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Our Bones Are Scattered: The Cawnpore Massacres and The Indian Mutiny Of 1857
A recreation of a dramatic turning point in colonial history follows the Indian Mutinies of the 1850s through the stories of garrison commander Hugh Massey Wheeler, the forty-day Hindu king Nana Sahib, and revolt leader Azimullah.
703 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
July 3, 2016
First of all i frankly admit that the perusal of this book throughout three weeks resembles more or less a psychological torture on my peaceful mind. Indeed, as per author's own words from the preface of this book, the bones of countless hapless Indians,Europeans, Anglo-Indians, Eurasians, Hindoos, Muslims or Christians are scattered throughout each and every page of this unique book on the great Indian mutiny of 1857. Since our childhood we have been taught in the history classes of our school to hail the Mutiny of 1857 as the first war of Indian independence, while on the other part of the globe in Great Britain or rather in Europe it has been touted as Sepoy mutiny. We Indians, while reading the history of 1857 mutiny had attached ourselves emotionally with such stalwart rebel figures like Nana Sahib, Tatya Topi or The Queen of Jhansi Laxmibai. On the other hand the British generals like Henry Havelock, John Nicolsen or James Neill had become hate figures to us for their utmost cruelty to put down the rebellion.
But for the first time in life after going through this book i could not control my tears to learn about the massacre of the poor European women and children at the hands of the mutineers in Bibighar as well as in other sites where the mutiny had spread its black shadows. Infact a few questions are hammering upon my mind. First had not the mutineers massacred the British women and children, would the Britishers also have spared the women and children of the mutineers from the retribution in form of rape and murder ? Second had Nana Sahib been able to defeat the British army and driven them out of Cawnpur forever, would the mutineers have shown mercy on the British women and children imprisoned in Bibighar and had allowed them a safe passage to Calcutta?
I am afraid to say that i am doubtful about both of these probabilities. Massacre-revenge-counter-revenge the vicious cycle rolls on and on over the surface of the so-called farce named civilization. There is seemingly no end of it. Dresden bombing in response to London Blitz, Hiroshima-Nagasaki to avenge Pearl Harbour, Second world war and Holocaust to avenge the humiliation of Versailles treaty, the bloody conflict between Israel-Palestine or more recently invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan to avenge the destruction of twin towers. Do the 'children Of God'have no chance of escape from the vicious play of revenge and counter-revenge ? Perhaps the human beings are the only living being to descend into the nadir of such hateful barbarity as described from the title page to colophon of this book. While reading this book it seemed to me as if both the British rulers and the Indian mutineers had locked horn with each other in sheer madness to prove whose method of killing is more ingenious and barbaric. Really the human beings possess such superhuman capacity to hate each other !!!!
At the end i personally thank Mr. Andrew Ward for writing such a tremendous book on this cataclysmic event of the British-Indian empire and for unlike most Western historians presenting the history of the Indian mutiny from an unbiased standpoint. Really very few books shook me so much as this book did.
But for the first time in life after going through this book i could not control my tears to learn about the massacre of the poor European women and children at the hands of the mutineers in Bibighar as well as in other sites where the mutiny had spread its black shadows. Infact a few questions are hammering upon my mind. First had not the mutineers massacred the British women and children, would the Britishers also have spared the women and children of the mutineers from the retribution in form of rape and murder ? Second had Nana Sahib been able to defeat the British army and driven them out of Cawnpur forever, would the mutineers have shown mercy on the British women and children imprisoned in Bibighar and had allowed them a safe passage to Calcutta?
I am afraid to say that i am doubtful about both of these probabilities. Massacre-revenge-counter-revenge the vicious cycle rolls on and on over the surface of the so-called farce named civilization. There is seemingly no end of it. Dresden bombing in response to London Blitz, Hiroshima-Nagasaki to avenge Pearl Harbour, Second world war and Holocaust to avenge the humiliation of Versailles treaty, the bloody conflict between Israel-Palestine or more recently invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan to avenge the destruction of twin towers. Do the 'children Of God'have no chance of escape from the vicious play of revenge and counter-revenge ? Perhaps the human beings are the only living being to descend into the nadir of such hateful barbarity as described from the title page to colophon of this book. While reading this book it seemed to me as if both the British rulers and the Indian mutineers had locked horn with each other in sheer madness to prove whose method of killing is more ingenious and barbaric. Really the human beings possess such superhuman capacity to hate each other !!!!
