The Ranee Of Jhansi

Book excerpt: Born on the banks of the Ganges at Benares, little Manakarnika was a charged and precocious girl and she was destined to be etched in history as the towering queen of the Revolt of 1857. A touching yet accurate portrait of this Indian Boadicea, The Ranee of Jhansi as a biography also puts the events of the mutiny and the actual role of Lakshmibai in it, into perspective. The writer takes you on a journey through the plains and hills of central India which in 1857 could have but such is the fatalism of history turned around India s future forever. It makes for a breathless reading from beginning to end through the circumstances that led to the revolt and through the vivid scenes of the glorious battle at Jhansi. A woman of the strongest Mahratta mettle, Lakshmibai had an intuitive grasp of warfare, astute judgement of the enemy s power and an indomitable will that made her fight even in the face of defeat. And being a young Brahmin widow of thirty who led a whole army, she inadvertently created one of the greatest ironies in Indian history, when she was declared the best man on the rebel side !