Leader of the British Conservative Party and future prime minister Benjamin Disraeli argued these objects were signs to rebel and evidence of a conspiracy, and the press echoed this belief. A rumor spread that the cartridges of the new Enfield rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. The Great Mutiny: India 1857 (London: Penguin, 1978);House of Commons. No one seems to know the meaning of it. It is not known where it originated, by whom or for what purpose, whether it is supposed to be connected to any religious ceremony or whether it has to do with some secret society. hasContentIssue true, THE FIRING PARADE OF 24 APRIL AND ITS SEQUEL, THE OUTBREAK: (a) The Native Infantry Lines, THE OUTBREAK: (b) The Native Cavalry Lines, THE OUTBREAK: (d) The European Troop Movements and the European Lines, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511563386.003, Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. To save content items to your account, 24 October 2009. Singhs coalitionits brief rise and fall, Congress government of P.V. B. Once defiled, the theory went, men who had consumed the forbidden meal would be shunned by their co-religionists and would be easier to bring into the Christian fold, or could be sent as soldiers overseas (crossing the black water being forbidden to Hindus of high caste). The serving high-caste sepoys were fearful that this requirement would be eventually extended to them, violating observance of the kala pani prohibition on sea travel. He also passed decrees allowing Hindus who had converted to Christianity to be able to inherit property, which had previously been denied by local practice. They later stood in Chandni Chowk, the main square, and asked the people gathered there, "Brothers, are you with those of the faith? Total loading time: 0 By the 1850s the East India Company controlled much of India. The . The lack of planning after the outbreak rules out these two explanations, while the degree of popular support argues more than a purely military outbreak. An uprising in several sepoy companies of the Bengal army was sparked by the issue of new gunpowder cartridges for the Enfield rifle in February 1857. Author Pramod Nayar points out that by 1851 there were nineteen Protestant religious societies operating in India whose goal was the conversion of Indians to Christianity. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. As the East India Company annexed Indian states in the 1840s and 1850s, the Indian soldiers in the company's employ began to feel offended. Click to view in higher resolution. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857-58 against the rule of the British East India Company, . When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. They shot the British officers and made for Delhi, 40 miles (65 km) distant, where there were no British troops. Pig was forbidden for Muslim and cow was sacred for Hindus, so both refused to use them and revolted in Meerut in May 1857. Content may require purchase if you do not have access. Although the armies of many Rajas or states which rebelled contained large numbers of guns, the British superiority in artillery was to be decisive in the siege of Delhi after the arrival of a siege train of thirty-two howitzers and mortars. That, combined with a declining number of British officers who understood India, spoke Indian languages fluently or had any real sympathy for the people whom they ruled, meant that the colonial hierarchy remained perpetually jittery. Mason, Philip (1974), page 226 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. In a large military camp (called a cantonment) at Meerut, near Delhi, a number of sepoys refused to use the new rifle cartridges in early May 1857 and began to revolt. By a campaign in Avadh and Rohilkhand, Campbell cleared the countryside. During the late eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth century, the armies of the East India Company, in particular those of the Bengal Presidency, were victorious and indomitable the term "high noon of the sepoy army" has been used by a military historian. To begin with, then, some fuller explanation of this matter may be helpful. Did an Ancient Magnetic Field Reversal Cause Chaos for Life on Earth 42,000 Years Ago? The Siege of Delhi. The musketry books also recommended that, "Whenever the grease around the bullet appears to be melted away, or otherwise removed from the cartridge, the sides of the bullet should be wetted in the mouth before putting it into the barrel; the saliva will serve the purpose of grease for the time being" This meant that biting a musket cartridge was second nature to the Sepoys, some of whom had decades of service in the company's army, and who had been doing musket drill for every day of their service. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. It began on a point of caste pollution; its leaders were traditionalists who looked to reviving the past, while the small new Westernized class actively supported the British. [14], The pay of the sepoy was relatively low and after Awadh and the Punjab were annexed, the soldiers no longer received extra pay (batta or bhatta) if posted there, because this was no longer considered "foreign service". Mason, Philip (1974), pages 291-292 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. The Greased Cartridge: The Heroes and Villains of 1857-58, Rezensionen werden nicht berprft, Google sucht jedoch gezielt nach geflschten Inhalten und entfernt diese. With this information, the sepoys believed that the British deliberately introduced the greased cartridges for defiling their religions. Another important source of discontent among the Indian rulers was that the British policies of conquest had created significant unrest. 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. Following the disarming and disbandment of an additional seventeen Bengal Native Infantry regiments, which were suspected of planning mutiny, only twelve survived to serve in the new post-mutiny army. The movement that Hadow was describing was a remarkable example of rumor gone wild. [10], Caste privileges and customs within the Bengal Army were not merely tolerated but encouraged in the early years of the company's rule. An uprising in several sepoy companies of the Bengal army was sparked by the issue of new gunpowder cartridges for the Enfield rifle in February 1857. To "the cow reverencing Hindu and the pig paranoid Muslims" having to bite this was repellent, defiling and deadly to their religious prospects. 