3 Review(s)

The events of 1857-58 in India are seen here through a series of previously untold or little-known accounts which show that they were much more complex than suggested by the label 'Indian Mutiny', applied by British writers (who saw the events as a colonial rebellion), or 'First War of Independence' which is used by most Indian writers. Drawing on archival and visual sources in Britain and India, these accounts tell of the murder of the British Resident in the princely state of Kotah; of Indians who opposed the Mutiny and suffered at the hands of the 'mutineers'; of the small but significant number of Europeans who fought with the Indians against the British; of the giant mud wall which the inhabitants of Lucknow built to defend themselves against the British; and of the 'prize agents' of the East India Company, licensed looters of seemingly limitless rapacity.