The
book starts with the description of burial of a "Prisoner of State" in
an unmarked grave, a grave that would
not be found for around 130
years. Then it goes back in time describing the last days and the
events around the "Prisoner of State". The "Prisoner of state" was the
Last Mughal Emperor - Bahadurshah II, known popularly as Bahadurshah
Zafar. Zafar was more of a Sufi and Shayar than the Emperor. Yet he was
trying to salvage the pride of his famed, but now ruined, powerless and
unknown to most, penniless lineage. The book tries to describe the man,
his circumstances, his beloved city of Delhi, culture, political circumstances in India and the Great Sepoy
Mutiny (OR First War of Independence, depending on your view point) of 1857.
This
is a book about history, but describes the historical characters like
characters in a novel. Formerly unknown characters of Begum Zeenat
Mahal, Mirza Mughal, and Hakim Ahsanullah Khan & Zahir Dehlavi
became familiar like your next door neighbors. The known characters
from our school day history books become multidimensional. They are not
heroes and villains of usual history books written by champions of one
OR other side.
The author has unearthed the accounts of citizens of Delhi
and the other related people of the time and narrated the events. The
book systematically describes the decline of Indian powers and rise of
British in India.
It tells us about the problems of Indian nobility, which is a
characteristic we can see in the Indian upper class and political class
even today. Also prominently clear is the lack of persistence and
general apathy of Indian middle and lower classed, again a
characteristic of Indian society till date. The descriptions of battles
show the Indian system of individuals trying to score for themselves
instead of taking planned and systematic team efforts. Probably we are
not changed much to this date. At least our sports teams are definitely
plagued by this syndrome.
Author
has tried to take a new stand about the historical episode, where he
has tried to adopt a centrist approach. However, at some points his
views are not
completely convincing, specially his assertion that the
mutiny was essentially a religious war. He uses two facts to support
his opinion: the issue of biting the greased cartridge and the
convergence of Ghazi and Jihadis in Delhi
as the proof of a religious war. However, he himself mentions that the
Sepoys waging mutiny were mostly upper caste Hindu. In asserting the
religious nature of war he also ignore his own description of Hindu
Sepoys claiming Muslim Mughal Emperor as their leader in an attempt to
return to tradition and to revive the past glory of India. He
completely uses the role of 6000+ Jihadi forces to overshadow the role
of 60,000 Sepoys, mostly upper caste Hindus. By the accounts in the
book, it appears that the religion was one of many reasons of uprising,
that too not major one.
The
book also shows that all was not right on British side as well. It
shows the arrogant ignorance of British about situation in India.
It shows complacency of British officers to react to the situation and
lack of failure of Indian sides at converting initial advantage to
complete success despite a weak enemy. Another symptom we have not got
rid of in 150 years since then.
Author
mentions in the later part of the book that British authorities of they
day assumed, not completely fairly, Muslims responsible for mutiny and
systematically tried to prevent Muslims from any position of
importance. Muslim gentry did not help themselves by renouncing the
modernization of society and sticking to 17th century values and
systems. While the system replaced by British had many advantages in
early isolated society, when technology was not primary focus, it had
many disadvantages in new more globalize and technologically oriented
world. One can s