Description
Book SynopsisThe events of the 1857-8 uprising in India as seen through the eyes of British and Indian eye-witnesses, giving a vivid picture of life in the midst of what one called 'the wind of madness.' A volume in the Worlds of the East India Company series, edited by Huw Bowen The events of 1857-58 in India are seen here through a series of untold stories which show that they were much more complex than hitherto thought.Drawing on sources in Britain and India, including contemporary East India Company records, together with oral memories from India illustrated with a number of nineteenth century photographs, the author tells of the murder of the British Resident in the princely state of Kotah; of Indians who opposed the Mutiny, and suffered at the hands of the "mutineers"; of a small, but significant, number of Europeans who fought with the Indians against the British;and of the infamous "prize agents" of the East India Company - licensed looters whose rapacity seemed limitless. The book conveys vividly what it was like for different kinds of participants to live through these traumatic events, bringing to life their anxiety and desperation, the grisly bloodshed, and the vast devastation - illustrating overall, as one Indian soldier who served in the East India Company's army put it, "the wind of madness". Dr ROSIE LLEWELLYN-JONES is author and editor of numerous books on India, including The Nawabs, the British and the City of Lucknow (1985) and Portraits of the Indian Princes (forthcoming).
Trade ReviewFull of fascinating information and engagingly written. HUGH PURCELL, * HISTORY TODAY *
[An] original and less Anglo-centric view of history. * DAILY TELEGRAPH *
[An] eminently readable book. [.] Even those familiar with the well worn stories of the 1857-58 period will, I think, find much of interest here that will be new to them. Highly recommended. * DURBAR *
A good read, and even those already steeped in the subject will find a lot to interest them. * CHOWKIDAR *
Rosie Llewellyn-Jones has spent years in the archives digging up forgotten corners of the history of relations between the British and the Indians, and she is the leading and much revered authority on Nawabi Lucknow. The Great Uprising, like all her works, is full of new and original material, engagingly presented and amusingly written. Her fascinating work deserves to be much better known and more widely read than it currently is. * WILLIAM DALRYMPLE *
An unconventional look at the Red Year of 1857 by someone who knows her stuff -- and who is not afraid to take her own line on a bloody episode of British and Indian history that still raises hackles. -- Charles Allen, author of
Plain Tales from the RajA worthy companion to any good collection of scholarly works on this subject. ...Many readers who deem themselves sufficiently familiar with the great uprising in India will discover in this book how wrong they are. * H-NET REVIEWS *
Table of ContentsIntroduction - India in 1857 Rebels and Renegades The Kotah Residency Murder The Great Wall of Lucknow The Prize Agents `Hung in Perpetual Chains' Mutiny Memorials
