About the Book: 1857 Uprising: A Tale of an Indian Warrior The first-ever translation of the memoir of Durgadas Bandopadhyay provides a unique Indian perspective of the 1857 Uprising. Most of the sources regarding the 1857 Uprising were written by British officials and civilians. From the Indian side we have more or less nothing as regards their experiences of the ‘event’. The only exception is the memoir of Durgadas Bandopadhyay, which was published in Bengali in the 1920s. The first-ever translation of this memoir ensures a wide readership of a unique and valuable resource. Durgadas, an assistant attached with the 8th Irregular Cavalry Regiment, provides a ‘loyalist account’ of 1857, describing the causes and the course of the Mutiny as well as his own personal role in the ‘great event’. Most of the memoirs by the sahibs and memsahibs concentrate on three epic centres of the ‘Mutiny’ – Delhi, Lucknow and Kanpur. Durgadas’ story shifts the geographical focus to Rohilkhand, and provides detailed portrayals of the rebel leaders – a feature missing in the accounts of British officers. The Introduction contextualizes the memoir within the overall historical matrix, and attempts to compare and contrast Durgadas’ account with the autobiographical and biographical narratives generated by Indians in English and the accounts of the British officers related to the colonial army between the eighteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. Contents Acknowledgements A Note on Translation Preface Introduction 1857 Uprising A Tale of an Indian Warrior: Book I Book II Notes Glossary Bibliography About the Author: Kaushik Roy Kaushik Roy is an Associate Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Civil War (CSCW) at the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO). He also teaches history at Presidency College, Kolkata. His area of specialization lies in military history and security studies. Roy has published more than two dozen articles in journals like War

[Source: Anthem Press]