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Dateline 1857: Revisiting India's freedom struggle
Published on Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 01:31 in Lifestyle section
Tags: 1857, First War Of Independence , New Delhi
DATELINE 1857: The book is a bid to popularise India's first struggle for independence.
New Delhi: Historian-cum-journalist Rudrangshu Mukherjee is back with his favourite subject – the revolt of 1857, but this time packaged with a difference.
From the unorthodox size of the book to the rare photographs and paintings, Dateline 1857 has all the ingredients to hook any reader whose last brush with this part of Indian history dates back to school or college.
Mukherjee weighs every bit of information at his disposal and offers an unbiased account of the dramatic events that unfolded along the Gangetic plains during the summer of 1857.
Pedagogic in tone Dateline 1857, delves into all the possible causes of the Revolt and the outcome meticulously, but the author is never judgmental, he only gives you all the facts to make your own decisions.
The attraction is definitely the rare photographs and documents, whether it’s of bodies hanging from makeshift gallows or rebel soldiers stretched across the mouths of British cannon. Imperious commanders and wild-eyed soldiers stare from the pages. An array of bentwood chairs stands in the last Mughal's deserted Diwan-e-Khas. The affidavits of the many men posing as Nana Sahib.
The sepia-tinted pages, the first hand-accounts, the generous sprinkling of anecdotes, the maps used for illustration transport you immediately through the dusted pages of history to the scene of action.
As the events unravel, the author doesn't try to startle the reader with new revelations. This might not be a collectors edition for historians, but it is Rudranshu Mukherjee's attempt to popularize among the common reader what is arguably India's first fight for independence.
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