Penguin 1857 Reader - Softcover

Language: English
Pages: 351

About the Book
1857 was a defining moment in the history of the British Empire. As native troops in India rebelled against their colonial masters and were joined by a large number of local chief civilians and princes the Empire almost lost is most prized territory. A hundred and fifty years later scholars, academics and historians still argue about the exact nature of the uprising and the appropriate nomenclature for it: the First war of Independence the great appropriate nomenclature for it; the first war of Independences the great Indian mutiny the sepoy rebellion. Debates still rage over its causes. Did it really originate from a dispute over greased cartridge? Was it premeditated?
Not surprisingly the uprising attracted both local and global attention and produced a massive archive of documents. The penguin 1857 Reader depicts the historic event from various perspectives: English Indian European and American. Through a selection of documents of the time it provides glimpses into the actions across northern Indian maps the contours of dissent against the Raj and explores the immediate responses to the upheaval in Indian and outside. Included here are numerous newspaper and magazine account in leading English and American papers chronicles of British and Indian men and women who witnessed the turmoil intelligence reports and narratives of soldiers the British administration responses the opinions of Karl Marx Lord Macaulay and Mark Twain British views on the Rani of Jhansi and Nana Saheb and Mirza Ghalib moving narration in his diaries and the historic trial of Bhahadur Shah Zafar. With a scholarly and comprehensive introduction this reader captures the many dimensions of one of the most momentous episodes in the history of the Indian subcontinent.
About the Author
Parmod K.Nayar of the Department of English, University of Hyderabad, is the aut