India 'Mutiny' and 'Revolution,' 1857-1858

Introduction

“The Rani who is our mother, strikes repeatedly at the British. / She is the chief of the jungles. / She sent letters and bangles to other (rulers, chieftains) and aligned them to the cause. / She vanquished and pushed the Britishers out, / in every street she made them panic, / so that they ran away wherever they could find their way. / Whenever she entered the battleground on horseback,/she fought bravely and swords and spears ruled the day. / O, she was our Rani mother” (quoted in Rag 2010, cited under Popular Memory). This folk song of the Gonds (a tribal community) locates Rani Awanti Bai of the Ramgarh estate as its inspirational figure. The estate had been taken over by the British during 1851–1853. This was strongly resented not only by the Rani but also by the Gonds. Rani Awanti Bai challenged the British during the Rebellion of 1857–1858, and this folk song clearly depicts elements of popular anger among the Gonds, as well as the logic of elite–popular and tribal–non-tribal interaction. Nevertheless, such aspects of the Rebellion remain largely erased in discussions that focus on whether 1857 was a “mutiny” or a “revolution.” In fact, it is perhaps vital for a historian to have a holistic understanding of the 1857 Rebellion and to interrogate received wisdom that has been dominated by imperialist, nationalist, and subaltern historiographical traditions.

General Overviews

Imperialist historiography focused on the “mutiny” theme, developing the religious angle. This was obviously intended to project 1857 as a phenomenon that was restricted to the military cantonment. Some of the writings of Marx and Engels in the New York Daily Tribune critiqued imperialist exploitation and expansion, even as they detailed accounts related to the development of the 1857 Rebellion. Sayyid Ahmad Khan was the first Indian to write about 1857 (see S. A. Khan). His Asbab-e-Baghawat-e-Hind (“The Causes of the Indian Revolt,” 1858; see Khan 2000, cited under S. A. Khan) connected British policy to the Rebellion of 1857.

Imperialist Historiography

The early accounts saw the Rebellion from a colonial perspective, and the most common tendency in these was to locate it as a “sepoy mutiny.” This projection was intended to erase the problems posed by colonial expansion and exploitation and to provide comfort to the colonial bureaucracy and those back in Britain. This interpretation drew upon the purported anxiety of the sepoys related to the introduction of the new Enfield rifle in 1857. The bullets were coated with grease made from the fat of cows (sacred to Hindus) and of pigs (abhorred by Muslims). Because the cartridges had to be bitten before being used, the Hindu and Muslim sepoys interpreted this as part of a plot to convert them to Christianity by defiling their caste and their religions. These features formed the basis of the position that saw 1857 as a religious conflict. Thus, initially it was seen as a plot of the Dharma Sabha of Calcutta, which aimed to preserve Hinduism from the onslaught of the English. What is striking is the way this idea of a “religious plot” soon shifted and came to identify the Rebellion as a “Muslim conspiracy,” a view that persists remarkably even today. In addition, 1857 was inevitably linked to classic 19th-century imperialist notions associated with the “clash of civilizations.” The earliest account that can be considered representative is Ball 1858–1859. Kaye 1988 (originally published in 1864–1876) is also useful.

Ball, Charles. The History of the Indian Mutiny: Giving a Detailed Account of the Sepoy Insurrection in India; and a Concise History of the Military Events Which Have Tended to Consolidate British Empire in Hindostan. 2 vols. London: London Printing and Publishing, 1858–1859.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Perhaps the first account of 1857 that delineates the imperialist position. It can be appreciated by students at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels who have had some exposure to colonial Indian history.
Find this resource:
Kaye, John William. A History of the Great Revolt. 3 vols. Delhi: Gian, 1988.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Originally published in 1864–1876 (London: W. H. Allen) as History of the Sepoy War in India, 1857–58, the title under which it has been frequently reprinted. This work is of considerable value because it reflects the imperialist position after the 1857 Rebellion had been crushed and the Crown had taken over India (1858).
Find this resource:
Marx, Engels, and the Marxist Legacy

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels clearly saw the links between the colonial exploitation of India and the anger that was displayed by the people during 1857. They discussed developments related to the progress of the 1857 Rebellion in articles published in the New York Daily Tribune, probably choosing US publication to escape censorship laws in England. R. P. Dutt saw 1857 as a major peasant revolt, even though he felt that it had been led by the decaying feudal forces, fighting to turn back the tide of foreign domination and get back their privileges (see Dutt 1970). Marx and Engels 1975 offers valuable insights on developments related to 1857.

Dutt, R. P. India Today. Calcutta: Manisha, 1970.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Originally published, London: Victor Golancs, 1940. Gives a serious account of the colonial exploitation of India that would be helpful to students, especially at the undergraduate level.
Find this resource:
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The First Indian War of Independence, 1857–1859. Moscow: Progress, 1975.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This valuable collection contests the dominant contemporary imperialist articulations and captures the essential link between imperialism and its exploitative practices that precipitated 1857.
Find this resource:
S. A. Khan

Sayyid Ahmad Khan (b. 1817–d. 1898) was the first Indian to write a tract (Khan 2000, originally published in 1858) seeking to examine the underlying factors that determined the nature of the 1857 Rebellion. In this tract Khan critiqued British policy and linked it to 1857.

Khan, Sayyid Ahmad. The Causes of the Indian Revolt (Asbab-e-Baghawat-e-Hind). Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This contemporary account is a powerful tract. Khan’s choice of the term Baghawat (“revolt”) clearly indicates the position from which he saw 1857.
Find this resource:
Indian Nationalism and Nationalist Writing

The first session of the Indian National Congress (1885) denounced the 1857 Rebellion, given the Congress’s association with the British and its loyalist and elite character. The first Indian nationalist who wrote on 1857 was V. D. Savarkar (Savarkar 1930). Savarkar stressed the religious dimension of 1857.

Savarkar, V. D. The Indian War of Independence of 1857. Calcutta: R. Bhattacharya, 1930.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Originally published in London in 1909, attributed as “By an Indian Nationalist.” Emphasized the religious angle of 1857, which harmonizes with the imperialist position.
Find this resource:
Anthologies

The Rebellion of 1857 has been and is still being seriously debated among historians. A classic collection is Joshi 2007 (originally published in 1957). Some recent collections are also useful, such as Pati 2007, which incorporates selections from some of the major works on 1857, from 1858–1859 to 2007. Nayar 2007 assembles various writings on the subject under two broad headings: “Narratives” and “Responses.”

