Revisiting The Revolt of 1857 (An Old & Rare Book)

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The 150th anniversary of the 'Sepoy Mutiny' presented an opportunity to scholars to explore its hitherto virgin facets. In this context, the Corpus Research Institute organised a seminar 'Rethinking and Reinventing the Revolt of 1857' and the papers presented at the seminar are now being published for public perusal. Reputed scholars as well as young researchers have viewed the phenomenon from different angles ranging from vernacular literature, folk-lore, archival materials and cinematograph to present a kaleidoscopic view of the great upheaval.

Dr. Chittabrata Palit, Ph.D. (Cantab), FRAS (London), Director, Institute of Historical Studies, Kolkata and Professor Emeritus in History, Jadavpur University. Dr. Mrinal Kumar Basu, M.A., Ph.D. (Cal.) Senior Research Fellow, ICHR, New Delhi.

Historians certainly carry on a continuous dialogue with the past but some historical events draw more attention than the rest. The momentous upsurge of 1857 against the British is one of them as it has been widely accepted as the starting point of our freedom struggle. Scholars and administrators have been debating the nature of the movement since the historic outbreak. Eminent scholars made significant contributions to embellish the academic discourse on the occasion of its centenary. However, these discourses primarily analysed the activities of prominent leaders of the movement. But imbibing new ideas regarding involvement of women, tribals and different strata of the society have changed our perceived opinion of the phenomenon. The Revolt thus deserves a much deeper as well as broader analysis. The 150th anniversary of the movement presented an opportunity to scholars to explore its hitherto virgin facets. In this context, the Corpus Research Institute organized a seminar 'Rethinking and Reinventing the Revolt of 1857' and the papers presented at the seminar are now being published for public perusal. The first four essays analyse events outside Bengal proper. In the first essay, Sumanta Niyogi in his keynote address reviews the significance of the upsurge and emphasises the role of Bihar in the Wahhabi movement which built up a pan India network. Rashmi Choudhury dwells on the role of Kunwar Singh and his associates. She draws our attention to the activities of the Sepoys of the Danapur Cantonment, who forged an alliance with the leaders of Arrah-Jagdishpur on the basis of folksongs and other literary evidences in Hindi. Ranjit Sen's paper on the Bombay shows that even apparently tranquil areas did not remain really peaceful. The movement convulsed a large part of Bombay especially the Konkan area which induced the administration to gag newspapers so that information could not spread to the masses. Abhijit Dutta portrays two brave fighters whom the British administration publicly executed to instill fear and stifle the uprising of the Gonds, who did not belong to the ritually acceptable section of the Hindus. The next three papers focus attention on Bengal proper- the cantonment towns of Barrackpore and Berhampore being the nurseries of heroes. Rajarshi Chakrabarty has emphasized the failure of Nawab Feradoon Jan to exploit the latent spirit of defiance. Soma Sardar has chosen Mangal Pandey to highlight a different genre of spiritedness. Mrinal Kumar Basu delineates the roles of amlahs and vakils of Sambhugunge who suffered a little in the hands of the rampaging sepoys and emphasizes on the reticence of the local gentry. The next three essays are on the role of religion. Pradip Chattopadhyay dwells on the religious dimensions of the revolt and challenges the portrayal of the insurgents by European scholars. S.M. Sarwar Morshed emphasizes on the secular attitude of the movement. Nikhiles Guha writes on an American missionary to show that his so-called sympathy for the rebels was withdrawn and he accepted the view of the majority of his white cousins. The press played a crucial role in garnering public support. Two scholars have thrown light on this aspect during the post Mutiny Gautam Basu highlights different perceptions of newspapers and journals owned by Indians. Jayasree Mukherjee analyses perceptions of the British government and the press in Bengal to underline the shift in the attitude of the Bengali bhadrolok. Chittabrata Palit in his paper underlines a budding scientist's patriotism as well as to pen a commendable book on a topic diametrically opposed to his line of study. The paper by Subrata Kumar Mal describes the crisis of indigenous education in Midnapore.

**Contents and Sample Pages**