1857 - The darkest period of British India

[This is a review by me of the book by William Dalrymple, "The Last Mughal" posted on Amazon]

Exactly 150 years ago, today the first shot of the revolt of 1857 was fired. Today India celebrates what I grew up learning as “The first war of Indian independence”.
Most of the history taught in Indian schools is written by the 20th century socialist, nationalist historians and that became my frame of reference. I always looked back at the “war” of 1857 with some sense of pride, it was a time we were told - Hindus and Muslims came together to fight off the British yoke, when oppressed poor rose up against the zamindars and money lenders, when nationalism was a common thread that tied the widespread war, where mendicants carried the message of revolution in secret chappatis and women joined the men in the struggle for independence. Overall a romantic nationalist picture painted by secular historians.

This book by Dalrymple shatters the myth I was raised with. He, based upon his meticulous research and conflation from disparate documentation, both native and British, conclusively proves that the outbreak of May 10, 1857 was nothing more than a bloody communal riot.
At least it started like that, except that the wrath of both Hindus and Muslims combine fell on the hapless British men, women and children.
There is no pride whatsoever in what happened on the days of May 10 and May 11.
In fact it should be marked as a day of mourning when the sepoys marched into Delhi and in just first 48 hours massacred all Christians in the capital. Not just killed but chopped into pieces. No one was spared, not even pregnant women. Just a few survived who either escaped just in time or were sheltered by some Delhiwallahs.
In fact on this day started what would be one of the biggest catastrophes to befall on the magnificent capital of Mughal India, from which it has not emerged in many ways till today.

Dalrymple writes this book almost as a war correspondent embedded with troops on both sides. His narrative is full of real life events, hour by hour, as they unfolded in those fateful times. It is a research in history that parallels the deciphering of Brahmi by James Princep. It opens the door to one of the darkest and bloodiest period of Indian history which laid the foundation of an even bloodier event, the partition of 1947.
He also clearly shows that the outbreak which was secular at least from Indian perspective was soon hijacked by a bunch of Jihadis, coloring it with an extremist Islamic color, despite the whole hearted attempts of the King and Princes to retain the united fervor.
The handful fanatics in their myopic vision saw this as a repeat of Jihad/Crusade on Indian soil and it had the unwelcome effect of disenchanting the Hindu majority.
This became one of the turning points in the history of this struggle and later became an excuse for a pogrom of worst kind perpetuated by British against Muslims of Delhi.

If you survive reading the brutality of Indians in the first half of the book you will find it hard to not get deeply disturbed at the unimaginable savagery that the victorious British unleashed on the Indians. More than a hundred thousand people, a majority of them innocent, were ruthlessly killed, war crimes of worst kind committed, women raped (though it was conclusively proved that the mutineers never committed any rape, albeit all the killing), mosques and graves desecrated, property looted, buildings destroyed and all this happened in the backdrop of shameless inducements of Padres quoting the Bible out of context.
While British murderers and looters leached the city of all its people and possessions, what is also insightful is that in their heinous crimes they were aided, in fact surpassed by their “Indian” mercenaries who were predominantly Sikh, Gurkha and Pathan in origin.
It would not be wrong to say that this war was predominantly Hindustanee (confined mostly to Hindi speaking belt) in nature and the “foreign” mercenaries (from other parts of India) had no qualms in squashing it and taking home the booty.

What is most disgraceful is the fact that these British murderers and pillagers not only remained scot-free above the law but were also decorated by the British government. Prize agents who plundered the Indian treasures and shamelessly stole and sold even the paneled walls of many palaces or Red fort, were knighted.
Perhaps nothing is more poignant than the disgusting treatment meted out to the King and Princes on whom the British had no jurisdiction. The whole trial was not only a farce but was completely illegal, even by British view point.

Overall this book is not for the weak hearted, but it is a must read for anyone who wants to learn the true history of that period.
I hope the findings of this incredible work will find their way into history text books in India and dispel the myths that the youth are made to believe in.
Nothing is more dangerous than fiction wrapped in history text books because “if we do not learn from history, we are destined to repeat it”.