The 1857 Indian Uprising and the Politics of Commemoration

An innovative study using the commemoration of 1857 as a prism through which to explore 150 years of Indian history.

Sebastian Raj Pender (Author)

9781316511336, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 May 2022

270 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.1 cm, 0.532 kg

'A fine account of British mnemonic politics set squarely in the Victorian era. A range of historical sources are marshalled in order to make a persuasive case for why memory is key to imperial formations as well as the postcolonial state in the light of 1857. The book does a fine job of taking us through the itineraries of imperial desire around memory with all its attendant anxieties … warrant[s] a close reading in our troubled times.' Siddharth Mallavarapu, Victorian Studies

The Cawnpore Well, Lucknow Residency, and Delhi Ridge were sacred places within the British imagination of India. Sanctified by the colonial administration in commemoration of victory over the 'Sepoy Mutiny' of 1857, they were read as emblems of empire which embodied the central tenets of sacrifice, fortitude, and military prowess that underpinned Britain's imperial project. Since independence, however, these sites have been rededicated in honour of the 'First War of Independence' and are thus sacred to the memory of those who revolted against colonial rule, rather than those who saved it. The 1857 Indian Uprising and the Politics of Commemoration tells the story of these and other commemorative landscapes and uses them as prisms through which to view over 150 years of Indian history. Based on extensive archival research from India and Britain, Sebastian Raj Pender traces the ways in which commemoration responded to the demands of successive historical moments by shaping the events of 1857 from the perspective of the present. By telling the history of India through the transformation of mnemonic space, this study shows that remembering the past is always a political act.

1. 'Remember Cawnpore!': British counterinsurgency and the memory of massacre
2. 'Forget Cawnpore!': Commemorating the mutiny, 1857-77
3. Negotiating fear: Celebration, commemoration and the 'Mutiny pilgrimage'
4. The Mutiny of 1907: Anxiety and the mutiny's golden jubilee
5. The war of Indian independence: A struggle for meaning, memory, and the right to narrate
6. Remembering the mutiny at the end of empire: 1947-1972
7. Celebrating the first war of independence today: caste, gender, religion.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], History of ideas [JFCX], Asian history [HBJF]