RELIGION AND IDEOLOGY OF THE REBELS OF 1857

The revolt of 1857 was the first and the largest anticolonial movement to have occurred in South Asia during the nineteenth century. However, the precise nature of that movement is still keenly debated by historians, statesmen and politicians. Sir John Kay and Malleson regarded it as a mutiny, which some Indian historians called it the first war of independence. R. C. Majumdar asserted that it was neither a war of independence nor national in character. Most of these studies, however, rely almost exclusively on official sources that present the imperial point of view. The indigenous perspective, in particular the voice of the rebels, has been ignored in these studies.