Author: Amaresh Misra
Publisher: Rupa
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 2072
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788129112828
Description
VOLUME ONE
The Road to Delhi
Eighteen Fifty-seven was not just a war of independence, it was a patriotic and a class, civil war, in which the pro-British princes and merchants actually lost - they could only win with British help. Peasant, middle class and pro-1857 business leaders were trying to establish a nationalist path of capitalist development. This meant the sweeping away of all feudal restrictions imposed on India by the British.
In 1857, Great Britain was the greatest power in the world. India, a superpower and economic giant of the sixteenth, seventeenth and a large part of the eighteenth century, functioned as Britain’s supreme colony. India glory had faded; British land revenue and trade policies drained its wealth; her princely states were being annexed; her aristocracy and martial class was suppressed; her merchants, landlords and artisans were impoverished; her industries, markets, Industrial Revolution, and Asiatic capitalism, had collapsed; her peasants were rack-rented.
British intent was to take Imperialism to its logical conclusion. Under the Great Mughals, Islam and Sanatan Dharma, the religions respectively, of Muslims and Hindus, had built up a model of religious harmony and secular cultural synthesis, which was envied the world over. But European hegemony demanded India’s Christianization.
This is the first of the two-volume work, which details, for the first time the shaping up of a titanic, and the most, bitter conflict of the nineteenth century. The world still bears the scars, and victory marks, of the India versus the West, War of Civilizations that ensued in AD 1857, and went on for over a decade. More than 10 million Indians – 7% of the country’s population – lost their lives, most of them massacred in cold blood by marauding British troops. This was the world’s first holocaust, bigger than that perpetrated by Hitler on Jews. The British also killed their own women and children, and blamed the Indians, to justify their ‘excesses’.
But the war ensured the rejection of alien, despotic, colonial-secular-western-Christian modernity-and the victory of indigenous, freedom loving, Mughal-Asian-Indian political, cultural and religious, secular-modernity. The West’s overall defeat in 1857 prepared the world for decolonization, making it ultimately, safer for democracy. In the twentieth century, the dominance of the West therefore was never complete. Due to 1857’s persistence of, presenting an alternative, non-western form of Asian democracy and progress, the West was unable to dictate completely the course and agenda of its self created bugbears: Political Islam and Al Qaida.
The 1857 struggle resonates today, in several, complex ways, in the cultural-religious economic wars, political-identity fights, and military battlefields of Middle-East, South Asia, Africa and Latin America, as well as the cities of Europe and North America. It is also evident in India’s rise in the twenty-first century- and how the latter is now termed as Asia’s century.
But this is how it all began.
VOLUME TWO
The Long Revolution
The events of 1857 affected troops of every Indian state; militant forces of India, of every caste and creed fought - in generalized social terms, it was a clear struggle between Muslim-Kshatriya-Brahmin-Ahir-Lodh,Chamar-Pathan-Mughal=Sheikh-Saiyyad-Maratha-Mahar-Vellala-Lingayar-Reddy-Gujjar-Kapu-Moplah-Ramoshi-Jat-Bhil-Gond-Wagher-Ahom-Kuki-Lushai-Garo-Naga India on the one, revolutionary side and Bania-Marwari-Khatri-Parsi India, on the other reactionary platform.
This is, the second of the two volume work, which details for the first time, the shaping up of a titanic, and the most, bitter conflict of the nineteenth century. The world still bears the scars, victory marks, and the results of the India versus the West, War of Civilizations that ensured in AD 1857, and went on for over a decade. More than 10 million Indians - 7% of the country's population - lost their lives, most of them massacred in cold blood by marauding British troops.
The West's overall defeat in 1857 prepared the world for decolonization, making it ultimately safer for d4emocracy. In the twentieth century, the dominance of the West therefore was never complete. Due to 1857's persistence of, presenting an alternative, non-western form of Asian democracy and progress, the West was unable to dictate completely the course and agendas of its self-created bugbears: political Islam and Al Qaida. The 1857 struggle resonates in several, complex ways today in the cultural-religious-economic wars, political-identity fights, and military battlefields of Middle-East, South Asia, Africa and Latin America, as well as the cities of Europe and North America. It is also evident in India's rise in the twenty-first century - and how the latter is often termed Asia's century.
