainment of this noble end, even though the way to it was over the ashes of cottages and of thrones. He is a king who would free his country. The other kings were as well dead as alive. The people in the states like Gwalior, Indore, Rajpootana, and Bharatpur were, also, full of the spirit of the Revolutionary War, as much as those in territories which had completely lost their independence. None of them entertained the sordid idea of keeping away from risk and danger, because his own native state was safe; nor looked upon his own tiny state as the whole nation, and upon the annexed provinces as people having exclusive interests and belonging to a foreign system. Foreigner! One son of the Mother, a foreigner to another! No; 1857 has come and all India is one; one in life; one in destiny! Now, then,. You Scindia of Gwalior! Give us the order to fight against the English. Give us not only the order but come and be our leader; Raise the holy cry of “Swadesh” and “Swadharma” on the battlefield and march on with the army to complete the half-done work of Mahadaji. The whole country is hanging on the one word of Jayaji Scindia! Say “War!”, and Agra falls, Delhi is liberated, the Dekhan rises amidst thunder, the foreigner is expelled from the country, the land is free, and you are the man who shall give it the gift of freedom! The lives of two hundred millions of men depended on the tongue of one man. Such an occasion is verily Historical! But, the one tongue of the Scindia first would not move at all and, when it did move, it said “Friendship!” instead of “War!” The Scindia resolved to preserve his friendship - not with the country but with the English! At this, the people rose in a fury. If the Scindia does not wish to fight, we shall fight! If you do not run to save the Motherland, we will run to liberate her without you, and, if it comes to that, in spite of you. To-day is Sunday, the 14th of June. We have waited for the Scindia till to-day. We will only wait for the sun to set to-day; when the sun sets - Har! Har, Mahadev! Who is there driving in that carriage? Mr. And Mrs. Coopland. How dare anyone salaam to them? Salaam a Feringhi after the 14th of June? Not only this Feringhi but, see there, the brigadier is coming, and no one raises his hand or moves his head to salute him! Brigadier, indeed! But who made him brigadier? Is it not the Feringhis? A crow, though standing at the top of a palace, does not become an eagle. So, march on right in the fact of the brigadier and pay no attention to him. And so, the Sepoys of the Gwalior contingent passed the brigadier without salutimg him.59 Still there was no disturbance till the evening. In the evening, one bungalow took fire. Yes; now comes the time of rising. Artillery! rise in revolt! Infantry! Take burning torches in one hand and shining swords in the other and dance about in all directions, roaring like lions. See the colour of every man you meet in the street; if he is dark, embrace him; if white, kill him. Maro Feringhiko! You are hidnig in the house; all right, we will set fire to it! Who is this running out of the bungalow to save himself from the fire? Is he a white man? Cut his head off! Who is this again? A white woman “Mat Maro! Mat Maro!” (Don’t kill!) “We do not want to kill women!“60 The whole night, the ghostly dance is going on. There must be no Englishman in Gwalior, 59 Mrs. Coopland’s Narrative. 60 Mrs. Coopland’s Narrative. Contingent foces revolted, split the blood of their officers, drove out English women, the English flag, and English power out of the limits of Gwalior state ande made Gwalior perfectly independent. They next began to order the Scindia : “Come and be our leader; come out with the whole army towards Agra, Cawnpore and Delhi to liberate Hindusthan!” Scindia kept them quiet for many days by constant promises. Until Tatia Tope comes secretly to Gwalior and leads them, the troops are to remain thus inactive.61 And, therefore it is that the English at Agra have still some hope. For the Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Province Mr. Colvin, is at Agra, standing in terror of death every minute. He had previously delivered a lecture on “loyalty” to Sepoys, agitated by the Meerut news. He had issued a proclamation of pardon! But there was not even a single Sepoy weak-minded enough to come to beg his pardon; nay, more, as a reply to the proclamation of pardon, they attacked Agra on the 5th of July. The revolted regiments of Nasirabad and Neemuch marched on Agra; so, the “loyal” troops of the rulers of Bitaoli and Bharatpur were sent against them! The troops sent by these states declared that though they would refrain from rising against the English, for such were the orders of their rulers, they would not lift their swords against their own countrymen!” The English were thus deceived and disappointed. The native states were “loyal”; but their people and armies “would not lift their swords against their countrymen!” So taking with him the English troops alone, Brigadier Polwhele marched upon the Revolutionaries