Joshi, P. C., ed. 1857: A Symposium. New Delhi: National Book Trust, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Originally published in 1957 by People’s Publishing House. This collection marks a major shift that questioned the received wisdom of imperialist historiography, which saw 1857 as a “sepoy mutiny,” and offers the emerging ideas of nationalist historians who saw 1857 as a nationalist uprising.
Find this resource:
Nayar, P. K. The Penguin 1857 Reader. New Delhi: Penguin, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A popular reader that can be appreciated by anyone interested in the subject.
Find this resource:
Pati, Biswamoy, ed. The 1857 Rebellion: Debates in Indian History and Society. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This work would be useful to undergraduate and postgraduate students and as a teaching aid at these levels. It would be appreciated by the specialist as well as the nonspecialist reader who is interested in the subject.
Find this resource:
Biographies

Some autobiographies, such as Bandyopadhyay 2007 and Bandyopadhyay 2008, and biographical accounts, such as Husain 2006 and Dalrymple 2006, provide interesting details on the 1857 Rebellion.

Bandyopadhyay, Durgadas. Bidrohe Bangali. Calcutta: Patra Bharati, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A first-hand account of the 1857 Rebellion by a Bengali in the British Army.
Find this resource:
Bandyopadhyay, Durgadas. 1857 Uprising: A Tale of an Indian Warrior. Edited and translated by Kaushik Roy. London: Anthem, 2008.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This is an interesting autobiographical account of Bandyopadhyay’s experiences in the army during the Rebellion of 1857. Original title, Amar Jivancharit.
Find this resource:
Dalrymple, William. The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857. London: Bloomsbury, 2006.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Provides some details related to the last Mughal emperor during 1857.
Find this resource:
Husain, Mahdi S. Bahadur Shah Zafar and the War of 1857 in Delhi. New Delhi: Aakar, 2006.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Provides a biographical sketch of the last Mughal emperor during 1857.
Find this resource:
Diversities

The initial efforts to focus on 1857 included Ball 1858–1859 and Kaye 1988 (both cited under Imperialist Historiography). Brodkin 1972 explores the situation after the retreat of the British, focusing on the rebel leaders and their rivalries. Some present-day collections are useful because they project a host of diversities related to 1857. Chakravarty 2005 explores the representations of 1857 in British popular fiction and historiography within the wider context of British involvement in India. Bhattacharya 2007 includes chapters that focus on areas that were conventionally ignored by imperialist historiography that sought to “map” 1857 as a North Indian phenomenon. Thus, areas like Chotanagpur, northeastern India, and Calcutta are taken up for scrutiny during this turbulent phase. Bandyopadhyay, et al. 2008 is another collection that examines a wide range of vital aspects. Yechury 2008 is a very rich collection that negotiates diverse geographical areas during this phase. Moosvi 2008 and Pati 2010 complement the range of issues and themes that have been discussed in publications during 2007–2010. These two works attempt to engage with sources in diverse languages and to explore factors and events including the “rebel press,” popular culture, aspects of gender and its representations, colonial insecurities, outcastes, tribals, white marginals, and disturbances in the prisons. The only journal that has published a special issue on the 1857 Rebellion to encapsulate some of the new areas that had attracted researchers after 140 years was the Social Scientist (Moosvi 1998). In fact, this forms the basis of the collection published later (Moosvi 2008).

Bandyopadhyay, S., B. Pati, and D. Chakravarty, eds. 1857: Essays from the Economic & Political Weekly. Hyderabad: Orient Longman and Sameeksha Trust, 2008.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Covers areas ranging from the sepoys and military aspects and the question of the invisible marginal tribals and outcastes to fictional representations of 1857 and the manner in which it affected creativity and art. For more on military aspects, see Sepoys and the Colonial Army.
Find this resource:
Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi, ed. Rethinking 1857. New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
In addition to chapters on areas that had been ignored, this work includes chapters that focus on communication and war technology available to the imperialists and their army.
Find this resource:
Brodkin, E. I. “The Struggle for Succession: Rebels and Loyalists in the Indian Mutiny of 1857.” Modern Asian Studies 6.3 (1972): 277–290.
DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X00004133Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Interrogates the labels such as “loyalists” and “rebels” used by colonial officials. Brodkin writes that the retreat of British authority from parts of North India saw the emergence of traditional rivalries that made these labels redundant.
Find this resource:
Chakravarty, Gautam. The Indian Mutiny and the British Imagination. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511484759Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Shows how narratives of the Rebellion were influenced by the concerns of colonial policy and the demands of imperial self-image.
Find this resource:
Moosvi, Shireen, ed. Special Issue The 1857 Rebellion. Social Scientist 26.1–4 (1998).
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Would be of interest to those who want to learn about diverse factors related to the Rebellion, including the setting, the Urdu-language press, popular culture, and tribal movements in this period.
Find this resource:
Moosvi, Shireen, ed. Facets of the Great Revolt: 1857. New Delhi: Tulika, 2008.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Contains contributions that incorporate Urdu sources, especially the Urdu print culture of this period. The contributors examine issues including the rebel press, the alternative order and military organization, popular culture, contemporary paintings of 1857, and the role of religion in 1857.
Find this resource:
Pati, Biswamoy, ed. The Great Rebellion of 1857: Exploring Transgressions, Contests and Diversities. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Explores diverse facets of the 1857 Rebellion, such as gender and colonial fiction, courtesans, white “marginals,” penal laws, and colonial anxieties about the Mughals, even in exile. Also studied are popular struggles involving tribals and outcastes, and the way outcastes in the south of India locate the Rebellion. It draws upon a range of untapped source materials and rare printed tracts.
Find this resource:
Yechury, Sitaram, ed. The Great Revolt: A Left Appraisal. New Delhi: People’s Democracy, 2008.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This work incorporates a wide range of geographical areas, as well as themes ranging from the effects of colonization on the peasants and tribals and the way 1857 affected diverse regions to the literary and creative fallout of 1857 and its imprints on the indigenous print culture.
Find this resource:
Sepoys and the Colonial Army

Several works discuss the sepoys, the rebel army, and its organization. Alavi 1995 focuses on the sepoys prior to this phase. For the rebel army and its organization, Khan 1998 on the Gwalior contingent is particularly notable. Dasgupta 2008 explores the action of the mutinous sepoys and sees this as an act of repudiation against the English East India Company as well as the traditional ruling class in India, and as an assertion of autonomous power, which threatened to sweep away the symbols of colonial power in North India. Those interested in general features of the colonial army will find Ewart 1859 useful, especially on health and mortality among the European troops and the sepoys. Peers 1995 delineates how the colonialists manipulated the ideas of race and caste to discipline and control the colonial army; at the same time, they accepted regional stereotypes when negotiating with the native military. Kolff 1990 throws light on the recruitment of the colonial army. Saul 2002 and Saul 2009 both examine the military aspects of the 1857 Rebellion.

