Eva Chatterji

Having had the privilege to grow up on the Indian subcontinent, surrounded by history and with a family that embraced travel and learning, perhaps it is with only a little surprise that what began as a chance find in a musty school book archive on a hillside in the Himalayas - at the age of 16 - would turn into a lifetime of writing, reading and researching. The Indian Mutiny, written by the rather over-enthusiastic Mr Fitchett, gave Eva her first look into that troubled year of Indian history, 1857.

This one book gave her the drive to start reading, filling up notebooks on everything from 'regimental marches in hot weather' to 'travelling by ship', as she remembers the rather grandly titled, Surveying the Beauteous Expanse of India. By the time she left school in 1990, their archive was a few books smaller. Unfortunately, the notebooks have since disappeared, lost somewhere between Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Switzerland. However, 1857 was never far from her mind in the decade that passed, and the itch that started in 1988 lurked on until it was finally cemented on an extended trip to India in 2003. Armed with new notes, maps and a veritable library of books, she set off to explore Delhi, Agra, Lucknow, Kanpur and Kolkata. It was Lucknow however that captured her mind – the disappointing dereliction of the remains of the Residency led her to write her first blog, entitled, Reflections of the Lucknow Residency. She aimed to breathe life back into 1857 and Lucknow was the place to start.

Since then as she continues to travel to India and research 1857, what started as a small project about one place in time, has grown into the thrilling work of a lifetime and her site, mutinyreflections.wordpress.com is my all-encompassing passion, where she strives to bring forth new information, unravel myths and present a war the world has all but forgotten. The history, the people, the world they lived in and the battles they fought, for as Mr Fitchett once said, “The Great Mutiny, as yet, has neither found its final historian, nor its sufficient poet.” Now she finally have the opportunity to go back to where it all began, to Lucknow, the Residency can now reach others as enthusiastic as this humble writer.