At the end i personally thank Mr. Andrew Ward for writing such a tremendous book on this cataclysmic event of the British-Indian empire and for unlike most Western historians presenting the history of the Indian mutiny from an unbiased standpoint. Really very few books shook me so much as this book did.
February 23, 2014
I love history, especially military history. I can’t help but wonder what I would have done when faced with the same situations as historical figures. Of course, I am glad I live now and don’t have to actually find out. That is especially true in the case of the 1857 Indian Mutiny, Sepoy Rebellion or 1st War of Indian Independence, depending on where you sit. I only knew vaguely of the Mutiny, usually as an aside as I read about Afghan history, just a footnote to that story. Here in Our Bones Are Scattered: The Cawnpore Massacres and The Indian Mutiny Of 1857, I remedied the lack of knowledge with a 5 Star intense focus on one key British settlement, Cawnpore. It is a truly horrific story and I only recommend it for those with a strong constitution. The various massacres and slaughter are tough to read about. Ward does not present gratuitous violence but he doesn’t shy away from telling what happened, both sides come away bloody and guilty.
The history of the British takeover of India is only briefly covered. The action is focused on the reasons for the revolt, what happened and who the main players were. Most of the story revolves around the three week long siege at Cawnpore, how it ended and the resulting actions to put down the Mutiny and rescue/or fail to rescue the besieged locales. Written by an American who grew up in India, he attempts to tell an even-handed account and mostly achieves that. Copiously footnoted, you have to read the footnotes in the back as you progress. Great information and background there.
This is a story of religious, cultural, caste, racial and class conflict. Mix all these up and you get some of the worst excesses of violence. There are also instances of bravery and humanity. Highly recommended!
The history of the British takeover of India is only briefly covered. The action is focused on the reasons for the revolt, what happened and who the main players were. Most of the story revolves around the three week long siege at Cawnpore, how it ended and the resulting actions to put down the Mutiny and rescue/or fail to rescue the besieged locales. Written by an American who grew up in India, he attempts to tell an even-handed account and mostly achieves that. Copiously footnoted, you have to read the footnotes in the back as you progress. Great information and background there.
This is a story of religious, cultural, caste, racial and class conflict. Mix all these up and you get some of the worst excesses of violence. There are also instances of bravery and humanity. Highly recommended!
February 26, 2014
I have always found military history fascinating. Unfortunately my knowledge of the Great Mutiny has been lacking. I found this an excellent look at the beginnings and causes of the Great Mutiny of 1857. Mr. Ward makes good use of primary sources, first person accounts and has a nice turn of phrase. In this volume he specifically looks at Cawnpore and the resulting massacres of the garrison and the motivations it gave to the Imperial troops. “Remember Cawnpore” became their battle cry, much like “Remember the Alamo” was used by the Texans in their War of Independence from Mexico the 1830s.
Mr. Ward not only looks at the causes of the Mutiny, he explores the unpreparedness of the British in general and at Cawnpore specifically and the reasons behind that lack of preparation. He also provides good biographical sketches of the main participants on both sides. In telling the story he is remarkably even handed. To modern sensibilities, no one comes out looking good. The killings by both side was horrific. His description of the slaughter of the women and children, more than 160 people, held by the Nana Sahib in July of ’57 is especially hard reading.
In exploring the various causes of the Mutiny, Mr. Ward discusses the role religion played. Not only was there a problem with the ammunition the Native Regiments were issued, but there was a fear of forced conversion to Christianity that native rebel leaders used to great effect. A major not-religious reason seems to be that the East India Company had recently annexed several Indian Monarchies, putting them under Company control causing discontent esp in the ruling classes
For those that don’t know, the Sepoy regiments had recently been issued a new type of rifle. The ammunition for those rifles was coated in either beef or pork fat, which was an anathema to the Hindu and Moslem soldiers respectively. The author makes a good case that, while ammunition issue was important, it was more of a tipping point. He makes a good case that the other issues were festering and much more important.
