Osian's exhibition to mark Ist War of Independence gets underway

New Delhi, Mar 15 (UNI) An exhibition by Osian's--'An Historical Epic-India in the Making' (1600-1840s)--to commemorate 150 years of the 1857 First War of Independence opened here at India Habitat Centre on a chilly Wednesday evening.

The exposition, which will be open till March 23, is the first in a series of three exhibitions presented by the Osian's Archive and Library Collection that will be held through the year in memory of the historic uprising. The insurrection was triggered on May 10, 1857 in Meerut by Mangal Pandey, a sepoy (soldier) in the 34th Regiment of the Bengal Native Infantry (BNI) of the British East India Company, when the British introduced new rifle cartridges rumored to be greased with oil made from the fat of animals.

It highlights the significant historical moments of Indian history in the last 400 years focusing on the advent of the Europeans in India and the political resistance offered by various Indian rulers.

'India in the Making' is an amalgam of aquatints, engravings, etchings, maps, plans, sculptures, paintings, antiquarian photographs and books, advertisements, calendars, oleographs, chromolithographs, song synopsis booklets, photographic lobby cards, cinema posters, textile labels and costumes.

The collection incldues artworks by Rober Kerr Porter, Henry Singleton, J Murray, Col E Impey, Burke and Baker, Henry Dixon, Samuel Bourne, Emily Eden, Sobha Singh and others.

Osian's Connoisserus of Art Pvt Ltd Chairman Neville Tuli, who has built this collection of 250,000 artifacts, said,''I have collected each artwork with a very clear objective of 'sensitising India' and our people of the vast visual heritage and knowledge base we have. If any one link is weak, we fail as a great civilization.'' UNI