Fighting in some places continued well into 1858, but the British were ultimately able to establish control. [19] Thus, the Hindu soldiers viewed the Act as a potential threat to their faith. Whether the cartridge was unballed or balled, it was necessary, in loading a muzzle-loader, to open the end of the cartridge. The revolt failed in overthrowing British Rule. Christian organisations from Britain had additionally created 222 "unattached" mission stations across India in the decade preceding the rebellion. 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. To save content items to your account, 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. . 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. This seems to have been a very important reason for the spread of the rebellion, keeping in view the speed at which they ignited in many villages in northern India where farmers rushed to get back their unfairly grabbed title deeds. Stbere im grten eBookstore der Welt und lies noch heute im Web, auf deinem Tablet, Telefon oder E-Reader. Loading the Enfield often required tearing open the greased cartridge with one's teeth, and many sepoys believed that the cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat. However, nearly every sepoy was either Muslima religion that forbids eating the fat or any other part of a pig, or Hinduwhere the same rule applies to cows. He also resumed the practice of tax-free lands in some areas. 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. Such measures were considered a valid negotiating tactic by the sepoys, likely to be repeated every time such issues arose. Some time in February 1857, a curious occurrence took place. This movement became much more than a military mutiny. Pandey rebelled by shooting a British sergeant-major and a lieutenant. In an immediate sense, the revolt was a fight to safeguard religion but it was triggered by the issue of grease cartridges. What was the main cause of revolt of 1857? Match the Country with Its Hemisphere Quiz, Baron Strathnairn of Strathnairn and Jhansi. 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.. India at the time of the 1857 rebellion. However much of this sense of the invincibility of the British was lost in the First Anglo-Afghan War where poor political judgment and inept British leadership led to the massacre of Elphinstone's army (which included three Bengal regiments) while retreating from Kabul. Indian soldiers in the East India Company's armies believed they risked defilement because the new rounds were being issued greased with the fat of pigs and cowsuntrue, but sufficient to spark the most dangerous uprising against British imperial rule since the American Revolution. In another, however, the appalling atrocities visited by the Companys armies on the people of northern India were far from justified, since the British proved to be just as prone to rumors and panics as their Indian subjects. The army so far had been quipped with the smooth-barrelled musket, which had a protracted loading procedure and was not accurate over long ranges. Later, the attitudes of British officers changed with increased intolerance, lack of involvement and unconcern of the welfare of troops becoming manifest more and more. The Revolt of 1857-58 was the biggest and bloodiest conflict against any European colonial power during the nineteenth century. The revolt was sparked by a number of reasons, including economic exploitation, cultural repression, and mistreatment of Indian soldiers. A cartridge of this kind, containing powder and nothing more, is often specified as an unballed cartridge. A rumor spread that the cartridges of the new Enfield rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. Underlying grievances over British taxation and recent land annexations by the English East India Company (EEIC) also contributed to the anger of the sepoy mutineers, and within weeks, dozens of units of the Indian army joined peasant armies in widespread rebellion. The Revolt of 1857 eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges. To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org Thereafter he headed the National Mineral Water Company in Muscat, Oman. 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. Rumors spread with great rapidity before and during the mutinynot least because of the large number of British women and children at the mercy of the rebels in towns such as Delhi and Kanpur. The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857-58 against the rule of the British East India Company, . 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. Queen Victoria, at the prompting of Benjamin Disraeli, announced to Parliament that her Indian subjects were "happy under My rule and loyal to My throne.". There was also a general feeling that English officers were losing touch with the Indian troops under them. They shot the British officers and made for Delhi, 40 miles (65 km) distant, where there were no British troops. The revolt began on May 10, 1857, at Meerut as a sepoy mutiny. In India, it has been viewed quite differently. 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. The sepoys rejected this, pointing out that they might very well forget and bite the cartridge, not surprising given the extensive drilling that allowed 19th century British and Indian troops to fire three to four rounds per minute. 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. Cookie Policy Small-arms at that time were all muzzle-loaders, which were loaded by pouring a charge of powder down the barrel into the powder chamber and then, with the ramrod, ramming a bullet down the barrel till it rested upon the powder. No, it is not by any means a custom; I am 50 years old, and never heard of such a thing before. With the British recovery of Gwalior (June 20, 1858), the revolt was virtually over. Due to the need for technical specialists, the artillery units generally had a higher proportion of British personnel. 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. It is however also possible to enclose within the paper container the bullet as well as the powder and the cartridge then becomes a balled cartridge. Did an Ancient Magnetic Field Reversal Cause Chaos for Life on Earth 42,000 Years Ago? It was against this backdrop of uneasiness in which the mutiny erupted in 1857. Western inventions such as the telegraph and railways aroused the prejudice of a conservative society (though Indians crowded the trains when they had them). 