coming to attack Agra. Both armies met near Sassiah and the battle lasted the whole day; at last, the English force found it impossible to stand the attack of the Revolutionaries, and retired. The Revolutionaries, flushed with victory, pursued 61 “It was a most favourable moment for recovering his lost authority. It was merely necessary to accede to the proposal of the mutinous contingents and to revenge himself on the British. Had he so acceded, had he put himself at their head and, accompanied likewise by his trusty Mahrattas, proceeded to the scene of action, the consequences would have been most disastrous to ourselves. He would have brought at least twenty thousand troops, one half of them drilled and disciplined by European officers, on our weak points. Agra and Lucknow would have at once fallen. Havelock would have been shut up in Allahabad; and either that fortress would have been besieged or the rebels, giving it a wide berth, would have marched through Benares on to Calcutta. There were no troops, no fortification to stop them.” – Red Pamphlet, page 194. them hotly. When the army entered Agra, the Revolutionaries were at their heels with shouts of victory. Agra got the opportunity it wanted. It was the 6th of July. The town of Agra rose in revolt, headed by the police. The police officers were all in concert with the Revolutionary society. The religious leaders of both Hindus and Mahomedans organised a great procession. The Kotwal and other police officers walked in the front line. They raised shouts of victory for Swadharma and Swaraj and proclaimed that the English rule was at an end and that the authority had been transferred to the Emperor of Delhi! When Agra thus became free, Mr. Colvin, together with all the English there – ashamed of the defeat and anxious for the future – retired into the fort. He had now one great fear, and that was about the side that the Scindia would take. The mere news that the Scindia had joined the Revolutionaries would have made Mr. Colvin surrender that impregnable fort! But as it was clear that the Scindia was not against him, as was proved by his “loyal” letters and help, the English flag at Agra seemed to revive. But the weight of supporting it was too much and Mr.Colvin died on the 9th of September, 1857, to the deepest sorrow of the English government in India. The Revolutionary spirit that exhibited itself among the masses and the Sepoys at Gwalior had also burst forth in a terrible manner at Indore. Secret communication was established between all the troops in the English camp at Mhow and the troops of Holkar, and a rebellion was decided upon. On the 1st of July, Saadat Khan, a Mahomedan nobleman at the Indore court, ordered the army to fall upon the English at the Residency. He declared that the Maharaja Holkar had given him the order. But the Indian troops did not need any such declaration, even. They raised the flag of freedom and, at once, marched with their guns on the Residency. The Indian troops at the Residency refused to fire on their countrymen on behalf of the English. The English lost all hope; they quietly packed their bag and baggage and fled from Indore. The Indian troops at the Residency had guaranteed them their lives and protected them till the end. English authors always trry hard to find out exactly whether the Maharaja Holkar sympathised with the English or with the Revolutionaries. But one who minutely studies the history and the conditions of 1857 would see at once that during the Revolution, most of the states had purposely observed a dubious attitude. The desire of freedom is innate in man. Most of the states intended to raise the flag of freedom as soon as there was reasonable prospect of the success of Revolution. They did not join the English, because they did not want to aid in the failure of the Revolution. On the other hand, they did not want, by actively helping the Revolutionaries, to give a handle to the English, if they should be able to overpower the Revolutionaries, to confiscate their estates. Thus, they provided for the other alternative of the Company coming out victorious. Fools that they were, not to be able to see that, if they joined the Revolutionaries, there was absolutely no chance for the English to succeed; while, if they remained neutral, the chances of the success of the Revolution were greatly lessened! This is the real explanation of the conduct of most of the states in this critical period. If the people and the troops drove out the English from the Residencies, they were permitted to do so; because, it meant the freedom of the states. Notwithstanding this, the rulers would continue to declare their friendship for the English, so that, in case of English success, they should not lose what they had. It would seem that Cutch, Gwalior, Indore, Bundela, Rajputana, and other states - all behaved in this manner. And it was this selfish conduct on the part of the princes which, in the end, strangled the Revolution. If they had boldly come forward, crying “Freedom - or Death!” , they would certainly have