the Indian Mutiny, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, or the Indian Revolt of 1857. Pandey, it should be noted, is considered a hero in India, and has been portrayed as a freedom fighter in films and even on an Indian postage stamp. Outraged by events such as the massacre of women and children at Cawnpore, some British officers believed that hanging mutineers was too humane. But the spark was interestingly not so much of religious clashes, but the grease used in the new Enfield rifle. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive. A cartridge of this kind, containing powder and nothing more, is often specified as an unballed cartridge. A Chowkeydar ran up to another village with two chupatties. By origin, a cartridge is a container, usually of paper, designed to hold enough powder for one discharge of the weapon. The cartridge had to be bitten off before loading it into the gun. Some Indians were upset with the draconian rule of the Company who had embarked on a project of territorial expansion and westernization that was imposed without any regard for historical subtleties in Indian society. The next phase was the central Indian campaign of Sir Hugh Rose. The old aristocracy, both Muslim and Hindu, who were seeing their power steadily eroded by the EEIC, also rebelled against British rule. The revolt is known by several names. 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. With the British recovery of Gwalior (June 20, 1858), the revolt was virtually over. E. Jaiwant Paul is a man of varied interests, having authored eight other books, including Rani of Jhansi, The Story of Tea, Baji Rao, The Unforgettable Maharajas, Har Dayal: The Great Revolutionary (co-author Mrs Shubh Paul), Arms and Armour: Traditional Weapons of India, and Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan. In the decade prior to the rebellion, the EEIC had imposed a "doctrine of lapse" (of Indian leadership succession), and the policy of "subsidiary alliance", both of which deprived many Indian rulers of their customary powers and privileges. 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 soldiers performed well on the field of battle in exchange for which they were rewarded with symbolic heraldic rewards such as battle honors in addition to the extra pay or "batta" (foreign pay) routinely disbursed for operations committed beyond the established borders of Company rule. It came as a greater shock than the loss of the American colonies, and prompted reprisals far more hysterical and vicious than those visited on rebellious subjects elsewhere in the Empire. Sympathetic rulers, such as Lord William Bentinck were replaced by arrogant aristocrats, such as Lord Dalhousie, who despised the troops and the populace. The grease used was tallow, probably containing both cow and pig fat. Some of these units belonged to states allied to the British or recently absorbed into British-administered territory, and of these, two large contingents from the states of Awadh and Gwalior readily joined the growing rebellion. When Muslim and Hindu troops learned that the tip of the Enfield cartridge had to be bitten off to prepare it for firing, a number of troops refused, for religious reasons, to accept the ammunition. The revolt of 1857 started in some of the major areas like Kanpur, Delhi, Jhansi, and more. All the people in the palace wondered what it could mean. [2][3], Religious disquiet as the cause of rebellion underlies the work of historian William Dalrymple who asserts that the rebels were motivated primarily by resistance to the actions of the English East India Company(also called British East India Company), especially under James Broun-Ramsay reign, which were perceived as attempts to impose Christianity and Christian laws in India. Its cartridges consisted of a .577 inch ball projectile and a charge of gun powder propellant wrapped in waterproofed cartridge paper. One popular story, widely believed, suggested that the British were attempting the mass conversion of their subjects to Christianity by adulterating their flour with bone meal from cows and pigs, which was forbidden to Hindus and Moslems, respectively. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/sepoy-mutiny-of-1857-1774014. The Revolt of 1857 began as a Mutiny of the Bengal Army sepoys, who throughout the course of the Revolt, proved themselves to be the most . Measures of prevention of future crises naturally began with the army, which was completely reorganized. The grotesque executions by cannon became even became widely known in America. The British Governor-General of India from 1848 to 1856 was Lord Dalhousie who passed the Widow Remarriage Act of 1856 which allowed widows to remarry, like Christian women. A keen cricketer and tennis player, he now lives in Delhi and serves as director of a few companies. https://www.thoughtco.com/sepoy-mutiny-of-1857-1774014 (accessed March 1, 2023). More disturbing to traditional sensibilities were the interventions, in the name of humanity, in the realm of Hindu custome.g., the prohibition of suttee, the campaign against infanticide, the law legalizing remarriage of Hindu widows. This fascinating collection explores hitherto ignored diversities of the Great Rebellion Did an Ancient Magnetic Field Reversal Cause Chaos for Life on Earth 42,000 Years Ago? Greased Cartridges: The Revolt of 1857 was triggered by the use of new Enfield rifles whose cartridges were believed to be greased with cow and pig fat, leading to the refusal of both Hindu and Muslim sepoys to use them. Saul, David (2003), page 294 "The Indian Mutiny", Penguin Books. Ferocity led to grave excesses on both sides, distinguishing this war in horror from other wars of the 19th century. Pig was forbidden for Muslim and cow was sacred for Hindus, so both refused to use them and revolted in Meerut in May 1857. