titled The Volcano, or The First War of Indian Independence, was published by the Indian National Army (INA) and the Japanese Ministry of Propaganda. Ban The book was seen at the time as highly inflammatory, and the Marathi edition was banned in British India even before its publication. Publication of the English translation faltered after British printers and publishing houses were warned by the Home Office of its highly seditious content, while the British foreign office brought pressure on the French government to prevent its publication from Paris. In July 1909 Madan Lal Dhingra, a member of Savarkar's Abhinav Bharat Society, had assassinated the British official Curzon Wyllie. The British officials knew that Savarkar had planned to release a text, and were concerned that it may incite further acts of violence against the British administration. Savarkar's earlier works were not widely read: his fist book - on Mazzini - was immediately banned by the government; the manuscript of his second book - on the history of the Sikhs - was either lost in post or destroyed by officials before it could be published. Therefore, Savarkar's associates maintained secrecy regarding the book's publication and circulation. An underground network of revolutionaries circulated the book, hoping that it would encourage a revolution against the British. On 21 July 1909, H.A. Stuart, the Director of the CID in Bombay, sent a telegram to Indian government officials urging them to intercept the text that was expected to arrive in Indian ports from England. He knew that the subject of the text was 1857 uprising, but did not know the title of the work or the number of copies being shipped. He suspected that there were two editions of the text - the original Marathi text published in Germany, and an English translation published in London. The Viceroy of India, Lord Minto, supported the confiscation even though officials complained that they could not confiscate the book under the Sea Customs Act or the Indian Post Office Act, without more details about the text. By this time, the first edition of Savarkar's work had already been published as a 451-page book titled The Indian War of Independence of 1857, with the author listed as "An Indian Nationalist". The book was ultimately printed in the Netherlands in 1909, with the British government not tracing it until too late. The copies were printed with false dust wrappers purporting to