The play, 1857-India’s War of Independence, aims to present the Indian perspective of the events of the period as recorded by young priest Vishnu Bhatt. Director Jalabala Vaidya spoke to Ila Sankrityayan about his documentation of Rani laxmibai
Very little is known about Rani laxmibai of Jhansi in our written history. lesser still is known about the fact that she was an able administrator, who not only ruled Jhansi wisely for 11 months after taking on the British and killing all their officers, but, for a short period of time, also held sway over Gwalior. “She personally chastised thieves and criminals and handed down the death sentence to rapists. After the sack of Jhansi, when she reached Kalpi, Tantya Tope’s headquarters, her horse Badal collapsed out of exhaustion. She had ridden him non-stop for 24 hours, half the time with the added burden of her adopted son tied to her back. She was grief-stricken as she saw her horse dying. She loved Badal, above all else. At the same time, she suddenly started menstruating. It was the last straw, she broke down crying. She was a warrior but also a woman who had to suffer extreme hardship. Her lady in waiting, Yamunabai, was standing just outside Kalpi. She instantly ran and informed Tantya Tope of the calamity and he quickly arranged for Rani laxmibai to be sheltered and taken care of. He sent his doctors and trainers to save Badal,” said theatre person Jalabala Vaidya.
While British historians called it the Sepoy Mutiny, 1857 to us is the First War of Independence. A young priest Vishnu Bhatt Versaikar recorded the movements of our early martyrs which is now being staged as a play by Vaidya called 1857- India’s War of Independence.
The concept of the play stems from the idea to dramatically convey the terrible consequences of being conquered by the British and our country being made a part of the British Empire. “Today we have a warm regard for the British, largely from being schooled in an education system based on the notorious Macaulay’s note that has shaped what we are taught in our schools and colleges till today. We do not elucidate in our history papers the perfidy of the British partition, maps and borders. They exterminated millions of citizens in our first war of independence,” said Vaidya.
Her play is meant to be a wake-up call for cross-translation of our languages and their literary and historical heritage. “If one 30-year-old Vishnu Bhatt, born and brought up in a village, could do it more than 125 years ago, couldn’t our academics get to work here in India to engage in this necessary translation work, and funds be provided for the purposeIJ Couldn’t our living poets and writers receive grants to do this work creativelyIJ Must we only want to do this if Harvard or Yale or Columbia, or Berkley takes it upIJ We can be a strong nation only if we have a strong sense of identity and that can be achieved, not by harming and hurting each other, but by treasuring and revering the heritage that has nurtured us over the millennium, and that has always overruled caste or divisive thinking in favour of beauty and loving compassion,” she argued.
The play brings out some untold aspects of our first freedom fighters as recorded by Vishnu Bhatt, whose writings were made public only in 1948 by the historians of the Bharatiya Itihas Shodhak Mandal. Bhatt was born in 1827 in the village of Versai in the Alibagh subdivision of Kolaba district, south of Mumbai. He was a Chitpavan Brahmin whose father and uncles were closely associated with the Peshwas who ruled the Maratha confederacy, a dominant force at the time.
Vaidya shared details about Bhatt and his association with Rani Jhansi and Tatya Tope. “His uncles were quite important and powerful in the courts of the Peshwa. As seen in the film Bajirao Mastani, Ram Kaka, one of Vishnu’s uncles, was a strong opponent of Bajirao’s love affair with Mastani. Rani laxmibai’s father, Rajshri More Pant Tambe, and Ram Kaka were old colleagues. Ram Kaka was the head of the yajnashala at Bithoor where More Pant Tambe was his junior. Tatya Tope had met laxmibai or Chhabili, as she was then known, at the yajnashala at Bithoor when she was 11 years old and admired her talent as a warrior and scholar.
“In 1857, Mahadaji Shinde’s widow, Jijabai Sahiba, together with Tatya Tope, organised a massive ceremony in Mathura, to precipitate a mutiny in the East India Company’s forces. Bhatt and Ram Kaka were on their way there when they were taken by surprise by the mutiny in Mhow. Somehow, they managed to reach Ujjain. From there they went to Gwalior, and then on to Jhansi, travelling by bullock cart or on foot. When they reached Jhansi, Bhatt performed a very important havan and puja for Rani laxmibai which established her credentials as the ruler of Jhansi after her husband Gangadhar’s death. She invited them to occupy a house within Jhansi Fort. After that, Bhatt became one of her close Brahminical advisors.”
Vaidya came to know about Bhatt and the Bharatiya Itihas Shodhak Mandal through the Tope family and their book. But it was only after she had followed it up with her own research that the story fell into place as a fascinating subject for a play. Revealed Vaidya, “I was told about Bhatt, the only recorded Indian eyewitness to the events of 1857 in June 2010, when direct descendants of Tatya Tope visited us at the Akshara theatre soon after their book, Operation Red lotus, was released by Rupa. After that I looked for references to Bhatt, which led me to noted author Amritlal Nagar’s translation of his 249 papers, published by Rajpal and Sons.”
She even referred to the comprehensive translation of various papers and sources by Mrinal Pande, well-known journalist as well as former chairperson of Prasaar Bharati. This story of Bhatt, more than 100 years after he died in 1903, is slowly but surely taking its place in our historical memory.
“It has taken us one year from the time we had the material to mount the play. We had to cut many descriptions of the horrendous cruelty the British inflicted on the towns and cities they devastated as they defeated Tatya Tope and the Peshwas and their Indian armies. The British looting was spectacular as they took over the areas they conquered. They even emasculated and robbed the princely states that submitted to them,” said Vaidya who has put all her efforts to make the play factually correct and interesting at the same time.
The director has used music, suitable for the period. She elucidated, “We are lucky that we have Gopal Sharman’s recorded voice singing the bhajans that set the perfect mood. We also used sound effects of gunfire etc.”
A lot of attention and detailing has gone into making period costumes. “The men wear pyjamas, kurtas and waistcoats as described by Bhatt. Or dhotis and janayus. The villagers wear short kurtas and dhotis while the women wear saris. Rani laxmibai is also dressed as a soldier in the last scene. Kamal and Asha Modi of Art Karat, who provided the jewellery for the film Bajirao Mastani, very generously presented us with some beautifully styled costume jewellery for the play,” added Vaidya.