{related_entries id="evnt_auth_1"} {/related_entries}

Roderick Matthews takes a new view of the Indian Uprising of 1857. Rejecting conventional interpretations, he sees it as the single greatest disaster to befall the indigenous Indian project of modernization, which it has also done a great deal to erase from history. It set back Indian self-government by decades.  Matthews asks the question – should Indians revere the leaders of the Uprising as they do? The cruelty of the British response has also clouded our understanding of imperial government, and has even bred a quite unwarranted sentimentality for the late Mughal court. Time for fresh thinking.

Matthews, a freelance writer specialising in India, has published two books on Indian history, with two more to come in the next year. His second, Jinnah vs. Gandhi, was a best seller in India. He has also written and reviewed for, among others, the Observer, the Literary Review, the Independent on Sunday and the Times of India.