First war of independence: 1857

[ramana]

From a blog:
http://theyear1857.wordpress.com/2007/05/0...ation-building/


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Was Nana Saheb proposing a United States of India? <b>In this engaging extract from The War of Independence: 1857, VD Savarkar describes how the last Peshwa made plans for the coming war, carefully building a coalition of the willing
In Brahmavarta [Bithoor, near Kanpur, seat of Nana Saheb], a programme was being prepared as to how to organise properly all the materials for the war so as to bring the War of Independence to a successful conclusion.</b> In the third chapter, we left Rango Bapuji [who led the Chhataprati of Satara's embassy to Britain] and Azimullah Khan [who led Nana Saheb's embassy to Britain] holding secret interviews with each other in some London rooms. Though history cannot record the exact conversation the Brahmin of Satara held with the Khan Sahib of Brahmavarta, still, it is as certain as anything can be that the map of the rising was being prepared by these two in London.

 
After leaving London, Rango Bapuji went straight to Satara, but it was not possible for Azimullah Khan to go direct to Hindusthan. The extent of the dominions and the diplomacy of those against whom the war was to be waged were not now confined to Hindusthan alone. Hence, it was necessary to attack the British Empire in as many places as possible. It was also essential that it should be ascertained from what quarters in Europe direct help or moral sympathy could be expected.
 
With this object, Azimullah Khan made a tour in Europe before returning to India. He went to the capital of the Sultan of Turkey, famed throughout the world as the Khalifa of all Moslems. Being informed that, in the Russo-Turkish War then going on, the English had been defeated in the important battle of Sebastopol, he stayed some time in Russia.
 
<b>Many English historians have a suspicion that Azimullah had gone there to ascertain whether Russia would pursue the war against England in Asia, and, if possible, to enter into an offensive and defensive treaty. When the trumpet of National War had been blown, all people openly declared that the Nana had completed a treaty with the Tsar of Russia and the Russian army was ready to fight against the Feringhis. If we bear this in mind, the above suspicion is strengthened.</b>
 
When Azimullah was in Russia, he had an interview with the well-known writer [William] Russell, the military correspondent of the London Times. The poor man could not have even dreamt that, immediately after the Turko-Russian War, he would have to send from Hindusthan news of the wonderful activities of his guest. As soon as Azimullah heard the news of the defeat of the English, and that the Russians had beaten back the attack of the united forces of the English and the French on June 18 [1855], he obtained admittance into the English camp. His dress was Hindusthani and rich like that of a prince.
 
As soon as Russell came out, Azimullah said to him, “I want to see this famous city and those great Rustoms, the Russians, who have beaten the French and the English together.” Undoubtedly, Azimullah was a past master in irony and satire. This curiosity on the part of Azimullah to see these brave Rustoms who defeated both the English and the French Russell undertook to satisfy, by inviting him to his tent. On that day, till the shades of sunset closed round them completely, “He was looking with marked interest at the fire of the Russian guns.” One cannonball of the Russian guns burst right at his feet, but he did not move.
 
Azimullah, before returning home in the evening, said to Russell, “I have my serious doubts whether you could ever capture this strong fortified position.” That night, Azim slept in Russell’s tent, and he left the next day, early in the morning. On the table was left this note: “Azimullah Khan presents his compliments to Russell, Esq., and begs to thank him most truly for his kind attentions.”
 
Planning a post-war India
 
It is difficult to say where Azimullah went after leaving Russia. Yet, from the mention in the Proclamation of Cawnpore later on, it would appear as certain that he was trying to put through some diplomatic scheme in Egypt also. So, Azimullah then completed his European tour and returned to Brahmavarta. As soon as Azim reached Brahmavarta, the whole political atmosphere of the palace was changed …
 
<b>Nana’s programme was first to fight a united fight, to make India free and, by removing internecine warfare, to establish the rule of the United States of India which would, thus, take its rightful place in the council of the free nations of the earth. He also felt that the meaning of “Hindusthan” was thereafter the united nation of the adherents of Islam as well as Hinduism.</b>
 
As long as the Mahomedans lived in India in the capacity of the alien rulers, so long to be willing to live with them like brothers was to acknowledge national weakness. Hence, it was up to then necessary for the Hindus to consider the Mahomedans as foreigners.<b> And moreover this rulership of the Mahomedans, Guru Govind in the Panjab, Rana Pratap in Rajputana, Chhatrasal in Bundelkhand, and the Maharattas by even sitting upon the throne at Delhi, had destroyed; and, after a struggle of centuries, Hindu sovereignty had defeated the rulership of the Mahomedans and had come to its own all over India. It was no national shame to join hands with Mahomedans then, but it would, on the contrary, be an act of generosity.</b>
 
