Rebellion, Revolution and the Work of Loyalty

The category of loyalty is often understood in bifurcatory terms, especially when it comes to the question of rebellion or revolution: one is either loyal or disloyal. In the process, loyalty is framed as residual in ways that are at once self-evident, opaque, and ahistorical. An attentiveness to the complex formulations of loyalty during the Indian rebellion of 1857, on the other hands, invites a reframing of loyalty, not only lending it a biography apropos to the mid-nineteenth century but also opening up possibilities to consider loyalty’s imbrication with literary protocols then in the ascendancy.