Alavi, Seema. The Sepoys and the Company: Tradition and Transition in Northern India, 1770–1830. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Alavi refers to the reforms of the 1830s that discontinued the batta (“allowance”), and the permanent appointment given to sepoys in distant outposts of Sindh and Punjab beginning in the 1840s, which were considered “foreign lands.” While the former created a sense of financial insecurity, the latter resulted in apprehension about the violation of the caste status of the Hindu sepoys.
Find this resource:
Dasgupta, Sabyasachi. “The Rebel Army in 1857: At the Vanguard of the War of Independence or a Tyranny of Arms?” In 1857: Essays from the Economic & Political Weekly. Edited by S. Bandyopadhyay, B. Pati, and D. Chakravarty, 161–174. Hyderabad: Orient Longman and Sameeksha Trust, 2008.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Explores the actions of the mutinous sepoys.
Find this resource:
Ewart, J. A Digest of the Vital Statistics of the European and Native Armies in India. London: Smith Elder, 1859.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Focuses on health and mortality among the white army and the sepoys.
Find this resource:
Khan, Iqtidar Alam. “The Gwalior Contingent in 1857–58: A Study of the Organisation and Ideology of the Sepoy Rebels.” Social Scientist 26.1–4 (1998): 53–75.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This is perhaps one of the best-researched articles on the rebel army.
Find this resource:
Kolff, Dirk A. H. Naukar, Rajput and Sepoy: The Ethnohistory of the Military Labour Market in Hindustan, 1450–1850. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines the recruitment of the colonial army.
Find this resource:
Peers, Douglas M. “Sepoys, Soldiers and the Lash: Race, Caste and Army Discipline in India, 1820–50.” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 23 (1995): 211–247.
DOI: 10.1080/03086539508582951Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Studies the methods used to control the colonial army.
Find this resource:
Saul, David. The Indian Mutiny: 1857. London: Viking, 2002.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Discusses the disaffection in the sepoys, particularly the Bengal army and the existence of secret committees in all Indian regiments that coordinated the 1857 Rebellion.
Find this resource:
Saul, David. The Bengal Army and the Outbreak of the Indian Mutiny. New Delhi: Manohar, 2009.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Highlights the problems faced by the sepoys of the Bengal army who rose against their colonial masters.
Find this resource:
Historical Background

In a speech delivered in the British House of Commons on 27 July 1857, Benjamin Disraeli, who represented a new generation of imperialists, mentioned how the decline and fall of empires were not affairs of greased cartridges; rather, they resulted from the accumulation of serious causes. Disraeli was obviously arguing from a position that aimed to retain control over what was fast emerging as the crown jewel of the British Empire. Nevertheless, these ideas illustrate how even a section of contemporary British politicians viewed the factors that precipitated the 1857 Rebellion in India.

Imperialist Policy of Expansion and its Consequences

The expansion of the British East India Company was based on a series of conquests that were carefully strategized to extend exploitation. Besides direct wars, it also incorporated methods of indirect expansion such as the “subsidiary alliance” and the “doctrine of lapse.” The subsidiary alliance involved an agreement whereby a friendly ruler was to pay for the expenses incurred to maintain British troops stationed in his territory. Once the ally was granted this protection, he disbanded his own troops, and a “resident” was stationed in his court. The subsidiary alliance drew upon the experiences of the French and of English governor-generals such as Clive, but it was perfected during the tenure of Lord Wellesley, governor-general in India (1798–1805). The subsidiary alliance ensured resources for maintaining the British colonialist army, dismantled the ally’s own defense system, and ensured interference through the activities of the resident. Moreover, it drained and ruined some of the allies, creating the conditions for their takeover by the British. Territories that were taken over through subsidiary alliances included the Maratha Confederacy (1818) and Punjab (1849). The doctrine of lapse was founded on the idea of male succession, a typical patriarchal practice, and was introduced during Lord Dalhousie’s tenure as governor-general of India (1848–1856). The doctrine of lapse mandated that when an Indian ruler did not have a male successor, the British intervened either to legitimize the adoption of a successor or to take over the principality. Naturally, the latter was usually preferred. Satara (1848), Sambalpur (1849), Nagpur, and Jhansi (1854) were among the princely states that were annexed through the doctrine of lapse. Aspects of pre-1857 British expansion, including the subsidiary alliance and doctrine of lapse, are delineated by Bandyopadhyay 2004 and Ramusack 2004.

Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar. From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India. New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2004.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An eminently readable work that delineates the colonial expansion policy in a very clear manner.
Find this resource:
Ramusack, Barbara. The Indian Princes and Their States. The New Cambridge History of India 3.6. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521267274Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A very well-researched work that provides details related to the English East India Company’s interactions with the princely rulers.
Find this resource:
Popular Anger and Rebellions Prior to 1857

The agrarian settlements as well as the changing fortunes and status of the Indian chiefs and princes severely affected the life of people on the margins—the peasants and the tribals. Folk practices, issues related to “moral economy,” and traditions of resistance of the preceding period need to be borne in mind while studying 1857. These need to be located holistically as a part of a historical process and not confined to northern India, in order to assess the anger of the common people that exploded during 1857–1858. One can refer to the rebellion of the Kols in Chotanagpur (1832), the Mapillas in Malabar (1836–1854), the Bhills in Khandesh, Dhar, and Malwa (1852), the Santals in Rajmahal, Bhagalpur, and Birbhum (1855–1856), the Kandhas in Ghumsar and Baudh (1855–1860), and the Savaras of Parliakhemedi (1856–1857). In this sense, it is difficult to study the Rebellion unless one takes into account the social history of peasant and tribal protest prior to 1857. To understand colonial exploitation over the first half of the 19th century, see Bandyopadhyay 2004 (cited under Imperialist Policy of Expansion and Its Consequences), Kumar and Desai 1983, and Bagchi 2010.

Bagchi, Amiya Kumar. Colonialism and Indian Economy. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This is a collection reprinting some of Bagchi’s invaluable earlier articles. They provide a lucid account of the colonization of the Indian economy and the way in which it affected the people and the economy.
Find this resource:
Kumar, Dharma, and Meghnad Desai, eds. Cambridge Economic History of India. Vol. 2. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This collection focuses on the agrarian interventions that led to the colonization of the Indian economy. It provides valuable insights that explain the colonial exploitation of India.
Find this resource:
Nationalist Historiography

Nationalist historians were obsessed with the “spirit” of Indian nationalism and tried to prove that the 1857 Rebellion united the Indians and the “nation” against the British. Sen 1957 was the first major effort to script the official version of 1857 as a foundation of the Indian state. Majumdar 1957, by contrast, opposed the idea of viewing 1857 through a nationalist frame. One should also mention here Chaudhuri 1965 and Datta 1967. The nationalist historians worked in a free India where they had access to hitherto unavailable sources. They tried very hard to show how the “nation” and its leaders struggled against the British during 1857. Interestingly, Majumdar was not fully comfortable with the idea of locating 1857 as the “First War of Indian Independence,” even as he mentioned that in Awadh 1857 seemed to have a “popular” or “national” character. At the same time, there was no uniform position regarding the influence of religion on the rebels. The nationalist historians saw 1857 as a sepoy mutiny that developed into a civil rebellion. Nevertheless, the marginal space accorded to the common people—in references to their participation as well as in regard to the terror unleashed on the people as a part of the counterinsurgency operations—contained serious possibilities.

