The Personal Adventures and Experiences of a Magistrate during the Rise, Progress, and Suppression of the Indian Mutiny

Magistrate Mark Thornhill's eyewitness account of the Indian Mutiny, published in 1884, illuminates its dramatic events and the tensions underlying them.

Mark Thornhill (Author)

9781108044707, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 March 2012

350 pages, 2 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2 cm, 0.45 kg

In 1857, when the Indian Mutiny broke out, Mark Thornhill (1822–1900) was the magistrate of Muttra, modern Mathura. His vivid account of ensuing events - published in 1884 - including a night ride to Agra through the rebel army and the developing tensions inside the fort, was well reviewed at the time, and, more recently, became one of the sources for J. G. Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur. Also including excursuses on the history and architecture of Agra from the time of Babur, and ghost stories pertaining to it - Thornhill published a separate volume of Indian fairy tales - the narrative is notably modern in its acute psychological perceptions of response to violence and its conservationist concern for damage to buildings. Thornhill wrote the book as an historical analysis, and his conclusions about the underlying causes of the Mutiny illuminate subsequent developments in the region as well as the conflict he describes.

1. Introduction
2. The assembling of the army
3. The march to Delhi
4. Rural disturbances
5. The mutiny of the guard
6. Flight to Agra
7. Flight to Agra continued
8. Return to Muttra
9. Defence of the city
10. The plundering of the treasury
11. The city of Muttra
12. A village rajah
13. The Kotah contingent
14. The approach of the enemy
15. Closing around us
16. A midnight ride
17. A midnight ride continued
18. The first three days
19. Battle of Shahgunge. Prior events
20. Battle of Shahgunge. Battle itself
21. Departure of the enemy
22. The fort of Agra
23. Life in the fort
24. Secret passages
25. Ghost stories
26. The old palace
27. Quarrels
28. The expedition
29. Mr. Colvin's death
30. The fall of Delhi
31. The Battle of Agra
32. The battle-field
33. After the battle
34. Leaving the fort
35. Conclusion
36. What caused the mutiny?

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]