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PART THREE: THE IMPACT OF THE MUTINY
Revizualising and Reimagining the Mutiny
1.British Commemorations of the Mutiny in 1907
COMMENT:
Evidently in 1907 the focus of the British press and the
tone of commemorative publications was still very much reflective of the
pride and importance of the victory and analysis of disputes between commanders
in the field:
British
Newspaper Report, 1907
“On this day 50 years ago the
capture of Delhi from the mutinous sepoys, who had made themselves masters
of the capital of Hindustan, was completed by the occupation of the Moghul's
place …It was a great feat of arms, and it was also the political turning
point in the campaign against the mutineers. So long as the last of the
Great Moghuls was established in the Imperial capital of his race, defended
and upheld by an unconquered army, British rule in the eyes of an immense
number of the native population was in abeyance…. The first armed men who
reached the outskirts of the city in arms were a native chief, the Raja
of Jhind, and his contingent. Every soldier of the garrison of the Punjab
that could possibly be spared was soon marching Delhi-ward. Only a few Sikhs
were sent at first, for too many of the Sikhs were waiting to see how things
would turn out. But numbers of frontier tribesmen were enlisted; and a sagacious
native gentleman remarked to an English friend that this was an excellent
arrangement, since these ruffians, as he called them, would either kill
mutinous Sepoys or get killed themselves, the Government profiting by either
result.
….The
story of the siege up to the day of the assault must be read in the standard
histories of Kaye, Malleson and Forrest, or in the reminiscences of officers
who took part in it, and especially in Lord Roberts' memoirs. Even now,
fifty years afterwards, there is some difference of opinion as to the validity
of the reasons which led General Wilson to hesitate so long before striking
a decisive blow.”
SOURCE IOLR Mss Eur B220
A British Publication Commemorating the Mutiny, 1907
“Now of all the opportunities that have fallen to our share as a nation, there is one our use of which, when the final tale of our work is made up, may, perhaps, of itself redeem our race. The most hostile of our foreign critics is silent before our administration of India .… when we ask, who are the menwho have kept intact, and handed down to us these vast privileges, and these even vaster responsibilities – who are they who have preserved for us the splendid burden which we accept and bear with honour today; the answer is that the last survivors of this great company are amongus still, white-haired and too often infirm, but the very men who saved India from itself in 1857 when the tide of sedition from one end of Hindustan to the other washed round our posts and threatened to wipe away the trace of our rule in India as a wave washes down the sandcastles of a child on the beach and wipes away the last footmarks of those who made them. .. To these survivors, this little book is dedicated. P>
SOURCE: IOLR MSS Eur A 180 Landon, P “1857” In Commemoration of the 50 th Anniversary of the Indian Mutiny, WH Smith and Son, London , 1907
Sacred Spaces & Contested Sites
1. Indian Folk Tales and the Uprising
Gangu
Baba
The story of Gangu Baba,
a local hero of the 1857 revolt, is very popular in the villages adjoining
Bithoor in UP. Old women narrate it to their grandchildren.
The
story goes like this:
Gangu
Baba was a youth living in a nearby village. It was said that he was so
strong that he could change the course of rivers and chop off the heads
of mountains. He could fight against two tigers together. Gangu Baba was
as kind as he was brave. If he saw a hungry person he would give him his
own bread to eat. If he saw someone shivering in the cold he gave his own
blanket to wrap. People also say that if he heard a deer crying at night
he used to get so upset that he would go to the forest and break the bones
of tigers. Although he was born in a low caste poor family, he commanded
great respect in the village. Rich and influential landlords used to leave
their chairs to embrace him.
Once Gangu Baba was returning from the forest with a dead tiger on his back,
which he had killed unarmed single-handed. Just then Nana Saheb Peshwa,
the king of Bithoor, passed by with his army. At that time Nana Saheb Peshwa
had already blown the bugle of the battle against the British. When he saw
the strapping young man walking nonchalantly with a tiger on his back, he
stopped him and asked him to join his army. Gangu Baba was very happy to
hear this. He joined the army and while there he once alone killed nearly
150 British soldiers with his sword. This enraged the British, who tried
their best to catch him dead or alive. After
immense efforts they succeeded in capturing him.
Then the cruel British officers
tied him to the back of a horse and dragged him all the way to Kanpur ,
which was a long way away. There they killed him by hanging him from a neem
tree in Chunniganj, Kanpur .
This is the story of Gangu Baba, the brave youth of Bithoor, whose story is part of the oral history of the region about the 1857 revolt. To make sure that the story remains for posterity, the dalits of the region raised enough money to commission a statue of Gangu Baba. The statue is installed in Chunniganj, where he had been mercilessly killed by the British as a punishment for his brave act of killing so many of their fellowmen.
COMMENT
This story was narrated to
Badri Narayan by an old women Bhagwanti Devi of Duari located in the district
Kanpur Dehat of North India on 10 th January, 2007 at 12 A.M .