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 . The particular reason, the greased cartridges for the Enfield rifles, was a mistake rectified as soon as it was discovered; but the fact that explanations and reissues could not quell the soldiers suspicions suggests that the troops were already disturbed by other causes. Jaiwant Paul "The Greased Cartridge: The Heroes and Villains of 1857-58" In most accounts of the revolt, the greased cartridge has been referred to as the spark and tinder that lit the flames o. At other times however, the Company directly or indirectly conceded the legitimacy of the sepoy's demands, such as when troops of the Bengal and Madras armies refused to serve in Sindh without batta after its conquest. And the leaders were not united, because they sought to revive former Hindu and Muslim regimes, which in their heyday had bitterly clashed. Sepoys throughout India were issued with a new rifle, the Pattern 1853 Enfield rifled musketa more powerful and accurate weapon than the old but smoothbore Brown Bess they had been using for the previous decades. Pandey rebelled by shooting a British sergeant-major and a lieutenant. was the rumour that the newly issued rie cartridges would be greased either with tallow, derived from beef and thereby oensive to Hindus, or lard, derived from pork and thereby oensive to Muslims. 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. Further, the British were becoming increasingly hostile toward traditional survivals and contemptuous of most things Indian. The cartridge was then rammed down the muzzle of the rifle.. A cartridge for the new Enfield rifle. "The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857." 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. [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. Immediate Cause The Revolt of 1857 eventually broke out over the incident of greased cartridges. In sum, this combination of factors produced, besides the normal tensions endemic in India, an uneasy, fearful, suspicious, and resentful frame of mind and a wind of unrest ready to fan the flame of any actual physical outbreak. Both Hindu and Muslim sepoys refused to use them. Several events happened that led to the Sepoys revolting and was called the Indian Revolt of 1857. The old aristocracy, both Muslim and Hindu, who were seeing their power steadily eroded by the EEIC, also rebelled against British rule. As further evidence, he observes that the Urdu sources of the pre- rebellion and post- rebellion periods usually refer to the British not as angrez (the English), goras (whites) or firangis (foreigners), but as kafir (disbeliever) and nasrani (Christians). And the uprising became extremely violent. We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. 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. 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. Though the revolt failed in its objective, even in failure it served a grand purpose. 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. 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). Measures of prevention of future crises naturally began with the army, which was completely reorganized. The Sepoy Mutiny was a violent and very bloody uprising against British rule in India in 1857. 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. } Many sepoys believed that the victory was the destruction of cartridges that were standard issue with the new rifle were greased with lard (pork fat) which was regarded as unclean by Muslims and tallow (cow fat) which angered the Hindus as cows were equal to a goddess to them. Scottish Highlanders charge during the suppression of the rebellion of 1857. Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. [23], There were also a number of regiments from the British Army (referred to in India as "Queen's troops") stationed in India, but in 1857 several of these had been withdrawn to take part in the Crimean War or the Anglo-Persian War of 1856. Increasing numbers of Christian missionaries began arriving in India, and their presence gave credence to rumors of impending conversions. The immediate cause of the Revolt was the issue of the greased cartridges. The mutineers, on the other hand, lacked good leadership until nearly the end, and they had no confidence in themselves and suffered the guilt feelings of rebels without a cause, making them frantic and fearful by turns. The Politics of a Popular Uprising: Bundelkhand in 1857 (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994);Mark Thornhill. Setting out from Allahabad, Sir Henry Havelock fought through Kanpur to the Lucknow residency on September 25, where he was besieged in turn. The mysterious appearance of chapatisloaves of an Indian unleavened breadspooked the British administrators of the Raj shortly before the outbreak of rebellion in 1857. is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings Some of the more knowledgeable British officials linked the spread of the chapatis to an effort to prevent the outbreak of cholera in central India and added that, since incidence of the disease was associated with the movement of the Companys armies, there was a widespread belief that the British were in fact responsible for the disease. Another official suggested that the chupatty movement had been initiated somewhere in central India by dyers, anxious that their dyes were not clearing properly, or were the product of some spellwork aimed at protecting crops against hail. These recalcitrant troops were placed in irons, but their comrades soon came to their rescue. This book is essentially about the heroes - Tatya Tope, Nana. 24 October 2009. The Lucknow garrison held out in the residency from July 1, in spite of the death of Sir Henry Lawrence on July 4. Before the rebellion, there were reports that "holy men" were mysteriously circulating chapatis and lotus flowers among the sepoys. A Chowkeydar ran up to another village with two chupatties. A rumour spread that the cartridges of the new Enfield rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. As the mutiny spread, the British began called mutineers "pandies." 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. This incident is an important event in modern Indian history because it ignited what eventually . In fact, it was rather the last effort of traditional India. The greased cartridges had to be opened by biting off the top with your teeth. [9], Until the 1840s there had been a widespread belief amongst the Bengal sepoys in the Iqbal or continued good fortune of the East India Company. https://www.thoughtco.com/sepoy-mutiny-of-1857-1774014 (accessed March 1, 2023). on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. The revolt of 1857 was one of the greatest & most significant developments in the history of the 19th century. This made them more accurate and gave them a longer range. The Great Mutiny: India 1857 (London: Penguin, 1978);House of Commons. 