What atrocity did the British commit on Subedar Sitaram Pandey although he was a
loyal soldier and why?
Answers
From Sepoy to Subedar (1861) is the only published account by an Indian soldier, of his experiences serving in the army of the British East India Company. The book records the fascinating life of Pandey, who was born and raised in rural Awadh and rose from the position of a Sepoy to that of a Subedar. A Sepoy being the lowest position in the army, similar to that of a Jawan and the position of a Subedar, parallel to that of a Captain.
It was upon the insistence of a Lieutenant-Colonel James T Norgate, under whom he had served in the 12th Punjab Infantry during the Revolt of 1857, that Pandey began writing his memoir. Although fluent in Persian and Urdu, he chose to write his memoirs in his mother tongue, Awadhi, a dialect of Hindi spoken in central Uttar Pradesh.
Even after writing his memoirs, Pandey was unwilling to submit a copy of it to Norgate , and as Norgate mentions in the book’s preface, it “occasioned a great trouble and a great amount of assurances had to be given before the Soobadar (Sitaram Pandey) could part with his memoirs; so afraid are the natives, particularly those receiving pension of saying a word which might be considered to censure government.”
A year after he retired from the army, in 1861, Pandey finally did submit a copy to Norgate, who translated it into English. The memoirs, according to Norgate, were first published in an Indian periodical, which soon wound up its operations. Norgate did not name the periodical. In 1873 and 1880, respectively, subsequent editions of the memoirs were published. The account, which spans more than 40 years of active service, received much critical acclaim and was hailed as a fine account of the British occupation of India from the perspective of a junior officer.