obtained freedom. But they played a double- game - the result of mean selfishness. Their good intentions, being weak, achieved nothing and their baseness was conspicuous! They were not open and bare-faced traitors to the country like Patiala and others; but they played, indirectly, the part of traitors: they let base selfishness take possession of their souls, even while hoping for the noble goal of freedom and, hence, they are cursed for their sin. When will they wash it away? But these selfish motives which mastered the minds of the princes did not enter for a single moment the hearts of the people. And it was by their glorious onslaughts from Peshawar up to Calcutta that the fire broke forth and blood began to flow, in order to reduce to ashes and wash away the terrible curse of slavery which had smitten the land. And it was by their united strength and unselfish fight that English power collapsed and was grounded into dust, for some time at least.62 How little Calcutta and England understood the nature of this terrible earthquake! In the opinion of the Government, there was perfect peace before the Meerut rising. Even when Meerut rose and the Proclamation of freedom was issued from Delhi, Calcutta could not understand the real meaning of the eruption. Seeing that no wave of the rising appeared between the 10th and 31st of May, Calcutta was confirmed in its idea that there was no serious trouble in Hindusthan. On the 25th of May, the Home Secretary proclaimed openly: “There is perfect peace within a radius of six hundred miles from Calcutta. The momentary and isolated danger is passed. And it is strongly hoped that, in a few days, perfect peace and safety will reign.” The “few days” passed; the 31st of May dawned. “Peace and safety” reigned everywhere! Around the Lucknow Residency, in the Cawnpore Maidan, in the Jogan Bagh at Jhansi, in the bazaars of Allahabad, on the Ghats of Benares, everywhere “peace and safety” reigned! Telegraph wires cut to pieces, railways and iron bridges smashed and mixed into dust, English corpses floating in rivers, pools of blood in the streets - everywhere “peace and safety!” It was then, that the fog at Calcutta cleared. On the 12th of June, all the English residents began to organize a corps of volunteers. English shopkeepers, clerks, writers, civil officers, - in short, all Englishmen were hastily enrolled in the military list; they wee taught drill and rifle practice. The work was done so quickly and energetically that, in three weeks, a while brigade of the newly-drilled 62 Wherever the chiefs of the native states hesitated to join the revolution, the people of the states became uncontrollable and tried to throw off the yoke even of their own chief, if he would not join the nation’s war. Seeing this extraordinary upheaval of the populace, Malleson says : “Here, too, as at Gwalior, as at Indore, it was plainly shown that, whe the fanaticism of the oriental people is thoroughly roused, not even their kind, their Raja - their father, as all consider him, their God, as some delight to style him - not even their Raja can bend them against their convictions.” The Sepoys of trhe Rajas of Jaipur and Jodhpur refused point blank to raise their hands against their countrymen who were fighting for the nation, even when asked by their Raja to do so. Malleson’s Indian Munity, Vol. III, p. 172 volunteer recruits was formed. The brigade consisted of cavalry, infantry, and artillery; since they were thought capable of protecting Calcutta, that work was given to them; and the Government got the opportunity of sending the professional English soldiers to parts where the Revolution was in full swing. On the 13th of June, Lord Canning called a meeting of the legislative council and got a law passed against newspapers. For, as soon as the Revolution began, the Indian newspapers of Bengal had begun to write articles openly sympathising with and encouraging the Revolution. On Sunday, the 14th of June, a carnival of “pease and safety” was celebrated at Calcutta, also. We shall describe that day’s scenes best through an English pen. “All was panic, disorder, and dismay. The wildest reports were in circulation. It was all but universally credited that the Barrackpore brigade was in full march on Calcutta, that the people in the Suburbs had already risen, that the kind of Outh with his followers was plundering Garden Reach. Those highest in office were the first to give the alarm. There were secretaries to Government, running over to Members of Council, loading their pistols, barricading the doors, sleeping on sofas; Members of Council abandoning their houses with their families, and taking refuge on board the ship; crowds of lesser celebrities impelled by these examples having hastily collected their valuables, were rushing to the fort, only too happy to be permitted to sleep under the fort guns. Horses, carriages, palanquins, vehicles of every sort and kind were put into requisition to convey panic-stricken fugitives out of the reach of imaginary cut-throats. In the suburbs, almost every house belonging to the Christian population was abandoned. Half-a- dozen determined fanatics could have burned down three parts of the town….