But this is how the story reached its climactic turning point.
Contents
Volume I
Acknowledgements
Preface
1. A Pathan in London
2. Courtesan of Kanpur
3. Centres of Commerce, Civilisation. . . and Resistance
4. North India, Poorabias, Pashchamiyas, Red Storm: Episode I
5. North India, Poorabias, Pashchamiyas, Red Storm: Episode II
6. Brahmin-Muslim Trail to Central, West and South India
7. Back to Basics: The Battle of Kanpur
8. Back to Basics: The Battle of Chinhat
9. Back to Basics: The Battle of Shahganj (Agra)
10. Packed and Swirling: The Rohtak-Gurgaon-Ludhiana-Hazara-Kohistan-NWFP-Gilgit Affairs
11. The Punjab, Jammu, Kashmir, Himachal, Sindh, Gujarat, Conundrum
12. The Great Game
(How the British Killed their Women and Children)
13. Rohillas, Arabs. . .and The Aesthete Wazir: The Hyderabad Blues
14. Marathi/Shivaji Land Angst. . . and The Satara-Kolhapur Warrior
15. The Ajnala Well
16. Dance, Tapestry, Violence: Telgu-Telangana, Malayali-Malabar Outbreaks
17. Gujarati Gloom, The Revolutionary Bania. . . and The Baroda-Godhra-Saurashtra Circle
18. Parsee Betrayal. . . and The Bombay Story
19. Rajputs, Bhumihaars, Ahirs, Kurmis, Maithils, Magahis, Pandeys: Bihar-Jharkhand tangle. . .and The Marwari treachery
20. Puri Pandit and The Sambalpur Warrior: Oriya Pain. . . and The Sweet/Sour Ballad
21. Merchant-Contractor-Bania-Khattri Comprador City. . . and The Mughal-Sunni-Sufi-Sanatani-Plebian State:
The Class Struggle of Ghalib’s Era
Volume II
Introduction
22. Battle of Delhi: Victory or Defeat?
23. Sanatan Dharma Akhadas. . . and The Khalsa Raj: 1857’s Left Strain
24. Jat-Gujjar-Mewatti-Ranghar-Bhatti-Valmiki-Tyagi-Ahir-Lodh-Jatav-Rajput Alliance: The Haryana-Doab Upsurge
25. The Bulandshahr Princely-Peasant Government. . .and Mathura’s Krishna Lila
26. The Farukkhabad Aristocrat-Peasant-Soldier Government. . . and The Battle of Narnaul
27. Ulema and The Thana Bhawan-Shamli Jihad: Islam as Undivided India’s Freedom Struggle Ideology
28. Ranchi Peasant-Soldier Government. . .and The Kol-Santhal-Oraon-Chero-Ho-Munda Adivasi Rising
29. Narinji, Peshawar, Karachi, Multan: Indus/Pakistan Tremors and The Gugera Insurrection
30. Dhaka and Chittagong: The East Bengal/ Bangladesh Dimension
31. Burdwan versus Calcutta: Authentic Bengali Nationalism and West Bengal’s Today Renaissance
32. Assamese Ahom-Bodo Identity. . . and The Manipur-Meghalaya-Naga-Tripura-Mizo-Arunachal Upheaval
33. Marwar, Mewar, Jaipur, Shekhawati and The Battle of Awa: Rajputana Jazz in Motion
34. Tonk Jihad, Kota Sipahi Raj. . .and The Battle of Jiran
35. Mandsaur-Dhar Maratha/Pathan/Arab Government. . .and The Mehidpur Dharmayuddha: The Malwa Multicultural Sonata
36. North Maharashtra/Khandesh, Ahmednagar, South Gujarat, Vidarbha: The Glorious, Gory Bhil-Koli Rock Show
37. Narmada Valley. . . and The Mahakoshal-Chattisgarh Bundela-Baghel-Gond Rhapsody
38. Shia-Sufi-Sanatani-Republican State in Bhagwan Ram Ayodhya land: A Begum’s Vision. . . and The Lucknow Residency Battle
39. Kanyakubjas, Saryuparis, Bais, Kurmis, Ahirs, Kayasthas, Chamars: Unnao Battles. . . and The Faizabad Maulavi
40. Lucknow-Kanpur Battles and The Rugged, Urdu Female Warrior: Lucky Weapons of Asiatic Feminism