<b>So, now, the original antagonism between the Hindus and the Mahomedans might be consigned to the past. Their present relation was one not of rulers and ruled, foreigner and native, but simply that of brothers with the one difference between them of religion alone. For, they were both children of the soil of Hindusthan. Their names were different, but they were all children of the same Mother; India therefore being the common mother of these two, they were brothers by blood. Nana Sahib, Bahadur Shah of Delhi, Moulvi Ahmad Shah, Khan Bahadur Khan, and other leaders of 1857 felt this relationship to some extent and, so, gathered round the flag of Swadesh leaving aside their enmity, now so unreasonable and stupid.</b>
 
In short, the broad features of the policy of Nana Sahib and Azimullah were that the Hindus and the Mahomedans should unite and fight shoulder to shoulder for the independence of their country and that, when freedom was gained, the United States of India should be formed under the Indian rulers and princes.
 
How to achieve this ideal was the one all-absorbing thought of everyone in the palace of Brahmavarta. <b>Two things were necessary for the success of this terrible war that was to be waged to win back freedom. The first thing was to create a passionate desire in Hindusthan for this ideal; the second was to make all the country rise simultaneously … These two things it was necessary to accomplish; and this in such a manner that the Company’s government should not suspect anything while the scheme was yet unripe …</b>
 
Nana sends out emissaries
 
A little before 1856, Nana began to send missionaries all over India to initiate people into this political ideal. In addition to sending missionaries to awaken the people, Nana also sent tried and able men to the different princes from Delhi to Mysore, to fill their minds with the glorious ideal of the United States of India and to induce them to join in the Revolution. These letters, which were sent into every Durbar secretly, clearly pointed out how the English were playing the game of reducing India to insignificance by annexing Swadeshi kingdoms under the pretext of “no heir”, how those states which were spared yet would soon be reduced to the same fate as the others and how, under the yoke of slavery, country and religion were both being trampled underfoot; and they concluded by exhorting the princes to work for the Revolution which was to make them free.
 
Direct evidence is available that messengers and letters from Nana were sent to the states of Kolhapur and Patwardhan, to the Kings in Oudh, the princes in Bundelkhand, and others. The English arrested one of such messengers at the Durbar of Mysore. The evidence given by this man is so important that we give it word for word below:
 
“Two or three months before Oudh was annexed, Shrimant Nana Sahib had begun sending letters. First, no one would reply, for no one hoped for any success. After Oudh was annexed, however, Nana began a regular battery of letters and, then, the opinions of Nana began to appeal to the Sirkars of Lucknow. Raja Man Singh, the leader of the Purbhayas, was also won ever. Then the Sepoys began to organise amongst themselves and the Sirkars of Lucknow began to help them. No replies to letters were received till Oudh was annexed; but as soon as that was accomplished, hundreds of people came forward boldly and replied confidentially to Nana. Next came the affair of the cartridges and, then, the disaffection was so great that letters were simply showered on Nana.“
 
This very agent has given a long list of the letters sent by Nana to the various Durbars.
 
While agents of Nana were moving from one Durbar to another from Delhi to Mysore in order to draw them into the War of Independence, it was in the Dewan-i-Khas of Delhi, more than in any other Durbar, the seeds of Revolution began to take root … At this juncture, the English were engaged in a war with Persia. Seeing that a simultaneous rising in India would be a help, the Shah of Persia began to open diplomatic correspondence with the Emperor of Delhi.
 
In the Declaration of the Emperor of Delhi, it had been made quite clear that a confidential agent had been sent to Persia from the Delhi Durbar. While this intrigue was going on at the Durbar of the Shah, right in the city of Delhi agitation was started to stir the public feeling to its very depths.
 
For this work, even public Proclamations were sometimes posted up on the walls of the town. In the beginning of 1857, a Proclamation couched in the following terms appeared boldly: “The army of Persia is going to free India from the hands of the Feringhis. So, young and old, big and small, literate and illiterate, civil and military, all Hindusthanee brothers should leap forth into the field to free themselves from the Kaffirs” …
 
Missionaries of revolution
 
After sending letters to the various Durbars from Brahmavarta, Nana exerted himself thoroughly to awaken all the latent power of the people. When Brahmavarta, Delhi, Lucknow, Satara and such other big and prominent princes figured conspicuously in the Revolutionary Organisation, how could this organisation suffer for want of money?
 
