Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 01:14 24 May 2016 Contents i Insurgent Sepoys Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 01:14 24 May 2016 ii Insurgent Sepoys Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 01:14 24 May 2016 Contents iii Insurgent Sepoys Europe views the Revolt of 1857 Editor Shaswati Mazumdar Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 01:14 24 May 2016 LONDON NEW YORK NEW DELHI iv Insurgent Sepoys First published 2011 in India by Routledge 912 Tolstoy House, 15–17 Tolstoy Marg, Connaught Place, New Delhi 110 001 Simultaneously published in the UK by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2011 Shaswati Mazumdar Typeset by Star Compugraphics Private Limited D–156, Second Floor Sector 7, Noida 201 301 Printed and bound in India by Avantika Printers Private Limited 194/2, Ramesh Market, Garhi, East of Kailash, New Delhi-110065 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publishers. Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 01:14 24 May 2016 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-0-415-59799-9 This book is printed on ECF environment-friendly paper manufactured from unconventional and other raw materials sourced from sustainable and identifi ed sources. Contents v Advance Praise for the Book Nothing could be more welcome than a book on the European responses to the revolt of 1857 in India. Long focused on how the Indians and British locked horns, we have ignored how so many others in the world viewed this bitter contest. Here at last an international cast of scholars assess German, French, Italian, Czech, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Spanish, and Portuguese literary and media responses to these traumatic events. Ambivalent always, they variously endorsed the colonial punishment of India, were severely critical of British rule, or rubbed their hands with glee at British discomfi ture. Like the colonial administrators, the European literary imagination returned to the theme for several decades, ceaselessly recasting the images of Indians and of the British in India. We may now look forward to an equally stimulating volume on reactions from other parts of Europe and the world. Madhavan K. Palat Formerly Professor of Russian and European History, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi This timely and essential collection offers unprecedented perspectives on the Indian Revolt of 1857. With its focus on European responses it brings out the enormous international signifi cance of the events. Materials in no fewer than eight European languages other than English have been uncovered and studied, often for the fi rst time. The collection sheds light on the extraordinarily wide spectrum of European interpretations of the confl ict between the British and Indians. With its focus on journalistic and fi ctional writing it includes Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 01:14 24 May 2016 newspaper articles as well as popular adventure novels and literary texts by well-known authors such as Theodor Fontane, Jules Verne, Francisco Luis Gomes, and Jacinto Benavente — many of them displaying an uneasy tension between orientalist modes of thinking and a sustained critique of British imperialism. The individual essays show how European responses to the revolt must be understood against the backdrop of the fundamental transformations taking place on the continent roughly at the same vi Insurgent Sepoys time. What resonates in writings on the revolt are issues of colonial power-politics and discourses of race, palpable, for example, in texts from France and Spain; emergent nationalism and unifi catory processes in Germany and Italy; and, in Hungarian, Czech and Bulgarian writing, the “ideas of 1848” and the struggle for independence. This collection clearly is a signifi cant step towards establishing an archive of the worldwide reactions to the revolt of 1857. It will open up the road ahead for further research on the transnational repercussions of colonialism. Astrid Erll Professor of English and New Literatures, Goethe-University Frankfurt Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 01:14 24 May 2016 Contents vii Contents List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgements xiii 1. Introduction 1 Shaswati Mazumdar Part I: News and Views 2. German Responses: Theodor Fontane, Edgar Bauer, Wilhelm Liebknecht 19 Claudia Reichel 3. French Counter-narratives: Nationalisme, Patriotisme and Révolution 43 Nicola Frith 4. Freedom and Democracy: The Revolt in the Italian Press 63 Chiara Cherubini 5. A View of the Revolt in the Spanish Press 81 Vibha Maurya and Maneesha Taneja 6. Hungarian Responses: Between Support and Disagreement 94 Margit Köves 7. Czech Representations of India and the Rebellion, 1850–1930 111 Sarah Lemmen Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 01:14 24 May 2016 8. Buˇlgarska Dnevnitsa: A Bulgarian Response to the Uprising 124 Rashmi Joshi Part II: Fact and Fiction 