Mangal Pandey: The True Story of an Indian Revolutionary On March 29, 1857 a Brahmin sepoy shot at a British officer inBarrackpore, Bengal. The incident was not the first of its kind -orthe last. Two months later the British East India Company faced amajor civil rebellion and political insurrection/ restoration,accompanied by military mutinies in North India. The event endedBritish cultural hegemony, revived Indianness and kept alive analternative Asiatic perspective -western authors still call it 'The Mutiny' but for Indians it was the ' First War ofIndependence'. This is first book, which deals with Mangal Pandey, theBarrackpore Brahmin sepoy's true story. It reveals unseen aspectsof colonial India: the colours of the landscape, the drama of thecantonments, conflicts of love, loyalty and valour, heroism, themodernity of the peasant, law of rebellion and political intrigue,amidst the looming spectre of an Asiatic upheaval. Written from anIndian perspective, marshalling indigenous archival material, thebook ruptures all previous, exotic-oriental-Anglicist notions ofAsiatic-Indian men and events.