Publisher's Synopsis
This is a personalized account of how various officers of Bengal Army who were there were affected by the rebellion.The account is linked with particular units and what happened there as well as the units history.Those more interested in mans role in history would be drawn towards this type of narrative.The layout is simple. The narrative starts with Meerut which was the real place from where the actual rebellion began.The second chapter is "Delhi" where 90 % of the fighting was done.The third part is "Cawnpore" notorious for the worst atrocities being committed but little fighting in terms of casualties or units involved.The fourth part is "Lucknow" the biggest part of the rebellion as far as number of units were concerned but a small affair as far as casualties were concerned.The fifth part is "Central India" a mickey mouse affair as far as actual fighting and casualties were concerned but exaggeratedly romanticized because of characters like Rani of Jhansi and Tantia Topi.The sixth part is "Punjab and Frontier" the best collaborators of the company where hardly any fighting took place . The seventh part is "Bengal and Bihar" again marginal affairs but famous because the initial rumblings started from here.This is not a specialized work but a very basic book for layman readers interested in learning about 1857.This scribes interest in 1857 springs from the fact that his maternal grandfathers ancestors served in the companys Bengal cavalry as well as horse artillery while his paternal ancestors served in the Sikh artillery and later in the companys service in Punjab after 1849.The layout concentrates on some personalities who played crucial role in the rebellion or who lost their lives in the rebellion.Thus the stress is on individual lives rather than conventional historical narrative.The causes of the rebellion, analysis of failures, describing events in a sequence is not part of this work.However great stress has been laid on histories of the units involved as well as biographies of various officers.We are serializing this book in our journal "Indian Military Review" and hope that this would rekindle interest of many in the rebellion of 1857.
