Saying the unsaid

Mahmood Farooqui turns a new leaf with his book on the lesser known aspects of the First War of Independence

The documents were “too rich” and “fascinating” and the “untold stories” of 1857 deserved a hearing. So, Mahmood Farooqui embarked on a journey that was to take the wonderful form of a book. The effort is indeed groundbreaking, because it brings to life the Mutiny Papers that have documented the siege of Delhi.

“I wanted to bring out, more than anything, what Delhi was and what it went through. Delhi had gone through many upheavals, but 1857, the brutality with which it was suppressed, was something that we have not been fully mindful of,” says the chronicler of “Besieged, Voices From Delhi, 1857” (Penguin).

Giving it (the documents) a shape was a huge challenge. Farooqui had to transcribe and translate the papers from Urdu to English. “They were too fragile and I couldn't have photocopied them all. They were in thousands. The material had to be beaten into some kind of a narrative, a coherent shape.”

Full report here Hindu