The Great Mutiny: India 1857 [Paperback] Hibbert, Christopher Paperback – 27 March 1980

A FASCINATING AND MEMORABLE READ!!I would have written a review later some time, but for the 1 star review that (although more about the paper quality) was insulting to the esteemed author.So here are my 2 cents.a beautifully written book, wonderfully articulate, without a show of scholarship and totally understandable and relatable to an indian reader. The author does not seem biased and breaks up the mutiny (exaggeratedly called "india's first struggle of independence") into simple words set in chronological order... and which in turn seem complete and well covered.The sufferings of english men and women be it in lucknow or kanpur or on the run are rendered with due emotion but without sounding melodramatic. The trickery of nana sahib and his men leading to the massacres in kanpur. And the reality of mangal pandey... who is refferred to as a rough adoscelent minded sepoy turned mutineer who has been jumped up by his friends and the effect of local drugs to perform a stupid and "nothing to do with india's freedom" act.i think i need to edit this review when i am not watching television (like I am now). But a 1 star review really had to be sounded out.

The book is not in a good conditionAm disappointed

Excellent Book

My Opinion - Read this book to get the English perspective of the event. Then read a book by an Indian author to get the Indian perspective, so that now you have a well-rounded picture of the entire conflict.The reason I say this is the the narration, though extremely detailed and comprehensive, gives a very one-sided view-that of the English side. The glorious, heroic deeds are all of the English, with heroes having names. The suffering is also on the English side. There are hardly any leaders or heroes named from the other side except the ones that cannot be not included in a serious book about the event. It felt very much like the Lord of the Rings, with sepoys instead of Sauron's orcs. It's well told and entertaining but nothing more than that - read this but follow up with another book if you value fairness.

It is written from british perspective, which does not mean supporting british though. It feels like its somebody writing who is travelling with british armies. Like more text is present about some british officer and their wives than indian characters like tatya, mangal, jhansi ki rani and others.

I am totally disappointed with the quality of the paper and the printing.Its total waste.With such quality , the book does not worth more than 100 Rs.

An outstanding history book by Mr Hibbert. He describes colonial India, with the understandably increasing suspicions of many Indians, regarding the perceived intentions of the Europeans to westernise their culture(s). By the 1840's the wiser 'live and let live' attitude of the British in India in previous times, was being replaced by general feelings of racial and cultural superiority. To a significant extent this was driven by a revival in Christian orthodoxy at the time, as the Europeans sought to 'enlighten' the natives regarding the 'superiority' of Christian doctrine. This was never official Imperial policy, but a blind eye was turned to it by those in authority.This together with the stripping/reducing of some native rulers of their power, turned India into a powder keg. The spark was then supplied by the equipping of the Sepoy's with the new Enfield rifles. The lack of trust felt by many in India towards the British led them to believe that the cartridges for the new rifles were coated in beef or pig fat, and were therefore unclean to both Hindu's and Muslim's. The resulting uprising very nearly threw the British out of India. The only reason this didn't happen was because of the continuing loyalty of enough Indians to the British, the lack of coherent rebel leadership , and the incredible guts of the British troops who were stationed in India. Has a British army ever shown more desperate or savage heroism? For example, read about Havelock's 'flying column', as half a dozen infantry battalions (one of them Indian) speed across India in summer, fighting battle after battle, to raise the siege of Lucknow, and be both amazed and shocked as events unfold.This is a must read for anyone interested in India and British Imperialism. When the book first came out it was described as the best single volume on the Mutiny, and I think it still is. It's very well written, shocking, gripping, and I fully recommend it.

I suppose the best way to describe it is to say that it gives a wonderful picture of the good and the bad sides of the British at the time. He discusses the change from India being run by people who understood the locals quite well, to a ruling class imported from India. In many accounts this is glossed over, as are the various attempts at correcting the mistakes made just prior to the rebellion.As an account of the Great Rebellion itself it gives not so much a birds eye view, but more of a narrative view; anecdotes, narrative accounts of what happened, excerpts from letters, all help to draw a surprisingly detailed picture without losing sight of the overall situation. I think that is one of the best parts of the book, it has a good balance between a dry birds eye view of the situation, discussing only strategy and politics, and a overly detailed view where you lose sight of the big picture.It also takes the view that this was not a nationalist uprising, not the first revolution, but an explosion of violence as a result of growing pressure against the old way of life.The book does follow the British point of view far more than the Indian one, perhaps because sources for the British point of view are much easier to find. There are also some other slight flaws, the end is a bit weak, but this is a book about the Great Mutiny not the aftermath of the Mutiny, or, really, the Honourable East India Company.Overall highly recommended, my copy is getting worn.

Before I get to the problems, this is a masterpiece of compact historical writing. The prose is neat, the research is prodigious, the detail is amazing and it is packed with quotes from primary sources, with extracts woven into the text in every paragraph. Above all it gives a vivid feel for the fighting, the horror, the suffering, individual reactions, and the conditions including climate, food, clothes and transport. He gives good space to the plight of the wives, how they coped and how they suffered. He also gives an excellent introduction to life and attitudes in the colony leading up to the mutiny.The weakness is that the book gives no strategic perspective of the war, no big picture. The focus on the detail was so close that throughout the book I had no idea where was the front, if there was a front, and if there wasn't, which parts of the country were in whose hands. The single appalling map was so small and unclear, I had no feel for where the battles took place relative to each other or how the troops were distributed. I was often frustrated by detailed references to the geography of a battle which the reader could not possibly appreciate unless he or she referred constantly to a separate historical map.I would therefore recommend studying the overall course of the war on wikipedia or another book, then reading this one with a good series of maps open at the same time. Of course it's not the book's fault that at the time it was printed better maps could not have been included economically, so please take my rating as advice to today's reader rather than a judgement of the author.

Hibbert produced a well-researched and engaging story of the mutiny and its aftermath, but his account is fatally flawed by the methodology he chose. He focuses on the stories of individuals caught up in these events. Virtually all these individuals are European and overwhelmingly British and middle class. Indian voices are almost entirely absent. The author does not fail to highlight the barbarity and increasing racism of British rule, but this fails to counter the innumerable stories of plucky daring-do and frantic escapes by the colonists. Indian losses are statistics; British losses are individual tragedies. Whilst it could be argued that he made the best use of the material available to him, the author still chose what material to make use of. Perhaps this would have been an acceptable approach in 1978 when it was first published, but it now jars against current sensibilities.

An excellent and informative read..At times harrowing, for those of a sensitive nature..But this book details a way of life as it most probably actually was, Very far removed from the glitz of Hollywood and television film drama...An account written from Diaries, letters and official reports,by the people themselves, which paints a picture of the life in India in those times...This is not just a boring list of events, but a drama almost, which unfolds within its written pages..It shows the stark reality of life then, the squalor, poverty, and Idleness, the violence, arrogance, incompetence and brutality..An absolute must on the to read list for anyone interested in Victorian India and life at that time.