The Revolt of 1857 in India - Sepoy Mutiny - First war of Indian Independence
The Revolt of 1857 in India
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major, but ultimately unsuccessful, uprising in India from 1857 –58 against the rule of the British East India Company
Sepoy Mutiny, the Indian Mutiny, the Great Rebellion, the Revolt of 1857, the Indian Insurrection, and India's First War of Independence.
Causes of the Revolt:
a. Political Causes: Lord Dalhousie was the Governor-General of India till 1848-1856. Dalhousie through his policies had added considerable territories to the British Empire in India.The policy of annexation reached its climax when he implemented the policy of Doctrine of Lapse and annexed the Indian states on charges of miss-governance and absence of an heir. Dalhousie annexed Satara (1848), Sambhalpur (1850), Jhansi (1853), Nagpur (1853), Jaipur (1849).
As part of the Doctrine of Lapse policy, the titles and pensions of some Indian princes were confiscated.
b. Economic Causes:The British exploited the economic resources of India to their advantage. India turned into a colonial economy to serve the British capitalist interests.
Heavy taxation, evictions, discriminatory tariff policy against Indian products and destruction of traditional handicrafts that hit peasants, artisans and small zamindars.
c. Social and Religious Causes:The social legislations on the evils as sati, infanticide, re-marriage of widows, etc. The introduction of English education, the propagation of the work of the Christian missionaries
d. Military Causes:The high ranks in the army were exclusively reserved for the Englishmen
The immediate cause of the revolt was the introduction of the new Enfield rifle and the greased cartridge. In loading the rifle the sepoy before inserting the cartridge had to bite off its top.
Mangal Pandey on 29th March 1857, killed senior officers on parade and started the revolt.
Course and Spread of the Revolt:
The revolt spread to Berhampur in Bengal. On 24th April 1857 about ninety men of the Native Cavalry stationed at Meerut refused to accept the greased cartridges. On 10th May the revolt started at Meerut and the mutineers after killing some of their officials marched towards Delhi.
Delhi: On 12th May Delhi was seized and Bahadur Shah II was proclaimed the emperor of India.
Kanpur: Here the revolt was led by Nana Saheb who declared himself the Peshwa and governor of Bahadur Shah. Tantya Tope did most of the fighting.
Lucknow: The revolt was led by Hazrat Mahal, the Begum of Awadh
Jhansi.After some initial vacillations, Rani Laxmi Bai assumed the leadership of the mutiny.
Bareilly: Khan Bahadur Khan proclaimed himself as the Nawab and led the revolt there. The other centers of the revolt were Banaras, Allahabad, Gwalior, and Nasirabad in Rajputana, Indore, Aligarh and Kota.
At all these places the sepoys killed the senior officers and other Europeans, in many cases not even sparing women and children
However the superior British forces soon suppressed the revolt. Bahadur Shah II proved to be a weak leader 20th September 1857 by John Nicholson. Bahadur Shah was arrested and deported to Rangoon where he died in 1862.
The rebels were defeated by General Havelock in Kanpur. At Jhansi Hugh Rose suppressed the revolt and Rani Laxmi Bai died on the battle field.
Benaras, Bareilly and Gwalior were also recaptured by British officers.
Causes of the Failure:
• The revolt was highly localized and restricted to North India.
• Scindia of Gwalior, the Holkar of Indore, the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Raja of Jodhpur, the Nawab of Bhopal, the rulers of Patiala, Sindh and Kashmir and the Rana of Nepal provided active support to the British.
• The rebels lacked a common cause and had different goals.
Nature of the Revolt: Some call it a sepoy mutiny since the initial thrust of the revolt in the form of the cartridge episode was given by the soldiers.
Nationalists as V.D. Savarkar opine that the revolt was the first war of independence. They feel that the revolt sparked off the discontent of the Indians towards the foreign rule and Hindus and Muslims participated equally in the revolt and displayed a new bond of unity against the British.
Impact of the Revolt:
(a) Policy Change:
The Queen’s Proclamation of November 1858 announced the policy of the British government to be followed from now on in IndiaThe right of a ruler to adopt a child in the absence of a natural heir was accepted.
(b) Administrative Changes:January 1st 1877 Queen Victoria was proclaimed as the Queen Empress of India and the administration of India was transferred from the East India Company to the British Crown.
(c) Reorganization of the Army:The army was re-organized to strengthen British control over the country and avert any further rebellions in future.
(d) Communal and Racial Bitterness:The revolt of 1857 created a big gap between the different religious communities especially the Hindus and the Muslims as each blamed the other for its failure
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