The Skull of Alum Bheg

The Skull of Alum Bheg PDF Author: Kim Wagner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190911743
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
In 1963, a human skull was discovered in a pub in Kent in south-east England. A brief handwritten note stuck inside the cavity revealed it to be that of Alum Bheg, an Indian soldier in British service who was executed during the aftermath of the 1857 Uprising, or The Indian Mutiny as historians of an earlier era described it. Alum Bheg was blown from a cannon for having allegedly murdered British civilians, and his head was brought back as a grisly war-trophy by an Irish officer present at his execution. The skull is a troublesome relic of both anti- colonial violence and the brutality and spectacle of British retribution. Kim Wagner presents an intimate and vivid account of life and death in British India in the throes of the largest rebellion of the nineteenth century. Fugitive rebels spent months, even years, hiding in the vastness of the Himalayas before they were eventually hunted down and punished by a vengeful colonial state. Examining the colonial practice of collecting and exhibiting human remains, this book offers a critical assessment of British imperialism that speaks to contemporary debates about the legacies of Empire and the myth of the 'Mutiny'.

The Skull of Alum Bheg

The Skull of Alum Bheg PDF Author: Kim Wagner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190911743
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
In 1963, a human skull was discovered in a pub in Kent in south-east England. A brief handwritten note stuck inside the cavity revealed it to be that of Alum Bheg, an Indian soldier in British service who was executed during the aftermath of the 1857 Uprising, or The Indian Mutiny as historians of an earlier era described it. Alum Bheg was blown from a cannon for having allegedly murdered British civilians, and his head was brought back as a grisly war-trophy by an Irish officer present at his execution. The skull is a troublesome relic of both anti- colonial violence and the brutality and spectacle of British retribution. Kim Wagner presents an intimate and vivid account of life and death in British India in the throes of the largest rebellion of the nineteenth century. Fugitive rebels spent months, even years, hiding in the vastness of the Himalayas before they were eventually hunted down and punished by a vengeful colonial state. Examining the colonial practice of collecting and exhibiting human remains, this book offers a critical assessment of British imperialism that speaks to contemporary debates about the legacies of Empire and the myth of the 'Mutiny'.

The Bengal Army and the Outbreak of the Indian Mutiny

The Bengal Army and the Outbreak of the Indian Mutiny PDF Author: Saul David
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788173047800
Category : Bengal (India)
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
In 1857 the Indian troops of the Bengal Army rose against their colonial masters. They were quickly joined by tens of thousands of discontented civilians in what was to become the bloodiest insurrection in the history of the British Empire. For much of the last century, Indian and British scholars downplayed the importance of professional grievances in their accounts of why the military insurrection of 1857 took place. Most viewed the Bengal sepoys as uniformed peasants who were affected by the same social, economic and religious concerns as their civilian counterparts. They tended to identify the defence of caste and religion as the key to the military uprising, while regarding the latter as little more than a precursor to a general revolt. Yet this study's identification of professional concerns as the essential cause of the Indian Mutiny is very much in line with the recent historiography of military revolts. All armies have grievances relating to conditions of service, particularly pay, career prospects and relations with officers. What set a colonial force like the Bengal Army apart is that it was a volunteer mercenary force officered by men of a different race and religion. Its loyalty to its paymasters, therefore, was entirely dependent on the incentives for service outweighing the disincentives. David argues that by 1857 this was no longer the case: primarily because the number and seriousness of the sepoys grievances was increasing, while the Bengal Armys control over its soldiers was weakening.

The Cambridge Companion to Sensation Fiction

The Cambridge Companion to Sensation Fiction PDF Author: Andrew Mangham
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521760747
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
Accessible and comprehensive account of the sensation novel of the nineteenth century.

The Indian Mutiny

The Indian Mutiny PDF Author: Saul David
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 550

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Book Description
The Indian Mutiny of 1857 was the bloodiest insurrection in the history of the British Empire. It began with a large-scale uprising by native troops against their colonial masters, and soon developed into general rebellion as thousands of discontented civilians joined in. It is a tale of brutal murder and heroic resistance from which innocents on both sides could not escape. This work covers the story of the Mutiny. It challenges the accepted wisdom that a British victory was inevitable, showing just how close the mutineers came to dealing a fatal blow to the British Raj.

