The 1857 Rebellion is known in South Asia today as “the first war of independence” – but this was not always the case. Presenting work in progress from his manuscript on the legacy of 1857 in the Indian political imagination, Pranav Jani shows how nationalist and anticolonial militants, challenging Gandhian politics, constructed 1857 as part of a new origin story in the early decades of the 20th century, cementing this into “common sense” by the 1940s. And yet, Jani suggests, 1857 cannot be easily assimilated into progressive, left-wing critiques of mainstream nationalism and Gandhian non-violence given the right-wing Hindu nationalism of many militants. Tracing the legacy of 1857 opens up complex questions of the Hindu, upper-caste, patriarchal, and elite dimensions of nationalist and anticolonial militancy in British India.
Dr. Pranav Jani is Associate Professor of English at Ohio State, specializing in Postcolonial Studies and US Ethnic Studies. He currently serves as Director of the Asian American Studies Program is the author of Decentering Rushdie: Cosmopolitanism and the Indian Novel in English (2010). Jani writes on postcolonial literature and theory, Asians in the US, Marxism, racialization, identity, and solidarity. He is a longtime social justice activist in Columbus and can be reached via email or via social media as @redguju. You can also view Jani's Blog.