“63 In the very capital of the English, merely at a bazaar rumour, so much “pease and safety"began to reign. Therefore, the Government prepared to destroy the Barrackpore Sepoys and the Nabob of Oudh, who were the cause of so much 63 Red Pamphlet, page 105. “pease and safety”. They got, from one amongst the Sepoys, the information that the Barrackpore Sepoys would rise on the nigt of the 14th. So, before they could rise, they were brought before the English artillery and disarmed. And, on the 15th of June, the Nabob of Oudh and his minister were arrested for the “safety of the realm”, and their houses, including the Zenana, were thoroughly searched. And, though nothing of an incriminating nature was found, the Nabob and his Vizier were incarcerated in the Calcutta fort. Thus, the gradually accumulating powder- magazine of the city of Calcutta itself was emptied, only just before the spark fell on it. The Vizier Ali Nakkhi Khan was the man who, residing in a harmless garden-house at Calcutta, had set on foot the Revolutionary secret organisation among the Sepoys all over Bengal and had woven the terrible net in order to re- establish his master on the throne of Oudh. When he was imprisoned in the Calcutta fort, the Revolution lost, as it were, its head. While in the fort, he once spoke plainly to the English who were cursing the Revolutionaries: “The terrible Revolution created in India is in my opinion just. It is a proper revenge for the annexation of Oudh. You have consciously left the royal road of justice and have entered the thorny path of deceit and selfishness. What wonder, then, that your feet are bleeding by the self-same thorns? You were laughing when you sowed the seeds of revenge; why do you, then, blame the people when the self-same seeds have borne fruit in due course?” 64 When Calcutta itself had such a hazy and misty idea of the extent of the Revolutionary movement, we can easily understand how England, which depended for its information solely on the main news from India, at first slept the sleep of ignorance, and then, when suddenly awakened, became possessed by terror and behaved like a madman. When the news of Barrackpore, Berhampore, Dum-Dum, and other places reached England, all eyes were turned towards India. But soon, everything became quiet and all began to feel safe again. On the 11th of 64 Red Pamphlet. June, the President of the Board of Trade said, in reply toa question in the House of Commons, “There is now no reason for anxiety as regards the late unrest in Bengal. For, by the dexterity, firmness, and quickness of my honourable and noble friend, Lord Canning, the seeds of unrest sown in the army have been completely rooted out.” These are the sentences which the Parliament heard on the 11th of June. On that date in India, elevan cavalry regiments, five field-batteries of artillery, at least fifty regiments of infantry, and nearly all the sappers and miners had risen in open revolt! The whole of Oudh was in the hands of Revolutionaries! Cawnpore and Lucknow were besieged! The Revolutionaries had taken more than ten millions of Rupees from Government treasuries; and all this, at the moment when, owing to the dexterity, firmness, and quickness of Loard Canning, “the seeds of unrest had been completed rooted out.” But soon, the news of the extraordinary and sudden growth of these seeds of Revolution again disturbed England’s sleep. The news about the Cawnpore massacres somehow reached the people and on the 14th of August, 1857, the unhappy, terror-stricken, and agitated masses caused a question to be put in the Parliament, in the House of Lords, “Is the rumour about Cawnpore true?” Earl Granvile replied : “I have received a personal letter from General Sir Patrick Grant that the rumous about the massacres at Cawnpore is altogether untrue and is a vile fabrication. A Sepoy first set up the rumour. Not only in his baseness discovered but he has been hanged for spreading the false rumour.“65 While the rumour about Cawnpore was being discussed in the House of Lords, a month had already passed since the “truth” had been written in grim letters of red blood! While English politicians were resting a little in safety, after hanging the Sepoy who started the rumour, the truth came in person to the shores of England. And the whole of England became mad and hysterical with anger, fury, wounded pride, and this malicious futy continues up to this day. And England is shouting, even to-day, in every line of her own histories, that the massacres committed by the 65 Charles Ball’s Indian Mutiny. Revolutionaries are demoniacal in their cruelty and are a blot on the fair name of Humanity! And this loud shouting by the English at the top of their voice has made the whole world deaf! The very name of 1857 brings a shiver and horripilation and shame to everybody! The very mention of the name of the Revolutionaries of 1857 creates disgust and loathing in the minds