Past Perfect

Much before she took up arms against the British,Rani Lakshmi Bai looked as much a fierce soldier as she did later,defending Jhansi against the enemy. At least that’s what a picture postcard printed in May 1910 seems to imply. It shows the young Rani sitting with the crown gingerly propped on her head,her look severe. The striking black and white image is part of a series of exhibitions,organised by the National Archives of India that begins at the India International Centre today. Titled “The Making of Modern India”,the first exhibition focuses on the uprising of 1857 and will be on for six days. The entire series will run through till December with plans of an exhibition each month.

On display at the exhibition are digital prints of records,telegraphic messages,statements and extracts of reports on events during the uprising written to the Governor General by his deputies. There are some rare books too. “The exhibition is the brainchild of our new Director General of Archives,Mushirul Hasan and it aims to give an insight in to an important segment of Indian history. We began with the uprising because it is integral to the making of modern India,” says Sanjay Garg,Deputy Director,National Archives. So while you marvel at the photo of a mustachioed Mangal Pandey,hailed for spearheading the mutiny of 1857,also run your eye over the extracts of a report by British agent Robert Hamilton narrating the events following the death of Rani Lakshmi Bai — “burning the body which was conveyed in a palkhee” while her “Mahomadan attendant was buried in a Musalman burying ground”. There is is also the execution order from the trial proceedings of Mangal Pandey,sepoy,5th company and the 34th native infantry at Barrackpore cantonment,“who was found guilty of making a murderous assault” dated April 8,1857. Other rare materials include an undated detailed report published in the London Times highlighting the proceedings of the court martial of 85 troopers of 3 rd light infantry held at Meerut as well as a photo of Bahadur Shah Zafar being taken in to custody by Captain Hudson. Another grainy photo captioned “Blowing up of the Kashmere Gate” is accompanied by an account of events in which “bags of powder were laid and the men were turning back when the rebels opened fire.”

“ We want to remove the misconception that the Archives is a boring place. Very soon we would be organizing monthly lecture series by historians also,” said Hasan. “The exhibition is part of our outreach programme. We hope to familiarise people with the wealth of historical data available with the Archives,” said Garg. The latter phases of the series will pitch focus on freedom fighter Maulana Azad in August,followed by other eminent architects of modern India,including Dr Rajendra Prasad,Rabindranath Tagore and Dadabhai Naoroji.

The exhibition is on till July 8.
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