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine When soldiers of the Bengal army mutinied in Meerut on May 10, 1857, tension had been growing for some time. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 186 and 313 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. McNamara, Robert. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. In spite of their apparently desperate situation, the British possessed long-term advantages: they could and did receive reinforcements from Britain; they had, thanks to the resolution of Sir John Lawrence, a firm base in the Punjab, and they had another base in Bengal, where the people were quiet; they had virtually no anxiety in the south and only a little in the west; and they had an immense belief in themselves and their civilization, which gave resolution to their initial desperation. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. Once the first rebellions took place, it was clear to most British commanders that the grievances which led to them were felt throughout the Bengal army and no Indian unit could wholly be trusted, although many officers continued to vouch for their men's loyalty, even in the face of captured correspondence indicating their intention to rebel. The rebels were . This movement became much more than a military mutiny. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857-58 against the rule of the British East India Company, . Before the rebellion, there were reports that "holy men" were mysteriously circulating chapatis and lotus flowers among the sepoys. From the confidential physician to the King of Delhi: Nobody can tell what was the object of the distribution of the chupatties. The Lucknow garrison held out in the residency from July 1, in spite of the death of Sir Henry Lawrence on July 4. the Sepoy Mutiny (by British Historians) 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 sepoys' British officers dismissed these claims as rumors and suggested that the sepoys make a batch of fresh cartridges, using a religiously acceptable greasing agent such as ghee or vegetable oil. Books and articles about the bloody fighting and heroic deeds by British officers and men were published for decades in London. It was generally believed, in retrospect, that the circulation of the breads had been a warning of trouble ahead, and that the wave of chapatis must have been set in motion by a cunning group of determined conspirators who had begun plotting the rising months, if not years, in advance. But in the 1830s and 1840s, tensions began to emerge. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. The British, who had nothing to do with the mysterious transmission, guessed the breads were a piece of mischief-making on the part of the Indians, though opinion was divided as to whether the breads came from the east, near Calcutta (Kolkata), from the north, in the province of Oude (Avadh) or from Indore, in the center of the country. [7] Several years before the sepoys' mutiny, Lord William Bentinck had attacked several jagirs in western Bengal. Most worryingly of all, some very similar rumors had once been recorded far to the south, in the Madras Presidency in 1806, at the time of a serious outbreak of mutiny among Indian soldiers stationed at Vellore. [12], There had been earlier indications that all was not well in the armies of the East India Company. The revolt began on May 10, 1857, at Meerut as a sepoy mutiny. It is called the chupatty movement. . Throughout May and June 1857 more units of Indian troops mutinied against the British. Christian organisations from Britain had additionally created 222 "unattached" mission stations across India in the decade preceding the rebellion. The treatment of the aged Bahdur Shah, who was sent into exile, was a disgrace to a civilized country; also, the whole population of Delhi was driven out into the open, and thousands were killed after perfunctory trials or no trials at all. The rifling inside the musket barrel ensured accuracy at much greater distances than was possible with old muskets. 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. Then came the Western innovations of the now overconfident British. Proceedings of the Trial of Badahur Shah. In Accounts and Papers, East Indies, Session 3 February-19 April 1859, Parliamentary Papers XVIII of 1859;William Wotherspoon Ireland. The movement that Hadow was describing was a remarkable example of rumor gone wild. The surrender of Kanpur, after a relatively brief siege, was followed by a massacre of virtually all British citizens and loyal Indian soldiers at Kanpur. They shot the British officers and made for Delhi, 40 miles (65 km) distant, where there were no British troops. 24 October 2009. 