06-20-2006, 10:09 PM
More from Deccan Chronicle, 20 June 2006 Sunday Section.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Deciding on a title for 1857
Â
Itihaas: By Akhilesh Mithal
<b>The year 2007 will mark the 150th anniversary of the greatest up-surge in nearly two centuries (1757-1947) of British rule in India. The memories of the episode are distorted because the British won and victors usually angle history to serve their own narrow, partisan ends.</b>
<b>The Indians who âcollaboratedâ and helped the British quell the uprising became the major beneficiaries and joined the rulers in erasing and distorting all positive memories of the revolt. Many of these toady families continue to be rich and close to power centers in the Congress and the BJP. Their views colour Indian perceptions along the lines that Britishers had laid down.</b>
It has come to such a pass that even the images of the most important leaders such as Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi and Nana Dhondho Pant Peshwa have got lost. The portraits that exist are âmushkookâ or âsuspectâ and no schoolchild is familiar with the real appearance of these heroes and heroines.
<b>Although the rebel soldiers (nearly 1,00,000) were joined by the Emperor of India, the Peshwa of the Maratthas, the Begum of Awadh; numerous Nawabs, Rajas and Ranis besides peasants, traders and shopkeepers, the title âmutinyâ continues to prevail.</b>
<b>The emperorâs gardens, palaces, mosques and seminaries received special attention from the sappers and miners. The entire villages were burnt down and the ruined mud walls razed to the ground. The heart of Delhi and the center of Lucknow were gouged out. Shahjahanabad Delhi was depopulated and its status reduced to a lowly district headquarters in the Province of the Punjab.</b>
Lucknow lost its place as capital of Awadh. <b>Allahabad was the new capital from which Lord Canning announced that Queen Victoria had assumed direct rule.</b>
<b>Many âleftistâ historians talk of the uprising as an attempt to re-establish âfeudalismâ while ignoring the fact that the British Raj was a military dictatorship displaying the worst aspects of racist Nazism and Fascism while operating under a thin civilian veneer.</b>
The British prevarication on the subject of sharing power with Indians is a matter of record. The 20th Century British attempt to pass off bogus and impotent legislatures in India as an experiment in democracy, was exposed by Bhagat Singh and his group when they threw a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly and followed it up with a shower of pamphlets spelling out the deception being practised.
<b>Independence saw an India with 10 per cent literacy, an average expectancy of age at 29, and a franchise covering less than 13 per cent of the population. The country was ruled by the British civil military junta from Shimla or Delhi with collaborators from amongst the Indians helping them justify every outrage and cover up the failures.</b>
The British-officered Indian army was posted at strategic bases and could be summoned out at short notice. The army shooting to kill unarmed civilians protesting slavery in Jallianwala Bagh in 1942 are amongst the darkest chapters of British rule.
<b>The British claim to have âtrainedâ Indians in the practice of democracy. In point of fact, their rule in India spawned not Indian democracy but military dictatorship in Pakistan and Bangladesh.</b>
<b>It should be remembered that the second most powerful person in India during British Rule was the Commander-in-Chief in India. </b>His lakh rupee salary made him the highest paid man in uniform in the whole Empire including the âsceptredâ Island. (For those born after the dissolution of the Empire âsceptredâ were the title the British gave to their home.)
The use of the epithet âGreatâ for Britain and âsceptredâ for the island helped the British forget all the want, misery deprivation and suffering they had caused in India during their rule.
The revisit to 1857 should include inputs from what is now Pakistan, and Bangladesh. <b>Nepal under the Ranas came to the help of the British, took its share of loot, established a foothold of Gurkhas in the army, which lasts and they should have interesting material in their records. Both Nana Saheb and Begum Hazrat Mahal died in Nepal and it would be interesting to know the fate of their treasure.
