Birth of Nationalism in India: Part 1, in Delhi

From the archive record

1857 in the desolate confines of the Red Fort in Delhi an 82 year old Bahadur Shah Zafar with the imposing title of the Emperor of Hindustan but who's rich is now restricted to a small territory between Palam and Yamuna. Some 40 miles away in the British cantonment of Meerut there is brewing resentment among Indian soldiers against the new rifles and grease laden cartridges issued to them these cartridges they have been told contain beef and pig tallow. Another 300 miles away in Jhansi Rani Lakshmi Bai, the 23 year old widow of Maharaja Gangadhar Rao is seething with anger against the British Governor General through a doctrine of lapse proclaimed by him he had refused to recognize the right of her adopted son's succession to the throne in a span of three short days between 9th of May and