25 Sep 1857
It has been 10 days since Delhi has fallen. Zafar and his queens who had taken shelter in the maqbara of Humayun have been captured. His sons have been killed, indeed mass-lynched, and their naked and brutalized dead bodies left rotting near the city Kotwali at Chandani chowk for every englishman and their native agents to see and for vultures to devour. At the same time general indiscriminate massacre of Native Rebels from all surrounding villages is going on. (writes V D Savarkar, translation mine)
On todays date, Lord Canning sent an official notification from Calcutta to London addressing Queen Victoria. In that he writes:
"(There is a)... violent rancour of a very large proportion of the English Community against every native Indian of every class... Not one man in ten seems to think that the hanging and shooting of some 40 or 50,000 mutineers besides other rebels can be otherwise than practicable and right." (writes W. Dalrymple in The Last Mughal)
"Gallows were erected throughout the gutted city. They say there is not a neighbourhood in Delhi without its own place of execution.", wrote an Urdu poet Salihah Abid Hussein who chroniclized those days.
23-year old Lt. Edward Ommaney casually notes in his diary on the date, "19 men hanged opposite the Kotwali Gallow, and 9 on the other."
But only V D Savarkar writes about the bravery of those soldiers who instead of falling to British decided to flee and run towards Kanpur Agra and Lucknow to continue fighting the remaining battles. He also records the bravery of those soldiers who decided to not get captured by British alive and (in true tradition of indian warriors) came face to face with british shoting at them, and indeed chose a heroic death.
Hugh Chisester writes in his diary on that day: "There has been nothing but shooting these villains for the last three days, some 3 to 4 hundred were shot yesterday."
Savarkar laments the loss of Delhi, but says no shame on delhi defeat. He says, dantaChedo hi nagAnAM shlAghyo girividAraNe. (brave elephants always have broken teeth, crushed in challenging the rough mountains.)
It has been 10 days since Delhi has fallen. Zafar and his queens who had taken shelter in the maqbara of Humayun have been captured. His sons have been killed, indeed mass-lynched, and their naked and brutalized dead bodies left rotting near the city Kotwali at Chandani chowk for every englishman and their native agents to see and for vultures to devour. At the same time general indiscriminate massacre of Native Rebels from all surrounding villages is going on. (writes V D Savarkar, translation mine)
On todays date, Lord Canning sent an official notification from Calcutta to London addressing Queen Victoria. In that he writes:
"(There is a)... violent rancour of a very large proportion of the English Community against every native Indian of every class... Not one man in ten seems to think that the hanging and shooting of some 40 or 50,000 mutineers besides other rebels can be otherwise than practicable and right." (writes W. Dalrymple in The Last Mughal)
"Gallows were erected throughout the gutted city. They say there is not a neighbourhood in Delhi without its own place of execution.", wrote an Urdu poet Salihah Abid Hussein who chroniclized those days.
23-year old Lt. Edward Ommaney casually notes in his diary on the date, "19 men hanged opposite the Kotwali Gallow, and 9 on the other."
But only V D Savarkar writes about the bravery of those soldiers who instead of falling to British decided to flee and run towards Kanpur Agra and Lucknow to continue fighting the remaining battles. He also records the bravery of those soldiers who decided to not get captured by British alive and (in true tradition of indian warriors) came face to face with british shoting at them, and indeed chose a heroic death.
Hugh Chisester writes in his diary on that day: "There has been nothing but shooting these villains for the last three days, some 3 to 4 hundred were shot yesterday."
Savarkar laments the loss of Delhi, but says no shame on delhi defeat. He says, dantaChedo hi nagAnAM shlAghyo girividAraNe. (brave elephants always have broken teeth, crushed in challenging the rough mountains.)