The Hindu Business Line : <I>Not the first revolt against the British </I>

It is fruitless to keep stoking up the controversy over whether the uprising of 1857 against the British in India was a war of Independence or whether it was just a series of ill-organised armed attacks by sporadic groups with their own axes to grind. There can be no `either-or' approach to a historic event of such complexity and diversity that engulfed vast stretches of the country.

Initially concentrated in areas now called Uttar Pradesh, it soon spread to places as far apart as Dacca, Chittagong, Delhi and major urban centres such as Cuttack, Sambhalpur, Patna and Ranchi in Bengal, Orissa and Bihar, Indore, Jabalpur, Jhansi and Gwalior in Central India, Nasirabad in Rajasthan, Aurangabad and Kolhapur in Maharashtra and Peshawar on the Afghan border, drawing within its vortex all sections of society — the nobles, peasants, artisans, religious mendicants and priests, civil servants, shopkeepers and boatmen.

The overarching vision and objective too assumed a transcendental political and economic character. This is evident from the proclamations issued jointly in the name of both Hindus and Muslims squarely castigating the foreign rulers for having thrown the weavers, the cotton dressers, the carpenters, the blacksmiths and the shoe-makers and others out of their livelihoods and reduced them to beggary. The war aims too were clearly spelt out by the leaders of the rebels: All trade was to be reserved for Indian merchants only, with free use of Government steam vessels and steam carriages. All public offices were to be given to Indians only and wages of the sepoys were to be revised upwards.

Initially taking the form of bursting of the pent-up fury of `sepoys' in the British army and sections of the civil population over long-simmering grievances, it soon morphed into a deliberate and well-orchestrated struggle aimed at throwing off the foreign yoke. It was certainly a formidable challenge to the British might, by whatever name called.

Latent resentment

But not the first challenge, as it is made out to be. There were many earlier revolts in other parts of the country to which little justice has been done by historians and scholars. There is a latent resentment in those regions on this score. For instance, the Sikhs regard the two wars the Sikhs fought with the British in mid-19th century as meriting equal, if not greater, recognition. The Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker, Mr Charanjit Atwal, gave dramatic expression to this view with his unprecedented interruption on May 11 when the House was engaged in observing the 150th Anniversary.

I have with me two books — March to Freedom in Madras Presidency authored by Ms Saroja Sundararajan (and published by Lalitha Publications, Chennai) and the South Indian Rebellion edited by Dr S. Gopalakrishnan (and published by Palaniappa Brothers) — which weave a tapestry of the courageous deeds of the heroes of the Southern States who unflinchingly took on the British rulers. Regrettably, though, writings on the topic are mostly preoccupied with covering the contributions of the North in kindling the nationalist spirit, and do not even mention the early freedom fighters such as Veerapandia Kattabomman, Yusuf Khan and Velu Thambi or the impressive capture of the Vellore Fort in 1806.

The time has come for historical research to make good the omission and give due credit to those who lit the torch of freedom in the South years before it manifested itself in 1857.

B.S. RAGHAVAN