Indian Rebellion of 1857 - Historiography

Historiography

Adas (1971) examines the historiography with emphasis on the four major approaches: the Indian nationalist view; the Marxist analysis; the view of the Mutiny as a traditionalist rebellion; and intensive studies of local uprisings. Many of the key primary and secondary sources appear in Biswamoy Pati, ed. 1857 Rebellion (Oxford India, 2010).

Professor Kim Wagner has the most recent survey of the historiography, and stresses the importance of William Dalrymple’s The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857 (2006) for its "richly detailed account of the period during which the erstwhile Mughal capital was in the hands of the rebels." He was assisted by Mahmood Farooqui, translated key Urdu and Shikastah sources and published a selection in Besieged: Voices from Delhi 1857. (Delhi: Penguin, 2010). Dalrymple emphasized the role of religion, and explored in detail the internal divisions and politico-religious discord amongst the rebels. He did not discover much in the way of proto-nationalism or any of the roots of modern India in the rebellion.

Almost from the moment the first sepoys mutinied in Meerut, the nature and the scope of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 has been contested and argued over. Speaking in the House of Commons in July 1857, Benjamin Disraeli labelled it a 'national revolt' while Lord Palmerston, the Prime Minister, tried to downplay the scope and the significance of the event as a 'mere military mutiny'. Reflecting this debate, the early historian of the rebellion, Charles Ball, sided with the mutiny in his title (using mutiny and sepoy insurrection) but labelled it a 'struggle for liberty and independence as a people' in the text. Historians remain divided on whether the rebellion can properly be considered a war of Indian independence or not, although it is popularly considered to be one in India. Arguments against include:

• A united India did not exist at that time in political, cultural, or ethnic terms
• The rebellion was put down with the help of other Indian soldiers drawn from the Madras Army, the Bombay Army and the Sikh regiments, 80% of the East India Company forces were Indian;
• Many of the local rulers fought amongst themselves rather than uniting against the British.
• Many rebel Sepoy regiments disbanded and went home rather than fight.
• Not all of the rebels accepted the return of the Moghuls.
• The King of Delhi had no real control over the mutineers.
• The revolt was largely limited to north and central India. Whilst risings occurred elsewhere they had little impact due to their limited nature.
• A number of revolts occurred in areas not under British rule, and against native rulers, often as a result of local internal politics.
• The revolt was fractured along religious, ethnic and regional lines.

A second school of thought while acknowledging the validity of the above-mentioned arguments opines that this rebellion may indeed be called a war of India's independence. The reasons advanced are:

• Even though the rebellion had various causes (e.g. Sepoy grievances, British high-handedness, the Doctrine of Lapse etc.), most of the rebel sepoys who were able to do so, made their way to Delhi to revive the old Mughal empire that signified a national symbol for even the Hindus amongst them.

• There was a widespread popular revolt in many areas such as Awadh, Bundelkhand and Rohilkhand. The rebellion was therefore more than just a military rebellion, and it spanned more than one region;
• The sepoys did not seek to revive small kingdoms in their regions, instead they repeatedly proclaimed a "country-wide rule" of the Moghuls and vowed to drive out the British from "India", as they knew it then. (The sepoys ignored local princes and proclaimed in cities they took over: Khalq Khuda Ki, Mulk Badshah Ka, Hukm Subahdar Sipahi Bahadur Ka – i.e. the people belong to God, the country to the Emperor and authority to the Sepoy Commandant). The objective of driving out "foreigners" from not only one's own area but from their conception of the entirety of "India", signifies a nationalist sentiment;
• The mutineers, although some were recruited from outside Oudah, displayed a common purpose.