Published in 2006
As in The White Mughals, Dalrymple revisits colonial India to uncover the complexities of the relationships between the British, Muslims and Hindus that have been masked by ideology-driven historical writings. He proves as in The White Mughals that the lines between communities and cultures were not as hard as they are imagined to be. The uprising was not as imagined a purely Mughal-Muslim affair. It was in fact started by sepoys of the British army, most of whom were Hindus, who voluntarily headed towards Delhi without any prior contact with Zafar. They felt that the Mughals were the rightful rulers and the British the usurpers. Zafar in fact was quite an unwilling participant in the rebellion as he was old and effete and had made peace with his limited power. His court was the epitome of tolerance and multiculturalism and throughout the uprising, Zafar served as a mediator between the Hindus and Muslims in Delhi and in the mutinying sepoys. Later of course, the British painted the rebellion as a Muslim conspiracy and Zafar became the scapegoat for the rebellion. Overlooked were the British missteps that led to the initial mutinies (aggressive proselytization, the pig and cow fat cartridges and so on) and also Hindu complicity in the uprising.
Overall, a very illuminating and nuanced book. It was a real pleasure to follow history not just panoramically but through the lives of individuals, both on the British and the rebels' sides. It conveyed the full human impact of the conflict – the starvation, the massacres on both sides, the wretchedness of existence, the brutality of war and revenge – all the more vividly. Quite brilliant.
After reading the book, I must confess, I have become quite a fan of Bahadur Shah Zafar. An ineffective statesman and commander he may have been, but he was nonetheless a sensitive, large-hearted, refined and secular personality, one of the few in nineteenth century India.
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