Indian National Academy of Civilizational Studies (INACS) organized a discussion on the book "Tatya Tope's Operation Red Lotus" in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India on 8^th May 2010. The book has been written by Tatya Tope's fourth generation descendant Parag Tope and published by Rupa Publications. In this book Parag Topé and the Topé family have presented the story of Tatya and the Anglo-Indian War of 1857 after spending more than two years in and out of various archives and libraries, poring over volumes of source material, translating original letters, picking-up the threads of a scattered Tatya Topé family and piecing together a complex puzzle of 1857. The students of JNU show their interest in the book by participating in the discussion held in SIS Committee room.

Initiating the discussion Parag Tope said that the important words "Azadi to chand dino ki baat hai" were pronounced by Sardar Vallabhai Patel on 20 February 1946, two days after the events that forced England to withdraw from India. In the months to follow the English were removed from India and India secured political freedom. These forgotten events are recalled in Operation Red Lotus and provide a backdrop for a similar call made exactly 89 years and 5 months before this day. 

He further said that our ancestors and leaders had made a call for a complete triad of freedom. This call, a proclamation of freedom, was made by the grandnephew of Bahadur Shah Zafar, in a five point proclamation that asked the people of India support for economic, personal and political freedom for the Indian nation.  The Anglo-Indian war of 1857, was also the first time that the Marathas under Peshwa Nana Saheb and Tatya Tope, and the Mughals under Bahadur Shah Zafar and Begum Hazrat Mahal and several other leaders, came together to oust a foreign power that had threatened the very roots of the Indic way of life.

Describing the focus of the book Parag Tope said that "Tatya Tope's Operation Red Lotus" takes it very inspiration from this zest for the Indic way of life. It traces the valiant history of the people of Tatya's ‘janmabhoomi' at Yeola, in Maharashtra to his ‘karmabhoomi' all over Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan.  The book also investigates the elaborate planning that went into sustaining this war for about two years.  The book also solves the puzzle of the ‘mysterious chapattis' and the ‘red lotuses' that were widely reported all over Northern India in late 1856 and early 1857.

He further elaborated that Brahmavarta or Bithur was not just home to the young Nana Saheb, Rani Laxmibai and Tatya, but the centre of all the planning.  Troop movements, logistics and financial control were initially planned from here. Over a hundred Urdu letters, written to Tatya Tope, were translated for this book.  These letters demonstrate that Tatya and Nana Saheb created an independent government with financial, judicial, military, and several other administrative functions.  They engaged the English in battles in several regions and maintained control over a significant area and exerted India's independence. These letters have never been translated or used before in any book on 1857.