The Great Fear of 1857

The Great Fear of 1857 PDF Author: Kim A. Wagner
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9781906165277
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
The Indian Uprising of 1857 had a profound impact on the colonial psyche, and its spectre haunted the British until the very last days of the Raj. For the past 150 years most aspects of the Uprising have been subjected to intense scrutiny by historians, yet the nature of the outbreak itself remains obscure. What was the extent of the conspiracies and plotting? How could rumours of contaminated ammunition spark a mutiny when not a single greased cartridge was ever distributed to the sepoys? Based on a careful, even-handed reassessment of the primary sources, The Great Fear of 1857 explores the existence of conspiracies during the early months of that year and presents a compelling and detailed narrative of the panics and rumours which moved Indians to take up arms. With its fresh and unsentimental approach, this book offers a radically new interpretation of one of the most controversial events in the history of British India.

The Mutiny Outbreak at Meerut in 1857

The Mutiny Outbreak at Meerut in 1857 PDF Author: J. A. B. Palmer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521059015
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
The establishment in British India produced an impressive number of scholars and scholarly amateurs who pursued historical and other studies and wrote books and articles of distinction. Mr Palmer has produced a work in this tradition. His subject is the outbreak of the Mutiny (as the Raj considered it) among the native regiments (as the Raj called them) at Meerut on the evening of Sunday 10 May 1857. Was the outbreak planned in advance or did it arise through chance circumstances on that fateful evening? How badly was the situation handled?

The Cawnpore Man

The Cawnpore Man PDF Author: Mowbray Thompson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781846775734
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
A story of siege, massacre and survival Mowbray Thompson was an officer -stationed at Cawnpore with Wheeler's command within the Indian North Eastern province of Oudh during 1857-the year of the outbreak of the Great Indian Mutiny. The tiny Cawnpore garrison was soon attacked-principally by elements of the Native Bengal Army-and withdrew to occupy an entirely unsuitable and ultimately impossible to defend position. After a period of bloody battle, costly in the lives of soldiers and civilians alike the situation seemed hopeless. Then an offer of honourable surrender appeared to offer the miracle of salvation. But the nightmare of the defenders of Cawnpore was about to escalate to levels of unimagined horror. A series of atrocities was about to befall them that were so terrible that they would become a rallying cry for Blood Vengeance throughout the British empire. This is story of one man-told in his own words-who lived through those terrible days.

The History of the Indian Mutiny: Giving a Detailed Account of the Sepoy Insurrection in India

The History of the Indian Mutiny: Giving a Detailed Account of the Sepoy Insurrection in India PDF Author: Charles Ball
Publisher: London ; London Printing and Pub.
ISBN:
Category : India
Languages : en
Pages : 780

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Book Description


Nightrunners of Bengal

Nightrunners of Bengal PDF Author: John Masters
Publisher: Penguin Books India
ISBN: 0143064339
Category : India
Languages : en
Pages : 3

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Book Description


The Last Mughal

The Last Mughal PDF Author: William Dalrymple
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408806886
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 819

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Book Description
WINNER OF THE DUFF COOPER MEMORIAL PRIZE | LONGLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE 'Indispensable reading on both India and the Empire' Daily Telegraph 'Brims with life, colour and complexity . . . outstanding' Evening Standard 'A compulsively readable masterpiece' Brian Urquhart, The New York Review of Books A stunning and bloody history of nineteenth-century India and the reign of the Last Mughal. In May 1857 India's flourishing capital became the centre of the bloodiest rebellion the British Empire had ever faced. Once a city of cultural brilliance and learning, Delhi was reduced to a battered, empty ruin, and its ruler – Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the last of the Great Mughals – was thrown into exile. The Siege of Delhi was the Raj's Stalingrad: a fight to the death between two powers, neither of whom could retreat. The Last Mughal tells the story of the doomed Mughal capital, its tragic destruction, and the individuals caught up in one of the most terrible upheavals in history, as an army mutiny was transformed into the largest anti-colonial uprising to take place anywhere in the world in the entire course of the nineteenth century.