Two queens and a rebellion

The book opens with the observation, "In 1857, the resistance of common people made leaders of obscure royals"

A Begum and a Rani: Hazrat Mahal and Lakshmibai in 1857

Author: Rudrangshu Mukherjee

Publisher: Penguin

Pages: 256

Price: Rs 699

This masterly history of India’s great war of 1857 contrarily described as a war of independence and a mutiny is, despite its dealing with only a facet of that war, probably the best work on the subject thus far published. With its repeated reference to public participation in events and continuing public reactions in recounting the course of this war as espoused by two of its foremost leaders, notably in its concluding, and longest chapter “Afterlife”, Rudrangshu Mukherjee’s is a consummate subaltern history