THE LAST MUGHAL: THE FALL OF , 1857 PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

William Dalrymple | 608 pages | 07 Sep 2009 | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC | 9781408800928 | English | London, United Kingdom : The Fall of Delhi, 1857 PDF Book

A must read for all Indians. Although all these attacks were beaten off, the besiegers were ground down through exhaustion and disease. At the pivotal moment of his doomed reign, Zafar concentrated not on his role as a leader of men or on the sparing of innocent lives, but rather on his flowers. Three regiments the 38th, 54th and 74th were stationed in barracks 2 miles 3. When the heir apparent dies of cholera or maybe poisoning? On a dark evening in November , a cheap coffin is buried in eerie silence. Although they had ample warning of disaffection among the Bengal Army after earlier outbreaks of unrest at Berhampur , Barrackpur and Ambala , they had assumed that at , where the proportion of European to Indian troops was higher than anywhere else in , the Bengal units would not risk open revolt. View Product. . Simply put: This is how history should be written. After this, it was accepted that the odds were too great for any assault to be successful until the besiegers were reinforced. I wanted insight into complicated Muslim, Sufi, Hindu, Christian relations and got exac Fast paced, flashing like an epic movie, round about page I was convinced of Dalrymple's brilliant talent, incorporating Urdu texts and British writings from the era to show how a tolerant creative, if excessive Mughal court was torn asunder by violence and racism; how something so small and inconsiderate as to how bullets were manufactured could erupt into such violence, followed by even greater revenge. His successor Reed was also stricken with cholera and forced to hand over command to Archdale Wilson, who was promoted to Major General. Crystal chandeliers dangled sometimes two or three to a room; oils of sunflowers and tumbling kittens that would have looked at home on the Hyde Park railings hung below garishly gilt cornices. Zafar, already in his 80s, clearly had no real say in whether to support the sepoys against the Britishers or not. PS - This is kind of a first draft of the review. He is certainly a strikingly liberal and likeable figure when compared to the Victorian Evangelicals whose insensitivity, arrogance and blindness did much to bring the Uprising of down upon both their own heads and those of the people and court of Delhi, engulfing all of northern India in a religious war of terrible violence. By way of backstory, the Mughal Empire had ruled over great swaths of Northern and Central India for two centuries. But if we were told that the uprising was a war for independence, then we tend to believe that yes, it was. In many cases, the officers of the "Queen's" Army were inclined to be lenient, but officials such as Theophilus Metcalfe were vengeful. I personally always thought that religion was as much a driving force as the economic hardships were. Dalrymple's recreation of the city of Delhi under forms the monumental backdrop to the tragic figure of the eponymous monarch, the "last Mughal. Emperor was 82 years old when the started. Deprived of real political power by the East India Company, he nevertheless succeeded in creating a court of great brilliance, and presided over one of the great cultural renaissances of Indian history. This book, compiled from basic Hindu writings, is an exploration of the essential meaning of the Hindu tradition, the way of thinking and acting that has dominated life in India for the last three thousand years. This produced much muttering in the ranks. As the author himself says, it is astonishing that there was an avalanche of fascinating primary source materials petitions, letters of complaint, official reports, etc. A Precarious Position. The capital was therefore regarded with particular enmity by people such as the Rev Midgeley John Jennings, who wrote: "Within its walls, the pride of life, the lust of the eye and all the lusts of the flesh have reigned and revealed to the full, and all the glories of the Kingdoms of this portion of the earth have passed from one wicked possessor to another. Namespaces Article Talk. The generation that ended up being slaughtered and subsequently slaughtering in this book possessed a sense of cultural superiority and drive to religious conversion that led them both to astonishing examples of cultural insensitivity and to an inability to read the warning signs of trouble when they saw it. This is, at its essence, a wonderful, twisted and tragic story, full of characters who are human, whose motivations, fears and even ineptitude you grow to understand through the chapters. He quotes extensively from Urdu and Persian manuscripts; follows non-British participants, such as the famed poet Asadullah Khan, known as Ghalib an excellent observer ; and uses the voluminous Delhi court records containing the requests, grievances, and commentary of ordinary Delhi citizens to wonderful effect demonstrating that, as in most wars, the ones who suffered the most were the civilians crushed between warring armies. The description of habits , rituals , clashing and mixing and intermingling at the same time , along- wit Everything that can be said about this fabulously written , meticulously researched book has been said already by other respected reviewers. Apparently, the previous generation of British colonials so the author maintains were comparatively enthusiastic about learning and even adopting local habits and customs, sometimes to the point of inter-marriage. View all 3 comments. Accompanied by a few servants,and with few possessions,he spent his last days in obscurity. Everywhere men and boys are killed, guilty or not. Eventually, Nicholson gave the signal and the attackers charged. Bahadur Shah sided with the rebels,and as a consequence,was severely punished. It has little to offer in terms of insight into palace politics, The or, and perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this mutiny, the terrible way Indians were used to fight and kill Indians by the Company. This section does not cite any sources. The Last Mughal: The Fall of Delhi, 1857 Writer