As the mutinies began Cawnpore became a supposed safe refuge from the Mutiny and refuges flocked there. In telling the story of the siege and following massacres – there were two. The first occured immediately after the surrender where most of the adult males were killed in an ambush as they were supposedly evacuating to British controled areas. The surviving woman and children were taken prisoner and held until the British relief forces were closing in, about 3 weeks later. The author does an excellent job of telling the stories of both the defenders and the attackers of the station of Cawnpore. He also follows people who didn’t actually make it to Cawnpore, but were caught up in the Mutiny. The author also tells what happened to many of the survivors, both Indian and British, which I found interesting.
The author provides excellent footnotes and some of the best stories are contained in those notes
The only problem I had with this book is its lack of a glossary. The author uses Indian terms extensively and it can get confusing. That brings this down from a 5 star read to 4.25 for me.
Mr. Ward not only looks at the causes of the Mutiny, he explores the unpreparedness of the British in general and at Cawnpore specifically and the reasons behind that lack of preparation. He also provides good biographical sketches of the main participants on both sides. In telling the story he is remarkably even handed. To modern sensibilities, no one comes out looking good. The killings by both side was horrific. His description of the slaughter of the women and children, more than 160 people, held by the Nana Sahib in July of ’57 is especially hard reading.
In exploring the various causes of the Mutiny, Mr. Ward discusses the role religion played. Not only was there a problem with the ammunition the Native Regiments were issued, but there was a fear of forced conversion to Christianity that native rebel leaders used to great effect. A major not-religious reason seems to be that the East India Company had recently annexed several Indian Monarchies, putting them under Company control causing discontent esp in the ruling classes
For those that don’t know, the Sepoy regiments had recently been issued a new type of rifle. The ammunition for those rifles was coated in either beef or pork fat, which was an anathema to the Hindu and Moslem soldiers respectively. The author makes a good case that, while ammunition issue was important, it was more of a tipping point. He makes a good case that the other issues were festering and much more important.
As the mutinies began Cawnpore became a supposed safe refuge from the Mutiny and refuges flocked there. In telling the story of the siege and following massacres – there were two. The first occured immediately after the surrender where most of the adult males were killed in an ambush as they were supposedly evacuating to British controled areas. The surviving woman and children were taken prisoner and held until the British relief forces were closing in, about 3 weeks later. The author does an excellent job of telling the stories of both the defenders and the attackers of the station of Cawnpore. He also follows people who didn’t actually make it to Cawnpore, but were caught up in the Mutiny. The author also tells what happened to many of the survivors, both Indian and British, which I found interesting.
The author provides excellent footnotes and some of the best stories are contained in those notes
The only problem I had with this book is its lack of a glossary. The author uses Indian terms extensively and it can get confusing. That brings this down from a 5 star read to 4.25 for me.
September 10, 2020
This book is not History and should not be taken as one. This is the perfect example of how History should not be written. Many a places the author lets his imagination run wild which no objective Historian should ever do. If you ever want to get a balanced view of the events read 1857, by Surendra Nath Sen.
This book simply a eulogy to the British who died during the uprising. However, the author tries to play a balancing act by paying lip service to few of the British atrocities. While greatly humanising the pain of English women, the author carefully reduces the lives of Indians to just numbers. Indian women and children who were massacred, thousands of innocent peasants burnt well before the British knew anything about what might have happened in Kanpur get only a passing mention. If anything, the atrocities perpetrated by Havelock, Niells and their soldiers where in they massacred people irrespective of women, children, or men, all the while singing, "with our shot and shell, we made them smell hell," might have triggered what happened in Bibighar.
