Dalrymple on 1857: the Religious Component/History
William Dalrymple, a British travel writer and scholar of Indian history,
sometimes gets himself into hot water with Indian critics. He was attacked
by Farrukh Dhondy a couple of years ago for criticizing V.S. Naipaul?s
pro-communalist comments, and then more recently by Pankaj Mishra for
lamenting the state of non-fiction writing in and about India. But
whatever you think of his role in these arguments, Dalrymple as a
historian is the real deal: his book Delhi: City of Djinns is an amazing
historical travel narrative, which blends Dalrymple?s experiences in
modern Delhi with a great deal of careful research into Delhi?s formidable
past.
kashmiri_gate_1857_20060703.jpg The current issue of Outlook India has a
nice essay by Dalrymple on the Indian Mutiny/Rebellion of 1857 (thanks,
Indianoguy!). The essay is really in three parts: one is a fresh look at
the fall of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the ?last Mughal? ? whose sons were all
executed (murdered) by the British after the Rebellion. The second part is
a discussion of ?Mutiny papers? in the National Archives of India that
Mahmoud Farooqi has been translating from Urdu. These documents show the
Indian perspective on the events of 1857, where one finds, among other
things, that the rebels were motivated by religious rage to a very great
extent. Finally, there is a discussion of contemporary Delhi ? in which
preserving the emblems of this past is of very little interest to most
people.
discussion cont'd....
http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/003520.html