not only of their enemies, not only of innocent and indifferent third parties, but even of those for whose sake the Martyrs shed their blood! Their enemies give them choice epithets like ‘demons’, ‘goblins’, ‘blood-thirsty and hellish vermin’. The strangers call them savage, inhuman, cruel, and barbarous. Their own countrymen are ashamed even to own them. Such is the cry everywhere even today. And this incessant cry has deafened the ears of the whole world so that they should not any more listen to the voice of truth! The Revolutionaries are demons, goblins, murderers of women and children, blood-thirsty vermin of hell, inhuman. Oh World! When will you forget this and understand the truth? Any why all this? Why? Because, the Revolutionaries rose against the English, rose for their country and religion, and, with shouts of “Revenge!”, massacred some of them. Indiscriminate massacre is a heinous sin. When Humanity will reach the goal of universal justice, of ultimate beatitude, when the millennium preached by the incarnations, by the Messiahs, and by religious preachers will be an accomplished fact on earth, when the resignation taught by Christ in the glorious words - “Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other, also” will be impracticable, because, there will be no one to hit on the right cheek, in such a divine age if anyone revolts, if anyone sheds a drop of blood, if anyone even whispers the word “Revenge!”, then, at once, the sinner, by this act, by his very utterance, would be eternally damned. For, when Truth reigns in every heart, revolt must be a heinous sin. When everyone abhors killing, to shed a drop of blood must be a sin. In a time of such unchallenged justice, to punish a man even for uttering a sinful word would be altogether blameless. But so long as that divine age has not arrived, so long as the highly auspicious end remains only in the lines of saintly poets and in the prophecies of the divinely inspired, and so long as, even to make that state of universal justice possible, the human mind has to be busy eradicating sinful and aggressive tendencies, so long, rebellion, bloodshed, and revenge cannot be purely sinful. As long as the word “rule” is used for “authority” both just and unjust, so long its antonym “rebellion” can, also, be just as well as unjust. And till then, before passing judment on the history and the authors of any revolt, bloodshed, and revenge, there must be a full and minute inquiry of the circumstances under which they took place. Revolt, bloodshed and revenge have often been instruments created by nature to root out injustice and introduce an era of justice. And when Justice uses these terrible means for her salvation, the blame of it does not lie on Justice but on the preceding cruel Injustice, the power and insolence of which called forth the means. We do not hold the justice which gives the death sentence responsible for bloodshed but rather the injustice which is taken to the gallows. Therefore, the sword of Brutus is holy. Therefore, the waghnakh of Shivaji is sacred. Therefore, the bloodshed in the Revolutions in Italy is of fair fame. Therefore, the beheading of Charles I is a just deed. Therefore, the arrow of William Tell is divine. And the sin of brutality falls heavily on the heads of those who committed the provoking injustice. Moreover, had the world no fear of revolt, bloodshed, and revenge, the earth would have bent under the devil-dance of unchecked robbery and oppression! If Oppression were to be secure from the fear that Nature would, sooner or later, create the Avenger of Temporary Injustice, the whole world would have swarmed to-day with Tsars and robbers! But because very Hiranya-Kashipu has his Narasimha; because every Dushshasana has his Bheema; because every evil-doer has his avenger, there is still some hope in the heart of the world that Injustice cannot last. Such a revenge, therefore, is nature’s own reaction against Injustice. And, therefore, the sin of the cruelty of that revenge rebounds on the origional evil-doers. And it was the fire of such a divine vengeance that was burning in the heart of the sons of Hindusthan in 1857. Their thrones were broke, their crowns smashed, their country taken away, their religions trodden under foot, their lands confiscated, their properties robbed, and laws despised; they had been cheated with promises made only to be broken; insults and outrages had reached a climax. Life itself had lost all its charms for them on account of the dire dishonour in which they had sunk. Requests were in vain; so, also, were petitions, complaints, wailings, and cries; all in vain. Then the natural reaction began and everywhere could be heard the whispers of “Revenge!” India had been subjected to innumerable,. Cruel oppressions each of which, individually, would have justified the revenge. If there had been no revolution even after all this we would have had to say “India is dead!” That revenge, therefore, was only the inevitable reaction against the English injustice and oppression. And when once the