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Cover Painting: ‘Indian Mutineers About to Blown from Cannons.’
By Orlando Norie (Anne
S. K. Brown Collection,
Brown University,
Providence, Rhodes Island).
Reproduced with
Permission.
Cover Design by Jeff Lin
Design.
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by
ROGER N.
BUCKLEY
(University of
Connecticut, USA)
ISBN
1-931948-65-8
2007
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''This is a powerful
and provocative story of double consciousness,
of twoness in the
tradition of W.E.B. Du Bois's Souls of Black Folk,
and of social
boundaries reminiscent of C.L.R. James' Beyond a Boundary.''
Donald Spivey
(University of Miami, USA)
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''Race, class and gender relations are presented
in such a way as to enlighten the reader
about the 'master narrative' constructed by
the Imperialists to their own advantage
and to the detriment of the oppressed under
their military authority.''
Angelica Maeser-Lemieux
(Vanier College, Montreal, Canada)
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''A rousing tale of divided loyalties during the
1857 uprising in India."
Chandar Sundaram (Lingnan
University, Hong Kong)
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Why would an Irish soldier, a white man, who
seemingly had it all -- status, health, youth -- risk it all by volunteering for
hard and life-threatening duty with a sepoy or Indian regiment in British India
at time of mounting social and political turmoil in the sub-continent?
That is exactly what Sergeant Daniel O'Connor
does. Set against the background of India's first war of independence and
Ireland's long struggle for freedom, O'Connor is faced with a moral dilemma:
service in a powerful institution that provides social prestige and authority
but which is also the instrument of ruthless colonial oppression in Ireland and
elsewhere.
When Indian troops mutiny against British
rule, O'Connor sees the rebellion as a kindred freedom movement that reminds him
that his service in the British Army is a symbol of the defeated Irish.
Joining the Indian rebels confronts O'Connor with a cruel choice: death or
a permanent exile, should he survive.
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Roger N. Buckley
is Professor of History and founding Director of the Asian American Studies
Institute at the University of Connecticut. His several books, which
examine war and society in the British Empire, include Slaves in Red Coats, The
British Army in the West Indies, and I, Hanuman, of the three novels that
explores the issues of race, national identity, gender, culture, and revolution
in the British colonial army of the nineteenth century through the medium of
historical fiction. His work has been published in the USA, the UK, India,
the Netherlands, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and St. Kitts.
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The other novel by Roger N. Buckley
published
with University Press of the South in 2008
part of the
Relph Coggins Series.
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