Presents the official records of the trial in the death sentence of Mangal Pandey hailed by many as the one who initiated India's first war of independence in 1857. The trials records throw fresh light on Pandey's role in the first war of independence, leaving the responsibility of discerning an accident from a deliberate act of rebellion solely with the leader.

'Come out! Get ready! It's for our religion! From biting these cartridges we shall become infidels!' On a sleepy Sunday afternoon in March 1857, an agitated sepoy in the English East India Company's 34th Native Infantry marched on to the parade ground in Barrackpore, exhorting his comrades to join him in protecting their religion from the Europeans. When British officers arrived to arrest him, he drew his sword on them and then turned his musket on himself. As he was led off to the gallows a few days later, Mangal Pandey passed into history and legend as the man who single-handedly started the 1857 Rising. But who was the real Mangal Pandey? A dashing, heroic figure, as portrayed by Aamir Khan in the film The Rising? A flery patriot who embarked on a suicidal mission to defend his country's honour? Or just an ordinary sepoy who, in a state of intoxication, committed a foolhardy act for which he was hanged?Lively, thought-provoking as well as scholarly, Rudrangshu Mukherjee's analysis of this emotive episode in Indian history presents a vivid picture of life in the barracks of the East India Company's cantonments in 1857, describes the social customs and military regulations that governed the daily routines of Mangal Pandey and other Indian sepoys, and examines the controversies and unrest that foreshadowed the 1857 Rising. Uncovering the hard facts behind the myths and conjectures of popular belief, nationalist rhetoric and cinematic imagination, this book provides, for the first time, a credible portrait of Mangal Pandey as he really was.

The Indian sepoys of the Native Infantry Regiment, in BarrISBN:pore, were appalled when they heard that the catridges they bit into before loading their guns were going to be greased with cow and pig fat. It was an insult to their religious sentiments. The murmurings of dissent rose as the news spread but the Britsh were insentitive to the reasons behind it. And then Mangal Pandey, a sepoy from the Native Infantry, fired the shot that triggered off the First War of Indian Independence.

On March 29, 1857 a Brahmin sepoy shot at a British officer in Barrackpore, Bengal. The incident was not the first of its kind _ or the last. Two months later the British East India Company faced a major civil rebellion and political insurrection/ restoration, accompanied by military mutinies in North India. The event ended British cultural hegemony, revived Indianness and kept alive an alternative Asiatic perspective -western authors still call it ' The Mutiny' but for Indians it was the ' First War of Independence'.This is first book, which deals with Mangal Pandey, the Barrackpore Brahmin sepoy's true story. It reveals unseen aspects of colonial India: the colours of the landscape, the drama of the cantonments, conflicts of love, loyalty and valour, heroism, the modernity of the peasant, law of rebellion and political intrigue, amidst the looming spectre of an Asiatic upheaval. Written from an Indian perspective, marshalling indigenous archival material, the book ruptures all previous, exotic-oriental-Anglicist notions of Asiatic-Indian men and events.

Two wars––the 1857 Revolt in PBI - India and the American Civil War—seemingly fought for very different reasons, occurred at opposite ends of the globe in the middle of the nineteenth century. But they were both fought in a PBI - World still dominated by Great Britain and the battle cry in both conflicts was freedom. Rajmohan Gandhi brings the drama of both wars to one stage in A Tale of Two Revolts. He deftly reconstructs events from the point of view of William Howard Russell—an Irishman who was also perhaps the PBI - World’s first war correspondent—and uncovers significant connections between the histories of the United States, Britain and PBI - India. The result is a tale of two revolts, three countries and one century. Into this fascinating story Rajmohan Gandhi weaves the choices of five extraordinary inhabitants of PBI - India—Sayyid Ahmed Khan, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, Jotiba Phule, Allan Octavian Hume and Bankimchandra Chatterjee—and of three towering figures of PBI - World history—Karl Marx, Leo Tolstoy and Abraham Lincoln—to show the continuities between the nineteenth century and the PBI - World we live in today. Scholarly, insightful and gripping, A Tale of Two Revolts raises new questions about these wars that changed the PBI - World.

In the long drawn political struggle for the attainment of swaraj several leaders representing various regions of our sub-continent played their historic role. Each volume contains the significant phase of the movement which generated the spirit of patriotism among the millons of people. This multivolume work illuminates the role played by the Freedom Fighters during the freedom struggle. In fact, besides majority community, all minorities have played important role in freedom struggle. Dalit leaders equally played important role in 1857. This multivolume work thus highlights the contributions of people from all sections of society in the freedom movement during Indian freedom.This is an attempt to draw upon their remembrance of the freedom struggle. Efforts have been made to include Freedom Fighters from various regions. The reminiscences of these unsung heroes reveal deep dedication and spirit with which they fought against the atrocities of the British risking their life and profession.The history of Freedom Movement would be incomplete without mentioning the contribution of women. In the Volume IV, we can study about women who participated in the freedom struggle and made rich contribution in various ways. Some of them were imprisoned, fined and suffered for freedom, and their contributions cannot be overlooked. The great contributions of these ladies and lords should be brought to the knowledge of the present generation, and this would be the best way to pay homage to them.This multivolume is a tribute to the Freedom Fighters in India s freedom movement.

The Indian Uprising of 1857 had a profound impact on the colonial psyche, and its spectre haunted the British until the very last days of the Raj. For the past 150 years most aspects of the Uprising have been subjected to intense scrutiny by historians, yet the nature of the outbreak itself remains obscure. What was the extent of the conspiracies and plotting? How could rumours of contaminated ammunition spark a mutiny when not a single greased cartridge was ever distributed to the sepoys? Based on a careful, even-handed reassessment of the primary sources, The Great Fear of 1857 explores the existence of conspiracies during the early months of that year and presents a compelling and detailed narrative of the panics and rumours which moved Indians to take up arms. With its fresh and unsentimental approach, this book offers a radically new interpretation of one of the most controversial events in the history of British India.