Looking back at the revolt of 1857

POLITICAL LEGACY: revolt of 1857 was the country’s first indigenous protest against British rule.

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New Delhi: Over a hundred and fifty years have passed since the 1857 uprising was crushed violently by the British, but the historical event left its stamp on India.

"We call it India's first war of Independence," says Karan Singh, Congress

It’s been a century and a half that the British put a decisive end to the 1857 uprising. Sepoy Mutiny or the the revolt of 1857 was the country’s first indigenous protest against British rule. The Left has been the first to celebrate 150 years of the 1857 uprising.

“It nevertheless represented a general revolt against the British,” said CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury.

Netaji’s Azad Hind Fauj fought the British and carried forward the legacy of the first war of independence in more ways that one. It had a women-only regiment named after the legendary Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi.

Even after 150-years of the 1857 apprising, the Rani of Jhansi still holds on to the nation's imagination. The image of Laxmibai on horseback fighting the British is stuff legends are made of.

“Divide and rule policy that the British had followed was precisely what engendered and nurtured the communal forces in our country,” said Yechury.

While some says the mutiny was an integral part of nation making, others call it a watershed. “After 1857, the East India Company faded out and the British government directly took over India,” says Congress leader Karan Singh.

But is the apprising still relevant at all?

“1857 was the first expression of the struggle to emerge as a nation. It is stuff that the national legends are made of. And every nation needs myths,” says Chandan Mitra, Editor, The Pioneer.

Secular revolt Hindu insurrection peasant uprising or Muslim nationalism these are the many interpretations of the 1857 uprising and it’s a legacy that everyone wants to claim.