1857 -CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION OF SEPOY REBELLION OF 1857-59 REINTERPRETED BY AGHA H AMIN

In 1857 a class of common soldiers almost 99% Hindustani by ethnicity, five sixth Hindu (Hindu Rajput and Brahman), one sixth Muslim (Hindustani Muslims and Ranghars) based on internal motivation consolidated as a result of some two decades of various experiences, resorted to an armed insurrection aimed at destroying a European Company which was exploiting India as a whole for some 100 years. They were joined by some dispossessed feudals and princes a majority of whom were motivated by external motivation and a minority by internal motivation. The populace in some regions like Delhi and Oudh joined the rebels.

The rebellion was suppressed by employment of the largest force to date of pure British origin used outside Britain assisted by native troops from Punjab NWFP Madras and Bombay. The Enfield Rifle played a decisive role in the British success. The Afghan docility in staying loyal to the British also played a decisive role. The same Afghans who were very keenly visiting Delhi between 1739 and 1761 to loot a Muslim city abdicated the role of sacking and looting the same Muslim city of Delhi to a force comprising British, Punjabi Muslim, Pathan, Sikh and Gurkha troops!

The progressive and egalitarian policy of Lord Dalhousie to destroy feudalism in India was absolutely reversed by the British. Instead a policy of active alliance and collaboration with the feudals was adopted to jointly exploit and bugger the people of India! A deliberate policy of "Divide and Rule" which paid rich dividends from 1857 till 1947! A class of docile business professional and landed interest was created. These docile but clever lawyers, landlords and other professionals prospered in the period between 1858 and 1947. They manipulated the common man by emotional slogans to join the Indian Army in WW one and WW two and used heaps of corpses of dead Indian soldiers at Ypres Kutalamara and Burma as stepping stones in negotiations with the British about sharing political power in the period 1919-47! Today they want us to believe that there was freedom struggle. But those freedom fighters did not belong either to the Congress or Muslim League. The soldiers of 1857, the Ghadrites of 1918-19, the Bengalis of modern Bengal, and all Indian soldiers who died in WW one and WW two fighting ironically for the British were the real freedom fighters! These leaders constantly downplay the naval rebellion of 1946 and prefer to talk about their parties grand role!

The British transfer of power was not a sudden British retreat under Indian freedom fighters' pressure but a long pre-meditated process started in 1909 but accelerated by two world wars. They departed gracefully satisfied that both the countries would be ruled by a class created by the British. Their graceful departure was followed by a disgraceful genocide precipitated equally by Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs for the sake of thrill and loot justified erroneously in the name of religious fervour.

The populace of Indo-Pak had voted for the Congress or the League motivated by vague hopes, unrealistic expectations and impractical ideals! The new rulers were little different from Aurangzeb or Ranjit Singh or any other tyrant. A non-Muslim government at Delhi did not save the Sikhs from genocide which they were fearing had Punjab not been divided into East and West Punjab! Similarly the Baloch soon discovered that Jacob Outram or Sandeman were much better intellectually, administratively and humanly than Ayub, Tikka or Bhutto! The Bengali Muslims were soon to discover that their new masters were also from the overseas just like the British! Before 1947 the Muslims, the Hindus who were the vast majority would soon amend the constitution so that they could constitutionally justify the exploitation and oppression in Muslim majority provinces! The audience were told that if India was not divided the Hindus would use a Hindu controlled and dominated army to discipline the Muslim provinces! Also the Baloch, the Sindhis and the Bengalis were to discover in the post-1947 scenario that merely having a Muslim Federal Government is no guarantee that they would not be persecuted at will and whim!

Who were the Muslims or the Sikhs or even the Hindus fighting against, if they were fighting against at all before 1947? The history of Indo-Pak in the period between 1857 to 1947 is a history of manipulation of the ordinary man galvanised by hollow, meaningless slogans based on religion etc, by a small class of men who prospered under the British rule whether as landlords or as businessmen or lawyers or soldiers or civil servants. They were playing a game whose rules were made by the British! The only sacrifice if it can be called one was made by the common Indian soldier fighting in two world wars for the British. Most of these enlisted by virtue of efforts of feudals and civil servants in pre-1947 Punjab. The prime motive of the unionist landlord who was the principal British recruiting agent was sycophancy and personal benefit. The peasant who they manipulated was thus mere common fodder in a war fought with the Germans or Japanese against whom he had no reason to fight!

The fault of this whole ridiculous and highly ironic state of affairs lies with the British. They tried to view India as one country motivated by pure administrative and political convenience. India was a mere geographical expression but the British for some time gave it the appearance of being one country. In 1947 they divided India in an illogical manner on erroneous conceptual lines. In the process they left behind two illogical Federal structures who ruled the various ethnic groups with the help of two mercenary armies which had been created by the British basically for internal security or internal oppression! The ship of two nation theory which did not exist in 1857 was hastily created in 1940! The high sounding theories about Akhand Bharat were also dismantled in the killing fields of Kashmir Indian Punjab and in Nagaland! Three purposeless wars were fought by two highly unprofessional armies whose maintenance expenses have firmly ensured that the Indo- Pak region remains the bastion of poverty, ignorance and instability.

Behind the five decade farce of this smoke screen of conflict the common man is the main victim! The Bengalis of East Bengal were intellectually honest enough to struggle to create an ethnic nation state. Thank God their doubts about ethnicity and ideology were resolved in 1971!

The rest of the region is a hostage of ambitious politicians, industrialists and generals who want the whole world to believe that they are fighting for a just cause! Those who were fighting for a just cause died long time back in 1857 or 1958 or in 1919! The rest is fiction!

Sycophancy, Servility and Narrow Self-Interest won in 1857.  As far as all post-1857 successful Indians were concerned, Sons and Grandsons of Opportunists were the later leaders of all Indians!

De Omnibus Dubitandum