Drowned By Trivia

The book is not a glossy coffee-table book. The story is told with skill: short write-ups on the chief actors in the drama precede the narrative, which is in the form of a day-today account of the ups and downs in the fortunes of the rebels and the government. The author hopes that those who have found the thematic approach of professional historians confusing will find this simple, chronological account—embellished by illustrations of a rare quality—delightful. Some of the drawings have been reproduced from contemporary engravings and are published for the first time.

A small aside. A silent killer which did not discriminate between Indians and Britishers was waterborne diseases. Major-general George Anson, commander-in-chief, died of cholera and Amar Singh, Kunwar Singh's brother, died of dysentery in Gorakhpur jail hospital. Havelock, who was the 'saviour' of Lucknow and has a memorial to him at Trafalgar Square, died of dysentery too.

As for the revolt itself, the popular fear of conversion to Christianity was played upon by leaders. The Rani of Jhansi issued a proclamation, 'Victory of Religion', which exhorted rajas to destroy the English who were "perverters of all men's religion": "They powdered bones and mixed with flour, sugar, etc, and exposed it for sale... I conjure the Hindoos in the name of Gunga, Tollsee (Tulsi) and Salikram, and the Mahomedans by the name of God and the Koran and entreat them to join us in destroying the English, for their mutual welfare." A proclamation was issued in Delhi warning against the evil designs of the English to "destroy the religion of the whole Hindustani army and then to make the people Christians by compulsion". Nana Sahib also proclaimed that a council was held where it was resolved to kill 50,000 Hindostanees, and then all Hindostan would be converted to Christianity.

The wood cuts, cartoons and contemporary engravings on which the illustrations are based are the best part of the book. There is an extremely unusual portrait of the Rani of Jhansi in royal finery, reclining and holding the stem of a hookah in her hand. A far cry from her usual war-like depiction with a flying sword and riding a horse into battle. The map of the Battle at Najafgarh and the map of North Delhi with the British cantonment and camp on the Ridge, the present site of Delhi University, will delight all Delhiphiles. The Red Fort is engagingly described as the King's Palace.

Some nuggets for those who wish to delve further into literature on 1857. Mirza Ghalib's Dastambu (A Posy of Flowers) is one of the very few contemporary accounts of the events of 1857 in Delhi. The checklist of 875 (no less!) titles in English is followed by an invaluable list of works in Indian languages and a list of novels, plays, television serials and films.

The wealth of detail, which appears fascinating to begin with, soon seems like trivia. Did you know that Firoz Shah died at Mecca and that his widow got a measly pension of Rs 5, that Tatia Tope was hanged at Sipri and Bahadur Shah Zafar confined at Tungoo, near Rangoon? After a point, the business of who died where of which gastrointestinal disorder is extremely tedious. It is a pity that the book remains a mere compendium of information and, despite the title, does not enrich our understanding of what really happened in 1857. There was some promise that this book might be on the lines of Marc Ferro's blow-by-blow account of the Russian revolution but it never really took off. For the complete picture we must still turn to the histories by Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Eric Stokes, Thomas Metcalf and even to the staid tomes by Kaye, Sen and Majumdar.