If you read his notes in the end of the book regarding the Bibighar massacre, many a places he writes 'I surmise this', 'I surmise this from his description', all the while in the body of the text gives an impression that is exactly how it happened. The notes are carefully relegated to the end which makes it extremely difficult to follow them. I doubt if most readers read those notes. His conjectures, surmises, wild imaginations, his partisanship towards the witnesses and evidences which even the British historians caution against using because of the unreliability, render this book a propaganda booklet than History. Most glaring fault is his gory description of what happened in Bibighar, his graphic description hinges mostly on the testimony of one 'eye witness' John Fitchett. He claimed he is an eye witness for everything that happened in Bibighar. However, best of the worst lot, British Historian John Kaye warned his own countrymen Holmes and George Trevelyan, against trusting his testimony, for there were witnesses (Clarke and Decruz) who clearly testified that John Fitchett was no where near the Savada house or Bibighar. I repeat, there is no eye witness to the purported plight of those women in Bibighar, if anything there is some doubtful testimony. If you read the British military papers of 1857, Volume 2, most witnesses who testified give the number of women to be 80, 120-125, 200. Author here calculates his own number from the tablets in Kanpur church which is of doubtful Historic authenticity. A historian simply states the facts as they are observed, when you start writing a story by letting your imagination run wild, you become a propagandist.
And there are glaring plot holes too, truth be told, except for few, women and children were more or less spared in Sati Chaura Ghat, on Nana Sahib's orders. If they wanted they could have killed them then and there. Nobody except John Fitchett and this author, have seen what happened in Bibighar after Begum entered and closed the doors. If you read the book there is a graphic description of how things unfolded inside after the doors were closed. Nobody, I repeat, nobody saw the dead bodies of women and children inside Bibighar, or the massacre. Except this Author with and John Fitchett. All the soldiers found in the end were few bangles, hair etc, and a hair. An eye witness Sherer who claimed to have entered Bibighar after everything was over, clearly says he did not see any inscription on the walls made by these women who lived there close to a month. However, the author here does not give any value to the eye witness testimony but other dubious witnesses.
Tatya Tope refused to his last breath that he ordered the purported massacre of those women, but if you read this book, he is protrayed as the ultimate villain and a coward. Nana Sahib is also an Evil, coward schemer, while all the British Sahibs are portrayed as great people who 'treated their Indian soldiers' like their own children. There should be a limit to the partisanship especially when you are writing the book packaging it as History.
Similar things can be said about the testimonies against Nana Sahib. Most of the witnesses who implicated him for the vilest of the things were the sons of the original Peshwa who had an axe to grind, who were petitioning the British to give them a part of the Nana Sahib's riches. Other witnesses include local merchants who were hand in glove with the English, who made their life by doing business with British and were angry with the revolution brought by Nana Sahib. Also, in the Kangaroo courts that followed the uprising, truth was the first casualty. Nobody had the gall to negate the claims of the mighty Raj.
To give you an example of propaganda, there is a famous story of ‘heroics’ of one Thomson and his band of soldiers. According to the British, they escaped the Sati Chaura Ghat on the boat while the natives tried to hit them with cannon balls and the natives followed them for nearly 3–4 miles. They shot the native soldiers along the way killed many of them at each stop. After their boat got burnt/blasted, they ran barefoot on ‘rugged, raviny ground’ for three miles with multitude of native soldiers at their heels. Then the six of them fought that multitude of hostile soldiers by hiding inside a temple and then charged with their bayonets killing many of natives and ran heroically and jumped into the river, again swam without resting for six hours, got startled by the presence of crocodiles in the Ganges, and finally were rescued by Rajput soldiers who even offered to throw away their weapons to rescue these heroes because their Raja told them so. After the soldiers came out of water, the natives due to their greedy nature took their money and on the way to safe haven other ‘natives’ apologised to them and give them buffalo milk and native sweets (*Our bones are scattered, pp. 347-351*).
The British narrative tells us that, somehow those scores of natives and those soldiers who were on the banks simply let these six soldiers get away. May be the ‘native black Devils’ (British Memsahib Amy Horne used those words for Indians ) were afraid of water or did not know swimming. Remember, these ‘heroes’ were literally defenceless, loading and firing Pattern 1853 Enfield Musket is impossible when you are swimming in the water, and how only handful of soldiers fought off so many native musketeers is still a mystery. Remember, one the main reasons for the uprising was these Muskets, the cartridges that were used in the Musket ‘had to be wet’ with their mouths before putting in the Musket . The sheer impossibility of the whole claim, especially according to their admission all of them were extremely exhausted after leaving the Ghat itself, speaks volumes. Most of the stories that British passed off as history are similar, where even in the face of adversity, *when all is lost, they had the ‘English’ spirit to live on. There are hundreds of stories like this recorded by the British. In some stories, ‘English’ women because of their superiority of character were able to admonish the natives and the natives cowered in front of excellent character of the English Women. Remember, most of these Sahibs and Memsahibs could not even talk proper Hindi or Urdu, they used to have Bengali Babus as translators in normal circumstances, but somehow in all the stories they give eloquent speeches on how tenderly the British treat their subjects, and just by talking they teach the ‘evil black devils’ some humanity. Overall, it is impossible to simply believe the British narrative, unfortunately only surviving records are the British records. Bottom line, all British claims need to be taken with, not a pinch but a bucket of salt.