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. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/sepoy-mutiny-of-1857-1774014. 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. Mason, Philip (1974), page 226 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. To facilitate its passage, the cartridges were greased with tallow, which, in the U.K., was made of beef and pork fat. Advertising Notice The greased cartridge - what was it all about? The immediate cause of military disaffection was the deployment of the new breech-loading Enfield rifle, the cartridge of which was purportedly greased with pork and beef fat. 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.'. 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. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 203-204 A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. 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. The magistrates tried to stop it, but, in spite of all they could do, it passed along to the borders of the Punjab. Destructive 'Super Pigs' From Canada Threaten the Northern U.S. The immediate cause of the Indian Revolt of 1857, or Sepoy Mutiny, was a seemingly minor change in the weapons used by the British East India Company's troops. [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. This meant that when they came to be threatened by modernizing regimes in Calcutta, from the 1840s onwards, the sepoys had become accustomed to very high ritual status, and were extremely sensitive to suggestions that their caste might be polluted. What are the major holidays and festivals of India? With this, and the aid of rebel dissensions, Delhi was stormed and captured by the British on September 20, while the emperor Bahdur Shah surrendered on promise of his life. Mopping-up operations followed, lasting until the British capture of rebel leader Tantia Topi in April 1859. 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 Revolt of 1857, also known as the First War of Indian Independence, was a significant uprising against British colonial rule in India. [11] If the caste of high-caste sepoys was considered to be "polluted", they would have to expend considerable sums of money on ritual purification before being accepted back into society. In the Punjab were some 10,000 British troops, which made it possible to disarm the Indian regiments; and the recently defeated Sikhs were so hostile to the Muslims that they supported the British against the Mughal restoration in Delhi. The British military commander Sir James Outram thought it was a Muslim conspiracy, exploiting Hindu grievances. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This event and Pandey's subsequent punishment led to more resentment among the sepoys of the Bengal Army ultimately aiding in the Revolt of 1857.. Then the bullet had to be rammed down the rifled barrel. Match the following: Answer: His unit in the Bengal Army, which had refused to use the new rifle cartridges, was about to be disarmed and punished. Mutiny Memoirs of an Old Officer (London: Folio Society, 1984);Troy Downs. The revolt is known by several names. 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. Outraged by events such as the massacre of women and children at Cawnpore, some British officers believed that hanging mutineers was too humane. All in all, the British were extremely spooked by the spread of the chapatis. 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. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine A. The cartridge of the Enfield rifle was heavily greased - with animal fat, to facilitate an easier load into the muzzle. This allowed different meanings an interpretations to be attributed to them, and the chapattis became an index of peoples thoughts and worries. The immediate cause of military disaffection was the deployment of the new breech-loading Enfield rifle, the cartridge of which was purportedly greased with pork and beef fat. Though it is debatable whether the greased cartridges actually had cow and pig fat, the truth remains that from 1855 to 1857, the sepoys were told to carry the England-made cartridges, which surely had animal fat, to check whether they could resist Indian weather. [6]. Few of these participated in the rebellion, and one contingent in particular (the recently raised Punjab Irregular Force) actively participated on the British side. "The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857." Their educational policy was a Westernizing one, with English instead of Persian as the official language; the old elites, schooled in the traditional pattern, felt themselves slighted. The rifle's cartridges contained 68 grains of FF black powder, and the ball was typically a 530-grain Pritchett or a Burton-Mini ball. 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 Revolt of 1857, an anti-colonial movement which fought against the imperialist policies of the British East India Company, is an important event that took place in Indian history. Centers and leaders of the revolt of 1857. He was Amazon.com's first-ever history editor and has bylines in New York, the Chicago Tribune, and other national outlets. Mason, Philip (1974), pages 186 and 313 "A Matter of Honour", London: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston. Before loading these rifles the sepoys had to bite off the paper on the cartridges. 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. And, historically, much the same thing had happened before in times of trouble. By the time the British came to examine the causes of the rebellion, therefore, the chupatty movement had assumed a fresh significance. McNamara, Robert. What are the oldest known civilizations of India? These changes caused widespread resentment not only among the landed aristocracy but also caused great havoc to a larger section of the middle-class people. Partly owing to this, Bengal sepoys were not subject to the penalty of flogging as were the European soldiers. This included an increase in the taxation on land. Rich people like the merchants and moneylenders were, therefore, able to speculate in British land sales and drive out the most vulnerable peasant farmers. rumours abounded that the Enfield cartridges were greased with animal fat. This fascinating collection explores hitherto ignored diversities of the Great Rebellion The cartridge had to be bitten off before loading it into the gun. 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.
Mercati Settimanali Provincia Di Teramo,
Aina Dobilaite Deported,
Instacart Rehire Policy,
Articles G