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 Revolt ended the rule of the English East India Company. These are deep waters that we trawl in, and dangerous ones, too. A cartridge for the new Enfield rifle. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, sepoys tended to take great pride in their military prowess, and they exhibited enormous loyalty to their British officers. One common punishment was to tie mutineers to the mouth of a cannon and then fire the cannon, completely obliterating the victim. British and Indian military drills of the time required soldiers to bite off the end of the Beeswax paper cartridge, pour the gunpowder contained within down the barrel, stuff the remaining paper cartridge into the barrel, ram the paper cartridge (which included the ball wrapped and tied in place) down the barrel, remove the ram-rod, return the ram-rod, bring the rifle to the ready, set the sights, add a percussion cap, present the rifle, and fire. In 1824, there was another mutiny by a regiment ordered overseas in the First Anglo-Burmese War, who were refused transport to carry individual cooking vessels and told to share communal pots. The Politics of a Popular Uprising: Bundelkhand in 1857 (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994);Mark Thornhill. "The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857." They later stood in Chandni Chowk, the main square, and asked the people gathered there, "Brothers, are you with those of the faith? @free.kindle.com emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. What are the major holidays and festivals of India? What was the main cause of revolt of 1857? Down-country operations centred on the relief of Lucknow. At some point the chapattis passed beyond the limits of their meaningful transmission and simply continued through the country as a blank message. [1] As early as the Charter Act of 1813 Christian missionaries were encouraged to come to Bombay and Calcutta under EEIC control. Centers and leaders of the revolt of 1857. Due to the need for technical specialists, the artillery units generally had a higher proportion of British personnel. It is also known by other names: the Indian Mutiny, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, or the Indian Revolt of 1857. A rumour spread that the cartridges of the new enfield rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. The Indian Mutiny of 1857-59 was a widespread but unsuccessful rebellion against the rule of British East India Company in India which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British crown. The greased cartridges had to be opened by biting off the top with your teeth. In India, it has been viewed quite differently. Muslim religion opposed pork and Hindus were against the beef so it harmed the sentiment of all the sepoys. To be loaded, this cartridge had to be torn open so that the powder it contained could be poured down the barrel of the muzzle-loading gun; because the soldiers hands were full, this was done with the teeth. British officials were alarmed at the rapid distribution of mysterious Indian breads across much of the Raj, There is a most mysterious affair going on throughout the whole of India at present, Dr. Gilbert Hadow wrote in a letter to his sister in Britain in March 1857. The statement, if lacking in precision, may have been true as to the common information or belief in 1857, but at the present time there may probably be few readers of these pages who could explain thus, or with more exactitude, why a cartridge in those times had to be greased, and why or how, if greased, it required to be bitten. . Find out more about saving to your Kindle. He survived and was put on trial and hanged on April 8, 1857. He is on the expert panel on weapons for several museums of Rajasthan. Q. The Great Fear of 1857: Rumours, Conspiracies and the Making of the Indian Uprising (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2010);Andrew Ward. The uprising was put down, but the methods employed by the British were so harsh that many in the western world were offended. Setting out from Allahabad, Sir Henry Havelock fought through Kanpur to the Lucknow residency on September 25, where he was besieged in turn. 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. The cartridge was then rammed down the muzzle of the rifle.. [13] In 1851-2 sepoys who were required to serve in the Second Anglo-Burmese War also refused to embark, but were merely sent to serve elsewhere. [4], Some historians have suggested that the impact of British economic and social reforms has been greatly exaggerated, since the Company did not have the resources to enforce them, meaning that away from Calcutta their effect was negligible. Both Hindu and Muslim sepoys refused to use them. Government was ostentatiously neutral, but Hindu society was inclined to regard the missionaries as eroding Hindu society without openly interfering. 