The endless details about daily life. Some people may think it was just minutiae, but they offer a lot of insights into daily life. Though these documents, including petitions from ordinary people to Zafar, escape some historians' net, I find them compelling.

You read about gamblers playing cards in a recently ruined house and ogling at the women next door, worrying that the family there would then complain to the officials; we read about a dancer who during the British attack on the Idgah escapes from her husband and elopes with her lover.

Then there is Pandit Harichandra, who asks Hindus to join the fight (against the British), citing examples from the Mahabharat. And then there is Chandan, the sister of courtesan Mangloo, who implores Zafar to take action against cavalryman Rustam Khan who has seized and raped her sister.

She writes: 'Should this state of anarchy and injustice continue, the subjects of the Exalted One will all be destroyed.'

Individually, these stories may seem minutiae, but, cumulatively, they are a unique source to a historian.

In what way?

They allow the uprising to be seen not in terms of nationalism, imperialism or other such abstractions, but as a collection of events. These documents allow us to resurrect the ordinary men and women whose fate drove them into one of the great upheavals of history.

As we read these documents, we become aware that large national tragedies are filled with private, domestic and individual tragedies.

Image: A statue of Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi, one of the 1857 revolt's most heroic leaders.
Also see: Today's India has a new culture

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