The author is not objective in his approach, he very much represents the British historians of 1860s who only narrated the British side of the story, where the Indians are simply 'native black Devils'.
This book simply a eulogy to the British who died during the uprising. However, the author tries to play a balancing act by paying lip service to few of the British atrocities. While greatly humanising the pain of English women, the author carefully reduces the lives of Indians to just numbers. Indian women and children who were massacred, thousands of innocent peasants burnt well before the British knew anything about what might have happened in Kanpur get only a passing mention. If anything, the atrocities perpetrated by Havelock, Niells and their soldiers where in they massacred people irrespective of women, children, or men, all the while singing, "with our shot and shell, we made them smell hell," might have triggered what happened in Bibighar.
If you read his notes in the end of the book regarding the Bibighar massacre, many a places he writes 'I surmise this', 'I surmise this from his description', all the while in the body of the text gives an impression that is exactly how it happened. The notes are carefully relegated to the end which makes it extremely difficult to follow them. I doubt if most readers read those notes. His conjectures, surmises, wild imaginations, his partisanship towards the witnesses and evidences which even the British historians caution against using because of the unreliability, render this book a propaganda booklet than History. Most glaring fault is his gory description of what happened in Bibighar, his graphic description hinges mostly on the testimony of one 'eye witness' John Fitchett. He claimed he is an eye witness for everything that happened in Bibighar. However, best of the worst lot, British Historian John Kaye warned his own countrymen Holmes and George Trevelyan, against trusting his testimony, for there were witnesses (Clarke and Decruz) who clearly testified that John Fitchett was no where near the Savada house or Bibighar. I repeat, there is no eye witness to the purported plight of those women in Bibighar, if anything there is some doubtful testimony. If you read the British military papers of 1857, Volume 2, most witnesses who testified give the number of women to be 80, 120-125, 200. Author here calculates his own number from the tablets in Kanpur church which is of doubtful Historic authenticity. A historian simply states the facts as they are observed, when you start writing a story by letting your imagination run wild, you become a propagandist.
And there are glaring plot holes too, truth be told, except for few, women and children were more or less spared in Sati Chaura Ghat, on Nana Sahib's orders. If they wanted they could have killed them then and there. Nobody except John Fitchett and this author, have seen what happened in Bibighar after Begum entered and closed the doors. If you read the book there is a graphic description of how things unfolded inside after the doors were closed. Nobody, I repeat, nobody saw the dead bodies of women and children inside Bibighar, or the massacre. Except this Author with and John Fitchett. All the soldiers found in the end were few bangles, hair etc, and a hair. An eye witness Sherer who claimed to have entered Bibighar after everything was over, clearly says he did not see any inscription on the walls made by these women who lived there close to a month. However, the author here does not give any value to the eye witness testimony but other dubious witnesses.
Tatya Tope refused to his last breath that he ordered the purported massacre of those women, but if you read this book, he is protrayed as the ultimate villain and a coward. Nana Sahib is also an Evil, coward schemer, while all the British Sahibs are portrayed as great people who 'treated their Indian soldiers' like their own children. There should be a limit to the partisanship especially when you are writing the book packaging it as History.
Similar things can be said about the testimonies against Nana Sahib. Most of the witnesses who implicated him for the vilest of the things were the sons of the original Peshwa who had an axe to grind, who were petitioning the British to give them a part of the Nana Sahib's riches. Other witnesses include local merchants who were hand in glove with the English, who made their life by doing business with British and were angry with the revolution brought by Nana Sahib. Also, in the Kangaroo courts that followed the uprising, truth was the first casualty. Nobody had the gall to negate the claims of the mighty Raj.