Ypu'd really have to use your imagination if you have to call it one - definitely in the context of things that happened in India's current capital. In the mid 19th century a wave of Christian evangelism became prevalent, and efforts were made to promote the conversion of native religions. There is no such thing. This part in general is an interesting insight into a world that was lost and forgotten after - when a fair amount of Brits intermingled and lived with Delhi-ites, primarily the elite of the Mughal court again, a nominal authority by that time , when mushairas and ghazals and Ghalib were all real, and not stuff of urban legend that we sometimes intriguingly look back to. The Bengal regiments broke into rebellion on Sunday, when European troops customarily attended evening Church parade without arms. Although they had ample warning of disaffection among the Bengal Army after earlier outbreaks of unrest at Berhampur , Barrackpur and Ambala , they had assumed that at Meerut, where the proportion of European to Indian troops was higher than anywhere else in India, the Bengal units would not risk open revolt. I cannot doubt that they will do for the Hindoo what they have done for the Tartar. For one thing, the revolt was explicitly against alien authority, it occurred in most of North, Central and East India, and it was marked by the widespread participation of civilian participation and was accompanied by the sort of a marked the beginning of an armed revolution of the bloodiest and the greatest scale that we have ever known in India. It'll be a while before I get over the emotional trauma bore by my conscience to be able to write a befitting review. The problem is, Dalrymple is not the right sort of historian; he is too calculated, too bloodless, too starchy to imbue his narrative with the life it deserves. With the armed, threatening and excitable sepoys surrounding him on all sides, he had little choice. Viking Penguin. One admires the author's in-depth research, but I can't help feeling that a good, hard edit would have been a help. It was a city that had yet to suffer the collapse of self-belief that inevitably comes with the onset of open and unbridled colonialism. There he died, the last Mughal ruler in a line that stretched back to the sixteenth century. For an old man, you feel bad for him - but you can see that the world had already moved far ahead, and that no matter which side he backed, he and his family were bound to lose. Although the rebels still held large areas, there was little co-ordination between them and the British were inevitably able to overcome them separately. View all 9 comments. He had earlier insisted on retaining his doctor after the man had converted to Christianity, in spite of pressure from Muslim courtiers to sack him. This led to a profound loss of faith and disillusionment among the Indian . It is now history, but at some point it was the life lived by people like us. It ended with a siege by the British, capped by the massacre of men, women, and children by East India Company forces. In preceding centuries the descendants of Islamic conquerors ruled partly by consensus, and a degree of religious freedom existed between Muslims and . Return to Book Page. So the greased cartridges that offended the highly caste-sensitive upper caste Hindu's and the Muslim sipahis was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. But just for that genuineness, hats off. We shut the gates of military preferment upon them — we took from them every object of honorable ambition — and then our papers and our mess rooms teemed with invective against the lazy, slothful and sensuous princes. Are you asking to plagiarize someone's work? He personally intervened and tried his best to protect his subjects whenever they appealed to him. The Last Mughal: The Fall of Delhi, 1857 Reviews

Hidden categories: All stub articles. The Revolt started in the company's Bengal army sipahis, with the famous enacting the first bold act of defiance at . As mentioned in the introduction itself, its not merely a biographical account of The last mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, but its more a biography of Delhi, in and around the times of - with our emperor being the central focus, but clearly one among many in an ensemble cast. The attack was supposed to be launched at dawn, but the defenders had repaired some of the breaches overnight with sandbags, and further bombardment was required. The problem is, Dalrymple is not the right sort of historian; he is too calculated, too bloodless, too starchy to imbue his narrative with the life it deserves. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. The administration of the city and its new occupying army was chaotic, although it continued to function haphazardly. There was a frenzied general massacre of civilians at Delhi upon its fall in September , devastating and depopulating the whole city. He was buried anonymously and his grave was discovered decades later. Wiliam Boyd, winner of the Whitbread and Somerset Maugham Awards, introduces unlikely heroes desperate to On the Yankee Station. Feb 18, Dmitri rated it it was amazing Shelves: islam , india. The telegraph had been cut, but dispatch riders could easily have reached Delhi before the sepoys, had they been sent immediately. I had ordered a whole bunch of books on Near East and Islamic history and this one arrived at the library first. Even now I hesitate to write this review because it feels too much like saying goodbye. It is due to all this and also because of an extremely evocative account of skirmishes, that this book is a must read. You could be an expert in your field, having worked your way through every bit of ponderous tome you could ever read, but when it comes to creating a story out of it, a clear thread that runs through every bit of knowledge that you have - and to be able to share it with a reader, who comes with a background of having been told fuck-all in his school's history books - as if it had only happened yesterday, is no small feat. To Shoot Every Soul. And here in Delhi, too, of all places, where freedom of worship was once so revered under the Mughals. Beyond the rigor and breadth of the scholarship, Dalrymple is a fine writer. When the British eventually gained ascendency, they retaliated with equal and even more brutality with no regard to any of the human rights they professed. Goodreads Librari Still, in the end, "The Last Mughal" contains one of the clearest critiques of British imperialism that I've ever read. His expression is different too: knowingly handsome, and oddly cocky and confident for a boy of eleven. Some Company officers and civilians tried to take refuge in the Main Guard, but the sepoys there joined the revolt, and they were slaughtered. Above all, Zafar always put huge emphasis on his role as a protector of the Hindus and the moderator of Muslim demands. To that end, there is very little by way of overall context of the Uprising. The rockets, squibs and Roman candles were still exploding around the great red sandstone curtain walls of the Fort as the wedding procession slowly proceeded westwards down the top of Chandni Chowk, with its trees and central canal glittering in the light of the torches. He was caught in the storm in his final years and sadly he had to preside over the demise of the great Mughal dynasty. If history is to be creative, to anticipate a possible future without denying the past, it should, I believe, emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden episodes of the past when, even if in brief flashes, people showed their ability to resist, to join together, occasionally to win. Jun 22, Matt rated it really liked it Shelves: military-history , india. As a bonus, it also helped get rid of my fear of non-fiction! A must read for all Indians. Meanwhile,the frontiers of the empire kept shrinking,and the British East India Company,kept making steady inroads,to the extent that it actually ruled India. And in this way, he drew me, as a reader, into his story, and I couldn't put the book down. Wiliam Boyd, winner of the Whitbread and Somerset Maugham Awards, introduces unlikely heroes desperate to redeem their unsatisfying lives. The sepoys there who had hitherto remained aloof from the revolt turned on their officers, a few of whom escaped after the sepoys left to join the looting. It only covers Delhi, the epicenter of the rebellion. Larger than any of these was the enormous rebel army heading slowly toward Delhi from , miles to the east. This led to a profound loss of faith and disillusionment among the Indian Muslims. I know where the theatres are, I know where the shops are, I know where the hairdressers are.

