Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-wxhwt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T05:12:53.792Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Making of an Indian Nationalist Archive: Lakshmibai, Jhansi, and 1857

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 July 2008

Prachi Deshpande
Get access

Abstract

The contested historiography of the 1857 rebellion and its importance in shaping the Indian nationalist imagination make it an excellent entry point into an investigation of nationalist pasts and their archival bases. This paper examines a concatenation of influential narratives of different genres that have become critical sources for a history of the rebel leader Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi and for configuring her as an icon of heroic Indian womanhood. It places each of these sources, ranging from late nineteenth-century Marathi texts to mid-twentieth-century Hindi narratives, within their specific spatiotemporal setting and highlights the contradictory regional projects underlying apparently smooth nationalist narratives. Through a close examination of the making of the Lakshmibai archive, the author argues that a consideration of the editorial and textual practices that went into the making of reliable and usable archives for a modern historiography is critical to the unpacking of nationalist historiographies.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 67 , Issue 3 , August 2008 , pp. 855 - 879
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Bayly, C. A. 1996. Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780–1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bayly, C. A. 1998. Origins of Nationality in South Asia: Patriotism and Ethical Government in the Making of Modern India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bhadra, Gautam. 1985. “Four Rebels of 1857.” In Subaltern Studies IV, ed. Guha, Ranajit, 229–75. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chakravarti, Uma. 1989. “Whatever Happened to the Vedic Dasi? Orientalism, Nationalism, and a Script for the Past.” In Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History, ed. Sangari, Kumkum and Vaid, Sudesh, 27–87. New Delhi: Kali for Women.Google Scholar
Chakravarti, Uma. 1999. Rewriting History: The Life and Times of Pandita Ramabai. New Delhi: Kali for Women.Google Scholar
Chatterjee, Partha. 1993. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Chauhan, Subhadra Kumari. 2000. Subhadra Samagra: Subhadra Kumari Chauhan ki Sampoorn Kavitayein [The complete poems of Subhadra Kumari Chauhan (in Hindi)]. Allahabad: Hans Prakashan.Google Scholar
Chowdhury, Indira. 1998. The Frail Hero and Virile History: Gender and the Politics of Culture in Colonial Bengal. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dalrymple, William. 2007. The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Deshpande, Prachi. 2007. Creative Pasts: Historical Memory and Identity in Western India, 1700–1960. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devi, Mahasweta. 1956. The Queen of Jhansi. Trans. Mandira and Sagaree Sengupta. Kolkata: Seagull Books, 2000.Google Scholar
Dirks, Nicholas. 2001. Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Eaton, Richard. 2000. “Temple Desecration and Indo-Muslim States.” Journal of Islamic Studies 11 (3): 283–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gautam, Jagadish, dir. 1952. Maharani Jhansi [in Hindi]. Motion picture, Subhash Pictures.Google Scholar
Godse, Vishnubhat. 1966. Maza Pravaas: Athrashesattavan chya Bandachi Hakikat [My travels: A history of the 1857 revolt (in Marathi)]. Ed. Potdar, Datto Vaman. Pune: Venus Prakashan, 1990.Google Scholar
Gupta, Charu. 2007. “Dalit Viranganas and Reinvention of 1857.” Economic and Political Weekly, May 12, 1739–45.Google Scholar
Guha, Sumit. 2004. “Speaking Historically: The Changing Voices of Historical Narration in Western India.” American Historical Review 109 (4): 1084–2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jerinic, Maria. 1997. “How We Lost the Empire: Retelling the Stories of the Rani of Jhansi and Queen Victoria.” In Remaking Queen Victoria, ed. Homans, Margaret and Munich, Adrienne, 123–99. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Khobrekar, V. G. 1972. “Dattatray Balwant Parasnis.” In Historians and Historiography in Modern India, ed. Sen, S.P., 207–14. Calcutta: Institute of Historical Studies.Google Scholar
Lal, Vinay. 2004. The History of History: Politics and Scholarship in Modern India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lebra-Chapman, Joyce. 1986. The Rani of Jhansi: A Study in Female Heroism in India. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mehta, Ketan, dir. 2005. The Rising: The Ballad of Mangal Pandey [in Hindi]. Motion picture, Kaleidoscope Films.Google Scholar
Mishra, Durga Prasad. 1884. Jhansi ki Veer Rani Lakshmibai ka Jeevan Charitra [The life story of the brave Queen Lakshmibai of Jhansi (in Hindi)]. Calcutta: n.p.Google Scholar
