1857: Reconstruction of History

Abstract

One hundred and fifty one years have passed since the first war of Indian independence. It was an important event in the history of freedom struggle against British rule. Nations write and rewrite their history in order to create historical consciousness among people. The task of historians becomes difficult if the past is distorted and fractured as a result of some dominant political historical interpretation. In this case, they have to retrieve the lost past and reconstruct it on the basis of fresh evidence .With the passage of time number of new documents and sources have been published on 1857. They brought in to light new facts about the event which has greatly changed the perspective of historians. Of course, during British rule, historians were not allowed to write anything against the colonial view point about 1857. The British administrators and journalists, on the other hand, were allowed to fully described the atrocities committed by the Indians and suffering of the Europeans during the crisis. They popularized the term ‘mutiny’ or ghadar for the rebellion.