ABSTRACT
The extract from Mahasweta Devi’s first important book Jhansir Rani (1956), a fictionalised biography of Rani Lakshmibai, Queen of Jhansi, presents a remarkable blend of disparate elements, including historical sources, folklore, and creative characterisation to show up the contradictions in different versions of the Rani’s life. The British decision to annex the kingdom of Jhansi in 1854 is conveyed to the Queen by Major Ellis. She famously declares that she will never give up Jhansi. The narrator muses that while the struggle to defend Jhansi against the British may be forgotten history now, the Queen lives on in local lore and the imagination of the common people of Jhansi.
