The Revolt of 1857 - Saugor and Narbudda Territory

The Revolt of 1857 is an important landmark in the history of Modern India. As the historians have paid scant and inadequate attention to the revolt of 1857 in the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories, an important and vital gap has been created in the nationalist movement of India in general and these territories in particular. The object of this book is to fill this gap.

Another object of this book is to delineate the nature and consequences of the British rule in these territories. Since 1818 after their victory over the Marathas in the third Anglo-Maratha War, it had antagonised both the local chiefs and the people alike in them. It was manifested in the forms of the Bundela rebellion of 1842 and the revolt of 1857. It is a noteworthy fact that both these revolts were feudal revolts. Under the prevailing circumstances it was but natural that both these revolts were led by the dispossessed and discontented. feudal chiefs as the age of the popular revolt or mass upsurge had not yet begun in India.

Born on 1 August 1932, Dr. P.S. Mukharya had a successful academic career. He was awarded a Research Fellowship of the National Archives of India under the Ministry of Education in 1959 for his Ph.D.-work. It was later on published in 1980 in a book, The Administration of Lord Auckland in India, 1836-42.

The revolt of 1857 in the Saugor and Nerbudda Territo ries against the British rule was but a part of the country wide movement to destroy the British dominion in India. The historians have paid scant attention to the revolt of 1857 in these territories. We find only the scattered refer ences of it in the History books and, therefore, its picture does not emerge in entirety. An important and vital gap has thus been created in the nationalist movement of India in general and these territories in particular. The object of this research-project is to fill this gap. I am grateful to the Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi, for providing me this opportunity by awarding the Senior Research Fel lowship after my retirement.

The concept of rebellion underwent a phenomenal transformation after our independence although it had taken quite some time for the students of history to mark the difference between 'mutiny' and 'revolt'. In the growing literature on the Revolt of 1857, one finds no mention of the contribution of obscure topographical areas which were the intense battle-areas of organized revolts against the British rule. The revolt in the Saugor and Nerbudda territories in 1857 was not a localized sporadic incident but was an event which depicted wider awakening of a unified determination and valour to oust the foreign rule from our country.

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