Modi, Sohrab, dir. 1953. Jhansi ki Rani [in Hindi]. Motion picture, Minerva Productions.Google Scholar
Mukherjee, Rudrangshu. 1985. Awadh in Revolt: A Study of Popular Resistance, 1857–58. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mukherjee, Rudrangshu. 2005. Mangal Pandey: Brave Martyr or Accidental Hero? New Delhi: Penguin.Google Scholar
Nagar, Amritlal, trans. 1948. Ankhon dekha Gadar: Vishnubhat Godse krit Maza Pravaas ka Hindi Anuvaad [An eyewitness to the revolt: A Hindi translation of Vishnubhat Godse's Maza Pravaas (in Hindi)]. Delhi: Rajpal and Sons.Google Scholar
Nagar, Amritlal. 1957. Gadar ke Phool [Blossoms of the revolt (in Hindi)]. Delhi: Rajpal Prakashan, 1981.Google Scholar
Nandy, Ashis. 1995. “History's Forgotten Doubles.” History and Theory 34 (2): 44–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narayan, Badri. 2006. Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North India: Culture, Identity and Politics. New Delhi: Sage.Google Scholar
Niranjana, Tejaswini. 1992. Siting Translation: History, Post-Structuralism and the Colonial Context. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Novetzke, Christian Lee. 2003. “Divining an Author: The Idea of Authorship in an Indian Religious Tradition.” Journal of Religion 42 (3): 213–42.Google Scholar
O’Hanlon, Rosalind. 1991. “Issues of Widowhood: Gender and Resistance in Colonial Western India.” In Contesting Power: Resistance and Everyday Social Relations in South Asia, ed. Haynes, Douglas and Prakash, Gyan, 62–108. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Parab, Kashinath Pandurang. 1892. “Introduction to the Fifth Edition.” In History of the Marathas, Translated into Marathi from the Original English Work of Captain Grant Duff by Captain D. Capon, 6th ed.Mumbai: Nirnaysagar Press, 1916.Google Scholar
Parasnis, Dattatraya B. 1894. Jhanshi Sansthanchya Maharani Lakshmibaisaheb yanche Charitra [A biography of Queen Lakshmibai of Jhansi (in Marathi)]. Mumbai: Nirnaysagar Press.Google Scholar
Parasnis, Dattatraya B. 1938. Jhansi ki Rani Lakshmibai [A biography of Queen Lakshmibai of Jhansi (in Hindi)]. Allahabad: Sahitya Prakashan.Google Scholar
Rao, Velcheru Narayana, Shulman, David and Subrahmanyam, Sanjay 2003. Textures of Time: History Writing in South India, 1600–1800. New York: The Other Press.Google Scholar
Reeves, Peter D. 1966. “The Politics of Order: ‘Anti-Non-Cooperation’ in the United Provinces, 1921.” Journal of Asian Studies 25 (2): 261–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, Tapti. 1994. The Politics of a Popular Uprising: Bundelkhand in Revolt. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Roy, Tapti. 2006. Raj of the Rani. New Delhi: Penguin.Google Scholar
Sadana, Rashmi. 2007. “A Suitable Text for a Vegetarian Audience: Questions of Authenticity and the Politics of Translation.” Public Culture 19 (2): 307–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sahay, Mohini. 1982. Vrindavanlal Varma ka Upanyasa-sahitya [The Novels of Vrindavanlal Varma (in Hindi)]. Patna: Anupama.Google Scholar
Sarkar, Jadunath. 1955. “D. B. Parasnis.” In House of Shivaji: Studies and Documents on Maratha History, Royal Period, 3rd ed., by Sarkar, Jadunath, 306–21. Calcutta: M. C. Sarkar & Sons.Google Scholar
Sathyanand, dir. 1988. Jhansi Rani [in Telugu]. Motion picture, Sri Rajalakshmi Art Pictures.Google Scholar
Savarkar, Vinayak Damodar. 1909. The Indian War of Independence. Bombay: Dhawale-Popular Prakashan, 1960.Google Scholar
Saxena, Rajeev. 1982. Vrindavanlal Verma. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi.Google Scholar
Sharar, Abdul Halim. 1975. Lucknow: The Last Phase of an Oriental Culture. Trans. Harcourt, E. S. and Hussain, Fakhir. London: Paul Elek.Google Scholar
Sharpe, Jenny. 1993. Allegories of Empire: The Figure of Woman in the Colonial Text. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Singh, Harleen. 2002. “Rani Lakshmibai, Queen of Jhansi and the 1857 Rebellion: Colonial and Post-Colonial Representations.” Ph.D diss., University of California, San Diego.Google Scholar
Singhal, Shashi Bhushan. 1989. Upanyasakar Vrindavanalal Varma [The novelist Vrindavanlal Varma (in Hindi)]. New Delhi: Dinamana Prakashan.Google Scholar
Sinha, Mrinalini. 1995. Colonial Masculinity: The “Manly” Englishman and the “Effeminate” Bengali in the Late Nineteenth Century. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Tamhankar, D. V. 1958. The Ranee of Jhansi. London: MacGibbon & Kee.Google Scholar
Thapar, Romila. 2005. Somanatha: Many Voices of a History. New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Vaidya, C. V. ed. 1907. Maza Pravaas: San Athrashesattavan Saalchya Bandachi Hakikat [My travels: A history of the 1857 revolt (in Marathi)]. Pune: Chitrashala Prakashan, 1948.Google Scholar
Varma, Vrindavanlal. 1946. Jhansi ki Rani [The queen of Jhansi (in Hindi)]. New Delhi: Prabhat Prakashan, 1993.Google Scholar
Wagoner, Phillip B. 1993. Tidings of the King: A Translation and Ethnohistorical Analysis of the Rayavacakamu. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar