भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

Lord Cornwallis at the battle of Shreerangpattam against Tipu, those about his high-level discourses on war-moves and treaties, down to the letters describing the raids of robbers and pilgrimages of devout pilgrims, letters of (Travels and those giving market rates, and also those of Shankaracharya complaining about the ransacking of his ‘Ashram’! 585. But no evidence can be generally found in all this heap of documents to show if anyone was yearning to avenge the Muslim atrocities and their religious victory over the Hindus. No Hindu commander, nor a small troop of soldiers, nor even a group of men, is ever reported to have drawn swords to rescue the converted Hindu women and to cut down the Muslim miscreants. No one is reported to have felt any shame at the humiliation of these unfortunate women and at the Hindu failure to rescue them. These hundreds and hundreds of letters show a lamentable want of realization— not to speak of any anxiety about it on the part of the Hindu society, that day by day, they were losing territory and power so far as their religion was concerned. Howsoever strange and sad it might appear, the fact cannot be gainsaid. Not a word seems to have been breathed or recorded about the retaliation of the Muslim atrocities—let alone its actual execution! 586. We may set aside the whole heap of contemporary documents, but we cannot help referring to one letter of Haripant Phadke in particular. The said letter was written to Nana Phadnavis, informing him of the two sons of Tipu, taken as hostages by the Marathas and the English, to ensure the prompt execution of the terms of the treaty, which was signed by Tipu after his defeat. Writes Haripant Phadke, perhaps casually, to show how they had brought Tipu to such a miserably low condition: 586A. “Lord Cornwallis sent the two sons of Tipu to me. When I saw them, they pleaded they were hungry. I sent them to a neighbouring tent and ordered that they should be well fed. Then after some time, they were returned to the English camp of Lord Cornwallis!” 586B. The incident referred to in this letter and the one we are shortly going to quote here, with reference to the Battle of Kharda hold as it were, to a searching analysis under the X-ray, the perverted sense of virtues, which had permeated, through centuries, to the marrow of the Hindu society, rendering it slovenly and imbecile, and insensible to all sorts of shameful humiliation. 587-588. Haripant Phadke’s genial treatment of Tipu’s two sons reminds us of another incident, which by contrast, will give us a practical illustration