Chaudhuri, S. B. Civil Rebellion and Theories of the Indian Mutiny. Calcutta: World Press, 1965.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Chaudhuri saw 1857 in terms of two distinct phases: a military mutiny that was followed by a civil rebellion. This shows the power and influence of imperialist historiography.
Find this resource:
Datta, K. K. Reflections on the Mutiny. Calcutta: Calcutta University Press, 1967.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Datta highlighted the connection between colonial expansion and the anger that this bred, emphasizing pre-1857 movements.
Find this resource:
Majumdar, R. C. The Sepoy Mutiny and the Revolt of 1857. Calcutta: Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 1957.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
It is interesting to note that Majumdar, who was a major nationalist historian, disagreed with the view that 1857 was a war of independence.
Find this resource:
Sen, S. N. Eighteen Fifty-Seven. New Delhi: Publication Division, 1957.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This work was published by the Government of India and epitomized what can perhaps be seen as the official version of the 1857 Rebellion.
Find this resource:
Alternative Viewpoints

The first major scholarly work on the Marxist negotiations can be traced to a set of Marxist historians who worked together to produce what has remained a real classic even today (see Joshi 2007, originally published in 1957, cited under The Marxist Negotiations). Going beyond the “mutiny”/“nationalist uprising” binary propounded by the imperialist and nationalist historians, this literature addressed a host of factors associated with 1857, including rendering the common people visible. Revisiting 1857 from the 1970s to the 1990s can be traced to the research of Eric Stokes. Beginning with an examination of the economic and social dislocations brought in by the British, Stokes saw 1857 as an elitist affair that was based on caste mobilization, with the peasant masses following their caste superiors (see Stokes 1978, cited under Revisiting 1857, 1970s–1990s). In his next work (Stokes 1986, also cited under Revisiting 1857, 1970s–1990s), Stokes set aside his earlier idea that assigned centrality to caste. Significantly, he now located 1857 as a peasant revolt, in which strict categorization of peasants into “rich,” “middle,” and “poor” was not applicable. The research of Rudrangshu Mukherjee marked a major break in regard to the Popular Dimensions of 1857. Mukherjee emphasized that the real strength of the talukdar resistance and the Rebellion of 1857 was based on the general support of the peasantry and other rural people (see Mukherjee 1984, cited under Rudrangshu Mukherjee). The popular dimension was also taken up by Ranajit Guha and Gautam Bhadra (see The Subalterns). Finally, Tapti Roy explored the popular world of the countryside in the Bundelkhand region and its relationship with the Rebellion of 1857. Roy mentioned that the Rebellion began by targeting visible forms of British power and subsequently the internal order of exploitation (see Roy 1994, cited under Tapti Roy).

The Marxist Negotiations

This strain of scholarship began with Marxist interpretations associated with the edited collection Joshi 2007 (originally published in 1957). This work heralded a process in which historians questioned the positions of both imperialist and nationalist historians on the nature of the 1857 Rebellion. It marked a paradigm shift, with the focus transgressing the “mutiny”/“nationalist uprising” binary concept of imperialist and nationalist historiography and accommodating a diverse and complex range of factors. These included the connection between the process of colonization and the Rebellion, and its links with the Wahabi and Farazi movements, which were profoundly anti-imperialist, as well as the way colonization entered the world of Urdu and Hindustani literature and was retained in folk memory. What is sometimes forgotten and needs reiteration is that some of the scholars who contributed to this collection tapped diverse language sources and incorporated folk songs associated with the Rebellion. A significant result of this scholarly activity was a new interest in the common people. Joshi 1994 is also very helpful in grasping “invisible” dimensions of 1857. As discussed in Popular Memory, this particular genre has been subsequently enriched by Badri Narayan and Pankaj Rag.

Joshi, P. C., ed. 1857 in Folk Songs. New Delhi: People’s Publishing House, 1994.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
In this work Joshi assembles folklore associated with the heroes of the 1857 Rebellion.
Find this resource:
Joshi, P. C., ed. 1857: A Symposium. New Delhi: National Book Trust, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Even many years after its initial publication in 1957 (New Delhi: People’s Publishing House), this work remains a classic.
Find this resource:
Revisiting 1857, 1970s–1990s

While Eric Stokes accepted that the “low Muslim rabble” was a strong revolutionary force in cities and towns such as Aligarh, in Stokes 1978 he emphasized the elitist nature of the rural revolt in 1857 in the upper and central Doab region. Stokes attributed 1857 to caste mobilization. He substantiated his argument by focusing on the peasant masses, whose role was minimal and who tamely followed their caste superiors. At the same time, he stressed the importance of the economic and social dislocations brought in by the British. Stokes sought to develop his arguments in Stokes and Bayly 1986, which he did not live to complete. In this work his analysis did accept caste as a descriptive category, but more important, it did away with his earlier idea that had assigned centrality to it. This resulted primarily from his detailed work on the Delhi region, which he completed after his visit to India in 1975–1976. This meant that he directed his attention toward the diverse effects of colonialism and took into account inter- and intra-regional variations. Interestingly, Stokes went beyond strictly economic explanations and wove in factors such as ecology, culture, and mentalities. Significantly, he now identified 1857 as a peasant revolt in which a strict categorization of peasants as rich, middle, and poor was not applicable. See also Bayly 1986, a concluding note to Stokes and Bayly 1986 that focuses on popular protest.