To give you an example of propaganda, there is a famous story of ‘heroics’ of one Thomson and his band of soldiers. According to the British, they escaped the Sati Chaura Ghat on the boat while the natives tried to hit them with cannon balls and the natives followed them for nearly 3–4 miles. They shot the native soldiers along the way killed many of them at each stop. After their boat got burnt/blasted, they ran barefoot on ‘rugged, raviny ground’ for three miles with multitude of native soldiers at their heels. Then the six of them fought that multitude of hostile soldiers by hiding inside a temple and then charged with their bayonets killing many of natives and ran heroically and jumped into the river, again swam without resting for six hours, got startled by the presence of crocodiles in the Ganges, and finally were rescued by Rajput soldiers who even offered to throw away their weapons to rescue these heroes because their Raja told them so. After the soldiers came out of water, the natives due to their greedy nature took their money and on the way to safe haven other ‘natives’ apologised to them and give them buffalo milk and native sweets (*Our bones are scattered, pp. 347-351*).
The British narrative tells us that, somehow those scores of natives and those soldiers who were on the banks simply let these six soldiers get away. May be the ‘native black Devils’ (British Memsahib Amy Horne used those words for Indians ) were afraid of water or did not know swimming. Remember, these ‘heroes’ were literally defenceless, loading and firing Pattern 1853 Enfield Musket is impossible when you are swimming in the water, and how only handful of soldiers fought off so many native musketeers is still a mystery. Remember, one the main reasons for the uprising was these Muskets, the cartridges that were used in the Musket ‘had to be wet’ with their mouths before putting in the Musket . The sheer impossibility of the whole claim, especially according to their admission all of them were extremely exhausted after leaving the Ghat itself, speaks volumes. Most of the stories that British passed off as history are similar, where even in the face of adversity, *when all is lost, they had the ‘English’ spirit to live on. There are hundreds of stories like this recorded by the British. In some stories, ‘English’ women because of their superiority of character were able to admonish the natives and the natives cowered in front of excellent character of the English Women. Remember, most of these Sahibs and Memsahibs could not even talk proper Hindi or Urdu, they used to have Bengali Babus as translators in normal circumstances, but somehow in all the stories they give eloquent speeches on how tenderly the British treat their subjects, and just by talking they teach the ‘evil black devils’ some humanity. Overall, it is impossible to simply believe the British narrative, unfortunately only surviving records are the British records. Bottom line, all British claims need to be taken with, not a pinch but a bucket of salt.
The author is not objective in his approach, he very much represents the British historians of 1860s who only narrated the British side of the story, where the Indians are simply 'native black Devils'.
January 4, 2019
Solid if depressing read of one portion of the Sepoy Rebellion, with excesses on both sides.
October 3, 2017
This is an absolutely wonderful piece of historical writing. It has often been said that victors write history. This is absolutely true of the Indian Mutiny. For years the narrative focused on the appalling violence and betrayal of the rebels, without putting it into context, while the British response was downplayed or ignored. Andrew Ward's detailed, scrupulously researched and extremely well written history rectifies this. I encourage you to read it.
Full review on the blog: http://resolutereader.blogspot.co.uk/...
Full review on the blog: http://resolutereader.blogspot.co.uk/...
August 2, 2024
An American author says he is impartial. Judge for yourself; his own words speak for his factually incorrect, hurtful, cruel bias against the British. Surely the use of insults is poor writing?
Quote:
"The nakedness of the ladies corpses was simply intolerable: seemingly incrovertoble evidence that their (British) women had been raped.
The image of fair English women in the clutches of dark sensualists (sic)... played on their own apprehension of sexual inadequacy.
Anyone who dared to suggest that most Indian men found British women repulsive...
Quote ends.
I can't even.
i. dark sensualists? These men were rapists who had tortured, murdered most vilely women and children.
ii. sexual inadequacy? Where does this come from? Any evidence of this? No it's just a slur and an insult. Perhaps the author is projecting.
iii. Most Indian found British women repulsive. Why? Any evidence of this? Or is this the opinion of the author? India has one of the highest rape numbers in the world. It is described as an epidemic. Are we supposed to believe that this is a modern invention?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-i...
https://www.vox.com/2015/3/5/8156881/...
