Though the 150th year of the Great Revolt of 1857 has already been adequately celebrated through countless seminars and publications still the national euphoria persists. More and more the documents and contemporary writings by both British and Indian writers are being explored, annotated and published by an increasing number of committed historians and archivists. I have also fallen in line with of this great convey of historian cum archivist as one of the genre. In this book I am presenting such authors mostly on Bengal George Dodd, R. C. Majumdar, Manmatha Nath Das, M. K. Molla and some rare documents.
Its relevance is that after more than hundred years when the dust is settled down and most of the combatants had gone to their graves and pyres, the perspective becomes absolutely clear and truth comes out. It is expected that the readers of my book will have the same empathy to share with me. I have taken special care to highlight Bengal which somehow remains in the periphery of research on the revolt. United Bengal had also been frequently a battleground of the warring parties and the spark after all came from Berhampore, Barrackpore and thus penetrated in various cantonments of Bengal Presidency.
The survey of recent writings, in India and abroad, on the Revolt of 1857 reveals some broad trends of historical research on the subject. But they have shown a marked reluctance to narrate the dimension and density of the revolt that took place in Bengal. The main purpose of the present paper would be to explore the nature and outbreak of the revolt of 1857 that had taken place in various parts of Bengal. There is no recent research on the Revolt of 1857 and Bengal excepting the works of Ratanlal Chakraborty, Basudeb Chattopadhyay and Ananda Bhattacharya.
Ratanlal Chakraborty on the basis of the primary sources of Bangladesh Secretariat Records, (presently known as Bangladesh National Archives, Dhaka) has given an account of the sporadic incidents and skirmishes that took place between the sepoys and the East India Company's officials in Dacca, Chittagong, Rangpur and some other places of East Bengal. He has failed to explain the responses of the tribes, peasantry and other groups of society who had a positive role in the rebellion. Rather he surprisingly comments: "...there was no popular movement in Bengal." Simultaneously he has remarked: "... nevertheless this should not lead us to generalize that this region was entirely unaffected by the Revolt of 1857. The offensive and defensive resistance of Chittagong and Dhaka; several skirmishes at Sylhet and Jessore, Rangpur, Pabna and Dinajpur had left Bengal in a state of tension and excitement." It may be argued how the district may be affected if it persists in a tension and excitement and if tension and fear prevailed throughout the country for long. It is to be noted that British Government was very much apprehensive of popular movement that Government of India had issued a circular to all District Collectors instructing them to dispatch reports every Saturday and often if need be, should briefly state whether there is any appearance of popular movement and excitement deserving notice and attention of the Government. Elsewhere, about the participation of the peasantry in that great upheaval he comments: "The role of the peasantry and laborers of East Bengal during the Revolt of 1857 may be described as passive; they remained sometimes aloof that they took shelter in the interior parts of villages. The findings from West Bengal State Archives records throw a different picture. There are some instances where the peasants whole-heartedly joined with the rebel sepoys, and used to supply food, shelter, arms and ammunition to the rebels. This combination spread some rumors in the interior parts of villages for which the joint Magistrate of Pabna reported to the Secretary of Bengal for taking retaliatory measures for the apprehension of the rebels: "...rumors have been going about the Regiment which was to march through the district and all the carts and cattle would be seized and men impressed as coolies that has a regular panic among the population and energy men have concealed their carts and cattle and women...."10.
Panic and rumor was another factor in determining the significance of the rebellion. Kalyan Kumar Sengupta" admitted the fact that there was excitement and panic among Indian and European residents but he came to the conclusion that the city of Calcutta, the seat of the East India Company, remained practically quiet during the eventful days of 1857. B.V. Ray has given an account of the state of affairs in Calcutta during the year 1857 as recorded in his [the] letters written home by an Englishman, C. B. Cowell, Professor of History at the Presidency College.
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