Key Points to Ponder:
- What’s the ongoing story-
- A few feet away from an Ashokan pillar, inscribed with Ashoka’s policy and Dharma in the Brahmi script, stands a tapering four-tier red sandstone structure rising from an octagonal base on the Northern Ridge.
- This is the Mutiny Memorial, built in the memory of those who had fought in the Delhi Field Force, both British and Indians, during the Revolt of 1857.
- The structure is prolifically inscribed with written accounts of the revolt. The placard on the structure’s lowest tier read, “In Memory of the officers and soldiers, British and native of the Delhi Field Force, who were killed in action or died of wounds or disease between the 30th May and 20th September 1857.”
- For Your Information-
According to the author and historian Swapna Liddle, “The Mutiny Memorial was built to honour those who fought from the British side during the Revolt of 1857 but later after Independence, particularly after 25 years, they re-dedicated it to the memory of those Indians who lost their lives fighting the British.” Professor of history at Ashoka University and historian Nayanjot Lahiri, in her research paper, ‘Commemorating and Remembering 1857: The Revolt in Delhi and its Afterlife’, states: “On one hand, of the destruction, demolition and confiscation that took place in the city and also in some of Delhi’s villages, during and in the aftermath of the revolt. On the other hand, equally transforming was the British commemoration of their victory, which resulted in the construction of a memorialised landscape by them, around the graves of dead soldiers and the scenes of military action.”
- 1857 Revolt-Background
- Difference between the Revolt of 1857 from the earlier uprisings
- Nature of Revolt and Protest before 1857
- Significance of Revolts before 1857 and its impact on 1857 Revolt
- Regions/People affected by the Revolt of 1857
- Causes of the Revolt-Economic Causes, Political Causes, Administrative Causes and Socio-Religious Causes
- Immediate Causes of the Revolt-Discontent among Sepoys and other reasons
- Prominent Leaders of the Revolts-General Bakht Khan, Nana Saheb, Begum Hazrat Mahal, Khan Bahadur, Kunwar Singh, Maulvi Ahmadullah of Faizabad and Rani Laxmibai
- Suppression of the 1857 Revolt-Role of Zamindars and Princely States
- Reasons for the failure of 1857 Revolt-Brainstorm
- Changes Introduced after the Revolt-Administration, Military and Socio-religious Consequences
- Significance of the 1857 Revolt