Quote:
"The nakedness of the ladies corpses was simply intolerable: seemingly incrovertoble evidence that their (British) women had been raped.
The image of fair English women in the clutches of dark sensualists (sic)... played on their own apprehension of sexual inadequacy.
Anyone who dared to suggest that most Indian men found British women repulsive...
Quote ends.
I can't even.
i. dark sensualists? These men were rapists who had tortured, murdered most vilely women and children.
ii. sexual inadequacy? Where does this come from? Any evidence of this? No it's just a slur and an insult. Perhaps the author is projecting.
iii. Most Indian found British women repulsive. Why? Any evidence of this? Or is this the opinion of the author? India has one of the highest rape numbers in the world. It is described as an epidemic. Are we supposed to believe that this is a modern invention?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-i...
https://www.vox.com/2015/3/5/8156881/...
July 15, 2025
Compelling; gritty; thought provoking; meticulous......an absolute must for anyone with more than a passing interest in 'The Mutiny' or the 'First War of Independence', whichever is your choice of description.
I found this to be hard work at times, but thoroughly rewarding and more than worth the effort.
In recommending this book, I must also wholeheartedly recommend the novel that piqued my interest in the grim and tragic time of 1857 - Flashman in The Great Game, by George MacDonald Fraser.....a lighthearted - but nonetheless tragic-in-its-own-way and well researched novel - that broadened my historical horizons further than World War 2.
I found this to be hard work at times, but thoroughly rewarding and more than worth the effort.
In recommending this book, I must also wholeheartedly recommend the novel that piqued my interest in the grim and tragic time of 1857 - Flashman in The Great Game, by George MacDonald Fraser.....a lighthearted - but nonetheless tragic-in-its-own-way and well researched novel - that broadened my historical horizons further than World War 2.
October 19, 2020
This is a great book. It provides insight to the reader into the turmoil that was period surrounding the 1857 'War of Independence' or the 'Mutiny' depending upon whose perspective you look from. However it does so with a neutral stance and does not take sides. One can feel that there is evil all as there is goodness in all. The build-up is described beautifully. The siege is terrible and heart rending as is the reprisal. The way of life in those times comes out very well and educative. Must read for a balanced understanding of History.
January 31, 2023
Judging by the length and the amount of footnotes I thought this would be a long, slow, scholarly read. Not so, during the day I often found myself impatiently waiting until I would have a chance to read more. I had a rather basic understanding of the Sepoy Rebellion going into the reading so all the information was new. I wish it had more background on other areas of the rebellion as well as history of the British in India but at 500 pages the author may have decided it was best to keep the scope narrow.
February 5, 2019
An incredible undertaking, sometimes bogs down and is perhaps too much.
November 14, 2007
The history of the Indian Mutiny has always fascinated me. It is a classic example of colonial arrogance in the face of racial and religious prejudice. This book is the best modern account of the incidents leading up to the dreadful Cawnpore massacre, and subsequent punishment of the subjected peoples of the Indian subcontinent. Stupidity and horror that set the stage for the end of the Raj, and the British Empire.
October 1, 2018
A devastating, merciless account of a seminal event in the British and Indian imagination. The author delivers on his promise to provide an exhaustive and unflinching version of events, allowing the tragedy to unfold in deliberate detail. That makes for an an impressive achievement, but maybe not a good recommendation for someone looking for a general book on Indian history or an introduction to the mutiny. This book goes DEEP.
April 25, 2013
This is probably the definitive book on the massacre at Cawnpore. It is truly excellent. The only reason for not giving it five stars is that it is long and detailed and probably too much for anyone not already interested in the subject. For anyone interested in what happened at Cawnpore, it's essential reading. When I was researching my novel, 'Cawnpore', it was invaluable.
Currently reading
May 30, 2009A well researched and well written book about the Indian Mutiny of 1857, specifically on the siege of Cawnpore. Written by a local fellow from Bainbridge Island, of all things. LOTS of footnotes!
September 6, 2012
Grim, but illuminating insight into the mess that was the Indian Mutiny. Neither side comes out particularly well - the casual slaughter on both sides was horrific.
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September 1, 2014Desperately want to get hold of a copy of this book. Not available with Flipkart.com
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