Last
month, Tania and I went on a tour of Delhi ridge, looking at sites significant to the Indian mutiny of 1857. The ridge, where the British made their stand while waiting for relief, overlooks the Civil Lines cantonment. It was here that alot of the East India Company executives and families lived.
We
didn’t realise this monument to the mutiny was here and neither do alot of the
Indians.
That’s
understandable as they consider the 1857 mutiny as the First War of
Independence (as one of the signs as the monument highlighted).
You have to remember that until the mutiny, the country wasn't run by the British government. It was being run by the East India Company who saw India as a sort of plaything and exploited it completely.
It was only as a result of the mutiny that the British government took over control (ie: The British Raj).
It
was quite an interesting walk with Navina Jafa, walking the gun positions that
held off the mutineers from May through to September (when a relief column
arrived and lifted the siege).
The
conditions the British endured were appalling and many died as the result of disease.
The
walk ended up at the Flagstaff Tower (near Delhi University).
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| The Flagstaff Tower |
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| A different way of looking at the mutiny |
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