whole nation rose up in a rage, we should wonder not that there were indiscriminate massacres in one or two places, but that there were not such massacres in every place! For, the excited logic of those who committed the massacres naturally began to say, “O"pose illegal force by righteous force!” Before the Sepoys who were caught in the battle of the river Kali were mounted on the scaffold, the English asked them why they had massacred their women and children. They at once retorted, “Sahib, does anyone kill a snake and let its offspring alone?” The Sepoys at Cawnpore used to say: “To extinguish the fire and leave the spark, to kill a snake and preserve its young is not the wisdom of the wise.” “Sahib, does anyone kill a snake and leave its offspring alive?” How are the Sahibs going to answer this blunt question asked by the Sepoys at Kali-nadi? And this blunt question has not been asked by the excited masses of India alone, or the masses of Asia alone, as some English writers have been charitable enough to suggest. Wherever national wars are proclaimed, national wrongs are avenged by national killing alone. When the Spaniards won back their independence from the Moors, to what state did they reduce them? The Spanish are neither Indians nor Asiatics. Then, why did they fall on the Moors who had stayed in Spain for nearly five centuries, and why did they massacre indiscriminately whole helpless familities - men, women, and children - simply for the fault of belonging to another race? Why did Greece, in 1821, massacre twenty-one thousand Turkish peasants - men, women, and children? The secret society, Hetairia, which is looked upon as patriotic and heroic in Europe - what explanation does it give of the massacre? It is only this, that the Turkish population in Greece was too small to be kept in the country and too big to be removed outside and that, therefore, to kill them all was “a necessary measure of wise policy.” Was this not their answer? The idea that no one kills a snake and leaves his offspring alive, also, came into the mings of the Greeks and burnt away the natural feelings of mercy in their heart! And the whole of the responsibility rests on the black poison of the snake. Indeed, if there was no propensity in human nature towards a terrible revenge for an horrible injustice suffered, the brute in man would have been still the dominating factor in human dealings. Is not one of the most important functions of law - the punishment of crime?66 History bears testimony to the fact that whenever, in the human mind, the passion of vengeance - as a consequence of injustice, carried to a climax - rages with uncontrollable strength, wholesale massacres and other inhuman atrocities take place in the life-evolution of every nation. Instead, therefore, of being 66 Sir W. Russell, the famous correspondent of the London Times, remarks: “We who suffered from it think that there never was such wickedness in the world; and the incessant efforts of a gang of forgers and utterly base scoundrels have surrounded it with horrors that have been vainly invented in the hope of adding to the indignation and burning desire for vengeance which hatred failed to arouse. Helpless garrisons surrendering without condition have been massacred ere now. Risings, such as that of Pontus under Mithridates, of the Irish Roman Catholics under Protestant settlers in 1641, of the actors in the Sicilian Vespers, of the assassins who smote and spared none on the eve of St. Bartholomew, have been over and over again attended by inhuman cruelties, violations, and tortures. The history of Mediaeval Europe affords many instances of crimes as great as those of Cawnpore. The history of more civilised periods could afford some parallel to them in more modern times and amidst most civilised nations. In fact, the peculiar aggravation of the Cawnpore massacres was this – that the deed was done by a subject race, by black men who dared to shed the blood of their masters and that of poor helpless ladies and children. Here we had not only a Servile War and a sort of Jacquerie combined, but we had a war of religion, a war of race, and a war of revenge, of hope, of national determination to shake off the yoke of a stranger and to re-establish the full power of native chiefs and the full sway of native religions.” – Russell’s Diary, page 164. surprised at the cruelties and massacres in four or five places during the Indian Revolution, our wonder should be that such cruel massacres took place on such a modest scale and that this terrible vengeance did not run riot more extensively and in all places. All Hindusthan had been scoarched to the bone by the terrible oppression of the English, and a most grim reprisal did Indian humanity take when the oppression became unbearable - so unbearable that the massacres became not more but rather much less than the necessities of national punishment would have required in any other country. But Hindusthan did not, in 1857, - for the just removal of its wrongs - give that punishment, take that vengeance, cause that