(De)mystification of History and Myth in the Victorian Response to the Indian Rebellion With a particular reference to Sherlock Holmes's Narratives | ||||
| مجلة کلية الآداب.جامعة بنها | ||||
| Article 9, Volume 40, Issue 4, April 2015, Page 3-50 PDF (340.18 K) | ||||
| Document Type: المقالة الأصلية | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/jfab.2015.63842 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Author | ||||
| Elham Hussein Abdullah | ||||
| کلية الآداب، عين شمس | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| The sense of the lines is : Unfortunately, nature has created/ one man of yourself/ as there was enough material to make an ideal man/ as well as a rouge. (my translation). Recalling these immortal lines of poetry to such a European great poet is another emphasis on the European cultural supremacy. The historical reference is maintained through account of the Indian Mutiny (10 May 1857) in the words of Jonathan Small. His account of the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny in Mathura is directed at the British reader at home. He compares his previous life in India before the Mutiny to that peaceful comfortable life of England “one month India lay as still and peaceful, to all appearance, as Surrey or Kent” (42; ch. XII). In this description of the outbreak of the Mutiny, he recounts, when he was an overseer on a tea plantation, the Indian Rebellion of 1857 occurred and he fled to the Agra fortress: Night after night the whole sky was alight with the burning bungalows, and day after day we had small companies of Europeans passing through our estate [in Muttra] with their wives and children, on their way to Agra, where were the nearest troops. ..Two hundred thousand black devils let loose, and the country was a perfect hell. (43; ch. XII). He compares the rebels to demons they are “black fiends”, “dancing and howling”, like a “swarm of bees” (43; ch. XII). Later, he calls them "wild cannibal natives" (47; ch. XII). Jonathan Small is the only European survivor of the massacre at the Mathura indigo plantation. The plantation owner Abel White , the manager Dawson, and Dawson’s book keeper wife, are all killed by the rebels” (43; ch. XII). His description of the atrocities of the Mutiny is graphic and pictorial. Mrs. Dawson is said to be “cut into ribbons”, while Mr. Dawson was “lying on his face, quite dead, with an empty revolver in his hand”(43; ch. XII). In his view of Agra, Small tells Holmes, "the city of Agra is a great place , swarming with fanatics and fierce devil worshippers of all sorts" (43; ch. XII). Small also explains that: After Wilson took Delhi and Sir Colin relieved Lucknow the back of the business was broken. Fresh troops came pouring in, and Nana Sahib made himself scarce over the frontier. A flying column under Colonel Greathed came round to Agra and cleared the Pandies away from it. (47; ch. XII) Small states that he expects Holmes and Watson to "know all about it… a deal more than I do" (42; XII). In other words, the enormous accounts of the Mutiny render the British reader more aware of the ongoing events more than those who were in India, despite the passage of 30 years from that historical event. Doyle's text, and those belonging to the British imperial canon, can be critically re-evaluated as texts which are not "above" historical and political processes ( Loomba 75). These texts, ''in what [they] say, and in the process of their writing, are central to colonial history, and in that can help us to a nuanced analysis of that history....'' (Loomba 75). Doyle's imperial account of India and the native Indians can be described as a cunning descriptive work for destroying reality. Idioms and proverbs are manipulated to ascertain presence of the British culture. Jonathan Small comments on the loss of the treasure saying, "I've learned not to cry over spilled milk" (42; ch. XII) To sum up, the Victorians were both aware of the possible threat lurking in India, as well as the benefits behind it. This is reflected in their canonical texts about India, and particularly their treatment of the Indian Mutiny. Victorian fiction and non-fiction reacted to the Rebellion subjectively, motivated by racial bias against the other. The Rebellion was tackled in the newspapers, letters of correspondence among men of intellect, poems, novels, and drama. Doyle's Sherlock Holmes' narratives conform to the British imperial canon. Both The Adventure of the Crooked Man and The Sign Of Four assume an unproblematic British rule in India, but never questions its legitimacy. Although the Mutiny was the right of Indian rebels to claim their independence and to raise oppression from their country, yet, the British misrepresent them as brutal devils who have no right, but to remain loyal slaves. In his treatment of the Mutiny, Doyle shows himself as a committed British supporter of the Empire. His account of India is not based on eye witness evidence, but on previous prejudiced British accounts. | ||||
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