Indian view of 1857 War exhibition in New Delhi

New Delhi, July 10: Commemorating the hundred and fiftieth year of the First War of Independence of 1857, the reflection of the historic uprising through an Indian prism was displayed at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library here.

The War of 1857 is always remembered as a sign of violent opposition of British authority in India. Its contemporary and near contemporary visual narratives are very important in increasing our understanding of the occurrences of this historic year.

But most of the sketches and paintings of 1857 are from British hands, reproduced by the British printing press in journals and albums and preserved with care in museums and archieves all over the world including India. But no such Indian documents available are identified as authentically contemporary.

The Indian voice of those times can only be heard in the surviving texts of proclamations and letters, orders as well as rare first person narratives in the form of memoirs and despositions at trials of the rebels.

An exhibition by the Indian Council of Historical Research has thus tried to recover and highlight this suppressed Indian voice of the historic revolt.

The pictorial representation from British hands is undoubtedly of historical value as the pictures are authentic artifacts of those times. The texts from Indian hands are also authenticated statements of a different way of looking at those times.These two different kinds of documents have been assembled in the exhibition entitled 'Representations of 1857:Recovering the Indian voice.' In the present collection of exhibits the focus is upon the north Indian scene.It illustrated works like those of Charles Ball (History of Indian Mutiny, 2 vols., London, 1858); Narrative of the Indian Revolt from its outbreak to the capture of Lucknow (London, 1858) and R. Montgomery Martin (The Indian Empire, 3 vols.,London, 1858-61).

The ICHR plans to orgaise similar exhibitions in at least half a dozen major cities in different parts of India and as the exhibition travels, material appropriate to the region will be added.

''The best thing about the paintings is that one can't differentiate the victor and the defeated from these' said noted historian Prof Bipan Chandra while inaugurating the exhibition at the Nehru Museum and Library yesterday.

''The history of our glorious freedom struggle is fading from the public memory.This has been an honest endeavour on our part to make them relive the history'' said Mr Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, chairman of Indian Council of Historical research.

''The purpose of holding the exhibition at the Nehru museum was to ensure the maximum participation of the common masses,'' said Prof Mridula Mukherjee, director of Nehru Memorial Museum and Library adding that efforts would be made to involve younger generation specially school kids in the event.

UNI

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