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

of our discussion of the perverted Hindu sense of virtues in paragraphs 405 to 471. 588A. In the first or the second decade of the seventeenth century, the tenth Guru of our Hindu-Sikhs, Dharmveer Shree Govind Singh found it impossible to continue the war with the Moghuls. He was at last besieged in the fort of Chamkaur along with his sons. Overcome with terror, some of his sworn disciples from the Sikh army conspired to desert their Guruji, renounce their Sikh religion and left the fort secretly. Two elder sons of the Guruji were killed before his eyes in the battle. At last, in the face of such grave danger, the Guruji advised all to leave battle and run for life, wherever they could. Finding a suitable opportunity, he made good his own escape. But in that confusion, two of his sons, of a tender age of 12 or below, missed the way and fell into the Muslim hands. How did the Muslims treat them according to THEIR OWN RELIGIOUS CODE? 589. The Letter of Haripant Phadke referred to above shows how kindly and sympathetically, according to THEIR OWN RELIGIOUS CODE, the Marathas treated the two sons of Tipu, when they came into their hands. 590. On the contrary, as soon as the brave cubs of Guru Govind Singh fell into the Muslim hands, they were taken straight to their war council and asked: “Are you willing to be Muslims? If so, you will be given your life and everything you want. Otherwise nothing!” The children answered: “We won’t be Muslims even if our life is not spared!” Immediately, the diabolic Muslim justice decreed that the two small children be forthwith built alive in a brickwall! While they were thus being built in, they were asked, as each brick was placed on the wall, “Do you become Muslims?” The two brave Hindu cubs would reply again and again: “No, we won’t be Muslims!’ The last brick was laid on the heads of both the young martyrs and they ceased to breathe! Then today, a true Hindu enters the vicinity of that scene of martyrdom, he will very likely hear the words reverberating the whole atmosphere there: “I won’t become a Muslim: nay, not at all! I am a Hindu, I am a Sikh! I bravely court death!” 591. Supposing that by an adverse turn of events, two children of our Peshwas were to fall in the hands of Tipu or any Muslim ruler—what then? He would not have fed as the Hindu-hearted Haripant Phadke did, the two tender-aged children and returned them to the Peshwa! Such a behaviour would have been considered sacrilegious and cowardly, according to the Muslim religious belief; they would most probably have been built up alive