The Indian Mutiny of 1857

by George Bruce Malleson

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Genres: History, India

421 pages, Hardcover

First published August 2, 1993

About the author

Colonel George Bruce Malleson, CSI, was an English officer in India and the author of several works on British Indian colonial history.

Reviews

[Pramod Pant · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was written in 1894. Full of painstakingly collected details (that spirit is a tribute to Raj), words of praise for the British (a 'race' superior to all, according to the author), account of how extremely small (at the most ....) British forces routinely routed the native armies many times larger (at least .....) in terms of men and weapons, how the natives butchered the British men, women and children and how the British, after they won, did what had to be done in situations when no quarters could be given as "War is War". No gory details are given of British revenge and all are available of 'native cruelty'. It is fascinating to see how times so thoroughly determine the opinions of men of considerable diligence and limited intellect.

The book is nevertheless quite interesting and brings out, reasonably well, the admirable spirit and guts of the men who won the war. The narrator is also 'fair' in the sense (and not merely in an epidermal white-brown sense) that he TRIES to be impartial. And that was a really difficult thing, considering how horribly both parties to the conflict behaved during the 1857 uprising.

Towards the end the author voiced a conviction and proffered an advice.

The conviction was that the most superior race produced by the creator of the world could not be forced out of the country they occupied (Amusingly, he forgot the Afghan debacle completely). A few decades later somebody else in Europe insisted that his race was superior and fought with the British and so many other 'inferior' races. After that fight, the exhausted British were forced out of India.

The advice was that the representative institutions the 'natives' demanded would only lead to corruption and bloodshed as these were alien to the 'martial races' of India and would be used by the 'un-martial' ones. Such institutions should therefore be avoided. Indian democracy is now more than 60 years old and vibrant (though prophecies of bloodshed and corruption have come true, in certain ways).

Read the book. It is valuable for it's details and the author too comes across as a likeable character. Raj has been quite an interesting interlude. Really.

[Tony Tauro · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book should be primarily looked at as a historical document. It was published in 1894 by Colonel Malleson (the author) who was a participant in the war and also published a more extensive (6 volume) work as a revision of the work on the famous military historian Sir John Kaye.

The book goes into detail on the campaigns of the war to a nearly tiring level (at least for a casual reader). It's also a little hard to make sense if you are not familiar with the geography of the region as the action jumps from Meerut to Lucknow to Delhi to Allahabad and so on. A lot of the spellings have changed, so a little googling is needed for some of the smaller and lesser known towns. Malleson does make the attempt to spell the words exactly as they are pronounced by vernacular speakers, specifically pointing out Kanpur (which he spells as Kahnpur, and not the bastardized Cawnpore used by his contemporaries). But other than that noble nod to the local customs, he does come across as rather racist (at least by today's standards). Part of it is probably just an attempt to spice up the book for sales, but its good to be aware of and tune your sensibilities accordingly.

He keeps referring to a conspiracy behind the rebellion without providing any details as to what the conspiracy was attempting to do (destroy the British empire in India is too vague a goal - who was going to inherit it?), or actual evidence that there was a conspiracy. So why mention it?

One of the architects of this alleged conspiracy he claims was a Maulavi from Lucknow or Faizabad, but never mentions his name. The Indian characters, with some exceptions like Nana Saheb, Tantia Tope, Kunwar Singh, go largely unnamed. They are also repeatedly maligned, and he does not dwell on their grievances (generally even "bad" people have a background, and these folks are heroes in India today). The "Rani of Jhansi" is probably the one Indian character who gets uniform praise, but again he neither mentions the true history behind why ended up in rebellion, nor does he name her. To the contrary on the English side minor officers, engineers and even soldiers are named.

A bit of tone deafness also comes from how he insists on calling it a mutiny, where the sheer scale of the rising along with a litany of complaints which the author himself lists, begs for a more apt definition. "War of independence" is probably more apt from the mid-20th century historian's perspective, but "mutiny" feels too small a word even based on his own rather partisan description of events.

But ultimately its the opinions and commentary (which are rather sparse) that provide the greatest value in this book. They are a real commentary of the conventional thinking of his people at the time. A worthwhile read for some one interested in that.

[Nick Boldrini · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realise this when I bought a second hand copy of this, but this was actually written only 30 years after the events. Its not a bad account - though I don't know enough about the Mutiny to judge it accuracy. However, it lacks any maps, which means when movement and areas are described, there is nothing for the reader to refer to making it all a bit abstract. Also, as it was written in 1887, the attitudes are of that period, and are quite unsavoury to a modern view of the world. However, this did what I wanted, which was to give me a bit more information on the Mutiny.

[Vikram Ketkar · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is written by a colonist living at the time of the first war of Indian independence. The narration is replete with instances of native savagery followed by righteous retribution from the civilized white troops. Racial superiority and the white man's manifest destiny determines the interpretation of all events during this tumultuous year in Indian history.
Would love to read a book on 1857 from the Indian perspective.

[Terence Blowfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew some facts about The Indian Mutiny/Sepoy Mutiny/1st Indian War of Independence, whatever someone wants to refer to it historically as. The language and prose the book is written in is of its day and does give a skewered view of events. No subjugation of a people is right. But history is history normally recorded by the victor. I will endeavour to read more on the subject to give me a more balanced view of events.

[M.J. Twomey · Rating 3 out of 5]

tedious in getting to the relevant.

[Mark Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise but thorough. Does a good job of explaining the causes of the war.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting perspective of dramatic events by a knowledgeable late 19th century writer. Not knowing India like the palm of one's hand makes following the multitude of advances, happenings, and engagements difficult but it is a well-written chronicle of events from a staunch defender of the Empire.

[Ahmed Husain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written with English perspective & not necessarily anti Indian though, filled with unfounded racial praise. Does provide for plenty of facts. One can imagine the counter view keeping facts narrated. A good read indeed, subject to author's limitations being a serviceman of the Island.