A milestone in the freedom movement
A. R. Venkatachalapathy
PURATCHI 1857 — Orr Aivarangu (Rebellion 1857: A Symposium): Edited by P.C. Joshi; Translated into Tamil by Thilagavathy Jagadeesan; New Century Book House, 41-B, SIDCO Industrial Estate, Ambattur, Chennai-600098. Rs.275.
First published in 1957 by the now-defunct People’s Publishing House to mark the centenary of the great revolt of 1857, Rebellion 1857: A Symposium is a landmark publication. Edited by the stalwart of the communist movement in India, P.C. Joshi (1907-80), the volume marks not only a break in the Left assessment of the revolt but also the beginning of a serious intellectual and academic engagement with making a historical evaluation. Adopting a classic Marxist position M.N. Roy and Rajni Palme Dutt had earlier dismissed the revolt as the rearguard action of reactionary feudal classes. Their strong anti-colonialism notwithstanding, they saw the revolt as a brake on historical progress. It is worth reminding ourselves that, at the time of the revolt, the incipient middle class in India was fiercely loyalist and vociferous in condemning the revolt. It was not until after about 50 years, in the heat of the Swadeshi movement, that the middle classes began to champion 1857. V.D. Savarkar’s Indian War of Independence is the product of this moment.
In the nationalist jubilation in the aftermath of Indian Independence, the centenary of the 1857 revolt provided the first occasion to commemorate the struggle for freedom. The undivided Communist Party of India, emerging from underground after some years of fighting to overthrow the Indian state, had also changed its official line by this time. Rebellion 1857 appeared in this context.
Pioneering essays
Many of the essays in this volume are pioneering pieces, especially P.C. Joshi’s on the folksongs about the revolt. Other essays in the second part explore the impact of the revolt on Hindi, Urdu and Bengali literature. There is an interesting essay on how the great poet Mirza Ghalib responded to the revolt in Delhi. The chapters in the third part are concerned with the response to the revolt in Britain, France, Italy, Russia and China. The chapter on British opinion shows how the British working class endorsed the revolt — a lesson in these times of jingoism.
The essays in the first section form the meaty part of the book. Talmiz Khaldun’s provides a detailed account of the causes of the revolt, the organisation of the rebels, the role of the various social classes, the extent of the revolt, and the causes for the inevitable failure. While K. M. Ashraf explores the role of Muslim revivalists, especially the Wahabis in the revolt, Benoy Ghose valiantly tries to explain the failure of the Bengali middle class to support the revolt. P.C. Joshi situates the revolt in Indian history. Described variously as mutiny, civil rebellion, peasant uprising and war of independence, the revolt of 1857 continues to engage historians as well as the popular mind. Even though later scholarship, especially that of historians such as Eric Stokes, Rudrangshu Mukherjee and Tapti Roy, has extended our understanding of the social history of 1857, Rebellion 1857 continues to be useful.
Translation
This book is a Tamil translation reprinted to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the revolt. Despite the shortcomings of the translation — for instance, Oudh (or Awadh), the major locus of the revolt, has been rendered as Ayodhya!— the publication of this volume is welcome.
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