This book is an objective history of the first war of Indian Independence. Apart from tracing the causes for the uprising, it describes in detail the strategies followed by both the sides in various important theatres of the war. The book also contains a review of the 1857 uprising in which a post-mortem of the war was made. First published in 1957 in connection with the centenary of the First War of Indian Independence, it was foreworded by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.