1857 revolt started firstly on 29th March 1857 from Bairakpur (West Bengal) by Mangal Pandey. This movement became much more than a military mutiny. But those who did would not have been surprised by what happened next, for some very similar beliefs were spreading in the early months of 1857. Measures of prevention of future crises naturally began with the army, which was completely reorganized. As time passed, the powers of the commanding officers reduced and the government became more unfeeling or distant from the concerns of the sepoys. The events of 1857 have been considered the first outbreak of an independence movement against British rule. The resumption of tax-free land and confiscation of jagirs (the grant or right to locally control land revenue) caused discontent among the jagirdars and zamindars. Mason, Philip (1974), page 263 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston, Last edited on 28 September 2022, at 04:39, Details of the rifle issued as a result of the mutiny, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Causes_of_the_Indian_Rebellion_of_1857&oldid=1112793629, This page was last edited on 28 September 2022, at 04:39. The Great Fear of 1857: Rumours, Conspiracies and the Making of the Indian Uprising (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2010);Andrew Ward. He was Amazon.com's first-ever history editor and has bylines in New York, the Chicago Tribune, and other national outlets. When the mood of the sepoys turned against their masters, they remembered Kabul and that the British were not invincible. The rani found a soldiers death, and Tantia Topi became a fugitive. Britain, of course, would rule India well into the 20th century. Thornhill came into his office one morning to find four dirty little cakes of the coarsest flour, about the size and thickness of a biscuit lying on his desk. Thus, long after the chapattis reached their northern-most point of Meerut, there was another northwards distribution from Cawnpore to Fattehgarh, which was widely reported in the newspapers The circulation took place along well-established routes of transmission, which followed the main trade and pilgrimage routes between the bigger cities. Advertising Notice What are the major holidays and festivals of India? One of the first officials to encounter it was Mark Thornhill, magistrate in the little Indian town of Mathura, near Agra. Company officers became aware of the rumours through reports of an altercation between a high-caste sepoy and a low-caste labourer at Dum Dum. Due to the need for technical specialists, the artillery units generally had a higher proportion of British personnel. Cookie Settings. In the 1870s the British government formalized its role as an imperial power. The East India Company had been active in India for nearly 250 years, but the violence of the 1857 uprising led to the British government dissolving the company and taking direct control of India. @free.kindle.com emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. All of the Bengal Native Cavalry regiments and 45 of the infantry units rebelled at some point. It was alluded to , and it was supposed to portend some coming disturbance, and was, moreover, understood as implying an invitation to the whole population of the country to unite for some secret objective afterwards to be disclosed. [17], Officers of an evangelical persuasion in the company's Army (such as Herbert Edwardes and Colonel S.G. Wheler of the 34th Bengal Infantry) had taken to preaching to their Sepoys in the hope of converting them to Christianity. He first defeated the Gwalior contingent and then, when the rebels Tantia Topi and Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi had seized Gwalior, broke up their forces in two more battles. 'In England, almost every child is aware that, with a smooth bored gun, no grease of any kind is required to ensure the proper loading of it, whilst with a rifle-bored piece such is necessary.' So writes Mrs Peile, one of those who escaped from Delhi on 11 May 1857. The Sepoy Mutinywas a violent and very bloody uprising againstBritish rule in Indiain 1857. The cartridges were wrapped in paper, which had been coated in grease which made the cartridges easier to load in rifle barrels. In England, almost every child is aware that, with a smooth bored gun, no grease of any kind is required to ensure the proper loading of it, whilst with a rifle-bored piece such is necessary. So writes Mrs Peile, one of those who escaped from Delhi on 11 May 1857. A Chowkeydar ran up to another village with two chupatties. Thereafter he headed the National Mineral Water Company in Muscat, Oman. The revolt was sparked by a number of reasons, including economic exploitation, cultural repression, and mistreatment of Indian soldiers. This took the form of Muslim millenarianism, with preachers in Lucknow foretelling the end of the raj. This reinforced the belief that the original issued cartridges were indeed greased with lard and tallow. KoboE. The revolt of 1857, which the British call the Indian Mutiny but many Indians prefer to think of as the First War of Independence, was the defining event in British imperial history. "The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857." Sepoys were forced to watch such displays as it was believed it set an example of the horrific death that awaited mutineers. The Muslims had lost the large state of Avadh; the Marathas had lost Nagpur, Satara, and Jhansi. And where had the chowkidar got them? History of the Sepoy War in India, 1857-58 (London, 3 vols. Mangal Pandey was an Indian soldier who played an important role in incidents prior to the uprising of 1857, known by different names like the 'Indian Rebellion of 1857,' the 'Sepoy Mutiny' and 'India's First War of Independence.'. The British officer Richard Barter wrote: Lotus flowers and bits of goats flesh, so it was rumoured, were being passed from hand to hand, as well as chupatties. Furthermore, legal changes introduced by the British were accompanied by prohibitions on Indian religious customs and were seen as steps towards forced conversion to Christianity. "[26] Their rule in India had begun with the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The first sepoy who rebelled by aiming his loaded weapon at a British officer was Mangal Pandey who was later executed.[25]. The uprising was put down, but the methods employed by the British were so harsh that many in the western world were offended. The old aristocracy, both Muslim and Hindu, who were seeing their power steadily eroded by the EEIC, also rebelled against British rule. To save content items to your account, } But the wars against the Afghans and the Sikhs and then the annexations of Dalhousie alarmed and outraged them. As the mutiny spread, the British began called mutineers "pandies." The Sepoy Mutiny was a violent and very bloody uprising against British rule in India in 1857. Prior to the period of British rule, any refusal to proceed on service until pay issues were resolved was considered a legitimate form of displaying grievance by Indian troops serving under Indian rulers. He was informed that they had been brought in by one of his Indian police officers, who had received them from a puzzled village chowkidar (watchman). At some point the chapattis passed beyond the limits of their meaningful transmission and simply continued through the country as a blank message. 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