bloodshed of which the English nation, led by Cromwell, was guilty in the massacres in Ireland. Does not history record how he was veru much enraged at the sturdy patriotism of the Irish, how his sword cut to pieces not only those who fought but also the helpless, impoverished masses, how rivers of blood flowed in that unfortunate country, how helpless women were butchered along with the infants in their arms and were weltering in pools of blood, and how, in this manner, Cromwell, for the guilty objecdt of conquering and subduing Ireland, committed cruel oppression, took more cruel vengeance, and, cruellest of all, caused terrible bloodshed? But, in 1857, in Hindusthan, Nana Sahib and the Begum of Oudh, Bahadur Shah and Lakshmi Bai, tried to the last to save women and children, though the fierce Sepoys were wild with fury. But how did the English women reward Nana for saving their lives at Cawnpore? Why - by playing the spy on him! And - how did the European officers return the kindness of the Indians who spared their lives? History has to record with shame that they returned it by poisoning the minds of the ignorant English soldiery with lying stories of vengeance, by marching at their head against the Revolutionaries, by betraying the strategic weakness of the Revolutionaries, and by butchering those very Sepoys and villagers who spared their lives. Strange indeed - immensely strange it is - that the Hindu people allowed not their constitutional magnanimity to be disturbed even by such gross ingratitude! What a number of roofs of the poor agriculturists have been instrumental in saving the lives of the hunted English ! Many and many a woman and child amongst the English fugitives has been tenderly protected by village women, painting them black with their own hands and giving them Indian clothes. Raw English officers - insignificant English youths - have again and again been brought back to life by Brahmins giving them a sip of milk in time, while they lay by the roadside exhausted by running day and night! Read Forrest, and he acknowledges that Oudh - Oudh into whose body the knife of oppression had been driven most ruthlessly - treated with incomparable generosity the English while they were flying everywhere unprotected. Did not the leaders of the Revolution warn their followers bent on vengeance, again and again, by issuing proclamations in various places that their sacred cause would become unsuccessful through child- murder and woman-murder? The “mutineers” of Neemuch and Nasirabad spared the lives of the whites. While some white people were running for very life everywhere, even the villagers on the way shouted, “Feringhis, Feringhis, kill the Feringhis!” Then, one family came forward and said that they had just dined with Rajputs, and to kill them, therefore, - heartless enemies though they were - was out of the question.67 If the Hindusthanee who is by nature kind and magnanimous, whose villages, up to this very day, are full of humanity, respect, and regard for life - human and animal, sanctioned and took part in the massacres of 1857, then the cruelty of these massacres, instead of reflecting discredit on the morals of the nation, proves only the immense hideousness of the Alien oppression to which it was now intended to put an end. The famous truth enunciated by Macaulay is here well exemplified : “The more violent the outrage, the more assured we feel that a Revolution is necessary.” And who have the right of sitting in judgment on the people of Hindusthan for the offences they are alleged to have committed? The English? If there is anyone in this wide world who have the least right to condemn the conduct of the Revolutionaries, it is these English! Is it England that is to declare to the world that Hindusthan was guilty of one or two massacres? - the England which produced Neill? Or the England which devastated by the sword and destroyed by 67 Charles Ball’s Indian Mutiny, Vol. I. fire villages after villages with the women and children in them? Or the England which bound to the stakes and burnt, actually burnt, those brave fellows with the spirit of Panday in them, fighting or their country - deeming handing not a sufficient punishment? Or the England which seized the innocent Hindu villagers, sentenced them to be hanged, and then pierced them with bayonets, and then, Heavens! thrust beef dripping with blood - the blood of the cow - down their throats, at the point of the bayonet - a desecration to which they would have preferred being hanged and, even, being burnt alive? Or the England which ordered, under the very nost of the commander-in-chief, that the body of the Nabob of Farrukabad should be smeared all over with the fat of the pig, before he was hanged?68 Or that England which sewed the followed of Islam in the skin of a pig before killing him?69 Or the England which advocated these and hundreds of other similar crimes as justifiable revenge on the “mutineers” ? Justifiable vengeance! Whose was the justifiable vengeance - that of the Panday party enraged and vowing vengeance because