9. Retcliffe’s Nena Sahib and the German Discourse on India 137 Anil Bhatti viii Insurgent Sepoys 10. The Rebellion of an Indian Temple Dancer 152 Carola Hilmes 11. The Stirring Story of the ‘Cipays’: Italian Narrative Responses 171 Flaminia Nicora 12. ‘Remember Cawnepore’: The ‘Massacre’ in the Voice of Three Italian Narrators 189 Sharmistha Lahiri 13. Emilio Salgari’s The Two Tigers: Exoticism, Anti-imperialism and Ambivalence 211 Alessandro Portelli 14. Lost in Translation: Jules Verne and the Indian Rebellion 221 Swati Dasgupta 15. ‘A Great Insurrection’: Jules Verne and British ‘Mutiny’ Fiction 237 Suchitra Choudhury 16. The Rebellion in a 19th-century Indo-Portuguese Novel 251 Everton V. Machado 17. Francisco Luiz Gomes’s Os Brahamanes: The Uprising and Anglo-Indian Society 269 Balaji Ranganathan 18. El dragón del fuego: A Dramatic Representation of the Revolt 278 Vijaya Venkataraman Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 01:14 24 May 2016 About the Editor 289 Notes on Contributors 291 Index 297 Contents ix List of Illustrations The visuals have all been photographed for this book from the sources mentioned. Thanks are owed to the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Berlin State Library) for assistance and permission to photograph the visuals from German sources and to Flaminia Nicora for the visuals from Italian sources. Every effort has been made to fi nd out any owners of copyright regarding the visual material reproduced in this book. Perceived omissions if brought to notice will be rectifi ed in future editions. 1. ‘Delhi und seine Umgebungen’ (Delhi and its Environs), in the German weekly Illustrirte Zeitung (Illustrated Newspaper), Leipzig, no. 750, November 14, 1857, p. 317; probably drawn after an illustration entitled ‘Plan of Delhi and its Environs’ in the Weekly Dispatch, London, 1857, but with information added on population fi gures of Hindus and Muslims separately. p. xiv 2. ‘Zur Gastronomie. Unter allen „Delicatessen“ der diesjährigen Herbst-Saison werden gegenwärtig in London zum Dessert ,,Indische Nester“ am liebsten und mit wahrer Begierde eingenommen. Es gehört aber ein gesunder Magen dazu’ (On Gastronomy: Amongst all the “Delicacies” for Dessert in this Year’s Autumn Season in London, “Indian nests” are Currently the Most Popular and Consumed with Avid Desire. But it Certainly Requires a Healthy Stomach), in the German weekly Kladderadatsch. Humoristisch-satyrisches Wochenblatt (Crash: Humourous Satirical Weekly), Berlin, September 27, 1857, p. 180; the full page may be viewed at http://diglit.ub.uni- heidelberg.de/diglit/kla1857/0180. p. 18 Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 01:14 24 May 2016 3. ‘La Guerre des Indes’ (The Indian War), in Histoire Populaire Contemporaine de la France (Popular Contemporary History of France), Paris: Hachette, 1865, vol. 3, chapter XIII (La Guerre des Indes), p. 305. p. 42 4. ‘Die Einnahme der Hauptmoschee Dschamna Musdschid zu Delhi am 16. September’ (The Capture of the Main Mosque Jama Masjid in Delhi on 16 September), in Illustrirte Zeitung, no. 754, December 12, 1857, p. 380. p. 80 x Insurgent Sepoys 5. ‘Flucht der Sipoys bei Entsetzung der Residenz von Lacknau durch Sir Colin Campbell am 18. November’ (Sepoys Fleeing during the Relief of Lucknow by Sir Colin Campbell on 18 November), in Illustrirte Zeitung, no. 761, January 30, 1858, p. 73. p. 110 6. ‘Nena Sahib, nach einem Oelgemälde von Beechy’ (Nana Sahib, after an Oil Painting by Beechy), in Illustrirte Zeitung, no. 748, October 31, 1857, p. 288. An almost identical image was carried in two other European periodicals: in the German weekly Die Gartenlaube. Illustrirtes Familienblatt (The Arbour: Illustrated Family Magazine), Leipzig, no. 37, September 10–16, 1857, p. 589, entitled ‘Nena Sahib’; and in the Hungarian weekly Vasárnapi Újság (Sunday Magazine), Pest, November 22, 1857, p. 509, entitled ‘Nana Sahib’. p. 136 7. ‘Die Erschießung meuterischer Sipoys zu Firospur am 13. Juni’ (The Execution of Mutinous Sepoys at Firozpur on 13 June), in Illustrirte Zeitung, no. 740, September 5, 1857, p. 153. The illustration was probably drawn after one that appeared in the Illustrated Times, London, 1857, entitled ‘The Blowing of Sepoy Prisoners of War from the Mouth of Cannon’. An almost identical image with minor differences also appeared in two other European publications: in Die Gartenlaube, no. 36, September 3–9, 1857, p. 497, with the caption ‘Hinrichtung indischer Meuterer’ (Execution of Indian Mutineers); and in Edoardo Warren, L’ India inglese. Prima e dopo l’ insurrezione del 1857 (British India: Before and after the Revolt of 1857), trans. Cesare Sabbatini, Naples: L. Padoa, 1858 (Italian edition of original in French: Édouard de Warren, L’ Inde anglaise: Avant et après l’ insurrection de 1857, Paris: Hachette, 1857), with the caption ‘Supplirio alla bocca del cannone’ Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 01:14 24 May 2016 (Torture at the Mouth of the Cannon).