The Raj in Peril: The City of Benares during the Indian Uprising of 1857.

The Indian Uprising of 1857 was the largest colonial insurrection the British had to face in the nineteenth century. Indian troops of the Bengal Native Army rose up in revolt, as did many Indian civilians, making 1857 both a military mutiny and a civil rebellion. This paper examines how the British authorities stationed at Benares (the modern city of Varanasi) managed to see off the multiple threats to their local governance. Not only were these dangers overcome, but Benares itself was to play a vital role in ensuring that the British possessed the military resources needed to defeat the insurgency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]