Historiography of 1857: An Overview

Abstract

Vast literature has been written on the events of 1857 since its occurrence in May 1857. That literature is diverse in form, themes, approaches and interpretation. There are memoirs, biographies, British official collection of events, native writings and writings of amateur and professional historians. All have exhibited different angles of the causes and consequences of events along with different approaches of historical studies, racial or national pride and biases etc. This paper provides an over view of the different aspects of the historical literature on 1857 which, specifically and wholly, is on the events of 1857 and provide an analytical and interpretative approach. It also gives an insight into the ongoing debates on the nature of the war of 1857. In the literature, it is declared as mutiny or sepoy revolt, war of independence, national movement, anti–imperialist peasant revolt, fight for personal interest, Muslim conspiracy and Wahabi movement etc.