Advance, not retreat

The building up of tension in anticipation of the verdict of the Allahabad High Court on four title suits claiming ownership over  the disputed Babri Masjid/Ram Janmabhoomi site at Ayodhya on September 24 is palpable. In this context, one cannot escape recollecting that on this day — September

 14, 1857 – the British launched their final assault on Delhi, completely routing “the most magnificent city east of Constantinople”. Thus began the notorious divide-and-rule policy that the British adopted to consolidate their colonial occupation and loot of India. A contemporary British chronicler in central India,  Thomas Lowe, during the first war of independence wrote in 1860: “To live in India now was like standing on the verge of a volcanic crater, the sides of which were fast crumbling away from our feet, while the boiling lava was ready to erupt and consume us”.

Further, he exclaimed: “The infanticide Rajput, the bigoted Brahmin, the fanatic Mussalman, had joined together in the cause; cow-killer and the cow-worshipper, the pig-hater and the pig-eater…” had revolted together.

Clearly, such unity as displayed by Indians during 1857-59 against the British could not be allowed if the British were to continue to rule India. The divide-and-rule policy officially began and was later cemented with the partition of the Hindu and the Muslim electorates in undivided Bengal in 1905. The popular resistance to this — the swadeshi movement — laid the foundations for the emergence of the modern freedom struggle.

In a groundbreaking work, Besieged, Mahmood Farooqui provides a rich translation of the archival ‘Mutiny Papers’ for the first time. One can see here that in every statement/deposition made by every resident of Delhi to the authorities against the entry Qaun, we find descriptions such as Ahir, Gujjar, Rajput, Kori, Khatri, Shaikh, Pathan, Dafali etc. Nowhere has a categorisation been made on the basis of religion. In fact, the widely circulated daily, Dihli Urdu Akhbaar, reported that the 1857 rebellion “had been sent by the Gods to punish the kafirs (read British) for their arrogant plan to wipe out the religions of India”. Note the reference is not any particular religion but to all religions of this land.

Full report here Hindustan Times