Secondly, the European and Indian beliefs on India, the Indian queen, Lakshmibai, and the 1857 Rebellion presented in non-fiction, and authentic illustrations is compared with what’s presented in Rani. Firstly, this has been done by looking out for dialogism, dualism, and subversion in the novel. The purpose of this study has been answered with the application of the historical method called the new historical approach. The aim of this research project is to present the descriptions of the Rani of Jhansi, and the 1857 Rebellion as a defamiliarised one in the novel, Rani by Jaishree Misra. By retelling Rani Lakshmibai‟s story from a gynocentric perspective Jaishree Misra rewrites an alternative version of the “official” history and locates this brave Indian queen in the erased pages of the hegemonic history. On such a backdrop the paper attempts to explore the history- fiction interface in Jaishree Misra‟s historical novel Rani (2007), the fictionalised biography of the famed Indian historic figure Rani Lakshmibai which reinterprets historical contexts to adduce critique of colonial India by enmeshing in national history with individual‟s narratives. The narrators or protagonists of such narratives indulge in contesting the roles assigned to them by historians within the referred “official” history, and for that purpose they offer alternative versions of their lives through construction of fictional auto/biographies. With a critical vision in enunciating and reconstructing historiography by seamless tailoring of fact and fiction these narratives express scepticism on the monolithic nature of history and offer different alternatives and plural histories to reinterpret and subvert the historical documents and events they refer to. Abstract: A resurgent interest in historicity and the eventual re-writing of native history has animated much recent postcolonial narratives.

Rani by jaishree misra