More literature has been produced on the Indian Revolution against colonialism in 1857 than on any other—the French, American, Russian, Chinese or Vietnamese. Diverse and divided views and critical opinions have marked the continuing debate on this historic resistance movement through several generations. Yet, no conclusive truths have been established. No final answer has been found to questions such as whether the ‘Mutiny’ of 1857 was basically a military revolt, a peasant rising, a nationalist movement, or was it, indeed, India’s first war of Independence?
One way in which the strength of historical /political opinions is tested is by the measure of their potential falsifiability. What is of interest in postmodern thinking, however, is inquiry and exploration rather than discovery: the attraction of many journeys and many arrivals without finality. This book of essays is one of those latest journeys through India’s beleaguered cultural history in which several academicians, litterateurs, historians, folklorists and journalists participate. Its emphasis is on the micro, and the hitherto undiscovered alleys and by-alleys of a mass resistance movement in mid-nineteenth century India that apparently inspired Karl Marx to greet it as the herald of many a working class movement in Europe.