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. [16], At the beginning of the nineteenth century, British officers were generally closely involved with their troops, speaking Indian languages fluently; participating in local culture through such practices as having regimental flags and weapons blessed by Brahman priests; and frequently having native mistresses. The new Enfield rifles, which were now being issued, had grooved or rifled barrels. It was a source of inspiration for the national liberation movement, which later achieved what the revolt could not. Some currents simply ran cold, while others moved in parallel, or paused before continuing. In addition, the General Service Enlistment Act of 1856 required recruits to serve overseas if ordered, a challenge to the castes who composed so much of the Bengal army. History of the Sepoy War in India, 1857-58 (London, 3 vols. To facilitate its passage, the cartridges were greased with tallow, which, in the U.K., was made of beef and pork fat. . And when the Indian independence movement gained momentum in the 20th century, events of the Revolt of 1857 were viewed as having been an early battle for independence, while individuals such as Mangal Pandey were hailed as early national heroes. The British had accentuated caste consciousness by careful regulations, had allowed discipline to grow lax, and had failed to maintain understanding between British officers and their men. The Revolt of 1857-58 was the biggest and bloodiest conflict against any European colonial power during the nineteenth century. The Indian papers are full of surmises as to what it means. Large numbers of native soldiers, known as sepoys, were employed by the company to maintain order and defend trading centers. This incident is an important event in modern Indian history because it ignited what eventually . As early as 1806, concerns that the sepoys' caste may be polluted had led to the Vellore Mutiny, which was brutally suppressed. A man had come out of the jungle with them, and given them to the watchman with instructions to make four like them and to take these to the watchman in the next village, who was to be told to do the same.. The Revolt of 1857 eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges. There has been much controversy over its nature and causes. Though paid marginally less than the Bombay and Madras Presidency troops, there was a tradition of trust between the soldiery and the establishment the soldiers felt needed and that the company would care for their welfare. Stbere im grten eBookstore der Welt und lies noch heute im Web, auf deinem Tablet, Telefon oder E-Reader. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 226-228 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. Economically and socially, there had been much dislocation in the landholding class all over northern and western India as a result of British land-revenue settlements, setting group against group. Another important source of discontent among the Indian rulers was that the British policies of conquest had created significant unrest. 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. Eleven of the sepoys were executed and hundreds more sentenced to hard labor. A rumour spread that the cartridges of the new enfield rifles . This allowed different meanings an interpretations to be attributed to them, and the chapattis became an index of peoples thoughts and worries. On March 29, 1857, on the parade ground at Barrackpore, a sepoy named Mangal Pandey fired the first shot of the uprising. "[26] Their rule in India had begun with the Battle of Plassey in 1757. Host of Midian: the chapati circulation and the Indian Revolt of 1857-58. Studies in History 16 (2000);Christopher Hibbert. 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. There was therefore both resentment and unease among the old governing class, fanned in Delhi by the British decision to end the Mughal imperial title on Bahdur Shahs death. To "the cow reverencing Hindu and the pig paranoid Muslims" having to bite this was repellent, defiling and deadly to their religious prospects. Since the batta made the difference between active service being considered munificent or burdensome, the sepoys repeatedly resented and actively opposed inconsiderate unilateral changes in pay and batta ordered by the Military Audit department. The Revolt of 1857 eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges. The rani found a soldiers death, and Tantia Topi became a fugitive. A rumor that spread like wildfire among the sepoys (Indian soldiers) stationed at cantonments throughout the north of the country was that the British had come up with yet another diabolical contrivance for breaking their caste and defiling their bodies: the greased cartridge. Seven Years' War: Major General Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, Biography of Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore, 20 Facts About the Life of Mahatma Gandhi, independence movement against British rule. is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings However, in those two years, they were not ordered to use them. A few suggested that the chapatis might conceal seditious letters that were forwarded from village to village, read by the village chief, again crusted over with flour, and sent on in the shape of a chupatty, to be broken by the next recipient, but examination of the breads revealed no hidden messages. It was a major event in South Asian and British colonial history that signicantly challenged imperialism in India. To these points may be added the fact that the British garrison in Bengal had been reduced at this time to 23,000 men because of troop withdrawals for the Crimean and Persian wars. The . Hostname: page-component-7f44ffd566-7cttp From the interrogation of an official at the King