Bayly, C. A. “Concluding Note.” In The Peasant Armed: The India Revolt of 1857. Edited by Eric Stokes and C. A. Bayly, 226–243. Oxford: Clarendon, 1986.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Offers valuable insights into the evolution of Eric Stokes as a historian.
Find this resource:
Stokes, Eric. The Peasant and the Raj: Studies in Peasant Society and Agrarian Rebellion in Colonial India. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511563416Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Marked a serious attempt to look at 1857 from above.
Find this resource:
Stokes, Eric, and C. A. Bayly, eds. The Peasant Armed: The India Revolt of 1857. Oxford: Clarendon, 1986.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Locates the popular dimensions of 1857 and shows how a historian’s research can lead to major shifts in her or his positions.
Find this resource:
Popular Dimensions

The pioneer who studied the popular component of the 1857 Rebellion was Rudranghsu Mukherjee (see Mukherjee 1984, cited in Rudranghshu Mukherjee). He examined the question of popular participation in Awadh, undoubtedly a storm center of the 1857 Rebellion. His research added significant new dimensions regarding the role of the peasantry. Two subaltern historians, Ranajit Guha and Gautam Bhadra, also studied the 1857 Rebellion and attempted to unravel popular participation during this period. Guha 1983 (cited under The Subalterns) examined the colonial labeling of “dacoit leaders” and “dacoit villagers,” the targeting of European properties, plantations, and factories, and colonial records as well as sahukars and buniyas (moneylenders and traders). Bhadra 1985 (cited under The Subalterns) focused on the involvement of the Kols (tribals) and their leadership in Singhbhum (in Chotanagpur) during this period. It is striking that both reached highly elitist conclusions while studying the 1857 Rebellion. Thus, while Guha 1983 sought to confine the jacqueries to local boundaries, Bhadra 1985 followed the method of splitting 1857 into two phases, which began with the sepoys and subsequently spread as a popular rebellion when the Kols joined it. Bhadra also accepted the colonial stereotyping of the “naïve” tribals. Tapti Roy delineated the depth of the 1857 Rebellion in the Bundelkhand region and captured fascinating aspects of it, ranging from the level of participation to the circulation of rumors (Roy 1994, cited under Tapti Roy).

Rudrangshu Mukherjee

It was Rudrangshu Mukherjee who pioneered the attempt to make visible the dimension of popular peasant protest. In Mukherjee 1984, he examined the linkages between the talukdars (landholders) and the peasants. While doing this, he focused on the leadership of the talukdars in the Awadh region and emphasized that the real strength of their resistance and the Rebellion of 1857 was based on the general support of the peasantry and the people in the countryside. He explained this by referring to agrarian relations in the region, which were marked by interdependence of talukdars and peasants. Mukherjee also referred to the wide-scale peasant base of the Rebellion in the region and contested the dominant picture provided by the “mutiny” literature about the “magnate leadership.” As he put it, the peasants did not play a mere rearguard, subaltern role. Further, he stressed the participation and initiatives of the peasantry in the Rebellion, which had a direct association with the sepoys, who were “peasants in uniform.” These features determined the nature of the 1857 Rebellion in Awadh, where opposition to the alien order was universal and assumed the form of a people’s resistance movement.

Mukherjee, Rudrangshu. Awadh in Revolt, 1857–58: A Study of Popular Resistance. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A pathbreaking work that marks a paradigm shift in examining the dimension of popular participation in 1857.
Find this resource:
The Subalterns

The dimension of popular protest was also taken up by scholars such as Ranajit Guha and Gautam Bhadra, who turned to the world of the tribals. In Guha 1983, Guha invoked the logic of “territoriality” associated with 1857. A crudely elitist position, this saw peasants remaining confined to their local boundaries during the Rebellion. Gautam Bhadra, a “subaltern” historian, examined the way the Rebellion developed in the Chotanagpur region. As discussed in Bhadra 1985, the Rebellion began with the sepoys of the Ramgarh battalion, then became a popular rebellion with the involvement of the tribal Kols. This position harmonizes perfectly with that of the nationalist historians (see Nationalist Historiography). Interestingly, Bhadra referred to Gonoo, the Kol leader, who described himself as a “mere follower of the Rajah (of Singhbhum)” and “not a leader.” As argued by Bhadra, this suggests the authentic limitations of Gonoo’s political consciousness as a typical Kol rebel. A crudely elitist position, this takes Gonoo’s “tribal naïveté” for granted. Thus, Bhadra does not consider it possible that Gonoo could have been cleverly drawing upon the colonial construction of the “naïve adivasi (tribal)” in order to escape punishment.

Bhadra, Gautam. “Four Rebels of Eighteen Fifty Seven.” In Subaltern Studies: Writings on South Asian History and Society. Vol. 4. Edited by Ranajit Guha, 256–263. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Draws in the Kols (tribals) to illustrate the popular basis of the 1857 Rebellion. Bhadra’s method draws upon colonial historiography in splitting the “mutiny” and the “rebellion.” At the same time, his elitism is sharply visible when he accepts the stereotypical image of the naïve tribal.
Find this resource:
Guha, Ranajit. Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
See pp. 16, 21, 22, 25–27, 51–52, 71, 95, 103–106, and 138. Guha’s greatest limitation was his effort to confine the jacqueries during 1857 to local boundaries; see p. 308.
Find this resource:
Tapti Roy

In Roy 1994, Tapti Roy explored the popular world of the countryside in the Bundelkhand region and its relationship with the Rebellion of 1857. Here, the Rebellion began by targeting government officials, bankers, and mahajans (moneylenders), with the burning of official papers and the plundering of neighboring towns. Roy emphasized that these symbolized a strategy of selective targeting meant to drive out all visible forms of British power with which the peasants had interacted. Roy saw a shift after the initial phase: henceforth, the anger of the common people was directed against those associated with colonial power and those involved with the internal order of exploitation—the auction purchasers, decree holders, merchants, and bankers. The auction purchasers and decree holders had emerged as landholders through auctioning of land after the owners had failed to pay their taxes, and the courts were involved in settling disputes by issuing decrees. The anger against the merchants and bankers was related to moneylending at high interest rates. After taking over the urban centers, the sepoys began attacks on affluent people. After they left, the people from the countryside continued this trend, on occasions along with zamindars. Roy highlighted this as a symbolic way of displaying power by challenging the contested order. Roy emphasized the need to identify rumors as indications of the strong involvement of the common people. While highlighting the way the zamindars and peasants set up their independent zones, she mentioned how they made some rebel leaders, including some from outside their areas, head them. As can be seen, this position sharply contradicts that of Guha 1983 (cited under The Subalterns).

Roy, Tapti. The Politics of a Popular Uprising: Bundelkhand in 1857. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A major work that contradicts some of the basic assertions of subaltern historians like Ranajit Guha (see Guha 1983, cited under The Subalterns).
Find this resource:
New Questions and Problems

New questions and problems include themes such as Gender, tribals and outcastes, and Popular Memory. In regard to gender, the construction of the rape of white women has attracted serious scholarly research. The pioneer here is Jenny Sharpe (see Sharpe 1993, cited under Gender). Tribals is another area developed by such scholars as K. S. Singh (see Singh 1998, cited under World of the Tribals and Outcastes). The 1857 Rebellion in Popular Memory is an area worked upon initially by P. C. Joshi (see The Marxist Negotiations), but it has since attracted scholars such as Badri Narayan and Pankaj Rag (Narayan 1998, Rag 2010, cited under Popular Memory), who have enriched our knowledge about this dimension. Other topics covered in this section include Popular Mentalities, the Colonial Prison and Penal System, White Marginals, Echoes from Europe, and Global Links.

