PRC-UTE
3rd February 2007, 06:45
Remembering 1857
>From People's Democracy, Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India
(Marxist)
http://pd.cpim.org/2007/0128/01282007_irfan.htm
We are due to commemorate the Revolt of 1857 as the year 2007 has come
round to mark its 150th Anniversary. It is difficult in Free India to
recall the times under the British, when no free and open discussion of
the events of 1857 was possible. It was, then, only after independence
that people became more and more familiar about the rebellion itself.
Documents not known to scholars before 1947 have now been published,
especially rebels’ proclamations, and other documents, newspaper accounts
of the Mutiny, etc.
LARGEST UPRISING
We did not, indeed, have merely an armed revolution — the only armed
revolution on that scale that we have ever known in India. But it was more
than that: it was the largest anti-colonial uprising anywhere in the world
in the 19th century. If one looks at the whole of the 19th century, among
anti-colonial revolutions all over the world, one will find successful
anti-colonial revolutions in Latin America, but there was no anti-colonial
revolution even there, remotely on this scale. There were armed
revolutionaries under the great Bolivar, but they never exceeded more than
a few thousands of armed men at any time.
Here in India, on the other hand, there were over one hundred and
twenty-five thousand of Bengal Army sepoys going into armed revolt.
According to official figures, the Bengal Army consisted of over one
hundred and thirty-five thousand ‘native’ sepoys. Of these only some seven
thousand remained loyal according to a report laid before British
Parliament in 1858. No less than a hundred and twenty-eight thousand men
thus went into rebellion. We are here talking about what was the most
modern army in Asia at the time, and the largest army within the British
Empire overseas. In terms of the percentage of people inhabiting the
rebellious territory involved, it consisted of about thirty percent of the
population of the territory of the present Union of India. Thus if we look
at the scale from any angle whatsoever, then 1857 was not only a major
event in Indian history, it was a major event in modern world history.
Revolutions often break out in situations often created by the ruling
classes themselves. The revolt of the Bengal Army, seemingly the favoured
child of the British regime (as Marx had noted) was brought about in part
by a new phase in British colonial expansion, the Imperialism of Free
Trade, which put this entire army under unprecedented pressure.
This is pretty long, so follow the link if you'd like to see the full story.
>From People's Democracy, Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India
(Marxist)
http://pd.cpim.org/2007/0128/01282007_irfan.htm
We are due to commemorate the Revolt of 1857 as the year 2007 has come
round to mark its 150th Anniversary. It is difficult in Free India to
recall the times under the British, when no free and open discussion of
the events of 1857 was possible. It was, then, only after independence
that people became more and more familiar about the rebellion itself.
Documents not known to scholars before 1947 have now been published,
especially rebels’ proclamations, and other documents, newspaper accounts
of the Mutiny, etc.
LARGEST UPRISING
We did not, indeed, have merely an armed revolution — the only armed
revolution on that scale that we have ever known in India. But it was more
than that: it was the largest anti-colonial uprising anywhere in the world
in the 19th century. If one looks at the whole of the 19th century, among
anti-colonial revolutions all over the world, one will find successful
anti-colonial revolutions in Latin America, but there was no anti-colonial
revolution even there, remotely on this scale. There were armed
revolutionaries under the great Bolivar, but they never exceeded more than
a few thousands of armed men at any time.
Here in India, on the other hand, there were over one hundred and
twenty-five thousand of Bengal Army sepoys going into armed revolt.
According to official figures, the Bengal Army consisted of over one
hundred and thirty-five thousand ‘native’ sepoys. Of these only some seven
thousand remained loyal according to a report laid before British
Parliament in 1858. No less than a hundred and twenty-eight thousand men
thus went into rebellion. We are here talking about what was the most
modern army in Asia at the time, and the largest army within the British
Empire overseas. In terms of the percentage of people inhabiting the
rebellious territory involved, it consisted of about thirty percent of the
population of the territory of the present Union of India. Thus if we look
at the scale from any angle whatsoever, then 1857 was not only a major
event in Indian history, it was a major event in modern world history.
Revolutions often break out in situations often created by the ruling
classes themselves. The revolt of the Bengal Army, seemingly the favoured
child of the British regime (as Marx had noted) was brought about in part
by a new phase in British colonial expansion, the Imperialism of Free
Trade, which put this entire army under unprecedented pressure.
This is pretty long, so follow the link if you'd like to see the full story.