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

return to their homes never to harass the English people and would begin living a peaceful life, would be shown, without exception, royal clemency, irrespective of anything they might have done in respect of the ‘mutiny’. 1114. After the British had, thus, surrendered, though not explicitly yet doubtless implicitly, to the revolutionists in repsect of the above-mentioned two points, there was included in the said proclamation of the new Empress of India, a further important promise that neither the British Government, nor any local white-skinned officer, nor even any British missionary would be suffered to interfere with the religion of their ‘natives’, that the Empress of India wished to treat all her subjects, the Hindus, the Muslims, the Christians and others, impartially and that she, as the Empress of India, would protect every religion from the tryrannical persecution at the hands of every other religion. This express promise was included in this famous proclamation in order to eradicate one of the most potent causes of the outbreak of the War of Independence, namely, the Indian apprehension that the company’s government was out to destroy the native religions and to convert all the Indians to Christianity with the use of force. And this was, too, a tacit submission of the British to the revolutionists! 1115. Yet another important submission was implicitly made to the revolutionists in this proclamation. It was the discontinuation of the obnoxious practice of denying the Indian rulers the right of adoption and liquidating and annexing their territories to the British possessions in India. For, it was expressly promised in the said proclamation that the traditional right of Indian rulers to adopt heirs to their estates would be honoured. Their adopted heirs were promised the same political and administrative rights as they enjoyed under the old tradition. 1115A. Thus, the British had tried by means of this Queen’s proclamation to remove almost all the causes, which in their opinion, had led to the horrible revolt of the Indian revolutionists. Nevertheless, the most important promise—of course, in the British opinion—and the one that they thought would give complete satisfaction to the Indian people—was that— 1116. All the Indian subjects of Queen Victoria would be treated as respectfully as the British—and that they would be selected for appointment to all the official posts in the British empire, irrespective of caste, creed or religon!! 1116A. BUT THIS PROCLAMATION HAD NO EFFECT WHATSOEVER UPON THE REVOLUTIONISTS!