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That summer of uprising

R.V. Smith recreates the May of 1857, simmering with Mutiny

The 150th year of the Great Mutiny of 1857 is a reminder that this grim event was a watershed in Indian history as it ended the medieval order and ushered in a new one, which eventually led to independence from the British yoke. One's thoughts go back to 1956 when the 100th year of the uprising began to be commemorated, though it was only in 1957 that the Mutiny related functions concluded in Delhi and elsewhere.

Fifty years ago the world was quite different to what it is now. The visit of the Chinese premier, Chou En-Lai heralded a new era, with slogans of "Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai". It was in such a milieu that one got to read Fanthome's novel on the Mutiny, "Mariam", which later formed the theme of the film Junoon.

Fanthome described the Shahjahanpur, Agra and Delhi of those days - "when djinns bought sweets from the Mithai-ka-Pul" and shops kept open till late in the night, not only for these "hidden world inhabitants", but also for those planning the rebellion against the Company Sarkar. Many of those shops existed even in 1957. Some of them were in Paranthawali Gali, in Chandni Chowk (where Ghantewala is still in business) and some in the Jama Masjid area, besides the ones in Kashmere Gate and Mori Gate.

Bhimsen, the famous Agra dalmoth-petha wala, told this scribe half-a-century ago in Kinari Bazar that his grandfather and greater grandfather had also passed on word of the date of the uprising (in mid-summer) to customers. But the sudden upsurge among the sepoys in Meerut hastened the event - and the revolt broke out there on May 10, 1857 - more than a month before the whispered date.

Delhi that was

What Delhi was like in 1857 is not difficult to imagine if you were to climb atop the Red Fort and look towards the Chandni Chowk and Jama Masjid. In those days the building were not high, though exceptions were there, like the Lahore Bank and places where many of the British dwelt. That's an interesting point because it was only after the great revolt that the sahibs thought of living in separate areas to maintain their distance from the general populace. Safety was the primary purpose of this shift, which eventfully resulted in the creation of New Delhi on Raisina Hill. The afternoon of May 10 this year may not be as hot as it was in 1857 when the sepoys shot their British officers in Meerut and prepared to march to Delhi. Since it was a Sunday, that day in the Red Fort must have been a hectic one, what with all the rumours that had been floating for months about the impending end of the Company Sarkar and the return of the Badshah and the Peshwa to their rightful places.

Word of mouth

The lotus and the chapatti had made their rounds of the entire length and breadth of Hindustan, with runners fleeting away into the night through villages and towns to pass the word of the forthcoming "Ghadar". And yet this year May 11 should be a peaceful one in the fort, with visitors both Indian and foreign trooping in and out of the Moghul palaces and the monkeys jabbering away in the trees or drinking water from the huge, ugly discarded overhead tanks that once fed the water supply to the Army barracks that came up in place of the many buildings demolished after the Mutiny.

Trees seldom last that long and that holds true for the one under which Bahadur Shah Zafar stood before biding the final adieu to his palace, nay hearth and home, where he was born and brought up and attained an old, respectable age. Other trees in the fort must have been witness to the gory events that followed the re-establishment of British authority because it was from them that the freedom fighters were hanged and their bodies left for the kites and crows to feed on. Like the Ghazis, who fought at the Kashmere Gate with their kaffan (shroud) wrapped around their heads, side by side with the "Fair Maid of Delhi" and the two "hags" from Rampur.

It's uncharitable to call the latter so because they were real Amazons who made the British cringe. How many would now think about the Fair Maid (Delhi's own Joan of Arc) on a May afternoon? But the walls of the Kashmere Gate still retain the scars of the cannonading by the British, which hastened the end of the Ghazis, the Fair Maid and the Rampur Amazons. Let's spare a thought for them 149 years later.

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