To preach to all those who were a power among the people, thousands of Fakirs, Pundits, and Sanyasis were sent out in an incredibly short time. It is not true to say that all these Fakirs were true Fakirs; for, some of the Fakirs and Sadhus lived with the grandeur of Amirs. Elephants were given to them for travelling. Guards armed to the teeth travelled with them, and every stage on their way was a regular camp. Provided with such paraphernalia, they could influence and impress the people better, and the Sirkar also had fewer reasons to suspect them. Influential and noble Moulvies were appointed to preach the political Jehad, and they were rewarded with thousands of rupees. Through towns and villages, these Moulvies and Pundits, these Fakirs and these Sanyasis began to travel, from one end of the country to the other, preaching secretly the war for political independence …
 
This work of preparing for revolutionary rising was done so cautiously and secretly that not much inkling of what was going on could reach even such cunning people as the English, until the explosion actually took place. When such a Fakir or a Sanyasi went to a village, a strange agitation and an unrest began in that village, and of this the English were sometimes cognisant. Whisperings went on in bazaars; “sahibs” were refused water by the bhishtis, ayahs left English homes without permission; baberchis purposely stood before the memsahibs half-dressed; and Indian messenger boys walked insolently and slovenly before their “masters” when sent out.

 
These Fakirs and Pundits used to walk round and about the military cantonments more particularly. From Barrackpore to Meerut, Umballa and Peshawar, they started secret societies and, more than that, practically surrounded every military cantonment. The Hindu and Moslem Sepoys in the army being very devoted to their religious teachers, the Sirkar, though they might suspect them, could hardly proceed against them. For they feared that the Sepoys would find in it another grievance against the government …
 
That patriot Moulvie Ahmad Shah, whose sacred name has cast a halo round Hindusthan, whose glorious achievements we shall have to describe very soon, began similarly to tour through the country preaching the Revolutionary War. At last, when he began to preach in Lucknow itself, to thousands and tens of thousands in open meetings, that there was no other way of saving the country and the religion than by killing the English, he was arrested for sedition and sentenced to be hanged …
 
Coalition of the willing 
 
The secret organisation of the Revolution, which was first started in Brahmavarta, was now growing at a tremendous rate. By this time, nuclei had been established in various places in Northern India and regular communication had been established between them. Rango Bapuji was trying hard to create nuclei of this organisation in the Deccan. The palace at Brahmavarta was the focus of the activities at Cawnpore; the same function was performed for Delhi by the Dewan-i-Khas.
 
The great and saintly Ahmad Shah had woven fine and cleverly the webs of Jehad – the War of Independence – through every corner of Lucknow and Agra. Kumar [Kunwar] Singh, the hero of Jagadishpur, had taken the leadership of his province and, in consultation with Nana, had been busy gathering materials for war. The seeds of the Jehad had taken such root in Patna that the whole city was a regular haunt of the Revolutionary party.
 
Near Calcutta, the Nabob of Oudh and his Vizier, Ali Nakkhi Khan, had seduced all the Sepoys and were ready for the occasion. The Mahomedan population of Hyderabad began to call secret meetings. The coils of the Revolution began to wind themselves round the Durbar of Kolhapur. The states of Patwardhan, and the father-in-law of Nana, at Sangli, were ready to fight – with their followers – under the banner of the united nation in the coming war.
 
Why, right in Madras, in the beginning of the year 1857, the following Proclamation began to appear from the walls of the city:
 
“Countrymen and faithful adherents of your religion, rise, rise ye, one and all, to drive out the Feringhi Kaffirs! They have trampled underfoot the very elements of justice, they have robbed us of Swaraj; determined are they to reduce to dust our country. There is only one remedy, now, to free India from the insufferable tyranny of the Kaffir Feringhis, and that remedy is to wage a bloody war. This is a Jehad for Independence! This is a religious war for justice! Those who fall in such battles will be their country’s shahids. 
 
Opened wide are the doors of Heaven for the shahids. But Hell is burning fierce to engulf those wretches, those cowardly traitors, who turn away from this national duty! Countrymen, of these, which would ye have? Choose now, even now!”
 
 
– This book was written on the 50th anniversary of 1857. Though archaic, spelling used by the author has been largely retained
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