Gender

The 1990s saw research that focused on aspects of gender related to 1857, which attracted pioneers like Jenny Sharpe. Sharpe 1993 unravels the construction of the rape of white women who symbolized the English nation. This work highlights the nuanced and intricate association among gender, race, and ideas about English nationhood in nonliterary discursive writing. Paxton 1999 takes up literary texts to examine representations related to gender and the 1857 Rebellion. These have been further developed by Sen 2002, which discusses details related to the construction of both white and Indian women in colonial “mutiny” fiction, drawing upon both literary and nonliterary discursive writing. Gender in the context of the marginal world of tribals is another major area that has attracted scholarly attention. Here one can refer to Sinha 2008, which, working on a canvas of social history, investigates the “witch hunts” among tribal communities of Singhbhum and the Santhal parganas. Sinha’s work shows that these witch hunts formed a conscious contour of resistance that reflects gender and also anticolonial tensions in the Chotanagpur region. Also in regard to gender, Singh 2010 brings to life the performing community of courtesans—a rather destabilizing figure in nationalist historiography. While examining a modern play, Azizun Nisa San Sattavan Ka Kissa (2005; written by Tripurari Sharma, and translated as “A Courtesan and 1857 Revolt”), Singh weaves in the story of Azeezun of Kanpur. She highlights the role of these “fallen” and erased women during 1857. As articulated, what makes the play particularly significant is not just retrieving the courtesans who were denied agency or presence by the colonialist project of misrepresentation, but also bringing them back into the creative domain. Scholarly explorations related to white women during the 1857 Rebellion have attracted scholars like Alison Blunt (see Blunt 2000a and Blunt 2000b). In addition, Sen 2010, an exploration of the trope of the “loyal Indian woman” in colonial “mutiny” fiction, reveals how this fiction written in the context of deep colonial insecurity in the aftermath of the Rebellion assumed particular significance as it sought to construct the idea of Indian acceptance of colonial rule in the minds of its readers. Sen’s work extends our understanding of gender and “mutiny” fiction that had attracted earlier scholars such as Sharpe.

Blunt, Alison. “Spatial Stories under Siege: British Women Writing from Lucknow in 1857.” Gender, Place & Culture 7.3 (2000a): 229–246.
DOI: 10.1080/713668876Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A valuable article that discusses the condition of British women during the siege of Lucknow on the basis of their diaries.
Find this resource:
Blunt, Alison. “Embodying War: British Women and Domestic Defilement in the Indian ‘Mutiny.’” Journal of Historical Geography 26.3 (2000b): 403–428.
DOI: 10.1006/jhge.2000.0236Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Explores the construction in English journals and paintings of white women as victims of sepoy violence during 1857.
Find this resource:
Paxton, Nancy. Writing under the Raj: Race and Rape in the British Colonial Imagination, 1830–1947. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1999.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Chapters 3 and 4 are particularly relevant. Paxton focuses on representations of women in literary texts during the 1857 Rebellion.
Find this resource:
Sen, Indrani. Woman and Empire: Representations in the Writings of British India (1858–1900). Delhi: Orient Longman, 2002.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Focuses on the construction of both white and Indian women in colonial “mutiny” fiction.
Find this resource:
Sen, Indrani. “Discourses of ‘Gendered Loyalty’: Indian Women in Nineteenth Century ‘Mutiny’ Fiction.” In The Great Rebellion of 1857: Exploring Transgressions, Contests and Diversities. Edited by B. Pati, 111–128. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines representations of Indian women’s loyalty in colonial fiction.
Find this resource:
Sharpe, Jenny. Allegories of Empire: The Figure of Woman in Colonial Texts. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Sharpe focuses on the theme of the rape of the white woman.
Find this resource:
Singh, Lata. “Courtesans and 1857 Rebellion: The Role of Azeezun in Kanpur.” In The Great Rebellion of 1857: Exploring Transgressions, Contests and Diversities. Edited by B. Pati, 95–110. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Highlights the role played in the 1857 Rebellion by courtesans, who have been misrepresented in imperialist historiography and shunned by nationalist historians.
Find this resource:
Sinha, Shashank S. “In Search of Alternative Histories of 1857: Witch-hunts, Adivasis, and the Uprising in Chotanagpur.” In 1857: Essays from the Economic & Political Weekly. Edited by S. Bandyopadhyay, B. Pati, and D. Chakravarty, 213–225. Hyderabad: Orient Longman and Sameeksha Trust, 2008.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Tells us about a rather ignored area: the increase in witch-hunting during this phase.
Find this resource:
World of the Tribals and Outcastes

Singh 1998 focuses on tribal protest and examines the Chotanagpur region of central and western India. Singh demonstrates the diversity of the tribal movements and shows that the tribals fought against internal exploitation, which included moneylenders and traders, whose entry into their world was intimately connected with the advent of colonialism. Scholars including Shashank S. Sinha (Sinha 2010) and Sanjukta Das Gupta (Das Gupta 2010) have examined the Chotanagpur region, focusing on tribal society and insurgency. They highlight fascinating features related to popular mentalities and the forms of protest witnessed during this turbulent time. Similarly, Biswamoy Pati (Pati 2010) and B. Rama Chandra Reddy (Chandra Reddy 2010) bring to light the world of tribals and their confrontations with imperialism in Orissa and present-day Andhra Pradesh, respectively. Pati’s examination related to the social composition of the participants in the hills of western Orissa marks a break from previous historiography. Narayan 2007 introduces Dalits (outcastes) into writing on the Rebellion by focusing on their memories of 1857 in North India. The idea of going beyond North India marks another significant break. Thus, Basu 2010 delves into questions related to the Adi Dravida (“untouchables”) interpretations of the 1857 Rebellion to unravel Dalit (outcaste) memories associated with it. He focuses on the Tamil-speaking areas of the Madras presidency and examines the limitations of a grand narrative that overlooks the complexities of marginal groups whose memories and interpretations of the Rebellion have specificity. Similarly, Gupta 2008 refers to the manner in which Dalit women relate to the 1857 Rebellion. In this sense, both Basu and Gupta complement even as they problematize the research of Badri Narayan, by both extending the geographical frontiers and raising questions related to aspects of gender. Finally, some scholars, such as N. Rajendran, focus on South India during this period (Rajendran 2007).

