1857 in Folk Tales by P. C. Joshi (Hardcover)

Description

The History of the Revolt of 1857 has been told by many, beginning with British administrators in the 19th century to the historians of our own times. Almost all of them have drawn upon colonial records which in themselves are biased sources, heavily loaded against the rebels, either by distortion or by silence. Consequently, the voice of the rebels have hardly been recovered. in the absence of written records left by the rebels, the only way it could be recovered is through the oral tradition of the great historical event kept alive by different popular cultural forms. The folk songs culled together in this volume is drawn from such a tradition.

The songs are collected from different parts of the country. They deal with important rebel leaders like Rani of Jhansi, Kunwar Singh and the Begam of Oudh. They reflect the popular feelings towards the rebel leaders and animosity towards the colonial rulers. They would provide insights into the popular mentality which helped shape the resistance against British rule in India.