Ishwar Chandra Gupta

"Iswar Chandra Gupta, for whom Bankim had great respect, reacted sharply against the Sepoy Mutiny and wrote in his Sanghad Prahhakar that among those evil- minded people who were the main enemies of the Govern¬ ment, the Muslims were in the majority. He complained that though the Muslims had been given equal rights to sit with the Hindus in the same class rooms of schools established by the Government yet they had not been able to develop a sense of loyalty to the Crown. The editorial comments of Iswar Gupta’s Samhad Prahhakar give us a picture of the Hindu orthodox intelligentsia’s reaction to the Sepoy Mutiny. Though it may be conceded that the Mutiny was not a revolt for national emancipation and that if it had succeeded, it would have put the clock of India’s progress back, it should be noticed that the ortho^ dox Hindu literati reacted adversely to the Mutiny not because it was a retrograde step taken by the mutineers but because, if it succeeded, it would have put the Muslims back in power as, according to Iswar Gupta, the Muslims were in the majority among the mutineers. On the 20th June, 1857 Sambad Prahhakar wrote that “under the Mus¬ lim rule we did not get any freedom to practice religion, there was always tyrannical rule.” After this it wrote about the British rule."