Basu, Rajsekar. “Ideas, Memories and Meanings: Adi Dravida Interpretations of the Impact of the 1857 Rebellion.” In The Great Rebellion of 1857: Exploring Transgressions, Contests and Diversities. Edited by B. Pati, 161–178. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Tells us about Dalit (“untouchable”) memories of 1857, in a part of South India.
Find this resource:
Chandra Reddy, B. Rama. “Forests on Fire: The 1857 Rebellion in Tribal Andhra.” In The Great Rebellion of 1857: Exploring Transgressions, Contests and Diversities. Edited by B. Pati, 63–81. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Explores the participation of tribals in a part of South India during 1857.
Find this resource:
Das Gupta, Sanjukta. “Remembering Gonoo: The Profile of an Adivasi Rebel of 1857.” In The Great Rebellion of 1857: Exploring Transgressions, Contests and Diversities. Edited by B. Pati, 32–45. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines the role of a Kol (tribal) leader in the 1857 Rebellion.
Find this resource:
Gupta, Charu. “Dalit Virangas and the Re-invention of 1857.” In 1857: Essays from the Economic and Political Weekly. Edited by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, Biswamoy Pati, and Dipesh Chakrabarty, 193–221. Hyderabad: Orient Longman and Sameeksha Trust, 2008.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Takes up a crucial area to tell us how contemporary Dalit (“untouchable”) women relate to the Rebellion of 1857.
Find this resource:
Narayan, Badri. “Dalits and Memories of 1857.” In Rethinking 1857. Edited by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, 143–162. New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines Dalit (“untouchable”) memories of the 1857 Rebellion to tell us how they relate to it.
Find this resource:
Pati, Biswamoy. “Beyond Colonial Mapping: Common People, Fuzzy Boundaries and the Rebellion of 1857.” In The Great Rebellion of 1857: Exploring Transgressions, Contests and Diversities. Edited by B. Pati, 46–62. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Makes visible hitherto unknown features of the 1857 Rebellion in Orissa.
Find this resource:
Rajendran, N. “The Revolt of 1857: Rebellious Prelude and Nationalist Response in Tamilnadu.” In Rethinking 1857. Edited by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, 180–209. New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Discusses 1857 in a part of South India.
Find this resource:
Singh, K. S. “The ‘Tribals’ and the 1857 Uprising.” Social Scientist 26.1–4 (1998): 76–85.
DOI: 10.2307/3517582Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Discusses details related to tribal protest in three different regions during this period.
Find this resource:
Sinha, Shashank. “1857 and the Adivasis of Chotanagpur.” In The Great Rebellion of 1857: Exploring Transgressions, Contests and Diversities. Edited by B. Pati, 16–31. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Delineates the dimension of popular protest among the tribals of Chotanagpur during 1857.
Find this resource:
Popular Memory

In Narayan 1998, Badri Narayan unravels the way local traditions, folklore, and popular culture situated and retained the Rebellion of 1857. On the basis of oral evidence, he explores topics ranging from the perception of the firangi (foreigner) and the folk heroes of the Rebellion to the question of popular memory. Besides throwing light on the fascinating possibilities of oral history, he delineates the way the 1857 Rebellion captured popular imagination and incorporated popular protest. See also Rag 2010 (which provided the folk song of the Gonds quoted in the Introduction); Rag continues to enrich this genre.

Narayan, Badri. “Popular Culture and 1857: Memory against Forgetting.” Social Scientist 26.1–4 (1998): 86–94.
DOI: 10.2307/3517583Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Directs our attention to popular culture.
Find this resource:
Rag, Pankaj. 1857: The Oral Tradition. New Delhi: Rupa, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A rich collection that marks a fresh attempt to tell us how the 1857 Rebellion survives in tribal oral traditions.
Find this resource:
Popular Mentalities

Some of the new research that negotiates the 1857 Rebellion is marked by its freshness precisely because of the incorporation of new sources, the choice of themes, and the range of diversity explored. Thus, Ray 2003, an exploration of popular mentality, offers fascinating clues to grasp both its spirit and its collective cosmology, as well as the new order that emerged. The Rebellion led to sudden reversals in power relations, with the dominated race rising against the white, English regime. The alternative order that emerged was curiously republican–democratic and coexisted with a hierarchical princely structure. After all, the restored feudal chieftainships of 1857 were not like the old regimes of the 18th century, because 1857 had a mass movement behind it. Ray explains the dialectic of 1857, especially its nature in terms of popular mentality, underlining its peculiarity. Thus, it was a war of races without being a “race war,” because the subject race conceived it as a war of religion. Similarly, it was a religious war that cannot be so labeled, since the Rebellion was directed not at the religion of the master race but at its political domination. Conceptually, it was rooted in the past, but it groped for an alternative to the technologically advanced British rule. Consequently, even while the Rebellion failed to generate a new order, it was unrecognizable to tradition itself. The rebels of the Rebellion of 1857 saw it as a war of “the Hindoostanis” to protect their dharma and deen (“religion,” or perhaps more accurately, “way of life”) and to “save the country.” As explained in the Introduction, it did not form part of the national movement, nor can it be seen as the dying throes of the old order. As Ray argues, the 1857 Rebellion was a patriotic war of the people who expressed their sense of national identity through the brotherhood of the two principal religious groups of a common land. Ideologically, it reflected a nascent national community that was opposed to civil society, which had outposts in the enclaves of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras. Factors of racial subjugation created a sense of oneness that was, however, untainted by ideas of national sovereignty. The Rebellion of 1857 could express itself only through the political vocabulary of restoration to which the people were accustomed. It was marked by a disjunction from the past in the way people’s power expressed itself through the sepoy councils. What was attempted during the Rebellion was to turn back; however, the old order had been transformed, and it could never be restored. In this sense, the context of the Rebellion was not traditional, but neither was it modern.

Ray, Rajat Kanta. The Felt Community: Commonalty and Mentality before the Emergence of Indian Nationalism. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
See especially pp. 353–360. Assesses the mentality of 1857 using a dialectical method.
Find this resource:
Colonial Prison and Penal System

Scholars such as Clare Anderson and Madhurima Sen have examined the repressive system of the colonial prison and penal laws, which were a major source of discontent. Focusing on jailbreaks during 1857, Anderson 2007 argues that this phase changed British understanding of the role of imprisonment in India. While stressing the symbolic importance of jails to the rebels, Anderson finds that the liberation of prisoners epitomized the symbolic freeing of India from colonial rule. Her exploration weaves issues of caste and class together with the colonial prison. Extending Anderson’s work, Sen 2010 tells us how the colonial establishment restructured itself over this turbulent period and incorporated features such as the caste system from Indian society. Thus, Sen refers to the punishment meted out to the rebels, which included transportation for life across the “black waters” (Kala-pani, “black sea or ocean”) and developing a penal colony in the Andaman Islands. Besides attempting to erase the rebels from public memory and render them anonymous, it implied excommunication in terms of caste. This latter aspect was based on what was perceived by the colonial administration as an indigenous belief that a person’s caste identity was lost upon crossing the Kala-pani. Consequently, it is vital to grasp that the colonial administration drew upon caste to punish the rebels, even as it claimed to be on a “civilizing mission.”

