# Sepoy O’Connor

- Link: https://writersworkshopindia.com/2017/02/21/sepoy-oconnor/
- Published: 2017-02-21T01:26:03+00:00
- Author: shuktara

5/5 - (2 votes)

**Author:** Roger N. Buckley[](https://writersworkshopindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/WP_20161222_15_22_32_Pro.jpg)
**
Pages:** 300 **Year of Publication:** 2016 **Price:** Rs 600 / $20 **ISBN: **978-
93-5045-139-7 (9789350451397)

_**About the Author**_
 Roger N. Buckley is Professor of history, and founding director
of the Asian and Asian American Studies Institute at the University of Connecticut,
USA. He was born in New York City to immigrant Caribbean parents. His scholarly 
books, articles and book chapters have been published in the United States, India,
the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Jamaica and Puerto Rico. He has received numerous
research awards, including from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American
Council of Learned Societies, and the Canada Council. **_Sepoy O’Connor_ **completes
a trilogy of historical fiction by him that explores the question of race and national
identity as seen in the lives of three protagonists who served in the British colonial
army in the West Indies, Ireland and India during the 19th century. _Congo Jack_,
the first novel, appeared in 1997. The second, _I, Hanuman_ (2003), retells the 
_Ramayana_ in the context of the 1857 war and was also published by **Writers Workshop**,
India.

_**About the Book**_

In his author’s note, Buckley writes:_

“The story of the Indian Revolution of 1857 continues to unfold, almost one hundred
and sixty years after British rule in India was shaken to its imperial foundation.
_Sepoy O’Connor_ explores the much overlooked subject of European soldiers, especially
Irishmen, who undoubtedly deserted to the rebel Indian side during the war. The 
seedbed for this was the Bengal Army which rebelled in 1857. On the eve of the Great
Revolt, close to half of the Bengal Army was recruited with Irish soldiers. Irishmen
were particularly vulnerable to the essential message of the Rebellion: freedom.
Although a “white” colony, Ireland was still a British colony with a long history
of armed resistance to the British rule. Irish nationalist parties, not unlike Indian
parties, focused on self-determination and national independence. Hence a common
ground of action and vision drew the two parties together. Readers of this novel
will quickly discover that this narrative is essential to my argument. They will
also discover that this novel is about a timeless and universal question: To whom
should we give our loyalty? My hope is that readers of this novel will use it to
further the lines of enquiry about the Great Revolt of 1857. Daniel O’Connor acted
alone in the novel. But were there others like him in real life? Also, unlike Kim
in Kipling’s novel of the same name, O’Connor chooses his Irish identity, rather
than the identity of his British overlords. Lastly, _Sepoy O’Connor _constitutes
a much needed, and thus far underexamined analysis, of the special relationship 
between two colonized nations: India and Ireland. It is my hope that this novel 
will encourage an interchange and interaction between the two.”