Book Reviews 285 If court martials are taken as an index, it seems that in the Bengal army, cases of day- to-day dissent were infrequent, especially when compared to the Madras or Bombay armies, when day-to-day dissent is taken to mean instances where a[n] individual chose to defy authority within everyday practice. (p. 108) In other words, it was the most disciplined component of the East India Company’s army that repudiated its allegiance emphatically and irrevocably in 1857. Quite possibly the consistency shown by sipahis of the Bengal Army in their deference towards superiors had bred complacency. The perception among soldiers that service conditions had been steadily deterio- rating during the second quarter of the nineteenth century gave rise to widespread discontent in the Bengal Army. The army had been extensively engaged in major wars of conquest for nearly three decades, from the 1820s to the eve of the revolt. Sipahis had shouldered the burden of imperial expansion by being constantly in the field while there had been no corresponding improvement in the terms of their service. This resulted in restlessness which was articulated in terms of a religious grievance—the resentment over the new weapon which the sipahis were required to use, involving the use of cartridges which allegedly contained substances that were taboo. The cohesiveness and discipline of the army under these circumstances proved to be dangerous for the empire when it was used against the company in 1857. Dasgupta is critical of the understanding that sipahis of the Bengal Army were merely ‘peasants in uniform’. This is an understanding that has been prevalent in writings on the revolt which see the peasant origins of the soldiers and their strong links with rural society as a critical factor in the anti-colonial struggle of 1857–8. Nonetheless, their corporate identity could often override their identity as peasants or other identities which were relevant to village society. The army had been used from time to time for quelling peasant resistance. Yet it is undeniable that there was a natural affinity between the sipahi and the peasant which could in moments of crisis become the basis of an alliance as happened during the revolt. The relationship between the sipahis, Indian society and the colonial state was complex and multifaceted. This work is refreshing as it undermines stereotypes, and allows us to view the ‘native’ soldiers as complex individuals with their own diverse motivations, and is a useful contribution to scholarship on this subject. Amar Farooqui Department of History University of Delhi Delhi, India Sumanyu Satpathy, Will to Argue: Studies in Late Colonial and Postcolonial Controversies, Primus Books, Delhi, 2017, 222 pp., `850. DOI: 10.1177/0257643019863936 Sumanyu Satpathy’s Will to Argue aims to analyse the idea of controversy as a concept, and situates it in specific historical context and varied geographical