Autobiography of the Old Banyan Tree
I
am an old banyan tree. I am the living history of the 1857 revolt. I have
seen the entire revolt unfolding before my eyes. Now I am old and frail.
My branches are bowed down with the weight of age. They are no longer covered
with fresh green leaves, but look more like arms of skeletons. Thousands
of people pass by me everyday but no one spares me a second glance. Birds
don't make nests in my branches any more. Squirrels don't scurry up and
down my trunk with nuts, looking for holes to hide them in. But although
I have no strength in my branches today, once they were so strong that 137
Indians were hanged from them during the 1857 revolt. Under orders from
the British officers, their soldiers used to drag the Indian revolutionaries
by horses up to me.
But sadly, no one sheds a tear at the memory of those dead dalits. I have
not become a memorial like other trees where Indian revolutionaries were
hanged. No one prays at my roots like they do at other trees. There are
no sounds of bells near me and no incense sticks are stuck in my roots.
No flower garlands are hung on my branches. Today thick bushes have grown
around me and I am overrun with weeds. Everything is still and quiet and
there is an aura of sorrow surrounding me. But even today I can hear the
sounds of horses galloping, the screams of revolutionaries and the firing
of canons. I am an old banyan tree, relegated to the margins of history.
They
used to then tie ropes around the necks of the prisoners and throw the other
end like lassoes on my branches. The ropes were then pulled till the necks
of the prisoners broke. After they were sure that the men were dead, they
dragged the bodies to the river Ganga and threw them into the water. Most
of the men who were killed in this manner were dalits or belonged to other
downtrodden castes and were mostly poor daily wage earners. They were all
burning with the fire of the revolution to see their country free from the
British, but I am sorry to say, their names are not mentioned anywhere in
the history of the revolution.
I am telling you all this because I want you to understand that I
am not merely a banyan with branches and roots. I am a witness to the history
of our country. I still remember the day of 4 June 1857 when the spark of
revolution that was ignited in Meerut burst into fire in Kanpur . I have
seen the bravery of Tatya Tope, the sacrifice of Rani Laxmibai and the martyrdom
of Azimullah Khan. I remember the day in Barrackpore Cantonment when the
harbinger of the revolution Mangal Pandey was brutally hanged from the branches
of my relative, another banyan tree. When I remember the cruelty of the
British while punishing the revolutionaries I still get shivers up my spine.
But I was really broken that day when 137 poor dalits were hanged
as a group from my branches. Their necks were tied to the branches and the
other ends of the ropes were pulled mercilessly by the British army officers
till all of them had died. That day I wept so loudly that my throat became
parched. I cried and cried till all my tears had dried. Even today when
I recall that agonising incident I break down in a flood of tears.
COMMENT
This story was narrated to
Badri Narayan by famous Dalit writer Shri K. Nath from Arya Nagar, Kanpur
located in North India on 24 th January,2007 and the same story is also
found inscribed on the memorial stone, placed below this famous tree in
Nana Rao Peshwa Park , Kanpur.
2. A request for the restoration of religious spaces from the Mahommedan Society of Delhi
To His Excellency the Viceroy and Governor General of India
The Mohamedan Society [Anjoman Rifah Hind Delhi] most humbly and respectfully showeth
That since the last 20 months the Mohamedans of Delhi have established a society having the following objects in view viz improvement in the national ceremonies and morals and to guard against endowments and all property in general situated in the city.
The society is made up of the respectable men of Delhi and though it has not been fully successful in its endeavours and attempts but whatever steps have hitherto been taken to carry out its objects it would be out of place to detail them.
As HE is about to hold an Imperial Darbar in this city to proclaim that Her Majesty has been pleased to take the title of Empress of India which news has so overjoyed the Mohamedens that they could not contain within themselves and are delightfully waiting for the arrival of that auspicious day. It has generally been reported that the Govt of India in order to immortalize this day intends taking such measures and doing such act of generosity that the people of India whether of any sect may remember for generations to come. This noble and beneficent intention on the part of Govt emboldens us to lay before H E this humble application that certain religious endowments places of worship or building sintended for charitable purposes, which were confiscated during the mutinies of 1857, and were either used for Govt purposes, or made over to persons who differ from us in creed, as well as in their method of worship, may be restored to us. The Society need not state that the above religious institutions were confiscated on account of the disloyalty of the Superintendents who were in their charge. Now in our humble opinion such institutions as the above can not with justice be called the property of any one individual they a re intended for the people of that religion at large, and to confiscate them for the misdeeds of men who, by chance, were placed in charge of them, cannot with strict propriety and a rigid application of the rules of justice, be called fair to the mohamedens in general. Besides the tolerant principles in religious matter which are observed by the officers of Her Imperial Majesty in India in the management of this most important part of Her dominions should not justify the confiscation of the property mentioned above.
SOURCE: IOLR Mss Eur C643 Mahommedan Society of Delhi , Petition for restoration of religious endowments and places of worship confiscated after Mutiny.