Perhaps the Pakistanis should be asked to concentrate on the Bengal infantry regiment revolts in the Punjab and in the NWFP to bring these facts out of obscurity. There also is the story of the rebel leader Ahmad Shah of Nilibar. He exists in folklore and should come out into history texts. We shall talk about NWFP and 1857 in another column.</b>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Deciding on a title for 1857
Â
Itihaas: By Akhilesh Mithal
<b>The year 2007 will mark the 150th anniversary of the greatest up-surge in nearly two centuries (1757-1947) of British rule in India. The memories of the episode are distorted because the British won and victors usually angle history to serve their own narrow, partisan ends.</b>
<b>The Indians who âcollaboratedâ and helped the British quell the uprising became the major beneficiaries and joined the rulers in erasing and distorting all positive memories of the revolt. Many of these toady families continue to be rich and close to power centers in the Congress and the BJP. Their views colour Indian perceptions along the lines that Britishers had laid down.</b>
It has come to such a pass that even the images of the most important leaders such as Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi and Nana Dhondho Pant Peshwa have got lost. The portraits that exist are âmushkookâ or âsuspectâ and no schoolchild is familiar with the real appearance of these heroes and heroines.
<b>Although the rebel soldiers (nearly 1,00,000) were joined by the Emperor of India, the Peshwa of the Maratthas, the Begum of Awadh; numerous Nawabs, Rajas and Ranis besides peasants, traders and shopkeepers, the title âmutinyâ continues to prevail.</b>
<b>The emperorâs gardens, palaces, mosques and seminaries received special attention from the sappers and miners. The entire villages were burnt down and the ruined mud walls razed to the ground. The heart of Delhi and the center of Lucknow were gouged out. Shahjahanabad Delhi was depopulated and its status reduced to a lowly district headquarters in the Province of the Punjab.</b>
Lucknow lost its place as capital of Awadh. <b>Allahabad was the new capital from which Lord Canning announced that Queen Victoria had assumed direct rule.</b>
<b>Many âleftistâ historians talk of the uprising as an attempt to re-establish âfeudalismâ while ignoring the fact that the British Raj was a military dictatorship displaying the worst aspects of racist Nazism and Fascism while operating under a thin civilian veneer.</b>
The British prevarication on the subject of sharing power with Indians is a matter of record. The 20th Century British attempt to pass off bogus and impotent legislatures in India as an experiment in democracy, was exposed by Bhagat Singh and his group when they threw a bomb in the Central Legislative Assembly and followed it up with a shower of pamphlets spelling out the deception being practised.
<b>Independence saw an India with 10 per cent literacy, an average expectancy of age at 29, and a franchise covering less than 13 per cent of the population. The country was ruled by the British civil military junta from Shimla or Delhi with collaborators from amongst the Indians helping them justify every outrage and cover up the failures.</b>
The British-officered Indian army was posted at strategic bases and could be summoned out at short notice. The army shooting to kill unarmed civilians protesting slavery in Jallianwala Bagh in 1942 are amongst the darkest chapters of British rule.
<b>The British claim to have âtrainedâ Indians in the practice of democracy. In point of fact, their rule in India spawned not Indian democracy but military dictatorship in Pakistan and Bangladesh.</b>
<b>It should be remembered that the second most powerful person in India during British Rule was the Commander-in-Chief in India. </b>His lakh rupee salary made him the highest paid man in uniform in the whole Empire including the âsceptredâ Island. (For those born after the dissolution of the Empire âsceptredâ were the title the British gave to their home.)
The use of the epithet âGreatâ for Britain and âsceptredâ for the island helped the British forget all the want, misery deprivation and suffering they had caused in India during their rule.
The revisit to 1857 should include inputs from what is now Pakistan, and Bangladesh. <b>Nepal under the Ranas came to the help of the British, took its share of loot, established a foothold of Gurkhas in the army, which lasts and they should have interesting material in their records. Both Nana Saheb and Begum Hazrat Mahal died in Nepal and it would be interesting to know the fate of their treasure.
Perhaps the Pakistanis should be asked to concentrate on the Bengal infantry regiment revolts in the Punjab and in the NWFP to bring these facts out of obscurity. There also is the story of the rebel leader Ahmad Shah of Nilibar. He exists in folklore and should come out into history texts. We shall talk about NWFP and 1857 in another column.</b>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->