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What blame does he deserve for the bloody fiasco? Nonetheless, Zafar—a mystic, poet, and calligrapher of great accomplishment—created a court of unparalleled brilliance, and gave rise to perhaps the greatest literary renaissance in modern Indian history. On 20 September, a party under William Hodson took him into custody on promise of clemency, and brought him back to the city. He was exiled. Nonetheless, on the whole, this book requires a bit of foreknowledge. The was one of the decisive conflicts of the Indian rebellion of Oct 20, Saif Hasan rated it did not like it. The first part is fairly interesting. The flashpoint was the introduction of the Pattern Enfield rifle. This article about a non-fiction book on history of India or its predecessor states is a stub. Everywhere men and boys are killed, guilty or not. Mar 03, Sorabh Sharma rated it it was ok. Sep 02, David rated it it was amazing Shelves: read-history. All were made of gold and were raised on gilt staffs from which trailed silken streamers. See all 5 questions about The Last Mughal…. And it was a war that could have gone wither way. The explosion demolished part of the gate, a bugler with the party signalled success and the third column charged in. The last emperor was also known to his familiars as Zafar - the pen name he used when writing poetry - a word which means "victory" and which could scarcely have been less appropriate, given that it was attached to one of history's great losers. The Confederacy tended to live off the land, as did the mutineers did the city, which was unsustainable. For one thing, the revolt was explicitly against alien authority, it occurred in most of North, Central and East India, and it was marked by the widespread participation of civilian participation and was accompanied by the sort of a marked the beginning of an armed revolution of the bloodiest and the greatest scale that we have ever known in India. Reading it was indeed experiencing history. This is a very comprehensive look at the Uprising and the conditions that led to the end of the Mughal rule. It then looped down the Khas Bazaar, before skirting the much smaller but beautifully gilt and illuminated domes of the Suneheri Masjid, and on through the Faiz Bazaar into Daryaganj. It's a bit too extensive right now, and does not give voice to all my thoughts - will take a second pass and making this a little more coherent soon. This is fitting, as , the second Mughal emperor, was also more suited to poetry than politics and also lost his throne, regaining it just in time to pass it along to his remarkable son in If you are interested in getting a glimpse of India somewhere during the mutiny, this is the book, an excellent read. Members save with free shipping everyday! It was a sad but wonderful and enlightening look at once more, one that I have never glimpsed in all the years I studied Indian history in school and college. He was buried anonymously and his grave was discovered decades later. Other than defending their own barracks and armouries, the Company's commanders at Meerut took little action, not even notifying nearby garrisons or stations. Another was earned here, by Lieutenant Thackerey for extinguishing a fire in the magazine, whilst under musket fire. Caught between the possibility of instant death at the hands of his own people, or the future wrath of Great Britain should the Uprising fail, Zafar chose to back the Uprising. Some might see this as a hedging of bets, but it was, in truth, the reflex of a lifelong ditherer; and that is not the stuff of which rebel leaders are made. And there were also those Indians, not British whose sole intention was to profit from the ensuing anarchy. The rest [of my sons] have no comparison with him. Bahadur Shah Zafar was the last Mughal, a king in name only,one left with just a title and confined to Delhi, by the British. But in the years to come, as Muslim prestige and learning sank, and Hindu confidence, wealth, education and power increased, Hindus and Muslims would grow gradually apart, as British policies of divide and rule found willing collaborators among the chauvinists of both faiths. Simply put: This is how history should be written. Find word.

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