Anderson, Clare. The Indian Uprising of 1857–58: Prisons, Prisoners and Rebellion. London: Anthem, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines the significance attached to jailbreaks in this period and the importance of caste and class inside the colonial prison.
Find this resource:
Sen, Madhurima. “Contested Sites: The Prison, Penal Laws and the 1857 Revolt.” In The Great Rebellion of 1857: Exploring Transgressions, Contests and Diversities. Edited by B. Pati, 82–94. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Explores the manner in which the colonialists drew upon features like caste and incorporated them into the penal system in this period.
Find this resource:
White Marginals

There are historians such as Sarmistha De who focus on poor, “marginal” whites who had been recruited to strengthen the counterinsurgency operations and were subsequently disbanded after the Rebellion had been crushed. This was an unpleasant section of the white population in India for both the colonizers and imperialist historiography, which explains the latter’s silence about the white marginals. De 2010 tells about the post-1858 presence of these white marginals and the efforts of the colonial administration to manage them. De’s research adds a completely new dimension to the existing scholarship on the 1857 Rebellion. Fischer-Tine 2009 briefly discusses the white sailors who had been recruited during the Rebellion and who were left unemployed after it had been crushed.

De, Sarmistha. “The ‘Disposable’ Brethren: European Marginals in Eastern India during the Great Rebellion.” In The Great Rebellion of 1857: Exploring Transgressions, Contests and Diversities. Edited by B. Pati, 129–145. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Focuses on the relatively new area of white marginals.
Find this resource:
Fischer-Tine, Harald. Low and Licentious Europeans: Race, Class and ‘White Subalternity’ in Colonial India. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, 2009.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Chapter 2 (pp. 90–138) focuses on the unemployed white sailors in Calcutta after the Rebellion had been crushed.
Find this resource:
Echoes from Europe

Thanks to the pioneering effort of Shaswati Mazumdar (Mazumdar 2011), we now have valuable insights about the manner in which the non-English-speaking European world saw the 1857 Rebellion.

Mazumdar, Shaswati, ed. Insurgent Sepoys: Europe Views the Revolt of 1857. New Delhi: Routledge India, 2011.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Assembles seventeen chapters by different scholars that enable us to grasp the manner in which the Rebellion was perceived in non-English-speaking Europe.
Find this resource:
Global Links

The Rebellion has been highlighted by Habib 1998, a major essay, as the greatest armed challenge faced by imperialism in the 19th century. Locating its broader linkages, Carter and Bates 2010 highlights the relationship between 1857 and the surge in the number of migrations, which included participants in the 1857 Rebellion who quietly migrated to the sugar colonies and resurfaced in subsequent decades when efforts were made to explain strikes and labor agitation there.

Carter, Marina, and Crispin Bates. “Empire and Locality: A Global Dimension to the 1857 Indian Uprising.” Journal of Global History 5 (2010): 51–73.
DOI: 10.1017/S1740022809990337Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Connects 1857 and the increase in migrations to sugar colonies, pointing out how some of these people had participated in the 1857 Rebellion.
Find this resource:
Habib, Irfan. “The Coming of 1857.” Social Scientist 26.1–4 (1998): 3–15.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Identifies this as the most serious military challenge faced by imperialism the world over during the 19th century.
Find this resource:
Postscript

The Rebellion of 1857 was a major anticolonial movement that symbolized resistance against the aggression of imperialist policies over the first half of the 19th century. It did not begin in 1857, however, nor did it end in 1858. After all, would it be possible for a historian to argue that the “Indigo Revolt” in Bengal—which began in 1859, and during which the peasantry successfully drove away the white planters—had no association with the 1857 Rebellion? In fact, as suggested by Farooqui 2010, the insecurity generated by the colonial state survived well into the 1870s, even when British colonialism seemed to be firmly established in India. The 1857 Rebellion was a mass political struggle and was not based only on economic factors. Besides shaking the foundations of colonial rule, the Rebellion inspired the anticolonial imagination as well as anticolonial movements. Nevertheless, it needs to be reiterated that in order to appreciate the broader ramifications of the 1857 Rebellion, a historian has to go beyond the mutiny/revolution binary. A note of caution therefore needs to be inserted, especially in the context of the recent effort to revive the linear link between the Rebellion and Gandhian nationalism, which is a distinct legacy of the nationalist school, as discussed under Nationalist Historiography. This was the general tone of the Indian state-sponsored celebrations observing the 150th Anniversary of 1857 (in 2007), and some efforts in this direction have been published in the recent past as well. Nayar 2007 attempts this crude unhistorical exercise. Nevertheless, there have been serious efforts to work on the Rebellion of 1857 and, perhaps in a few years, many more hitherto invisible aspects of 1857 will be unveiled, adding to its richness and diversity. One can only hope that these will undermine recent best-sellers or popular history projects that see the Rebellion in crudely simplistic terms as a “clash of civilizations” and compare it with the attacks of 11 September 2001 by speaking of jihadis (Islamic fundamentalists) “then” and “now.” Besides being unable to comprehend the contextual locations and meanings of terms such as jihadis, such writings reflect the efforts of imperialist historiography to resurrect itself in today’s neoliberal era by harping upon and echoing classic imperialist assertions of the 19th century that stress the religious aspect of the 1857 Rebellion. For an example, see Dalrymple 2006; for a critique, see Hasan 2008.

Dalrymple, William. The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857. London: Bloomsbury, 2006.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Represents the genre of best-seller initiatives associated with the 1857 Rebellion.
Find this resource:
Farooqui, Amar. “Sanitizing Indigenous Memory: 1857 and Mughal Exile.” In The Great Rebellion of 1857: Exploring Transgressions, Contests and Diversities. Edited by B. Pati, 146–160. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2010.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Delineates the deep insecurity of the colonial state with regard to the Mughals, even in exile.
Find this resource:
Hasan, Farhat. “Religion in the History of 1857.” In Facets of the Great Revolt: 1857. Edited by Shireen Moosvi, 135–142. New Delhi: Tulika, 2008.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Attempts a serious critique of the manner in which religion has been linked to the 1857 Rebellion.
Find this resource:
Nayar, Pramod K. India 1857: The Great Uprising. New Delhi: Penguin, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Connects 1857 to Gandhian nationalism, which makes no historical sense at all.