The events of 185758 in India are seen here through a series of previously untold or littleknown accounts which show that they were much more complex than suggested by the label ‘Indian Mutiny’ applied by British writers (who saw the events as a colonial rebellion) or ‘First War of Independence’ which is used by most Indian writers. Drawing on archival and visual sources in Britain and India these accounts tell of the murder of the British Resident in the princely state of Kotah of Indians who opposed the Mutiny and suffered at the hands of the ‘mutineers’ of the small but significant number of Europeans who fought with the Indians against the British of the giant mud wall which the inhabitants of Lucknow built to defend themselves against the British and of the ‘prize agents’ of the East India Company licensed looters of seemingly limitless rapacity. The aftermath of the revolt and the ways in which it was commemorated are also recorded and throughout personal accounts convey the trauma of the dislocated times the participants’ anxiety and desperation the grisly bloodshed the vast devastation – illustrating as one Indian soldier who served in the East India Company’s army put it ‘the wind of madness’ that swept the subcontinent. About the Author Rosie Llewellynjones is author and editor of numerous books on India the most recent being Lucknow City of Illusion. She is the honorary secretary of the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia
