First war of independence: 1857

[ramana]

From Telegraph, Kolkata



Different Faces of Courage

DIFFERENT FACES OF COURAGE





A Tale of Two Revolts: India 1857 and the American Civil War By Rajmohan Gandhi, Viking, Rs 599



A Tale of Two Revolts — India 1857 and the American Civil War, by Rajmohan Gandhi, provides an interesting perspective on these two contemporaneous events in history that occurred in widely separated parts of the world. The author says: “One links nineteenth century India with India today, the other links the India of the 1850s-60s with the America of that time”. The American Civil War and the Indian revolt were both cataclysmic events. The civil war had major consequences for society and politics in America. Although the revolt of the sepoys may have had major long-term consequences, its immediate effect on society and politics in India was somewhat limited.



What is telling about this volume is how the author binds these two events through the reportage of William Howard Russell, a correspondent with The Times in London. Known for his riveting accounts of serious issues, Russell had previously covered the Crimean War for The Times.



The first three chapters focus primarily on the Indian revolt as well as reactions to it in the American newspapers. There is mention of four significant Indians, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Jyotiba Phule, and of the Scotsman, Allan Octavian Hume who left an indelible mark in the annals of history, but whose work had little to do with the mutinous sepoys, other than the fact that they lived during that time. In fact, the Indian revolt was hardly discussed by the intelligentsia in Calcutta, which was the premier intellectual centre in the country at that time.



As mentioned earlier, the Indian revolt had aroused considerable curiosity in American newspaper circles. “In the 1840s and 50s... India’s Revolt was prominently featured and discussed... an article in a Presbyterian journal published in Philadelphia asserted that ‘the year 1857 will be henceforth known as the year of the Sepoy Revolt’.” The initial response to the Indian rebellion was that the treatment meted out to the sepoys was more ruthless than the way the slaves in America were treated. However, as massacres of English civilians came to be known, several newspapers switched sympathies, including the New York Herald.



While American newspapers were intrigued by the Indian rebellion of 1857, the author duly notes — “No public or private remark by either Lincoln... on India’s 1857 events has come to light.”[But Lincoln was elected in 1860!}[/url]



In spite of varied reactions among the British regarding the Indian rebellion, Lakshmibai, the queen of Jhansi, one of the central figures of the revolt of 1857, was noticed by the British for the “force and charm of her personality”. In fact, “her British adversaries”, even those who believed “that she had connived at Jhansi’s killings of June 1857 — acknowledged her valour which was usually described as manly”. Another important, though less prominent, figure was Nana Sahib. His repeated requests for being properly instated in Bithur were largely ignored by the British. Despite differences over titular matters, “Nana Sahib’s hospitality and his skill at billiards were also appreciated by visiting Britons who called him ‘the Maharaja’... even though Nana Sahib spoke very little English”.



Chapters Four and Five focus on the American Civil War and Abraham Lincoln’s rise to presidency. The author goes on to mention that the civil war produced a towering personality in Lincoln, who is still a living presence in American public life. The Indian revolt of 1857, on the other hand, did not produce any single person of comparable stature. <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':blink:' /> “Lincoln, always an acute observer of real life around him, had become a successful lawyer, debater and raconteur.” These two chapters also map the successes and failures of two opposing army commanders, Ulysses S. Grant (for the Unionists) and Robert E. Lee (for the Confederates) in putting an end to the civil war in America and to slavery.



Lincoln’s superb oratorical skills coupled with his political astuteness earned him a second term as president. But not all were pleased with the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation — one in particular — John Wilkes Booth. The Emancipation Proclamation consisted of two executive orders issued by Lincoln. The first, on September 22, 1862, stated that all slaves from the Confederacy who did not return to Union control by January 1, 1863, would be granted freedom. The second order, issued on January 1, 1863, named ten states where the order would apply. The Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 and the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 gave national citizenship rights to former slaves and black men the right to vote. Though Lincoln had died, “America had become committed to the goal of equal rights for all.”



The concluding chapter gives a brief account of the aforementioned four notable Indians and their deaths and Hume, ending finally with the demise of Russell at the age of 86. The book is written in clear and attractive prose, and it holds the attention of the reader throughout.



RADHA BéTEILLE

But what is its point of view?