PARTICIPATION AND POSITION OF WOMEN UPRISING OF 1857: REDEFINITION OF SOCIAL STATUS: THEN AND NOW (i) (ii) Participation and Position of Women Uprising of 1857: Redefinition of Social Status: Then and Now Kirti Narain Historian and Professor, Retd. Principal Jai Hind College, Mumbai. ISO 9001: 2008 CERTIFIED (iii) © Author No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording and/or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher. First Edition : 2017 Published by : Mrs. Meena Pandey for Himalaya Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., “Ramdoot”, Dr. Bhalerao Marg, Girgaon, Mumbai - 400 004. Phone: 022-23860170/23863863; Fax: 022-23877178 E-mail: [email protected]; Website: www.himpub.com Branch Offices : New Delhi : “Pooja Apartments”, 4-B, Murari Lal Street, Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, New Delhi - 110 002. 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Phone: 079-26560126; Mobile: 09377088847 Ernakulam : 39/176 (New No. 60/251), 1st Floor, Karikkamuri Road, Ernakulam, Kochi - 682011. Phone: 0484-2378012, 2378016; Mobile: 09387122121 Bhubaneswar : 5 Station Square, Bhubaneswar - 751 001 (Odisha). Phone: 0674-2532129; Mobile: 09338746007 Kolkata : 108/4, Beliaghata Main Road, Near ID Hospital, Opp. SBI Bank, Kolkata - 700 010. Phone: 033-32449649; Mobile: 7439040301 DTP by : Nilima Jadhav Printed at : M/s. Aditya Offset Process (I) Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad. On behalf of HPH. (iv) FOREWORD It gives me great pleasure to say a few words about the significance of the contribution of women to the Uprising of 1857 which is the subject of this book. Dr. Kirti Narain’s piquantly titled, “Participation and Position of Women Uprising of 1857: Redefinition of Social Status: Then and Now”, deals with the role that women played in this landmark event, the nature of which has formed a subject of debate among historians and non-academics too. This is a neglected phenomenon which has been dealt with comprehensively and analytically. In doing so, the book has unearthed the role of several women belonging to almost all echelons of society who had some linkage with the revolt. There is the royalty and the landed aristocracy who formed the natural leaders of the uprising; equally impactful is the contribution of the warriors, the courtesans, the common women, the singing minstrels, etc. What is interesting is the mobilization of the nameless women who were giving the grass root support and forming the symbol of popular resistance. Dr. Narain has endeavoured to debunk the notion of limited spread, so firstly, not only is the civilian population an active participant, the women too, despite social restrictions, are visible and not just a silent minority. Secondly, she has also projected the spread of the spirit of the revolt in the entire country, countering the accepted view of the revolt being restricted to north India and central India. Both these contentions have been displayed in six customized maps. The book deals with resistance as a social, political and cultural phenomenon. It has discussed social issues that existed in the mid-nineteenth century, and those that affect women in contemporary India. Dr. Narain has looked at archival documents, explored popular perceptions, and has consulted a plethora of published and unpublished documents. It also profiles the story of a few participants in the uprising, known and unknown, on the basis of oral interviews of the descendants. The family trees of each of the eleven families interviewed give clarity to the genealogical and transformational angle of the discourse. The inclusion of the print media and the diaries compiled then reveal and reiterate the significance of the written word. These compel the reader to visualize the attitudes on both sides—the ruler and the ruled—during and after the event. There is a discussion of reward or punishment meted out to the Indians and a common thread is visible of a clamp down upon perceived opponents and reward to loyalists according to the enormity of support or opposition. In view of the issues that Dr. Narain has explored and the sources that she has used, her insights on the 1857 Uprising are of great value to historical scholarship. It is a valuable piece of scholarship and I hope that it will receive the wide readership it deserves. Mushirul Hasan Professor of History and Former Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Director General of the National Archives of India (2010-13) Jawaharlal Nehru Fellow, New Delhi (2013-15) President of the Indian History Congress (Modern India); General President (2014) Padma Shri Awardee (2007) (v) (vi) ABOUT THE COVER AND AUTHOR The cover has sketches of women of all types and from all strata of society. Most of them represent the period of nineteenth century India. There is a woman belonging to the royalty, there is a warrior and there are women who belong to the common populace. No particular heroine is represented. The contemporary woman also appears as does the standard symbol of equality of the sexes. The weapons that appear are those that were used by the Indians in fighting the British, and have been taken from various sources like the house of Tatya Tope that has been converted into a museum by the family members. The lotus has been included as it was a code for spreading the conspiracy messages among the people. The colour scheme of white and black has been used to project the stark contrast between the attitude of the British government and the rebels. These sketches have been done by Jaydev Gupta but the cover has been designed by the author and Amina Hasan. About the Author Dr. Kirti Narain is a historian and professor. She was Project Director at Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow where she worked upon the ICSSR Project on which this book is based. She retired as Principal of Jai Hind College, Mumbai in 2011. She was Adjunct Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong where she taught Indian History and courses on Women in India for five years. She was also Fellow at the University of Hong Kong and worked on a Project on Education of Girls in China and India. Prior to that, she was Head of the Department of History at the Dayanand Girls Post-Graduate College, Kanpur. An academic for thirty-eight years, she has five books and around forty papers to her credit. She is the recipient of several awards and has organized many national and international academic seminars. Disclaimer: The author is not responsible for opinions of interviewees, writers and newspapers (2016). (vii) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS At the outset, I would like to thank the Indian Council of Social Science Research for funding the project. The Giri Institute of Development Studies has provided all the facilities required for a project of such mammoth proportion. In this regard, I would like to thank Professor Surinder Kumar, the Director of Giri Institute for his unstinting support in every way. I am extremely thankful to Professor A.K. Singh, for forwarding the proposal to ICSSR. I would like to extend my deep appreciation to Dr. Amina Hasan for her intellectual, professional and psychological support during the course of the project. She has been involved with it since almost the beginning, as Senior Research Assistant, and the kind of maturity that she has displayed is commendable in one so young. She had a solution to any problem that arose and worked tirelessly for making the project a success. She is a Geographer and is responsible for creating the six maps that have leant depth to the venture. She was also the ‘official photographer’ and is solely responsible for the photographs that appear in the book. Most of them have been personally taken by her. I acknowledge the invaluable contribution made by her in all fields. I would also thank the Research Assistants who were associated with the project at various points in time, especially Neetu Batra who was with me for over nine months and, being a Sociologist, helped in the writing of the chapter on social issues. My students from Jai Hind College, Mumbai, Prathmesh Bonsle and Tarannum Samtani facilitated relevant research at the Maharashtra Archives. Arohini Narain helped me professionally. Tishya Mathur and Major General Ashok Coomar gave useful inputs. Colonel Bhattacharya, deputed by Major General Kumar, was kind enough to go personally to the descendants of Rani of Jhansi and interview them. Shakila Hasan assisted in the compilation of a story based on a book. I would also like to thank all the interviewees who were forthcoming in giving us the relevant information. I thank Om Shankar Khare ‘Asar’ ji, Dr. A.K. Pandey and Meera ji of the Jhansi Museum, Mohan Nepali, and others. I would be failing in my duty if I do not thank Shahanshah Mirza, descendant of Wajid Ali Shah in Kolkata. He helped our team in accessing information and arranged for interviews with relevant personages in Kolkata.