Why Should we remember 1857? by Dr Mubarak ALI

The year 1857 is an important year in the history of Freedom Struggle against the British rule. Nations write and rewrite their history in order to create historical consciousness among people. The task of historians becomes difficult when the past is distorted and fractured as a result of some dominant political/historical interpretation. In this case, they have to retrieve the lost-past and reconstruct it on the basis of fresh evidence. In 1957, after hundred years of the Great Rebellion, the Indian government not only published number of books on 1857 but organised conferences and seminars to highlight the significance of the uprising. 

The great Analysis on 1857 Mutiny : 

The two eminent historians differed on the interpretation. Prof. Mujamdar called it ‘sepoy Mutiny’, while Prof. Sen titled his book simply as ‘1857’. With passage of time number of new documents and sources have been published which brought to light new facts about the event which greatly changed the perspective of historians. In Pakistan, the centenary of the event went unnoticed. No official or unofficial publications appeared. Neither any conference nor seminar was held to remember the event. Of course, during the British rule, historians were not allowed to write anything against the colonial version of 1857. While on the other hand, the British writers and journalists wrote about the atrocities committed by the Indians and sufferings of the Europeans during that period. They popularised the term of ‘mutiny’ or Ghadar for the rebellion. Even, Jadunath Sarkar, who was thinking to specialise on the event of 1857, abandoned the idea and chose the Mughal period as a safe domain for his research.

As far as Pakistan is concerned, the textbooks and general historical literature describe 1857 exclusively as a Muslim struggle against the British rule. It is quite simple. The Muslims revolted against the foreign rule and eventually they were the one who suffered as a result. There is no need for further research.
Keeping in view this simplistic point of view, it is very difficult for Pakistani historians who are believer of the theory of ‘separatism’ to write the history of 1857 with a broader perspective highlighting the fact that those who took part in the struggle were not only Muslims but also Hindus who fully participated in the Rebellion and fought shoulder to shoulder alongwith them. It was a joint struggle of Muslims and Hindus. There were Mangal Pandey, Jhansi kin Rani, Nana Sahib and host of other Hindu leaders who shared with Hazrat Mahall, Bakht Khan, and Malvi Ahmadullah.The history of 1857 brought shared struggle and therefore a shared history of freedom Movement should be constructed. It is a well-known fact that Bahadur Shah Zafar circulated a farman during the crisis not to sacrifice cow, especially on the occasion of eid al Azha. He also forbade some religious zealots not to raise the slogan of jihad against the Hindus and create division among the Indians on the basis of religion. The Mughal Emperor, though had lost all his power and grandeur and became a puppet in the hands of East India Company, even then he had a symbolic value which attracted rebels to come around him. That is why they came to Delhi and sought help from him to lead the war against the British. There were no religious prejudices and no religious discrimination between the Hindus and the Muslims at the time when they were fighting against the common enemy.
The other argument is that the whole event of 1857 had taken place in North India and not in present-day Pakistani parts of the subcontinent. Despite the fact there were small uprisings in Punjab and Sindh which were immediately crushed, the scale of share therefore is minimal. So, why should we take interest in those events which had not occurred in our territory and in which we were not involved.

This raises the question about our past. There is no doubt that since 1947, Pakistan has acquired a separate identity and history, but how can we disown the ancient, medieval, and colonial history when it was a part of the Indian subcontinent? The Indus valley civilization was not confined to Balochistan, the Punjab, and Sindh, but it covered Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Paradesh as well. We cannot disown the Turkish and the Mughal rule of the Indian subcontinent and we cannot abandon Akbar because he followed the policy of sul-e-kul (peace with all} which now contradicts our concept of separatism.

Shared history gives us understanding of human values, exposes communal prejudices, and bring us, both the Hindus and Muslims, together on the basis of common history and culture. Therefore, we must remember 1857 as part of shared struggle and shared history.
The other argument is that the whole event of 1857 had taken place in North India and not in present-day Pakistani parts of the subcontinent. Despite the fact there were small uprisings in Punjab and Sindh which were immediately crushed, the scale of share therefore is minimal. So, why should we take interest in those events which had not occurred in our territory and in which we were not involved.
This raises the question about our past. There is no doubt that since 1947, Pakistan has acquired a separate identity and history, but how can we disown the ancient, medieval, and colonial history when it was a part of the Indian subcontinent? The Indus valley civilization was not confined to Balochistan, the Punjab, and Sindh, but it covered Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Paradesh as well. We cannot disown the Turkish and the Mughal rule of the Indian subcontinent and we cannot abandon Akbar because he followed the policy of sul-e-kul (peace with all} which now contradicts our concept of separatism.

Shared history gives us understanding of human values, exposes communal prejudices, and bring us, both the Hindus and Muslims, together on the basis of common history and culture. Therefore, we must remember 1857 as part of shared struggle and shared history.
This raises the question about our past. There is no doubt that since 1947, Pakistan has acquired a separate identity and history, but how can we disown the ancient, medieval, and colonial history when it was a part of the Indian subcontinent? The Indus valley civilization was not confined to Balochistan, the Punjab, and Sindh, but it covered Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Paradesh as well. We cannot disown the Turkish and the Mughal rule of the Indian subcontinent and we cannot abandon Akbar because he followed the policy of sul-e-kul (peace with all} which now contradicts our concept of separatism.
Shared history gives us understanding of human values, exposes communal prejudices, and bring us, both the Hindus and Muslims, together on the basis of common history and culture. Therefore, we must remember 1857 as part of shared struggle and shared history.
Shared history gives us understanding of human values, exposes communal prejudices, and bring us, both the Hindus and Muslims, together on the basis of common history and culture. Therefore, we must remember 1857 as part of shared struggle and shared history.


The problem is that in Pakistan generally, we do not like shared history. Therefore, what happened before 1947 is not considered our past.

Source: 

• Jahangir World Time 
• images taken from Google 
• playit.pk for video 
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