Author: Seema Alavi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 315
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195645952
Description
This pioneering study questions the existing historical and sociological understanding of the events leading to 1857 and adds significantly to our understanding of the role played by the army in the Company's rise to political dominance and of the British impact.
What was the link between the sepoys and society? How did the carefully built-up loyalty of the East India Company’s native regiments—the sepoy army—crumble so incomprehensibly? This pioneering study questions the existing historical and sociological understanding of the events leading to 1857.
EXPERTS FROM REVIEWS:
Here is a fascinating study of the various strategies and ways in which the Company judged that its military system could best be incorporated into civilian society.
—B B Chaudhuri in Book Review
The real strength of Alavi’s book is that it successfully takes away military history from retelling of heroic campaigns.
—Rudrangshu Mukherjee in ‘The Telegraph’
Altogether a fascinating study in depth which adds significantly to our understanding of the role played by the army in the Company’s rise to political dominance and of the British impact on India.
—K Padmapriya in ‘The Hindu’
. . .a fine social history that problematises the distinction between the Company’s army and north Indian society, particularly concentrating on the 1820-40 period.
—Michael H Fisher in the IESHR
Contents
List of illustrations
Glossary
Abbreviations
Introduction
North India Military Traditions and the Company
The Peasant Army in the Gangetic Plains
The Invalid Thanah
The Military Experiment with the Hill People
Recruiting Cavalry in Upper India
Irregular Cavalry, Eurasian Officers, and the Company, 1802-40
The Gurkha Experiment, 1764-1857
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index