{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.023958927552766685, 'fraction_numerical': 0.02167712492869367, 'mean_word_length': 4.905723905723906, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Alexis de Tocqueville and the Indian Revolt of 1857–58

Two important thinkers of the nineteenth century, Karl Marx and Alexis de Tocqueville, had completely different perceptions about socio-political reality, and change in society. The thematic focus of their writings mainly centred on Europe, and in the case of Tocqueville also America. But India too interested both of them. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote extensively on India, particularly in the context of the Indian revolt of 1857–58, which attracted world-wide attention. What is less well known is that Alexis de Tocqueville also had a serious political and academic interest in India, or rather English India, of which he made a preliminary study in the 1840s. This appeared in the 1962 edition of his works titled Les Oeuvres Complètes d’Alexis de Tocqueville. Earlier, Tocqueville’s close associate Gustave de Beaumont had published his letters in 1861, in the collection Les Oeuvres et Correspondance Inédites d’ Alexis de Tocqueville. Several of these letters, particularly those he wrote to his English friends in 1857–58, contained elaborate comments and observations on the Indian revolt. His comments were pertinent and insightful because they were made by one who had attempted a serious study of India. On 14 November 1843, Tocqueville wrote to his English friend Henry Reeve that he had spent the entire summer doing an intensive study of India. He informed Reeve that he had examined ‘with an infinite pleasure the important question, from all points of view, about the process of your [English] establishment in India. It has been a long time that I have worked with so much passion and involvement.’ The very next day, on 15 November, he wrote to his friend de Corcelle: