An in-depth study of the great rebellion of 1857 will reveal that its known heroes are too well known, its unknown heroes are not known at all while its lesser known heroes are only vaguely remembered as foot-notes in the text-books of history. Now when the nation is celebrating the 150th year of its First War of Independence it is time to remember the un-remembered and pay our homage to all those soldiers, peasants, artisans, landlords and scholars who made a common cause with the rulers and the chiefs to overthrow the foreign rule from the Indian soil.
It is the participation of the common man which gives this great upheaval a popular, a patriotic character making it a national upheaval, unique in the annals of world history. More than a lakh of soldiers fell in the various battles and became martyrs. The number of civilians who laid down their lives to free their m o t h e r l a n d from the British rule is not exactly k n o w n .
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