of Delhis court: I did hear of the circumstance. Mopping-up operations followed, lasting until the British capture of rebel leader Tantia Topi in April 1859. To load the rifle, the end of the cartridge containing the powder had to be bitten off so that the charge would ignite. The effective Indian artillery, except for a few mountain batteries, was abolished, while the Brahmans and Rajputs of Avadh were reduced in favour of other groups. The Revolt of 1857, also known as the First War of Indian Independence, was a significant uprising against British colonial rule in India. Order was restored by the firmness of Charles John Canning (later Earl Canning), first viceroy of India (governed 185862), whose title of Clemency was given in derision by angry British merchants in Calcutta, and of Sir John Lawrence in the Punjab. Yet discreet inquiries soon revealed that many hundreds of chapatis were passing through his district, and through other parts of India as welleverywhere from the Narmada river in the south to the border with Nepal several hundred miles to the north. In some districts like Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur, Bose and Jalal argue that "the revolt took on a distinctly millenarian flavor. And yet its just as possible to see the bloody results of the mutual incomprehension between the British and native communities in India as a potent reminder that mistrust and panic can have serious consequences. Sepoy units in the south of India remained loyal, but in the north, many units of the Bengal Army turned on the British. 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. His name has become synonymous with the revolt of 1857. By the 1850s the East India Company controlled much of India. 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. 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. Musket cartridges circa 1858 The Sepoys in the East India Company were first issued with the Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle-musket in 1857. Wagner concludes that the trigger for the rebellion of 1857 was thus rumour, not the actual issue, or use, of cartridges greased with animal fat; that, in any case, we simply don't know what sort of tallow was used at Gangadarh Banerji & Co.; and that - remarkable as it now seems - the truth of the matter never was established, even by the On the fourth side of the . Politically, many princes of India had retired into seclusion after their final defeat in 1818. The Siege of Delhi. In 1877, outside Delhi, essentially in the spot where bloody fighting had taken place 20 years earlier, an event called the Imperial Assemblage was held. The Sepoy Mutiny was a violent and very bloody uprising against British rule in India in 1857. Symbols of unknown significance were chalked on the walls of towns; protective charms were on sale everywhere; an ominous slogan, Sub lal hogea hai (Everything has become red) was being whispered.. [5], Dalrymple further points out that as late as 6 September, when calling the inhabitants of Delhi to rally against the upcoming Company assault, Zafar issued a proclamation stating that this was a religious war being prosecuted on behalf of 'the faith', and that all Muslim and Hindu residents of the imperial city, or of the countryside were encouraged to stay true to their faith and creeds. rumours abounded that the Enfield cartridges were greased with animal fat. Before loading these rifles the sepoys had to bite off the paper on the cartridges. "[4] Those European men and women who had previously converted to Islam such as Sergeant-Major Gordon, and Abdullah Beg, a former Company soldier, were spared. The immediate cause of the Revolt was the issue of the greased cartridges. Most Indians thought they were the work of the British, whothrough the East India Companyhad ruled over large portions of the country for almost a century (and were, according to one well-known prophecy, due to be unseated at that centurys end). Robert J. McNamara is a history expert and former magazine journalist. Feature Flags: { Mason, Philip (1974), page 264 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. Famous For: Revolt of 1857. Then the bullet had to be rammed down the rifled barrel. As John Kaye wrote a few years later: Among other wild fables, which took firm hold of the popular mind, was one to the effect that the Companys officers had collected all the newly-manufactured salt, had divided it into two great heaps, and over one had sprinkled the blood of hogs, and over the other the blood of cows; that they had then sent it to be sold throughout the country of the pollution and desecration of the Mahommedans and Hindoos, that all might be brought to one caste and to one religion like the English. By a campaign in Avadh and Rohilkhand, Campbell cleared the countryside. Whether the cartridge was unballed or balled, it was necessary, in loading a muzzle-loader, to open the end of the cartridge. It was against this backdrop of uneasiness in which the mutiny erupted in 1857. The campaign then settled down to British attempts to take Delhi and relieve Lucknow. But the only evidence for either of these was the circulation from village to village of chapatis, or cakes of unleavened bread, a practice that, though it also occurred on other occasions, was known to have taken place at any time of unrest.