<DIV>By 1857, the British East India Company was India's de facto ruler, having won the subcontinent by subterfuge and force of arms. Discontent was rising however, and in the following Spring, entire regiments of Indian troops turned on their British overlords and challenged the global trading powerhouse in open warfare. The brutal struggle that followed would forever break the Company's hold on India, and send shock waves reverberating across the British Empire. This sweeping, true-life drama combines powerful eyewitness accounts and painstaking historical investigation to present an intimate portrait of the British troops and the Sikhs, Gurkhas, and Afghan who fought alongside them, often against terrible odds. This is living history that reads like the finest action-adventure story! </DIV>