In India today it is often described as the First War of Independence. The British had increasingly usurped control of Hindu princely states, despite their alliance with the British, in order to replace the Indian aristocracy with British officials.
The 'Doctrine of Lapse' in the late s prohibited a Hindu ruler, without a natural heir, from nominating a successor. When he eventually died or abdicated, the British administration seized his lands and denied any nominated 'adopted son' his succession or inheritance. During Lord Dalhousie's governorship of India, from —56, there was a major effort towards emancipating Indian women and a bill was introduced to permit the remarriage of Hindu widows.
The Indian population increasingly believed that the British were intent on breaking the grip of the Hindu caste system and the influential senior caste, the Brahmans, were extremely discontent as they lost both their lucrative positions and the incomes that came with them. The introduction of a Western education system was a direct challenge to orthodoxy, both Hindu and Muslim.
As western missionaries increased conversion of Indians to Christianity the British legislated to ensure that Christians were not excluded from sharing in the family estate with their Hindu relatives. When the Meerut Sepoys arrived in Delhi, there were no European troops in the city and they were soon joined by the local Delhi Sepoy garrison.
Since this was happening at a highpoint of British imperial and global might, the British were slow to understand this reaction and were often blinded by their own arrogance. There were also economic grievances. The continual shoring up of debts affected Indian soldiers. To cut costs, high-caste sipahi s saw their pay bonuses, or battas , cut. Learn more about the details of what caused the famous sepoy rebellion. Add this to the wretched situation of the agrarian economy, of peasants and cultivators, and we can see in hindsight that the economic discontent was real and felt by many.
There were also political grievances that had been building up. First, there was the symbolism of alien rule. There was also a spat of rapid annexations from the late s which started to unsettle many regions the British had not yet touched.
It was no irony that the Company was the most aggressive when it was fiscally the reddest. It began in Barrackpore in March of , just before the summer heat of Hindustan arrived. Mangal Pandey, of the 34th Native Infantry, ran amok one evening, high off bhang marijuana mixed with milk. He tried to raise a religious revolt against the British and attacked his British officers. He was arrested, then hanged.
Yet the events really took off in Meerut two months later, in May. The Company had introduced a new Enfield rifle for soldiers sometime in April, yet there were rumors that their cartridges were greased with swine and cow fat.
Furthermore, the ends of the cartridges needed to be bitten off to fire properly, which of course would necessitate oral contact. This offended both Hindus and Muslims. Hindu and Muslim soldiers interpreted this as a clandestine plot to convert India to Christianity, or at least to undermine their beliefs. You can see why it would have made sense, given the steady accumulation of grievances. Many sipahi s refused to load the new cartridges, leading to many being court-marshaled.
In Britain and in the West, it was almost always portrayed as a series of unreasonable and bloodthirsty uprisings spurred by falsehoods about religious insensitivity. In India, it has been viewed quite differently. The events of have been considered the first outbreak of an independence movement against British rule. The uprising was put down, but the methods employed by the British were so harsh that many in the western world were offended.
One common punishment was to tie mutineers to the mouth of a cannon and then fire the cannon, completely obliterating the victim.
A popular American illustrated magazine, "Ballou's Pictorial", published a full-page woodcut illustration showing the preparations for such an execution in its issue of October 3, In the illustration, a mutineer was depicted chained to the front of a British cannon, awaiting his imminent execution, as others were gathered to watch the grisly spectacle. By the s the East India Company controlled much of India. A private company which first entered India to trade in the s, the East India Company had eventually transformed into a diplomatic and military operation.
Large numbers of native soldiers, known as sepoys, were employed by the company to maintain order and defend trading centers. The sepoys were generally under the command of British officers. In the late s and early s, sepoys tended to take great pride in their military prowess, and they exhibited enormous loyalty to their British officers. But in the s and s , tensions began to emerge.
A number of Indians began to suspect that the British intended to convert the Indian population to Christianity. Increasing numbers of Christian missionaries began arriving in India, and their presence gave credence to rumors of impending conversions.
There was also a general feeling that English officers were losing touch with the Indian troops under them. Under a British policy called the "doctrine of lapse," the East India Company would take control of Indian states in which a local ruler had died without an heir. The system was subject to abuse, and the company used it to annex territories in a questionable manner. As the East India Company annexed Indian states in the s and s , the Indian soldiers in the company's employ began to feel offended.
The traditional story of the Sepoy Mutiny is that the introduction of a new cartridge for the Enfield rifle provoked much of the trouble. The cartridges were wrapped in paper, which had been coated in grease which made the cartridges easier to load in rifle barrels. Rumors began to spread that the grease used to make the cartridges was derived from pigs and cows, which would be highly offensive to Muslims and Hindus.
There is no doubt that conflict over the new rifle cartridges sparked the uprising in , but the reality is that social, political, and even technological reforms had set the stage for what happened. On March 29, , on the parade ground at Barrackpore, a sepoy named Mangal Pandey fired the first shot of the uprising.
His unit in the Bengal Army, which had refused to use the new rifle cartridges, was about to be disarmed and punished. Pandey rebelled by shooting a British sergeant-major and a lieutenant.
In the altercation, Pandey was surrounded by British troops and shot himself in the chest. He survived and was put on trial and hanged on April 8,
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