their mother - trhe Country - was being ground down under oppression for a hundred years, or that of the Feringhi party which was guilty of that National oppression? Not one individual, not one class, alone had been moved deeply by seeing the sufferings of their country. Hindu and Mahomedan, Brahmin and Sudra, Kshatriya and Vaisya, prince and pauper, men and women, Pundits and Moulvies, Sepoys and the police, townsmen and villagers,, merchants and farmers – men of different religions, men of different castes, people, following widely different professions – not able any longer to bear the sight of the persecution of the Mother, brother about the avenging Revolution in an incredibly short time. So universal was the agitation! This fact alone shows that, at this time, the utmost had been done as far as oppression went. Not even the class of Government officers – the class that were individually benefited by the foreign domination – were on the side of the 68 Charles Ball’s Indian Mutiny, Vol. I. 69 Forbes-Mitchell’s Reminiscences. Government. An English writer says that to give the list of Government officers who were seduced would mean the drawing up a list of all the Government officers in the disaffected provinces. Exceptions were rare. He gives the following names as instances :- Kazi Abul Fazul, Chief Judge of the N.W.P., the Principal Sudder Amin of Agra, the Munsiff of Agra, the Principal Sudder Amin of Delhi, the then Government Pleaders in the Sudder Diwani, the Chief Kotwal of Agra, two of the Munsiffs of Delhi, the Principal Sudder Amin of Calcutta, the Deputy Collector of Cawnpore, the Deputy Collector of Fatehpur – the man who killed Robert Tucker – the rest of the native officers of Fatehpur, the Munsiff of Allahabad, another Munsiff of the same province, the Principal Sudder Amin of Bareilly, the Deputy Collector of Azimgarh, the Principal Sudder Amin of J - , the Principal Sudder Amin of G - . This is only a select list!70 So all-embracing was the Revolutionary fire. The worst abuse that one could use towards another, in those days, was to call him “loyal”! Anyone who showed such “loyalty” and any who obtained service under Government were classed as traitors to their country and their religion! Those who persisted in Government service were excommunicated by their caste; no one would eat with them; no one would marry among them; the Brahmin refused to do Puja for him; none would set fire to his funeral pyre. The service of the foreigner, of the Feringhi, was considered as sinful as matricide! Are not these indications that the climax of oppression has been reached?71 70 Rev.Kennedy, M.A., page 43. 71"Revolt had, in consequence, swept before it, in many cases, all regard to personal interest and all attachment to the former master. The imputations of remaining faithful to the Government, in such circumstances has been intolerable. It is well known that the few Sepoys who have remained in our services are deemed outcastes, not only by their caste people in general. These even say they cannot venture to go to their homes; for, not only would they be reproached and denied brotherly offices, but their very lives would be in danger.” - Rev. Kennedy. And hence this volcano – supremely quiet externally – was boiling inside and had reached the bursting point. On the back of this volcano, Oppression was stalking about reckless and without fear. But as soon as the psychological moment came and Tyranny stamped on the green surface with all the more reckless vehemence the Volcano burst! Behold, the Revolution in Eruption! Fountains of fire are surging up – blood is raining upon her – piercing shrieks are mingled with the clashing of swords – ghosts are dancing – heroes are shouting! The cool green tract of the volcano has split in twain – now it bursts into a hundred parts – aye, it has burst in a thousand placed – it has deluged the earth with fire and sword! In Kathiawar, there is a curious kind of stream, known as the Vitharoo, in some places. The surface of the stream has the appearance of hard ground. Strangers, ignorant of this, step on to it confidently. When the hard layer moves a little, they try to steady themselves by firmly pressing on the surface. No sooner is this done than the surface yields and the poor wayfarer is drowned in the deep waters. The Revolutionary stream had spread over India like the Vitharoo. Oppression believed, deceived by the dark colour on the face, that it was only earth that suffers without complaint every wrong (as the Sanskrit name for it signifies). Oppression stepped on it. The black surface showed agitation. Then Oppression, in the pride of its power, pressed harder on this deceptive earth. But, behold! the ground has yielded and up surges the bottomless pit of blood, foaming and raging, waves on waves! Doomed Oppression! step where you will, no solid ground meets your feet! Know, now at least, and know well that below the dark face flow streams of blood, red blood. And hear, even yet, the deafening roar of the Volcano’s Eruption! THE END OF THE SECOND PART.