A Note on The Revolt of 1857

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Though I had been blogging for the past few months, It was Amrit who really lured me into
real-blogging, though I am not into it completely.

After reading my "Once Upon a time in India", Amrit had written,
"This one was kind of disturbing. Why did they need to be so cruel?"

This has forced me to write a note on the revolt of 1857.
What we are really lacking is a neutral view of the same.
Renowned Writer Sujatha had once said, "I started writing about it once, but I got threats - Stop writing or you wont have your hands to write. I preferred to be with hands"

It is of great importance to note that there are a few good books to describe the Freedom Struggle from a neutral view point, for instance "Freedom by midnight"...

I will be happy to find one such book on the freedom struggle... Jawaharlal Nehru in "Discovery Of India", refers to this as a FEUDAL REVOLT. One more important thing to note here is that the English dont even care to call this as a "Revolt for Independence". They rather call it, as the Sepoy Mutiny.

They are correct to an extent. This was a result of no patriotism or selflessness. Everybody who took part in the revolt had some personal reason.(Please refer the link below if interested.)

Yet we still call this as out First Struggle for Independence...

If you read books by Indian Authors as well as by the Britishers, you might be get yourself on to a confused state. But the bitter truth is both are true.

Well, If you had so far thought Indians were peace-loving, holy people, I fear you would have to
change your opinions. I would not be much wrong if I were to say Indians displayed what they called BRAVERY in a cheap manner.

Though my story is pure fiction, I really think the true situation would have been much much more cruel than what I have written.

There were much more slaughtering and butchering of women and children in reality. It was a TIT FOR TAT as far as the Indians were concerned.

So is the case in my Story, You killed our leader's son... We killed yours... And now you kill us.

So remember, we have also been violent to the core at some point of time...

If you are interested in reading more about the revolt and the way the Indians and the British
tackled it, you can read this site.