The mysterious picture of NANA SAHIB By- Tarashankar The pressure is evident in the field of breaking news/story not only today but from the way back in 1857.During the days of mutiny, once famous publication The Illustrated London News published a picture of our great freedom fighter NANA SAHIB stands to be a bogus. Accidently during my late night surfing on the internet, I found a book in the digital library archives of Kolkata called” REMINISCENCES OF THE GREAT MUTINY “written by WILLIAM FORBES-MITCHELL.The author himself had been present during the battle of Lucknow, Kanpur and Fatehgarh and witnessed the history as a military officer. The above book published in 1893 contains the vivid details of places, people, atrocities committed by British and company civil servants’. Coming back to my discovery, Mr. WILLIAM FORBES detailed about the picture of NANA SAHIB in his book. As per the words of Mr. WILLIAM “. It is a well-known fact that there is no authentic portrait of the Nana in existence; it is even asserted that he was never painted by any artist, and photography had not extended to Upper India before 1857. I believe this is the first time that the history of the picture published as that of the Nana Sahib by The Illustrated London News.” The picture of NANA SAHIB IS ACTUALY was of “Ajoodia Pershed”, the commissariat contractor in upper India.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/33426/33426-h/33426-h.htm
In bookAbout this time The Illustrated London News reached India with a picture purporting to be that of the Nânâ Sâhib. I forget the date of the number which contained this picture; but I first saw it in Bithoor some time between the 15th and 25th December 1857. I will now give the history of that picture, and show how Ajoodia Pershâd, commonly known as Jotee Pershâd, the commissariat contractor, came to figure as the Nânâ Sâhib in the pages of The Illustrated London News. It is a wellknown fact that there is no authentic portrait of the Nânâ in existence; it is even asserted that he was never painted by any artist, and photography had not extended to Upper India before 1857. I believe this is the first time that the history of the picture published as that of the Nânâ Sâhib by The Illustrated London News has been given. I learnt the facts which I am about to relate some years after the Mutiny, under a promise of secrecy so long as my informant, the late John Lang, [Pg 154]barrister-at-law and editor and proprietor of The Mofussilite, should be alive. As both he and Ajoodia Pershâd have been many years dead, I commit no breach of confidence in now telling the story. The picture purporting to be that of the Nânâ having been published in 1857, it rightly forms a reminiscence of the Mutiny, although much of the following tale occurred several years earlier; but to make the history of the picture complete, the facts which led to it must be noticed.
There are but few Europeans now in India who remember the scandal connected with the trial of Ajoodia Pershâd, the commissariat contractor, for payment for the supplies and carriage of the army throughout the second Sikh war. When it came to a final settlement of his accounts with the