Eliza Fanthome (born 1845) was a British woman best known for surviving the Indian Rebellion of 1857 as a girl.
[1] The British freed Eliza Fanthome from slavery by hiring two informers to rescue her from the rebel camp where she was being held, a task they succeeded in.
Meerun Jan was never captured by the British, but Meanjon Syed was sentenced for complicity to fourteen years of deportation to the Andamans.
He claimed the story was based on the notes of Ruth and that he had not published the novel until after the death of Mariam in 1892.
[1] The novel Mariam: A Story of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 was the basis of Ruskin Bond's A Flight of Pigeons, who in turn was the inspiration for the Hindi film Junoon (1978).