Book Review: Besieged Voices From Delhi 1857
This poor and helpless widow keeps a house and thirteen shops at Guzar Kashmiri Gate as support for her subsistence.The year 1857 symbolizes the year of the mutiny or the First War of Independence which witnessed armed uprising against the British with the aim to re-establish the authority of a fading Mughal power over the subcontinent and its consequent failure leading to deportation of the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar to Rangoon and establishment of the British rule in India. It was inevitable that Delhi, which was the seat of power during Mughal rule, would suffer the most during the uprising, with the residents going through the havoc of the created turmoil. While 1857 is the source of scholarly as well as nostalgic interest, we generally forget the common people who had to face the time. The Besieged voices are generally kept unheard.
Besieged Voices From Delhi 1857 is one such book that is not deaf to these voices. This first ever translation of the Mutiny Papers documents the siege of Delhi, breaking new ground in our understanding of 1857. Mahmood Farooqui's translation chronicles the lives of courtesans, soldiers, potters, spies, faqirs, doctors and harassed policemen, all trying to live through the turmoil of their city. Besieged presents a searing portrait of the hopes, beliefs and failures of ordinary people who lived through this important time period in history. This non fiction is tremendously alive wherein the readers get a view of the proceedings as the events unfolded to end an era.
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A collector's volume. I had received the copy from MySmartPrice. Thank you Ranjan for giving me this opportunity. You can buy this book at amazon or at flipkart in case you live in India.
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