The First Indian War of Independence 1857-59 (1975) By Karl Marx and FriedrichEngels
 
The period 1857-1859 may be regarded as the first phase of the Indian War of Independence. The year 1857, no doubt, marked the commencement of the War for Indian independence.
 
Karl Marx was the first scholar to unequivocally call the anti-British Indian movement of 1857-59 the first Indian War of Independence. The work, The First Indian War of Independence 1857-1859 (Moscow, 1959, 4th rept., 1975), by Marx and Engels, is based on their articles on 1857-59 “national liberation revolt in India” printed in the New-York Daily Tribune. The said work is English translation of the Russian edition prepared by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the CCCPSU in 1959. The authors refuted the false contention of the British ruling classes that the movement was an armed sepoy mutiny and there was no involvement in it of broad sections of the Indian population. They laid emphasis on the fact that the movement started from the very beginning as a “national revolt – a revolution of the Indian people against British rule”. They clearly stated in their articles that the revolt “brought together not only people of different religions (Hindus and Muslims) and castes (‘Brahmans, Rajputs and, in some cases Sikhs’) but also of different social standing”. Although the British press left no stone unturned to hush up the participation of the Indian people in anti-British revolt, Marx asserted in his early articles that the Indian people not only sympathized with, but supported the revolt in every way .In his article “The Indian Revolt” (London, Sept.4,1857), Marx proved beyond doubt that broad sections of the people- the peasants most of all- took part in the movement in direct or indirect way. He categorically stated that the “Liberation struggle of the Indian people was against the domination of foreign colonialists”. The colonial exploitation nurtured the Indian Revolt. He wrote, “that sepoy regiments have murdered their European officers; that Mussulmans and Hindus, renouncing their mutual antipathies, have combined against their common masters; that ‘disturbances beginning with the Hindus have actually ended in placing on the throne of Delhi a Mohammedan emperor’; that the mutiny has not been confined to a few localities.” (“The Revolt in the Indian Army”, New York Daily Tribune, No. 5065, July 15,1857.)
 
Hard Cover with Dust Jacket
222 pages
In Good Condition