41. Gangetic Plains to Himalayan Hills: Gwalior Contingent, Bareilly’s National-Bourgeois Revolution . . . and The Uttaranchal Impulse
42. ‘Sister protects Brother’: Bundelkhandi Ethos and Banda-Hamirpur-Jalaun People’s Kingdoms
43. Har Har Mahadev: Poorvanchal/Benarsi Culture. . . and The Azamgarh-Mirzapur-Jaunpur-Gorakhpur Battles
44. Jamie Green. . . and The Fall of Lucknow
45. Jai Hanuman! Bhojpuri Culture, Bhumihaar Aggression, Azamgarh-Ballia-Ghazipur Battles. . . and The Ara-Jagdishpur Rajput
46. Allah O’ Akbar, Jai Maha Kali! Pathan-Arab-Lodh Belligerence, Jhansi Revolutionary Government. . . and The Coquettish Hindu Warrior
47. ‘Deen! Deen!’ Mewati Nerve, Kalpi Revolutionary Government, Kokanastha / Chitpavan-Deshastha Brahmins . . . and The Peshwa of India
48. Hardboiled: Allahabad-Fatehpur Attitude, The Bareilly Ghazi Charge . . . and The Gwalior Revolution
49. Incipient Proletariat and Land Reforms: Khairabad People’s War, Hindu-Urdu Belt Julahas, Sitapur-Misrikh Pasis, Sultanpur Confrontation . . . and Raikwar-Bisen-Bais Rajputs
50. Goodbye John Company: Queen of England’s Proclamation . . . and the Begum’s Response from India
51. Avadh Versus The British Empire: Baundi Sepoy-Ulema Government, 1858 Winter Battles, Rae Bareilly/Shankarpur/Baiswara Rana . . . and The Mughal Prince
52. The Elites and Communities: Mahmudabad Raja . . . and Shia/Sufi Avant Garde Yen
53. Elites and Communities: Kapurthala Perfidy, Guru Nanak’s Significance, Indian National Song . . . and The Jat-Mazhabi Sikh-Poorbia-Punjabi Muslim-Dogra 1858 Punjab Risings
54. Maratha-Kunbi-Koli Tenacity and Dalit-Mahar Commanders: The Peremptory Konkan Ratnagiri-Savantwadi-Singhdurg-Goa Kanara 1858 West Coast Fight
55. Ramoshi/Berad-Lingayat-Maratha Heroism, Jain Dilemma . . . and The Haider Ali-Tipu Sultan Memory: Perspicacious 1858 Karnataka Battles
56. South Indian Caste Honour: Madras 1857-58 Risings, Andhra-Kerala Developments, Tamil Radicals . . . and The Anti-Tamil British Conspiracy
57. Drain of Wealth, European Black Money, the Bengal Caste Secret . . . and The 1858 Kayastha-Rajbansi-Namasudra Issue
58. Assam-NorthEast 1858 Resurgence, Karbi-Lushai-Kuki-Naga-Khasi Exclusivity . . . and The Sikkim, Bhutan, Burma Problem
59. Colonial Crisis: Convict, Sea ‘Mutinies’, Indian Labour, Malay Poverty, Chinese Triad . . . and The Singapore-Hong Kong Panic
60. English Courage and British Hypocrisy: Gustave Flautbert, Charles Dickens, Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels
61. International Chessboard: Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Persia, Germany, Holland, Mexico, Spain, Italy . . . and The American Furor
62. Call of the Wild: The Second 1858-59 Ruhelkhand-Doab Rising, Bihari Doggedness . . . and the 1858-60, Jagdishpur-Palamau Parallel Governments
63. Maratha Genius and The Begum’s Stand: Rajasthan, Central-West India, Gujarat . . . and the 1858-60 Nepal Sting
64. 1858-59 to 1867: Bundelkhand, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Dandakarnya, Okhamandal, NWFP . . . and The Marathwada-Hyderabad Conspiracies
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
Index